Just curious on how a thicker material is going to make it easier to apply? This isn't a smart-___ comment, just really curious on how. I could see the handling tabs helping a little bit, since it would keep your hands off the adhesive. I still believe that most overlays are applied in the same manner. They use water to float the material over the light, heat to stretch the material, and pressure to "stick" the material/ squeege the water out from underneath. It takes a little bit of practice to be able to get the process down, and to be able to apply without the slightest imperfection. Your DIY on the xb tails is helpfull. It's good to have a visual refernence when applying, but the process still takes a little bit of practice.

 

No worries. our material is designed for exterior automotive lighting protection, not for flat signs. Our material is 7-8x thicker, much stronger, and much easier to fit over a compound surface. For the most part fitting on compound surfaces is all about compression. Minor stretching can be part of the application process, but it is mainly about compressing. The material thickness and strength allows strong squeegee pressure and greatly helps setting the perimeter of a lens with a compound curve. During the summer and / or when it is warm out adding heat is not necessary at all to fit them. When cold gentle warming with a hair dryer is necessary, but I can't think of an application where you would blast it with heat.

As with anything repetition can improve an individuals ability to apply them. Our material and kits are designed to be applied by the average DIY'er. The material is forgiving during the install process. If you leave a bubble either from not enough squeegee pressure or not enough water underneath you can carefully lift, rewet, and resqueegee. If a little time has passed you can just leave it and wait. We have seen bubbles the size of quarters dissipate in a few weeks as the water evaporates through the material.

So yes, starting with a better material is easier to apply.

 

My bluebat ones went on with only very slight wrinkles.

 

Most people can apply my overlays with no issues. May require alittle more patience than other brands but it can be done with excellent results. . As I said earlier, I will be posting a how to guide this week for applying the my xB taillight overlays

Bat™

 

Patience is key as Bat said himself. You can't rush things if you want them to turn out good. He has a really good write up in the tC ext. forum which is very detailed with pics. When stretching the overlay, don't stretch it a mile but instead, just tug on it so that the wrinkles pop out and pull it toward the edge to get it to stick to the light. The heat will help get rid of the water in between the light and overlay so that the overlay will stick. keeping the unused parts of the overlay moist is important as you don't want those parts to start sticking to each other which will create the wrinkles.

and i don't see how thicker material can be less prone to having wrinkles..?


If you're in the SD area, I may be able to help out...

 

i'm in the north county san diego area and would be more than willing to help with an install.

i love bat's products and found that the install is very straight forward and easy.

 

see! we got the SD area covered. Anyone with an xA wanna step up to offer help in the SD area? =] lap

 

Because our material is designed for exterior use on a compound surface it is also designed to be easily compressible. When distributing the material around a compound you simply press it firmly and the material lays down. Perhaps it would be similar to the difference between premium wall paper vs. trying to put tissue paper on the wall smoothly. Then add the fact that our material is designed to be applied on a compound surface and sign vinyl is only made for flat applications and there you go.

The edge distribution on an xB


or a better view of the same process on a tC taillight

 

MY$0.02..... I have purchased numerous products from BlueBat and have never had any issues with any product... The only thing that I can stress to anyone out there putting any kind of overlay from ANY COMPANY is to have patience... All overlays have the same concept, if you rush things and if your attention is not focused on just the overlay then you will screw up... IMHO if you don't have much practice at doing these, find someone who does... For you DIYers out there BluBat has a great article in the tech section...

 

We have a set of the eyelids, and we love them! Heat does help. Think about how they tint your windows...they use heat. I took my car to the guy that did my windows and he put them on for me. If you are having trouble applying them yourself, I suggest calling your local tint shop. My guy did it for free,since he didn't supply the materials, he would rather do it for free than mess it up and have to pay for a new set. But...it came out great.

 

Like we said, Bloody and I are willing to help out in the San Diego area. He's in north county and I'm in central SD (Clairemont).

 

werd
just send me a PM

 

Where did you have it done? I know that xlnt tint in Anaheim wants $30 bucks to apply overlays. Doesn't matter if you bring in your own or use their material.

 

I got the dual eyelids for my tc and I couldn't put them on to save my life. I have been working on cars for a while and these vinyls are one off the hardest things I've ever done!! I messed up the first set so I figured I would just go with a single layer of vinly and then I messed up the second set!!
Anybody make plastic eyelids?