Got my overlays in yesterday and installed them. I struggled with them a bit for a while then I finally got some help and finally got them installed! They look very nice, the car looks more agressive. However, I've got a few stubborn air pockets in the overlay and I've tried everything I could think of to try and get rid of them but no luck

Not sure what to do with those...

 

Just got my overlays today. Will be installing tonight or Saturday. I also have the yellow headlight overlays.

 

heres my input on bubbles in exterior vinyl decals of any type. leave the car sit in the sun as often as possible for a couple days. the heat can work some of the bubbles out or make large bubbles smaller. after 72 hrs of the vinyl setting what bubbles are left will not decrease anymore. take a sharp razor blade & use the corner to make a very small cut in the vinyl. the smallest you can to break through the vinyl(the smaller the better). then press down on the bubble with your finger. this will press the raised surface down to stick to the surface underneather while the air is being pushed out......ive used this method for years with great results on numerous cars.....good luck!

-justin

 

Thanks for the advice. I might have to give that a try. However, I'm a bit worried since this isn't really vinyl. It's more like the type of rubbery material used on clear bras and it's a bit thick.

 

there have been some discrepencies on how to install these...

the best way IMHO is to do it DRY...

do not peal off all of the paper at once!!!!

Use the tabs on the corners (the square lookign parts) to hold the material... peal off about an inch of paper at a time and apply the vinyl... if you see a bubble, simply peal it away and re-apply... you can do this dozens of times at first when you are first applying them... after the glue settles it basicly bonds...

please let me know if you have any questions before installing them...

 

oh i see. i thought you were talking of some type of vinyl type material. i didnt realize these were the protective overlays. i apologize, im not sure if these can be treated the same or not........

-justin

 

I see. I used a soap and water solution and drenched the healight pretty good with it. They went on nicely with no bubbles. When I woke this morning though I was shocked to find several on both sides. I think I'm just gonna let the car sit in the sun for a few days and see if that helps any. If not, I'm not too sure what else to try. Maybe a local tinting place can get rid of them?

 

ok, jason posted above while i was writing my last response. it appears they are vinyl but im assuming they are thicker than regular vinyl type material decals that some use on the exterior of thier car or windows......if worse comes to worse & you dont like the bubbles you can try my method. im sure this would look better than the bubbles themselves......i have not messed with the thick vinyl as you are using so i cant say for sure it would work as it may cause a small wrinkle look as opposed to a bubble due to the material in the bubble having more material than the suface area it will be sticking to.........best of luck!

-justin

 

tried the razor method... while the air did get out... it looks like the tint isn't adhering in the bubbled area. I'm not sure what to do now. I guess I'll just see what the guys at the local tint shop can do.

 

Do you guys think if I leave little slits on the top of the bubbles it'll help them dissappear over time? Or is this stupid?

 

I put some clear ones on my car a few months ago. As the days went by, they looked better and better.

 

pics?

 

Man I really need to invest in a digicam to show you guys

I'm loving my set-up so far. The car looks mean with the overlays and the red/black CF sidemarker covers from the front! I'm not gonna worry too much about those bubbles... I think they'll eventually completely dissappear.

 

I did the rear last night. Need to get a razor blade though to cut off excess. And I did it dry. Will post pics.

 

i did my rear turn signals a LONG time ago with the same material that these are made of

i did it dry because its a much smaller piece and the sun and heat DID do a lot for the bubbles that were originally there

please try and get a pic of the smoked overlays..i wanna see how dark they are and mine need to be replaced cause i have way to many bubbles on mine (i have diff ones not these)

 

Well I got some good news... (no i didn't switch to Geico)

BUT. I made tiny slits in the bubbles in the overlays yesterday. They didn't do much yesterday it seemed at first. Then I woke up this morning and found them ALL GONE!

Havabooz, I don't actually have a picture of my car itself but I did a photochop of it on Jeff@performance's Z. It's a pretty close match. Hope this picture helps ya. I'll try and get a shot of my car sometime, I need to borrow my sister's digicam. My personal opinion on the smoked overlays is they are pretty dark. Darker than I expected them to be, but they look great. Light output at night has been affected a little but I don't do much nighttime driving and it's really not too big of a difference IMO.

First pic has a border showing the difference from my Pshop to the real thing. The little square is the real part:

 

Second pic (complete pshop):

 

cool..thanks for that....thing is, i have bats overlays on my headlights right now

great product but i didnt put them on correctly...the material that these are made of are more enticing cause its much easier to apply even though its a 1 piece

the shade you pshopped it to is almost exactly what i have now (bats)....im pretty sure that they(the performance ones) are a bit darker than your pshop though (judging from the taillight pic on the performance website)

funny thing is my light output now SUCKS...i think its cause i did a really bad job on the install...but my BRIGHTS are weaker than most peoples regular lights...very dangerous since i do a lot of night driving in non-well-lit places

gonna give these puppies a try i guess

 

Yes, the overlays are actually a bit darker in person than in the photochop. The application process for me took a while since I'm no expert on putting on overlays, but I finally got them on. However, they are extremely durable.

I must have peeled and re-applied the overlays about 10-15 times even with the adhesive making lots of contact with soap and water solution. They still stuck like flypaper at the end of the day. You can pretty much take all the time you need to apply these overlays... great material. They'll look awesome on your car if you decide to try them out

 

thanks for the reply...i know that these shouldnt be too bad to put on...gonna order a set soon