Inlay template for a fog light surround

I was thinking about inlays and have seen some videos where using a template can help to cut out the required size and shape of vinyl required to wrap certain hard to reach areas so I gave it a go.

I chose to wrap a fog light cover and while this can be wrapped in one piece (I’m told requires a lot of effort and patience), my first objective was to see how I went creating a template.

The first step was to use masking tape to line the inside of the cover but for my first attempt I did not overlap the strips enough so when I tried to peel the tape off in one piece they were coming apart.
Another issue I had was that the tape I was using has a very high tack so I had to peel it off very slowly.
I would suggest using blue painters tape as this is designed to have a lower tack and more importantly not leave any adhesive residue behind.

Once the tape template was peeled off I stuck in onto some paper and cut it out. I marked the original side with an L for left and put an R on the back as you can use it for the right by just flipping it over.

Now onto cleaning and prepping the piece to be wrapped. I used IPA and a microfiber towel and got into all the recesses and made sure the edges were cleaned thoroughly. I then laid 2 pieces of knifeless tape. The first piece was for the join inside the fog light surround where the template piece will overlap. The second piece of knifeless was just on the inside edge of the fog light opening and I made sure to leave enough length on either side so it easy to pull it.

Onto cutting out the template piece and the idea here is to use the side of the template that is the inside or back of the fog light opening as guide for cutting and cut the vinyl along the edge. This is so this side is flush with the edge and does not require trimming. For the other side of the template which is the front or outside of the fog light opening, I marked about 2 or 3 cm (1 inch) from the edge so there was enough excess to make sure there is full coverage.

Once the piece was cut out and I laid it into the fog light opening I made several relief cuts so I could wrap over the lip of the opening.

Some heat was applied with the heat gun around the edge to make sure the knifeless tape and vinyl were stuck down and secure before cutting. (Remember to pull the knifeless in the opposite way that it was applied)

The edge of the inlay was not perfect in terms of the cut but this was more to do with where the knifeless tape was placed than the actual cutting of the tape. I suggest making sure there is good lighting when laying down knifeless tape on body lines as I found bad lighting created too many shadows.

Since I had done the inlay I thought I may as well try wrapping the rest of the piece.

I could tell just by looking at it that the deep recess above the fog light opening would be an issue so I tried feeding in as much vinyl as I could however I think I only fed it in about 25% of the way and tried to bridge (stretch) the rest. You can see in the final result that this was not the way to go as the vinyl did not stick at all.

Some other issues I ran into was over stretching and ripping the vinyl in the top right corner of the black grill part and not feeding in the left side into the recess enough so when I cut the excess vinyl away you could see the original color.

Things I learned:

• Use painters masking tape due to its low tack for easy removal
• Overlap pieces of tape for easy removal of template
• Don’t be scared to cut vinyl pieces larger than they need to be. Excess is better than not enough
• Have good lighting
• I need a lot more practice on feeding vinyl into recesses