Automotive restyling has taken American auto enthusiasts by storm over the last three or four years. Color change wrapping has provided car owners a way to make a fashion statement that can change with the trends as often as they desire. But color change wraps can extend to other areas as well. Some installers are restyling vehicles by wrapping accessories and interiors.

Accent Wrapping

Wrapping parts of the interior of a vehicle and exterior areas such as wing mirrors, hoods, and spoilers is called accent wrapping. It’s an excellent alternative to full wrapping because the cost is much lower but the idea of wrapping for personal fashion still stands.

Accent wrapping can be integrated with color change wraps as well for an added custom look. Imagine that two cars of the same year, make and model get wrapped with the same color wrap film in the same city. By wrapping the dashboard and door moldings of one car with the same color film as the wing mirror and rear spoiler you give one vehicle a classy, unique look.

Material Selection

Many vinyl manufacturers make products that are mainly intended for accent wrapping. These films are typically textured to simulate materials like carbon fiber, brushed metal or leather and come in a wide variety of colors. There are a number of inexpensive knock-off accent film products available, but be careful as many are made with calendered film instead of cast. This is a problem because almost every surface you would accent wrap has some curve or hard corner to it, so it is important to use high-quality cast films for these applications.

When choosing an accent color you should first look the vehicle over for OEM parts that are not being removed or wrapped (i.e., badging). Since they cannot be removed, your accent color and texture will need to match these parts. The same can be said for interior accent wrapping. There are many textures and subtle shifts in color to consider on the interior of a vehicle. Interior accent wrapping is usually done to removable interior parts. Many of these parts are already textured which can make it difficult for adhesives to bond. Installers need to choose wrap surfaces carefully.

Parts Removal

Accent pieces, both interior and exterior, are almost always removable but the methods and level of difficulty for removal differ greatly from one brand of vehicle to another. It is critical to have a clear understanding of how each part should be removed.

Most installers rely heavily on YouTube videos or Google searches to gather information on best practices for the removal of accent parts. Often, in order to remove a wing mirror for example, it is necessary to first remove the inside door panel.

It is a good idea to acquire a parts tray with small compartments so that as you take off pieces you can store associated nuts and bolts in the same order that they were removed. It is also a good idea to take short videos on your handheld device to not only help you remember exactly how the parts were removed, but also to possibly share your knowledge with others. Sometimes the reassembly of the vehicle happens days after the removal and the many details are difficult to remember.

As you remove interior pieces you must be mindful of how much clearance the pieces have with each other. Usually interior parts are extremely tight fit. This means that they may not fit back properly if vinyl is wrapped around their edges. In these situations trimming very close to the edge is necessary and great care must be taken to ensure the knife blade does not come in contact with the edge of the part being wrapped. Even a small nick in the plastic of a part will lessen the OEM effect of your accent wrap and make the part look like aftermarket grade.

Heat with Care

Many of the interior and exterior accent parts that get wrapped are made from light plastics that react with relatively low amounts of direct heat. The surface of a wing mirror cowling, for example, can take a fair amount of heat, but the rubber just inches away may not; so installers working around these areas need to be aware of such parts that are in the area being wrapped. Overheated parts tend to warp or become misshapen making it impossible to reassemble correctly.

The best practice for working with these delicate parts is to first preheat the vinyl and while its warm (130°F) pre-stretch the vinyl by 20 percent. Continue to hold the vinyl tight as you remove the heat source so the vinyl hardens in the pre-stretched position. Install the pre-stretched vinyl to the accent piece and as you come up to a curve, apply low heat (90°F) and the vinyl will shrink back to the shape of the accent perfectly. If you use this method you will never over heat or distort the accent pieces you are wrapping.  

If you cannot remove the accent piece you are wrapping and you see that surrounding pieces of rubber or moldings may be negatively affected by heat, tape some vinyl liner over these pieces The paper liner will help deflect the hot air away from these pieces avoiding damage.

There are special tools developed for removing accent pieces and it is strongly suggested that they are used in every disassembly of every accent wrap you do. These tools act like pry bars but are made from plastics that when leveraged and used correctly will not damage accent parts. There are also clip removal tools that allow you to remove a clip without stripping or breaking the clip. Many amateur or do-it-yourself installers go about removing parts with pocketknives and screwdrivers. But this will inevitably result in costly repairs and replacement parts.

The Gateway Wrap

Accent wraps are an important part of the color change wrap movement. You might think of them as the gateway to full color change wraps. Many car enthusiasts who now consistently have full color change wraps done on their cars first started by having accent wraps done. This is why it is critical that accent wraps—regardless of how small the job is—be done at a professional OEM level. Customers will only repeat positive experiences.