I have bought dozens of skin wraps from many different companies and feel I can give some important advice if you are considering using them . My avatar shows several of the many I have purchased.
1. The heavier the mod, the hotter it's total metal area will heat the wrap when left in a vehicle causing glue bleeding, possible puckering, slippage or loosening in the thinner or more complicated wrap areas of certain units. For under the sun hot usage always take your non skinned units. A real 'in the sun' vinyl skin cooker for example is the super heavy Laisimo top screen unit. (By the way and probably needless to mention is that any unit left in a car in the sun is just asking for seatcover damage or a truly nasty battery incident ) .... but that Laisimo is the worst of the bunch, one could get a serious burn grabbing that thing if left on the seat of a car sitting out in the sun.
2. Perfectionists like myself tend to want no dirt, smudges, or VG slipperiness and wipe off their units a lot. This constant wiping ,water applications, or polishing with Pledge or some shine product will easily loosen all your vinyl skins, and the 'mysterious' light stickiness you might be feeling and confused about is the vinyl glue backing leeching out from under the wrap and all over the surface .
3. Some, ( not all) companies recommend in the installation instructions that you finish off the new wrap job with a hair dryer to 'set' the vinyl ... take this advice with a grain of salt as this will cause glue bleeding if you are too heavy handed with the hair dryer. Dryers can also immediately give a prune-like pucker or lift and shrivel skins that rapidly taper off to a narrow point or very thin edge covering area such as the top left and right side of the Releaux's front face vinyl piece where it meets the top edges of the battery door. Another problem mod is the area around the top of the oval vents on the Eleaf Istick100 watt unit, which overall I find the most carefree and trouble free unit to take and use anywhere, vinyl skinned or not .
4. If an older mod is so beat up that a wrap is absolutely necessary, keep in mind that some company's skins are just a tad 'short' in some cases and leave the original color exposed at the very edges of their particular shape as with the teal and white Reuleau. That exposed teal color doesn't match a thing, trust me ! (lol) . To solve that problem, spray any base color onto the edges of the mod unit that is similar to the overall color the vinyl skin will be that you intend to use.
5. Overall, with only the exception of one type of vinyl skin, I think these skins will gradually fade away unless made a lot thicker,with more specialized glue, and cut to even a finer fit than they are now, even though the fit is damn near perfect. By the way, getting a wrap that ends slightly short at the edges is one problem if trying to use a hair dryer ... Overheating and useing finger pressure on the hot vinyl to stretch the short skin to the very edge might work occasionally but often, after it cools this stretching trick hardly ever lasts and often shrink back and/or vinyl lifting can begin even on the first day of the application.
6. As for the one perfect exception to troublesome skins, It seems that many companies that specialize in TEXTURED reptile and leather vinyls create much, much thicker vinyl skins . They seem to have a better glue backing as well . Coming from UK countries much of the time, the thickness to make the 3-D texture feel and look real creates the need for a heavier vinyl I imagine. The cost of these is higher, and can run up to as much as $18.00.
1. The heavier the mod, the hotter it's total metal area will heat the wrap when left in a vehicle causing glue bleeding, possible puckering, slippage or loosening in the thinner or more complicated wrap areas of certain units. For under the sun hot usage always take your non skinned units. A real 'in the sun' vinyl skin cooker for example is the super heavy Laisimo top screen unit. (By the way and probably needless to mention is that any unit left in a car in the sun is just asking for seatcover damage or a truly nasty battery incident ) .... but that Laisimo is the worst of the bunch, one could get a serious burn grabbing that thing if left on the seat of a car sitting out in the sun.
2. Perfectionists like myself tend to want no dirt, smudges, or VG slipperiness and wipe off their units a lot. This constant wiping ,water applications, or polishing with Pledge or some shine product will easily loosen all your vinyl skins, and the 'mysterious' light stickiness you might be feeling and confused about is the vinyl glue backing leeching out from under the wrap and all over the surface .
3. Some, ( not all) companies recommend in the installation instructions that you finish off the new wrap job with a hair dryer to 'set' the vinyl ... take this advice with a grain of salt as this will cause glue bleeding if you are too heavy handed with the hair dryer. Dryers can also immediately give a prune-like pucker or lift and shrivel skins that rapidly taper off to a narrow point or very thin edge covering area such as the top left and right side of the Releaux's front face vinyl piece where it meets the top edges of the battery door. Another problem mod is the area around the top of the oval vents on the Eleaf Istick100 watt unit, which overall I find the most carefree and trouble free unit to take and use anywhere, vinyl skinned or not .
4. If an older mod is so beat up that a wrap is absolutely necessary, keep in mind that some company's skins are just a tad 'short' in some cases and leave the original color exposed at the very edges of their particular shape as with the teal and white Reuleau. That exposed teal color doesn't match a thing, trust me ! (lol) . To solve that problem, spray any base color onto the edges of the mod unit that is similar to the overall color the vinyl skin will be that you intend to use.
5. Overall, with only the exception of one type of vinyl skin, I think these skins will gradually fade away unless made a lot thicker,with more specialized glue, and cut to even a finer fit than they are now, even though the fit is damn near perfect. By the way, getting a wrap that ends slightly short at the edges is one problem if trying to use a hair dryer ... Overheating and useing finger pressure on the hot vinyl to stretch the short skin to the very edge might work occasionally but often, after it cools this stretching trick hardly ever lasts and often shrink back and/or vinyl lifting can begin even on the first day of the application.
6. As for the one perfect exception to troublesome skins, It seems that many companies that specialize in TEXTURED reptile and leather vinyls create much, much thicker vinyl skins . They seem to have a better glue backing as well . Coming from UK countries much of the time, the thickness to make the 3-D texture feel and look real creates the need for a heavier vinyl I imagine. The cost of these is higher, and can run up to as much as $18.00.
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