# Vinyl or Texture Spray and Spray Dye?



## kimokalihi (May 27, 2007)

I'm just about ready to finish my APillars. I've never used Vinyl before but I'd love to try it if it'll fit this application. 

On my last project I used texture spray from 3M and Sem spray dye. This turned out pretty decent. I didn't like the 3M texture spray very much because the little dots of spray flattened out when they dried and you could hardly tell that I sprayed any on. Maybe I did it wrong, I dunno. It just wasn't the texture I was looking for.

Would vinyl be too thick and cause it to not fit properly? It's already got a couple layers of grill cloth with resin. It fits fine as it is now.

Those nasty ripples are gone now. I had to add more resin on the inside of the cloth so I could sand those out. I couldn't stretch it right without having to overlap in some places.


----------



## 6spdcoupe (Jan 12, 2006)

Vinyl it and just remember .. Heat is your friend.  Grill cloth could be another option but it would so Any imperfections if you dont lightly pad it first..


----------



## kimokalihi (May 27, 2007)

Where can I find vinyl at? Do they sell it online? What kind of store carries it? I'd rather not use grill cloth. Don't like the way it looks for this application and I'd be worried about it holding up and fading.


----------



## AzGrower (May 30, 2005)

Hmm, if this is your first time doing vinyl, you may have trouble with those extreme angles. Perhaps SEM Texture and Color Coat would be your best option...


----------



## Mic10is (Aug 20, 2007)

that would be a major ***** to vinyl. the steep angles in between each baffle and then the extreme pulled angles off the baffles--not fun.

I would texture coat it and color coat it. If you want a thicker texture, u can use bedliner spray and spray it from about 2 feet away.
Its thicker than texture coat and can look fairly close to vinyl if done properly


----------



## bobditts (Jul 19, 2006)

stitched leather would be the way to go, but since this is your first time texture spray it. Ive done quite a bit of vinyl wrapping and I dont think I could even get those angles. Vinyl is pretty stretchy, but not THAT stretchy lol. Put a coat of high quality body filler on top of all of it and hand sand it smooth. Painting takes a lot of prep work but it is all worth it in the end. Keep the pics coming of your progress.


----------



## AzGrower (May 30, 2005)

bobditts said:


> stitched leather would be the way to go,


I dont think he listed leatherwork in his original question dood! He asked what would be best...vinyl or textured/painted...stick to the plan mane.


----------



## bobditts (Jul 19, 2006)

AzGrower said:


> I dont think he listed leatherwork in his original question dood! He asked what would be best...vinyl or textured/painted...stick to the plan mane.


 
I know he didnt mention it, but stitched leather would definitely look the hottest. Of the 2 choices, textured paint would be the best like I originally mentioned. Thanks for playing


----------



## thehatedguy (May 4, 2007)

You better be one bad dude to vinyl that and make it look good.


----------



## kimokalihi (May 27, 2007)

Alright, texture spray it is. I'm going to try the sem brand this time though. Someday I will learn vinyl and master it's ways. Then I will vinyl everything in sight! HAHAHA! Watch out world. Actually I was thinking about using vinyl on my sub enclosures in the back of the car. The curves are much less complex and broader so I don't think it would be that hard.


----------



## MidnightCE (Mar 5, 2007)

Here's SEM texture on my pillar:


----------



## kimokalihi (May 27, 2007)

Yeah that's somewhat the way my looked but the interior texture of the vehicle is much more coarse and random.


----------



## s10scooter (Feb 5, 2007)

I like that look...on that A pillar, very stock with that SEM paint.


I am using tweed fwiw.


----------



## kimokalihi (May 27, 2007)

What's tweed? It looks and feels much better than just smooth anyways.


----------



## Puffhead (Aug 29, 2007)

If you're going to use vinyl then get WHISPER vinyl. If there's a Joann's fabric store near you they carry it. You can also get it at yourautotrim.com. It looks and feels just like soft leather but it stretches like you wouldn't believe without using a heat gun.

Trust me. I have a side business building poker tables and customers prefer this on 90% of their table arm rails. It's great stuff and a pleasure to work with, you'll be able to conform wrinkle free on those A-pillars.

Whisper vinyl.


----------



## kimokalihi (May 27, 2007)

Really? There is one about 20 minutes drive from here in olympia. I'll go ask them about it. I remember going there looking for fleece for fiberglassing and the lady was like,"what are you using this for?" and I said,"I'm going to use this for a fiberglass project" and she gave me a funny look. I'm sure that of the many uses for fleece, this was probably one she had never thought of. 

I can picture her now, glassing away!

Those are some nice poker tables. Funny you should mention that, I happen to be a dealer. I don't deal poker though. I deal almost all the table games where I work and craps though.


----------



## Entityofme1 (Sep 15, 2005)

whenever I'm modifying panels that are going to end up being somewhat funky I usually just texture coat them as well. One product I've used in the past that I have been very impressed with is duplicolor's truck bed coating. It's very similar to the texture spray in many ways but it is much more durable. One thing you might want to consider is maybe using a different spray paint than the SEM. I've used their spray paint in the past and after time the paint seemed to discolor when exposed to the sun.


----------



## kimokalihi (May 27, 2007)

What other paints should I use? It's right in the windshield so I can't avoid the sun.


----------



## kimokalihi (May 27, 2007)

Are you talking about their paint or their spray dye?


----------



## MidnightCE (Mar 5, 2007)

Puffhead said:


> If you're going to use vinyl then get WHISPER vinyl. If there's a Joann's fabric store near you they carry it. You can also get it at yourautotrim.com. It looks and feels just like soft leather but it stretches like you wouldn't believe without using a heat gun.
> 
> Trust me. I have a side business building poker tables and customers prefer this on 90% of their table arm rails. It's great stuff and a pleasure to work with, you'll be able to conform wrinkle free on those A-pillars.
> 
> Whisper vinyl.


Is that stuff paintable?


----------



## GlasSman (Nov 14, 2006)

Those A-pillars look nice.

Vinyl would not work on those. The baffles protrudes too much from the pillar and isn't at the correct angle to be wrapped in vinyl. 

Two piece as Boditt mentioned would be the only way to do it. Even heat formable vinyl wouldn't work. Well maybe if it was vacuum formed from the stuff the Germans use for dash boards.


----------



## kimokalihi (May 27, 2007)

GlasSman said:


> Those A-pillars look nice.


Mine or the other guy's? If so, thank you.

They were a ***** to wrap. The first one took me like an hour just to wrap the grill cloth over it! I had to wrap it really tight, hot glue is your friend in this project. It dried very fast and seeped through the grill cloth to get a really strong hold. But it gets all over you fingers because you have to press the cloth into the glue and hold it there for a few seconds. Very hot too.

I had a rough time getting the cloth tight in between the two pods. It sucked but now it's done with thank god. Next week they should be done if there's no delays! Yay. 

Now if ED would send me my amp back or at least respond to my email that I sent them 2 or 3 days ago...


----------



## kimokalihi (May 27, 2007)

Happened to be in olympia and I picked up 3 yards of black whisper vinyl at joannes fabrics for 14 bucks a yard. Also found out they have a nice selection of glue including glue guns and sticks so I got a 100 pack of glue sticks for my gun. 

I don't think I'll try to wrap the pillars with this because it'll probably be too difficult but I'll try to use it on the sub boxes.


----------



## GlasSman (Nov 14, 2006)

I was talking about yours.


----------



## MidnightCE (Mar 5, 2007)

I just tried that vinyl and failed miserably.

Can this be vinyled:


----------



## bobditts (Jul 19, 2006)

Tough isnt it? Those extreme angles are too much for vinyl. Now you have to spend time rmoving all of the glue and refinishing the pillar to be paintable. You just created a whole lot emore work for yourself


----------



## MidnightCE (Mar 5, 2007)

bobditts said:


> Tough isnt it? Those extreme angles are too much for vinyl. Now you have to spend time rmoving all of the glue and refinishing the pillar to be paintable. You just created a whole lot emore work for yourself


it looked like **** before and needed to be redone anyway. I just can't get it looking right for paint.


----------



## bobditts (Jul 19, 2006)

MidnightCE said:


> it looked like **** before and needed to be redone anyway. I just can't get it looking right for paint.


 
well if you are going to rebuild them from scratch, my advice would be to put the tweet and mid on the same mounting baffle and stetch grill cloth over the pillar and baffle. It will make wrapping with vinyl much much easier.


----------



## thehatedguy (May 4, 2007)

I could probably vinyl that with the right vinyl. Your pillar isn't that bad.


----------

