Reminisce

And I am still aching from it almost a day later. Before I begin my review, I'd just like to give a big fat shout out and thanks to Tacobill for not only writing his own how-to, but for the preinstall advice he gave me prior to me diving into it. Also to Rob from BSM for a fantastic set of stripes, and everyone on this forum who left a trail of threads for me to research before I installed my own.

Ok first, the pics: Disregard the soapy residue on the car, I'd just finished the car at night and had no time to wash it again.
Yes, that is an SCT badge on the trunk, it was supposed to be a place holder for another emblem, but I cant find one I like, so on it stays until then.
There are small bubbles on the rear passenger side under the license plate. These happen, I've since pressed them out since taking these pics.





These are quick pics with my wide-angle lens in my parking lot, I'll post more later... k here are my notes from this install:

NOTES

• This is not a very difficult install, but it is indeed a VERY long process. I was working on it from 11am til 9pm, and still had two pieces left to do in the morning. If you plan on doing this yourself, set aside a FULL DAY or two, you're simply not going to finish in 3-4 hours.
• I honestly advise anyone planning on doing this, when you receive your box with the stripes, pull them out, look at the item checklist that comes with it, and LABEL your pieces on the transfer or backing paper (for example, piece #4 would have two labels, 4P and 4D, one for Passenger side and one for driver side). This will save you a lot of time when you start installing.
• If you'd like to make the best of your time and are comfortable with your ability to do this, do it on a warm or hot day. Heat makes the vinyl stick faster, and you can move from piece to piece without need of a hairdryer or heat gun on most pieces.
• Tacobill and everyone else was right, the bumpers are the perfect way to increase your blood pressure, because they are a royal pain in the rear. Its not that they are hard to line up, or apply, its that because of the indents in the bumpers (esp the front), they will NOT stay flat. You're not going to nail the front piece down in one go, you'll be going back to it over and over.
• g

INSTALLATION

• Washer Nozzles, I had to come back to the forums and do a search on how to remove these, but they look harder than they are. Prop the hood up and pop out some of the snap-in pins on the underside of the hood to access the hose (it starts on the passenger side). Reach the nozzle from underneath, twist the hose a couple times to loosen it, then PULL it from the nozzle (may take a minute or two). Do the same for the other, and then press the clips under the nozzle, push up, and then from the top, pull it back and out, it will slide out of place.
• The hood is the 2nd easiest piece to install, but probably the most difficult to align all the way through, simply because of the distance from one end to the next. If you have a hard time measuring, best thing to do is look for the centerline at the front of the hood and measure 2 inches around it, apply your tape. Now go to the back of the hood (towards the windshield) and look for the little "Solar" logo thats embedded in your windshield (not sure what its called right now), this logo is perfectly centered. Mark an area at the back of the hood here, and go back to the front, now look straight down the hood for that mark, and the logo, you should see where you need to mark better from here
• If you are doing your install alone, the long pieces like the hood and roof might be a burden because of how long they are. What I did was put them in place, and then put a long piece of tape ACROSS the stripes in the middle of the hood (going left to right). Then I lifted up the front of the stripe, sprayed solution as I pulled the back paper off, and when I got to the tape mark, I cut it with scissors. This allows me to just work with half of the piece, while keeping the back in place.
• If your set comes with transfer paper like mine did, work as much as you can on this paper before peeling it off. This paper also doubles as a protectant for the vinyl, so when you are squeeging out the air bubbles and water, you wont risk damaging or creating more wrinkles in the vinyl. Downside is this will add some more time to your install, because you have to pull the transfer paper off the vinyl AFTER IT DRIES. If you do this too soon, it will pull the vinyl right off the car.
• The rear stock GT spoiler may baffle you, as it did for me, because no matter how I lined it up, it just did not look right. This is where you have to remember, almost none of these pieces are really straight, they curve, but the curves are so they contour to the body perfectly and can wrap around in key places. The spoiler is not going to look right to you when you premeasure, so just line it up at 1.8-2" and get to work. You will see it will line up fine. MAKE SURE the parts that curve outwards face back behind the spoiler, and the narrower end towards the rear windshield. When it wraps around, it will be in sync.
• Unless you have done this a couple times before or are a pro, you will get bubbles, and you will get a couple wrinkles here and there. Dont panic, most vinyl have microscopic pores, so you can spray the TOP of the vinyl, wait a couple seconds, and then shift, press, and move the wrinkles out with the squeegee or your finger. Some of them wont come out right no matter what you do, just try and get the obvious ones out, and then wait for the pieces to dry up and press them out.

Those are some of the things that come to mind, and I dont want to get more long-winded than I already am. I just wanted to give back to this amazing community in the way its given to me. I'll post more and better pictures later or tomorrow after I've given it a good wash.

Glenn

awsome shine on your car what wax do you use?

Reminisce

Thanks, Meguiars NXT. I actually havent waxed it since I got it back from the bodyshop from the accident. I washed it right before though with Meguiars and then got to work.

ShowGT

Nice install and review.

JonCo

How do you like that NXT stuff? I've seen it a few times never been brave enough to get it. Is it tough to get of like some detail sprays? Inquiring minds would like to know

05Mustang-GT

Looks Good!! My pitted nasty looking vinyl stripes come off and get painted on next week...I can't wait!

TacoBill

Great job Anthony! I knew you could do it!

Reminisce

I've only applied it once so far, and when I had to remove it, it came off fairly easy. It was (as usual) a pretty hot day down here and I was in decent shade but it was humid, not sure if that helps. I like it a lot

And thanks again Tacobill, I probably wouldn't have had the guts to go all the way through it by myself without your pics and advice.

DynamicmustangGT

Nice install, I like the stripes.