How to properly apply vinyl stickers to a car

Our BMW 435i is a race car, right? Therefore it needs some stickers.

We thought this would be a nice chance to review some best practices for applying vinyl, since it’s something we’ll all have to do at some point.

Start with a clean surface. And by clean we don’t just mean free of dirt but also free of chemical contaminants that can limit adhesion.

A mild solvent that evaporates cleanly like alcohol or paint prep solvent is a good tool for this job.

Position your decal and step back a bit. We use painter’s tape to “rough-in” our placement, then take a good step back to see how things sit.

Sometimes you may think that angles you’re trying to match when you’re up close holding the vinyl look fine, but when you move back you realize things are goofy. Using painter’s tape gives you the option for playing with positioning.

Once you have your positioning set, make a “hinge” on the shortest side of the decal. You’ll be working the decal onto the surface from one side to the other, so laying it down in the direction of its longest dimension is helpful.

This tape “hinge” allows you to flip the decal over, remove the backing, then lay it down progressively.

Squeegee the decal into place working from the hinge toward the opposite side. We like to remove the backing as we go, but some brave folks remove it all at once. There’s no right way, but removing the entire backing can be riskier if the decal accidentally flips over and sticks to something.

Most vinyl you’ll get from a sign shop these days uses pressure-sensitive adhesive and likes to go on dry. This means you shouldn’t use soap or water or anything to “float” the decal onto the surface. Just squeegee it on progressively, working over contours as you arrive at them, then do a final squeegee with fairly firm pressure to fully activate the adhesive.

Remove the backing parallel to the surface. Try and avoid pulling the backing off perpendicular to the surface.

This puts more strain on the adhesive and can lift your vinyl right back off the surface if it isn’t fully adhered.

Trim over your gaps. If you applied your vinyl over any body gaps, now is the time to trim them. Use a sharp blade and cut in the middle of the gap, then tuck your vinyl around the edge.

You remembered to clean around those edges when you were cleaning the surface, right?