Hey, I recognize that car!
First, I want to thank Greg for driving up to Austin and helping me with the install! While this might be able to be done with just a single person, I really don't think it would work very well. You need to work quickly to get the air/liquid out from under the stripe before it dries at the edges. With the size of the pieces on this car, that would be really hard to do with just 1 person.
Greg has put together a terrific product here! While I don't have the experience and knowledge of many of you here regarding the NOS stripes, I can say that these pieces are exceptional from what I can see. As Greg said, we didn't finish the nose bird, but I can do that one alone as it's so small...
A few other suggestions that I may add to Greg's list:
- You need 2 people, and 2 'spreaders'
- You need 2 bottles of the Rapid Tac applicator (assuming you choose to use it, which I recommend). We used most of the 2, could have used them all if we tried to soak all of the paper before removal.
- You need 1 bottle of the Rapid Prep to clean the surface before application.
- Watch the video and do it just as he suggests. Start from the center and work things out with light pressure, and press harder as you repeat. Because of the transfer paper, you can't see any bubbles which are left until after you remove it, so go over and over and over it before you think you're done.
- Save a piece of the transfer paper to use to try and work out any small bubbles that may exist after you remove the paper. You can see me doing that in one of the pictures on the trunk. You don't want to use the spreader directly on the stripe I don't think, it may gouge/scratch it.
- You will also certainly have at least 1 bubble left after you're done. As suggested, let the car sit in the sun and heat up, that may help. Unfortunately that won't completely solve the problem though, at least it didn't after 6+ hours for me, so I used a needle to prick a small hole to release the liquid. When you do this, use your finger to work the liquid towards the hole, but be careful not to push directly on the hole at first, or you may cause the adhesive to seal around the hole, requiring a second hole to release the remaining liquid. You can also use the transfer paper again as I mentioned above to finish smoothing out the stripe after getting the liquid out.
- Definitely pull the transfer paper with a shear, as Greg mentioned. We did end up with 1 big bubble that was likely caused by pulling up instead of sideways, which lifted the stripe. I got it mostly smoothed out with the needle, but not completely. This was on the top of the car, which is a hard place to pull as you get near the edge at the rear window.
- Buy one of those cloth tape measures that you see taped to the trunk. You need the flexibility to measure across the contours. We actually didn't use it for the hood stripe, we eyeballed around the shaker opening to center the rear, and we used the 'peak' of the hood and 'point' of the stripe to align the front. But the top and trunk and spoiler definitely needed the tape measure. Also the blue painters tape was used to hold all pieces in place as we measured, and the grease pencil was a big help. The Rapic Tac will cause the tape to release, so don't rely on the tape placement to locate the stripe once you have wet everything and are ready to put it in place (we learned that on the hood). The grease pencil will come right off of the paint.
- Aligning the vertical piece on the spoiler took us some time. You need to remove the spoiler to install the piece on the trunk lid first, as about 1/4" or so will go under the spoiler. Then we set the spoiler back in place and eyeballed the side to side centering on the spoiler. Getting the height on the spoiler right was tricky though. Even though I thought it looked correct, Greg measured with the cloth tape measure and found I was off by about 1/4" side to side. Again, this is where it really helped to have a second person. Be patient, measure, re-measure, and re-measure again.
- Also on the spoiler, we tucked about 1/8" around the front lip. We didn't clean the bottom of the spoiler very well before we installed it, so be sure you do that also and realize that you will tuck there.
- When we tucked the spoiler and the opening for the shaker, go slowly. Don't try to tuck it all the way at once. Similarly to how you would roll a fender lip, bend it about half way the first time to start the stretch around the lip, then come back around again and finish it. This way you are less likely to crease the stripe but going to far at once. That worked great for us.
To install the 4 pieces that you see in the pictures took us about 2.5 hours. We were working pretty methodically, and Greg took a few pictures, but I doubt we could have taken off more than 30 minutes at most. And there are still the nose bird and lettering which we haven't installed, so plan accordingly when you are thinking about when to do this. And out of the sun is probably helpful, especially the Texas sun in the summertime.
Phew, sorry for being so wordy, but hopefully those thoughts/tips will help some of you when doing your own install.
Now, if I could just get started on all of the other projects that I have for this car...
