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Installation Guide

This is an installation guide with tips for someone who wishes to apply the wrap themselves rather than having a professional sign or graphics shop perform the install. It is hard to wrap the bike perfect, but by no means is it impossible.

When you wrap the bike yourself you take two risks. You can end up with a less than perfect job and you can also void your warranty on the wrap. But, if you think you can do it, then we say give it a try. The worst that could happen is you might have to reorder one piece and reapply it, which BikeSkinZ will discount for you! Remember, we want your bike to look good, and tell people about us!

Preparing the Bike
The are 2 types of kits available from BikeSkinZ. There's the 3/4 kit which covers the entire bike excluding the top of the tank and the front fairing. This kit requires you to paint the bike the base color in order to match the rest of the skin (Kit #902 and #205 require the bike to be painted black). The full kit will include the pieces to cover the front fairing and the top of the tank. The full kit does however benefit from being painted to match the base color of the design. This will allow a small margin of error for cutting around bolt holes and seams. Also you'll want to paint the front fender. You can however special order more of the base color to wrap the front fender as well.

Whether you apply with the body work on the bike or off, its a must that you clean the bike with soapy water and let it dry in the sun. Then you'll want to wipe down the entire surface of the bike with rubbing alcohol and a lint free cloth in order to remove all soap residue and oils.

 Installation Options
There are two options for applying the wrap. You can either apply it with the body work on the bike, or with the body work removed. You'll get a better detailed finish if you remove the body due to being able to wrap around and behind the inner edges and air ducts that would otherwise be restricted by the frame and engine. The lower fairings benefit most from being removed due to their complexity. The tank also can benefit from being removed due to being able to tuck around and under the tank. Otherwise, when you apply the wrap with these parts still on the bike, you'll have to take an Exacto knife and trim the edge. This is effective, but may cause the wrap to be more susceptible to pealing. Also when the wrap cools down and expands in the heat it may pull away from the edge a small amount (about 1/32" or less) if this method is used. Another benefit of removing the body work is that you will be able to cut out bolt holes to fit the shaft of the bolts, allowing the heads will cover the edge of the cuts. If you leave the body work on the bike and cut out where the bolts are, its easy to get a little off on the cut which could be obvious.

Preparing the Wrap
The wrap comes rolled up with an adhesive back and a protective laminate coating on the top layer. You'll want to lay out the wrap on a clean dry surface in order to let it relax from being rolled up and to cut out the shapes. Although the wrap is relatively durable, be careful not to crease the wrap, as some damage may occur. The best place to lay it out and to apply the wrap is in a cool basement, carport, or shop. Make sure you have a large area at least 6'x9' feet.

Cutting Out the Shapes
You don't have to be too precise with the edges because they will be trimmed off later. Also the shapes are over sized with a 4-8" overlap, this will allow for a decent margin of error in lining up the pieces and will give plenty of extra wrap to grab when pulling the wrap out during application to remove wrinkles.

Tools Required
Most professionals will be familiar with vinyl squeegees. They are used for pressing out air bubbles and also creating a tight bond between the material and the surface. Other than that you'll need an Exacto Knife and a pair of scissors.

Applying the Wrap
This is the trickiest part of the whole process and requires 2 people. The first person will pull the wrap in 2 directions while you pull a 3rd direction with one hand, and press the wrap to the bike with your free hand.

Most parts of the body work that will be wrapped have 2 curves, one in a horizontal direction (left to right), and one in a vertical direction (top to bottom). The tighter the radius of these curves the more pulling and stretching must be done to the wrap in order to eliminate wrinkles when applying. In some areas it may be necessary to have a 3rd person with a hair dryer to warm up the wrap to help with stretching. Depending on the temperature of the room, this may not be necessary though. The wrap will easily stretch with out a heat gun much like a very thick Glad Trash bag.

You'll want to start pressing the wrap to the bike in the middle of the lower fairing and move out. It's a lot like laying tile the way you start in the middle of the room, due to as you get toward the outer edge, you reduce your margin of error in half. In other words, you won't have to battle as many wrinkles. The tank, tail, and fairing, you can more easily start from the bottom and work your way up.

Another tip is NOT to remove all of the adhesive backing from the back at once, just peel back as much as you to need to press the small area that your working with. You'll want to hold the wrap with the backing off at a minimum, due to oils from your skin adhering to the sticky backing.

Don't forget to line up both sides to each other. The fairing will not be as obvious if you're off a couple inches, but the tank and tail sides will be. Sight these from the top before starting to apply the second side in order to match these up as close as possible.

Overlapping Areas
When you're applying the tank and tail section you'll notice there is quite a bit of overlap on the top (with a solo tail piece). Trim the overlap seams at the rear of the tail with an Exacto knife. If your trimming off the top of the side tank wraps, or the top of the tail, you'll have to use a straight edge that bends to the contour of the bike in order to get a straight and clean cut. You may be able to find a flexible ruler at a hardware or hobby store for this but use your imagination. Vinyl signs, 3 ring binder covers, etc work well too. Just fold it out and use the long top edge as a guide. You will then lay a piece of flexible nylon or cardboard under the area to trim before the backing is removed, making sure not to cut all the way through else you'll score the paint underneath.

The full kits with the top tank piece will just overlap the cut top edge of the tank side pieces. Make sure the top tank piece is precisely cut on the outer edge before it is applied. You may wish to remove the gas cap and cut a hold in the top piece slightly smaller than the gas cap. This will allow the gas cap to over lap the cut edge and produce a finished look.