WRX Rear Spoiler Wrap

The boot spoiler on my car was starting to fade so what better opportunity to practice wrapping it.

After seeing a number of boot spoiler wrap videos my initial thought was that it could not be wrapped in one piece. There is simply too much complexity to even try so the best approach is 2 pieces with the seam being along the body line to make it as unnoticeable as possible.

Since I was going to do it in 2 pieces I knew that I would have to wrap the bottom first so then when the top is wrapped the seam would be facing down and away from view.
I popped the boot to get a better view of the bottom of the spoiler and to see how much vinyl I would need.

Tip : Always measure and allow extra vinyl to be safe

When cutting out the piece of vinyl I needed for the bottom, I just eyeballed it and cut a piece slightly wider that the width of the spoiler front to back.
My thinking was that I would lay the vinyl along the underside of the spoiler and then stretch it around the sides.

Once the vinyl was cut I put it aside and started to clean.
Using IPA mix (50:50) and a microfiber towel I wiped over the spoiler and all surfaces around it. I then used the squeegee wrapped with the microfiber towel to get into all the grooves and crevices.

Once the cleaning was done I masked around the spoiler and rear brake light and was ready to begin the wrap.

I place knifeless tape on the body line to separate the top and bottom making sure not to put too much tension on it especially around the corners.

I did not remove the backing liner from the vinyl straight away since the piece was long and narrow so I placed the piece against the spoiler and held it in place with some tape. I then peeled off half of the backing liner and tacked the vinyl onto the corner and repeated the same on the other side. This was to make sure it did not fold over on itself and risk getting stuck together.

Now that the vinyl was on the spoiler I was ready to begin. I stuck down the middle of the spoiler to give me a starting base and then heated the area near the corner so I could stretch it around.

I soon realized that my idea of stretching the vinyl around the bend of the end of the spoiler was wrong as the material was bunching up on the inside. I also tried to make relief cuts to get the vinyl around the bend but this caused the vinyl to tear. I stopped to think about it and realized the mistake I had made.

If you think about how you would wrap the bottom of the spoiler if it was off the car you would just cut out a piece to cover the whole thing without stretching around corners.

I decided to try and just lay the vinyl down with no stretch on the other side and it turned out a lot better. Of course the vinyl was too short to reach all the way as I had not cut enough to start with.

Since I knew I would have to rip of the vinyl and start again I decided to practice wrapping around the brake light.

I had only masked the brake light itself and not the area underneath it including the badge so it made it harder to wrap as the vinyl was sticking to it.

I cut around the badge and then started to feed into the sides of the brake light recess. This was a complete disaster as the vinyl was just stretching and ripping.

After this first attempt I spent a bit of thinking about what I had done wrong and what I needed to do the next time around.

SECOND ATTEMPT

I measured a cut out another piece of vinyl this time making sure there was plenty of excess and also masked off more areas around the spoiler to prevent the vinyl from sticking to them and make the install easier.

Starting in the middle I squeegeed the vinyl down and worked towards the corners and made a relief cut to allow the vinyl to lay down around the corner with no tension. As a beginner I find myself sometimes forgetting to use relief cuts out of fear of cutting the vinyl in the wrong place and having to start again but if you take your time and make small cuts it actually makes the job easier.

This was the case when it came to the brake light recess where in my first attempt of stretching the vinyl caused it to rip. This time with the use of a relief cut, it allowed me to feed the vinyl in and although you could still see a bit of the original color, It was still much neater and a big improvement from the first attempt.

Once the bottom part was done and trimmed I moved onto the top part of the spoiler and once again made sure I measured and cut a piece large enough to make sure I would not come up short.

I applied the knifeless tape along the edge and made sure the edge of the tape lined up with the edge of the vinyl so there was enough overlap once the top piece of vinyl was applied.

After cleaning between the spoiler and boot lid very well and then masking around the spoiler I was ready to start.

This time I used the conventional process that I had attempted with the bottom piece the first time where the vinyl was applied to the middle and then the ends were heated and stretched around. It allowed me to squeegee the material and then shrink the excess down.

Then it was just a matter of stretching over the corners, heating to shrink back and then trim all around.

I was pretty happy with the results but there are still a number of areas that needed improvement. Most notably is feeding into recesses as that is where the real skill comes in. I’m guessing this comes with more practice and being more used to how the vinyl can be manipulated. Keep on practicing.