Kawasaki Concours Forum
The C-14, aka Kawasaki Concours-14, the new one :) => Accessories and modifications - C14/GTR 1400 => Topic started by: blue72beetle on June 22, 2019, 02:15:05 PM
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I dropped my Connie last month and scratched up some of the fairings pretty bad. I didn't want to spend money on new ones, so I decided to vinyl wrap it.
It was a huge pain in the ass. It looks better in the photo than in person, there's lots of wrinkles and flaws that stick out to me. But... I wanted to do a color that was 'different' and I do like the green.
(https://photos.smugmug.com/Concours/i-5dZhZrh/0/70927dce/XL/IMG_20190622_141713-XL.jpg)
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Looks good from my house! So do the ghia and micro!!! That wasn’t on accident 🤣
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From the photo, it looks pretty damn good.
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nice... I like... :thumbs: :thumbs:
hell with everyone else, just make them stay 10 ft away, and threaten them...
considering doing the Spray Plasti "dip your ride" thing this year, to mine.. maybe doing a wild thing, never before seen.. you gave me food for thought.
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hell with everyone else, just make them stay 10 ft away, and threaten them...
Ride faster!
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Love it.
Maybe share the kit you used.
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Ride faster!
So fast the letters fly off!
(https://photos.smugmug.com/Concours/i-BDL84vs/0/e0cf262d/XL/IMG_20190624_103201-XL.jpg)
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Love it.
Maybe share the kit you used.
I bought two 5'x10' rolls of Avery Gloss Radioactive Green and used nearly all of it. A hair dryer, x-acto knife, and a roll of 3M knifeless tape.
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So fast the letters fly off!
LOL!
Well, hope you like the "debadged" look. Did you use new adhesive, or just try to stick the letters back on after prying them off? If the latter, it could be that the adhesive was just compromised (and probably not designed for re-use).
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They're cheap chinese sets from ebay. You get what you pay for I guess. Kawasaki wants nearly $50 per side.
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How did you do the fuel tank? I wrapped mine a while back and I struggled so much with the waist part of the tank - and one pannier lid - that I gave up on the whole job.
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Hey Andy,
I think it looks great! :thumbs: :thumbs: :thumbs:
Could you share some of the difficulties you experienced putting the wrap together? How long did it take you? Would you do it again?
Ray
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How did you do the fuel tank? I wrapped mine a while back and I struggled so much with the waist part of the tank - and one pannier lid - that I gave up on the whole job.
I did it in 3 pieces. Left, right, and top. The seam is along the sharp upper curve.
The pannier lids were the toughest, and it shows.....
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Hey Andy,
I think it looks great! :thumbs: :thumbs: :thumbs:
Could you share some of the difficulties you experienced putting the wrap together? How long did it take you? Would you do it again?
Ray
The bike was down a couple weeks, but I didn't work on it each day. Heat helps around curves, but the more you heat and stretch it the more it loses it's gloss. When you pull the vinyl in one direction, it puckers in the other direction. You can stretch to pull the wrinkles out, but by the time you get to the edge of a panel you've stretched so much that there's just no where for all the vinyl to go. It's kinda hard to explain. I also rushed some of the pieces because I wanted to get back to riding it, lol.
I imagine cars are easier to do because they have large panels without very many compound curves. Motorcycle have all sorts of curves and edges.
Would I do it again? Probably not. Having done this myself, I see all the imperfections every time I look at it. Kinda ruins it for me.
I'll probably pull it all off next winter and bite the bullet and replace the pieces that I had scratched up from dropping it. At least I have canyon cages now.
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Thanks. I tried to do the tank in one piece. Twice. I managed to do the pannier first go, but when I came to repeat the process on the other one the crinkles around the edge simply refused to go away. I ripped it off and started again with a new piece of wrap and it did exactly the same. When it didn't work the third time I threw the whole lot in a box and it is still there down the back of the shed.
After watching a whole lot of yootoob I think the trick is to use bigger pieces of vinyl. I wasted more in the end than I would have if I'd just laid a whole sheet over it and discarded the outer three quarters.
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I've always wanted to try this with selective parts. I have a black model and wanted to do the fins something different.
Snype
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Thanks. I tried to do the tank in one piece. Twice. I managed to do the pannier first go, but when I came to repeat the process on the other one the crinkles around the edge simply refused to go away. I ripped it off and started again with a new piece of wrap and it did exactly the same. When it didn't work the third time I threw the whole lot in a box and it is still there down the back of the shed.
After watching a whole lot of yootoob I think the trick is to use bigger pieces of vinyl. I wasted more in the end than I would have if I'd just laid a whole sheet over it and discarded the outer three quarters.
Or just get it professionally done. I decided that after trying to install the clear protective kits on the bike..
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Or just get it professionally done. I decided that after trying to install the clear protective kits on the bike..
I'll just paint it. I'm better at that than wrapping anyway.
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I bought two 5'x10' rolls of Avery Gloss Radioactive Green and used nearly all of it. A hair dryer, x-acto knife, and a roll of 3M knifeless tape.
I'm gonna have to take a ride over there.. the corporate offices are about 3 miles west of me... and the "film production" factory is just 2 miles east of me... we used to "dumpster dive" there as teenagers (in the '70's), for full rolls of "dayglow" and "mirror" sticky paper... like 4 foot wide rolls, with 200 feet...
I'm sure I can get someone there to "edjamacate" me on application, I probably know 20 or more people at each place...