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DODGE
CHALLENGER TWO TONE CARBON FIBER GRAPHIC
Part #
ACC-CHVG860

 

PARTS INCLUDED:
1 - Soft Squeegee
1 - Hard Squeegee
5 - Adhesive Promoter Packs
1 - Map


This new graphic kit must be installed by a qualified LEVEL 5 professional vehicle wrapper or vinyl installer. 

1.  Thoroughly clean the entire car with soap and water to remove any and all dust particles and dirt that may work its way into your graphic. 

2.  Thoroughly clean the entire areas of the Challenger under the main body line and across the rear deck lid with household rubbing alcohol to remove any waxes. The best surface preparation however would be an industrial wax and silicone remover found at any auto paint supply. It is CRUCIAL for the long term life of the graphic that the car be scrubbed clean of wax and silicone. 

3.  Now that all the areas are thoroughly cleaned swipe all the edges with the adhesive promoter provided. Apply the promoter to the door seams and deck lid seams as well as the gap at the hood and fender corner. The purpose of the application of the adhesive promoter at these areas is to insure that the graphic will remain attached long term. Since the carbon fiber is a foil based material it will have a tendency to release from the edges unless special treatment is applied. The first section to be applied should be the door sections. Before starting apply some additional adhesive promoter around the door handle as well as the mirror base. 

4.  Make an application mixture of a 32oz bottle of water then add several drops of baby shampoo. There are many application fluids on the market but we find that the baby shampoo works great and is much easier to create just the right mixture. In order to test if you have a good mixture, spray some directly to the side of the car. A good mixture will be a mixture that sheets to the paint and does not bead. Be careful not to put too much soap in the water as this will cause adhesion problems long term due to the fact that the soap will become absorbed into the adhesive. It is important that the mixture contains as little soap as necessary to allow the water to just sheet to the paint. 

5.  Now that you have made a good application fluid and have prepared the surface correctly we can begin. Spray enough application fluid to the door to cover the entire length of the graphic section. Then set the graphic section face onto the door allowing the solution to hold the graphic in place. Peel the release paper from the back of the graphic as you spray a good amount of solution to the adhesive. Be careful not to allow the adhesive surface to become contaminated with dirt or any other foreign matter when saturating the graphic in this way. With the graphic saturated as well as the door saturated, flip the graphic section over and onto the door then manipulate it so that you will have a nice and even location for both the door handle and side view mirror. With the section nicely positioned squeegee out all the fluid working from the center of the section out to the edges. Take some time to make sure that you do a very thorough job of pushing out all the fluid leaving no air bubbles. Use the white hard squeegee provided for this process.

Using a snap knife tool slice the excess carbon fiber at the front edge of the door exactly at the door edge. Slice the back end of the carbon fiber at the back edge of the quarter panel leaving the 1/4 '' over lap over the door edge. Allow this section to set while you perform the same procedure to the other side of the car.

6.  Using a heat gun very gently and mildly evaporate the moisture from the front door edge as you seat the carbon fiber to the edge using your fingers and a paper towel. Use EXTREME caution not to melt or burn the edge of the carbon fiber as this will ruin the graphic. Because of the nature of foil based films any excess heat will cause the material to curl and distort and generally can not be restored so be very careful. Use the heat gun to warm and dry the door edge ONLY.

 7.  Perform the same procedure at the rear edge of the door only at this location you will actually be folding the carbon fiber around the door edge. Because of the nature of the carbon fiber this will take a little longer as you dry and force the film to adhere to the edge. Again use EXTREME caution not to burn the edge of the film.

 8.  Apply the two front sections of the graphic aligning it to the door section then trim to the fender edge. Allow these four sections to set for an hour or so then remove the paper transfer tape by saturating the tape with your solution. You will notice that when the transfer tape gets saturated it will change color and become somewhat translucent. Once the transfer tape is thoroughly saturated it will become very easy to be released from the graphic. Simply pull and roll the tape off the graphic. Do this slowly so as not to pull the graphic from the car surface. You will cause some lifting by doing this. Just simply reset any lifted areas.

 9.  The next section to install will be the hood strips. Set a length of ¾” masking tape along the top edge of the fender graphic. This will serve as a guide to place each of the four strips into position. With the masking tape in place spray the solution onto the hood and saturate the front section of the strip set and set the section so that it lines up with the very front edge of the fender graphic and also with the masking tape edge. Slice the strip directly along the edge of the fender as well as the hoods edge and let set for moment as you repeat the same process for the opposite side. Allow these sections to set long enough to allow you to remove the transfer tape using the saturation method. Once the transfer tape has been removed from both sides place a length of ¾” masking tape along the edge of the strip on the windshield side then place the last two strips in position in the same way as the first two sections.

 10.  This next procedure is going to be CRITICAL to the entire carbon fiber installation. The next procedure is a unique application of vinyl that will seal and ensure the edges of the carbon fiber material stay seated long term. We will begin with this application at the gap of the four hood strips. With the edges of the hood strips dry and set with your heat gun apply a single swipe of adhesive promoter at the very end of the graphic and also down the fender edge and under the hood edge. You have been provided with an extra strip of 1/4'' flat black vinyl. Cut an approximate length of the vinyl that matches the width of each of the hood strips. Peel the transfer tape off the length so you will have just black tape in your hands and then set the length directly to the edge of the hood strips overlapping the carbon fiber about 1/16” and accurately trim away the excess of the tape. Gently roll the black vinyl around the hoods edge and firmly press along the length to set it. This procedure will seal the carbon fiber edge to the car permanently and will barely be noticeable. You will perform this procedure along each and every edge of the entire graphic. This procedure is ABSOLUTELY necessary to ensure a long lasting carbon fiber graphic installation and should not be eliminated from the installation.

 11.  The next step will be the application of the two quarter panel sections. These two sections go on exactly as the door sections did only they will be caped at the ends with another section leading up to the deck lid. After this section is installed go ahead and dry and seal the door jam edge to finish the front area. Because this section contains a gradient you will need to take a little more time squeegee the lines of the pattern. Really press these to the paint to eliminate all the solution in these areas and allow both sides of the car to set. You may use the heat gun to speed this process but again be careful not to overheat the graphic. After the graphic does become set, saturate the release liner to release it from the graphic.

 12. The rear quarter sections of this graphic are the trickiest part of the entire installation. This is due to the fact that although the corner leading over the top of the quarter panel appears to be a simple flat edge it actually is VERY compounded. Under normal circumstances this would not be a problem but since we are applying a foil based material the process for applying this graphic will require some skill and lots of patience.

Set a length of 1'' masking tape along the back edge of the quarter panel graphic you have just installed. This will establish the separation and angle of the next section. Spray both the car and the next section of the graphic, and then set it against the masking tape. manipulate the section so that it looks nicely lined up and then squeegee the graphic firmly and completely to the entire side area leaving the top part of the section un squeegeed. Make sure that you have applied some adhesive promoter along the edge and side in the gap between the deck lid and quarter panel. With some aggressive pressure fold the carbon fiber over as you push towards the deck lid. Ride your squeegee straight up the center to sort of stretch the graphic and then apply some pressure into the two corners. This should allow you to force the graphic to set down to the paint with very little fingers. Work all the fingers out using the hard squeegee and a paper towel to soak the water out of the process. You can very cautiously use the heat gun to help dry and set the graphic. Then perform the edge setting procedure and lock it down with the process outlined in paragraph 9. Complete this process on both sides of the car.

13.  With both rear quarter sections successfully installed we can install the deck lid section. Saturate the graphic and deck lid and slide it into position just as you did for all the other sections. A-line both ends to the quarter panel sections and thoroughly squeegee it in place. Trim the excess graphic to the outer edge of the gap. Use the heat gun to dry the moisture along the deck lid edge and fold the carbon fiber around the edge using a paper towel to remove any moisture. This will help to set the graphic. Now that the entire graphic has been installed the next procedure will be to change the ¼” stripe to the flat black stripe to achieve a nice two color graphic.  

14.  Apply ¼” masking tape along the gap between the carbon fiber main body and the ¼” stripe running parallel to the entire graphic. Do not be concerned with any of the tight corners or contours. Just apply the masking tape to the straight always. This will serve as a guide for the new stripe which will be applied completely dry. No graphic solution will be needed.

15.  You have been supplied with sheet of flat black pinstripe which has been designed to replace the carbon fiber pinstripe exactly. The replacement process although is time consuming will actually be very easy compared to the main body. The hard part is over.

The pinstripe segments have been designed to allow you to apply them in such a way to achieve a splice less installation. All segments of stripe will need to be cut from the main sheet using an exact-o or snap knife. Let’s start with the rear quarter sections. Cut the top stripe from the sheet completely and set it on top of the car for a moment. Remove the carbon fiber stripe and carefully clean the area with alcohol in preparation for the replacement. Make sure that there isn't any remaining residue or adhesive from the carbon fiber stripe and that the area is very dry. The next step is a very important method for the accurate placement of the black pin line and will need to be followed throughout the entire application of all pre shaped stripe segments. Because of the fact that pinstripe will stretch during the installation process exact positioning of any given pre shaped strip can not be successful unless you start at the pre shaped area and lead out to the ends.

 16.  In order to achieve an accurate placement, tear the paper release liner at the very corner of the pre shaped pin line so that you have two strips of release liner to pull. Peel these two strips back about two inches on each side. Carefully set the pre shape of the pin line into the corner of the graphic and press it firmly to set that corner then simply lay the stripe out following the masking tape guide line you installed earlier. Complete one length and then the other. Allow the pinstripe to fold into the gaps at both ends of the stripe. Do this same exact procedure for the bottom side of the graphic.

 17.  The front end of the side graphic on the front fender can be applied all at once. Simply cut the entire graphic section out of the sheet, pull the release liner from the back of the section then line up the section to the car and then set the stripe to the car with your finger tips working from the sharp corner out to the fender edges.

 18.  All the straight stripes of the deck lid and doors can be simply peeled and set to their locations.

 19.  The carbon fiber hood graphic section has been designed to set completely within the factory hood carbon fiber graphic. The reason for this is very simple. Because of the fact that all graphic applications have some degree of stretch to its final application it is impossible to exactly match an aftermarket graphic the edges. What this means is that no matter how hard you try or how accurate the new graphic is made or applied you will never match the new graphic edge to the existing edge. This will cause an overlapping under lapping inaccurate edge that would just simply look terrible and would not survive the application long term. So in order to compensate for this we have designed our carbon fiber graphic to set about ¼” inside the factory graphic and you will install this section in just the same way as the main body sections making sure the position of the new graphic is set nice and evenly as possible into the existing graphic. Complete this installation and then thoroughly dry the hood graphic along its edges to prepare for the black stripe application. Now that the carbon fiber graphic has been installed and dried you can install the black pin line and you will be able to manually set the black line accurately along the factory graphics edge setting it up against the new carbon fiber edge sealing the edge. When this is done slice the front hood seam directly down the center of the gap. Dry and set the edge and then seal these edges in the same way outlined in paragraph 9 to complete the installation.

VERY IMPORTANT: Your new graphic application should not be washed in any way for at least two days. After this time you should be able to wash and wax the entire car normally although pressure washing is NOT recommended.

 

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