I Wrapped My Tacoma Myself!

What's up, Tacoma Fam!

So, for those of you that know me, you know I've done everything to this truck myself, and I have always wanted to wrap my truck. I recently decided to take this challenge on myself, and share some details of my experience. I spent a little under $2000 for all the supplies and tools, including the 59"x75' vinyl wrap. It took me a total of approximately 41 hours over the course of 3 days to complete the task, including the prepping of the truck, the wrapping itself, and then reassembling the truck back together. I originally wanted to go with a satin black wrap, but realized it could be counterintuitive since one of the reasons I was wrapping my truck was to hide the pinstripes, and pinstripes will probably show up just as bad if not worse on a satin black wrap. Because of this, I decided to go with a satin black camo wrap. I figured the camo would do a better job blending in any pinstripes or blemishes, plus it matched the "bugout" theme I've been going for with the truck anyways.

(If you'd prefer watching a video than reading this article, I created a YT video documenting my experience that you can watch by clicking this link below)
https://youtu.be/qRLYJ5LKopE?si=VO8dktz2I_-ZPst2

(Before)



PREPPING:
The prepping included planning, disassembling the truck, and giving it a thorough cleaning. I started by taking TONS of detail pictures prior to removing everything, just to have a good idea of the natural body lines, where all the nuts and bolts were, and where everything was positioned for when I would reassemble the truck. I wanted to be as thorough as I could, so I removed the front and rear high clearance bumpers, roof rack, RTT, camper shell, taillights (didn't find it necessary to remove the headlights), snorkel, tailgate, grill bezel piece, and some other small things. I then began cleaning the truck, starting with pressure washing it to knock all the loose dirt and debris from my previous offroading trips. When washing the truck, I didn't use anything special or wax it, just because I wanted there to be a good bond directly between the adhesive and the truck's paint.


WRAPPING:
I started by wrapping the roof, as I wanted to get a feel for how the vinyl works when laying it down, and any mistakes or blemishes I made along the way would be covered up by the roof rack anyways. At this point in time, I had a friend who was able to help me get started, so it made laying a large vinyl piece somewhat easier. We used the heat gun as we laid it down, I used a squeegee, my buddy used a wrapping glove. Obviously I'm no expert and not familiar with proper wrapping technique, but over time, I ditched the squeegee and used a wrapping glove thee rest of the time, as I found that easier. When it came to the roof, the fin antenna was the most annoying part, and it isn't the prettiest, but once again it's covered up by the roof rack, RTT, and ROAM 95L.



Next we moved on to the tailgate, which was surprisingly easy, even with the lettering.When wrapping, it's important using a heat gun to "activate" the wrap when you apply it. If you stretch it and apply it without heating it up, the "memory" of the wrap will cause it to start pulling back over time.


After the tailgate, we moved to the hood. We ran into our first problem when we reached the hood, because the hood measured approx. 60", and the width of the wrap was 59". However, on each end of the wrap is a 1/4" white border that didn't match the camo wrap. This meant we were left with no choice but piecing the hood together in 3 pieces. To do this, we cut a couple pieces that were around the width of each side of the hood from the body line to the edge. Before laying it down, we laid a couple strips of knifeless tape following the natural body lines of the hood, and cut the. pieces to size. We repeated this, laying two more strips of knifeless tape in the same place. Next we cut a square piece the approximate size to the center of the hood. After we laid the piece down, we trimmed it with the knifeless tape, and the results we were left with was fantastic! You couldn't see any of the seams in the wrap because we followed those body lines.


My buddy had to leave at this point in time, and I would end up completing the rest of this project myself up until it came to reassembling. I continued next with the quarter panels. I found it easiest when working with large vertical sections like this to cut it to size first, lay it in its approximate location, and add some car wrapping magnets in a line across the middle of the vinyl piece. Next, I would fold the top half down, cut the backing off, and "tack-stick" it to the corners and edges. Once it was on, I would remove the magnets, pull up the bottom half, remove the rest of the backing, and lay down the bottom half. I used this same process on the quarter panels and all the doors. Again, I'm no expert, I don't know if this is the correct technique, but it's what I found easiest working by myself.


I started on the doors on day 2. This meant in order to be "thorough", I would need to take the door handles off. The removal of the door handles was a tedious step, but worth it nonetheless. I would have to take off the interior door panels, and roll down the windows. I then followed the same steps from above, laying these large vinyl pieces. After the doors were laid, I worked on the door handles. I did these in two pieces: one for the front side which was laid first, and one on the backside overlapping in order to prevent a lot of peeling back over time since the door handles are so frequently "handled". Slowly and steadily, the truck was coming together.




The last day, I wrapped the mirrors, the camper shell, and the grill bezel piece. The mirrors weren't too hard, but I probably should have done them in two pieces and not one, as I had to stretch them a good bit, meaning that there's a high chance that they could come peeling back later down the road. The camper shell was a pain in the butt due to all the changes in body lines between the panels, and I was running low on material. Nonetheless, it was completed, the truck was put back together, leaving me with the final results...

(After)



FINAL THOUGHTS:
Overall I'm very impressed with the results, and it certainly turns heads! It's not professional grade and it's not perfect, there's plenty of visibly blemishes, but for my first time, it looks AWESOME. I'm not too worried about the blemishes, as I take this thing offroading a lot, and I have a strong feeling the trails will take a beating on this wrap, and I'll end up having to redo it in another year or two. The amount of patience required to complete this project was insane. Definitely a demanding project, and the most difficult task I've taken on, considering I've done all the work (aside from welding) and maintenance to this truck myself. If there's anything I would have done differently, it would have been to take my time with it even mores than I was, and of all the things I removed, I would have taken the time to remove the bed too. Fortunately my truck is black so it's not. very noticeable, but where the cab and bed meet, it was too difficult to pull the wrap around the cab since I didn't have a lot of space to work with, and I was left with some very wrinkly edges in that area.

If you guys have any questions feel free to leave them. below, or for quicker response message me on IG or YT. If you guys are interested in following along on my adventures or on the journey of my build, follow me on IG or sub to my YT @bugout_overland.

Thanks Fam!
Collin

 

Damn man that looks killer! A lot of attention to detail, turned out great!

 

Myyyy god that looks so good.

@hyrule_trd You might want to see this.

 

Lookin good dude

 

Thanks for the tag! I’ll definitely check this post out

 

That turned out super nice. Nothing like a job well done, not to mention the satisfaction of doing it yourself along with a buddies help!

What would have this cost by having a shop do it?

 

Thats awesome and great job! I’ve been really considering wrapping my truck a dark metallic green.
Even though my wife’s not on board, I’m still watching videos and reading about it. Seems like something that can be DIY with time and patience.

again great job and thanks for the inspiration!

 

It looks fantastic. Thank you for sharing.

 

I like it and good job!

 

Nice job … that’s a lot of work ..

 

This would have cost me between $5k and $6k to have it professionally done!

 

That's awesome @bugout_overland! You'll probably be your own harshest critic, but it looks great. The pattern will help hide any imperfections too. I love TW, cause it's great to see projects I'll probably never do, but can admire others efforts.

 

Looks phenomenal, I so badly want to do mine in the artic multicam.

 

That’s a head turner for sure! Super cool. Thanks for sharing.

 

Wow great job, and great write up! That’s one slick looking Tacoma!

 

Looks amazing and love the write up on your journey!

 

Looks awesome. Props to you for accomplishing that yourself! No way I have the patience for that haha.

 

Super rad

 

Dang that's an amazing job! Well done.

 

Dude that looks great!