I'm still planning out my next install and want to step up the look of things and go with vinyl. I don't know anything about vinyl though.

The look of the install is going to be an mdf floor and walls of mdf, kinda like the ones you see in the magazines. I'm going to have a little amp rack too.

Just wondering how to hide seams for starters? Also wondering how to cover just straight pieces of mdf. Also wondering how hard corners are. Any general tips would be appreciated, because like I say I don't know jack. Any advice or warnings would be appreciated.

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Surface preparation is the most important step, everything under the vinyl will show through so take extra care in getting the pieces smooth, almost as if you were going to paint them.

Heat is your friend, use a heat gun to get the material to do what you want it to. When covering sharp corners, you'll need to convince the vinyl to wrap without wrinkles. Another thing that will help is to round or chamfer the corners, this will make the transition aroud the edge of your panels less of a hurdle, due to the lower profile.

Take a look at the installs on my site, it will give you some ideas of what you can do with vinyl, and if you have specific questions, post again and I'll try to help.
L8,
Mike

How do you adhere the vinyl to the mdf? Is there some glue involved or is it just staples on the underside of the panels? I'm glad to hear you mention the prep work because that's something I would have overlooked or skimped on.

I'm still kinda not sure of how to do the side walls in the trunk. How do I secure the mdf to under the lip of the trunk? I'm planning on having a mdf floor across the whole trunk to screw into as a base or platform to build the rest on. I can work out some 1x1 inch border around the bottom for the side walls, but the top part is still a mystery to me, not really sure what there is to screw into up there, without screwing out of the sheet metal of the car, hope some of that made some sense. I have some fiberglass exposure, but it's minimal at this point. Also do you build it first and then vinyl it once it's been built or do you vinyl it panel by panel or something? I'm really new to this so I have a lot of simple sounding questions. Just trying to figure out exactly what I'm getting into before I jump into this install.

Thanks in advance for any help and tips you can offer. I'm going to cruze the archives to see if I can educate myself in the meantime.--ward

Contact cement: Contact cement is typically applied to both the vinyl and the surface that it is being applied to. Whether your project surace is MDF or fiberglass, application of adhesive and vinyl is the same. 3M makes a line of commercially available spray contact cements, the Super 77 and Super 90 are both adequate for use in the vinyl covering process. DAP makes a couple of adhesives that will work as well, the are typically available in quart to 5 gallon containers, and require the use of either a spray gun or roller. In any case, which ever adhesive you decide to use follow the instructions on the container, they usually vary from brand to brand and are specific to the brand and type.

Staples: Staples need to be used whenever you have to stretch the vinyl into shape, or when ever the vinyl covered parts will be exposed to heat extremes, like inthe trunk of a vehicle, especially during the summer months. When vinyled parts are heated the contact cement can begin to release, so it is best to staple all overlapping vinyl to the back side of your panels.

As for how to meet with the trunk edges and walls, the best way to approach this is to build a skeleton frame out of 2 x 2's, then attach flat panels to the skeleton to make the transition between the floor and the side walls or trunk edge. Make sketch of the trunk and what you want it to look like when you're done, then start trimming pieces of cardboard into panels to fill the voids between enclosures, walls, and other components of your system and vehicle.

If you have more questions let me know, if you need ideas, I'm pretty sure that I can help there as well.

L8,
Mike

As for the trunk deal with the 2x2's I can see screwing 2x2's into the floor, but how do you do it on the top? it looks like the only sheetmetal on the top that would be parallel from where I could screw a 2x2 in the floor would be sheetmetal that is also the outside of the car, you know what I'm saying? Seems like if you drilled into it you'd have screws sticking outside of the car.

I do like the frame idea and figured it would come down to that, just couldn't figure out how. Laying out the cardboard is a good idea which I've never done before, but is definitely worth the time. I have a hard time visualizing some things.

You could mount the crossover in one of the side panels, maybe make a plexiglas window with an etched logo to cover it.

As far as how to mount the upper 2x2 supports, liquid nails, fiberglass, PL200, silicon... any of those will hold the pieces in place. Another thing to try is placing a screw through the trunk lip from the top side down into the 2x2. You can pull the weather seal off and place the screw under the rubber seal where it won't be seen. Before you replace the seal,put a dab of silicon over the screw head, this will keep the trunk nice and dry when it rains.

If you need more help,
let me know.

L8,
Mike