Posts Tagged ‘howto’

DIY Guide: Carbon Fiber Vinyl for The HTC EVO 4G

This guide was written by one of our customers, Sterling.  Sterling offers installation services where you can mail your battery cover or phone to him and he will wrap it with DI-NOC.  At the time of this writing, he will do any phone for $20, including return S&H.  You can contact him at hrshycro [at] gmail.com.\r\n

What You’ll Need

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  • 4×6 inch piece of 3M DI-NOC (which you can of course order from us here at Carbon Fiber Film for just $8 shipped)
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  • X-acto knife with sharp blade
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  • Cutting surface
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  • Hair dryer
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  • About 30 minutes of time
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DIY Steps

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  1. Order an $8 sample size from carbonfiberfilm.com, which includes free shipping.
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  3. Find a piece of firm/thin cardboard (like the type from a cereal box), or other similar cutting surface.
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  5. Remove the battery cover and set the phone aside.
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  7. Make sure the battery cover is clean and free of any grease or dirt.
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  9. Align the vinyl with the case, remove the backing and then place it on as smoothly as you can.  You can use a credit card to smooth any bubbles out, if needed.
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  11. Turn the hair dryer on low and proceed to slowly and evenly heat the vinyl, whilst doing so, smooth it outwards with your thumb and down around all the edges.  If the heat is to hot for your hands, then it’s hot enough for the vinyl.
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  13. Take your x-acto knife and use the battery case as your guide.  Go slowly and make sure of where you’re cutting before you cut, hopefully preventing any miscuts or scratches to the battery cover.  Rough cut any extra vinyl around the outer edges of battery cover from the back to the front.  Then, from the front to the back fine cut it to fit the edges of the battery cover.
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  15. The camera and flash holes are pretty easy.  Start by cutting a smaller rough circle in them, then using the type of your blade, just follow the edges of the battery case holes trimming the excess away.  Use the same idea for the kick stand.
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  17. After that, re-heat shrink it and make sure it’s sealed down good around all the edges.  Re-trim any excess.
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  19. Punching the holes for the speaker is easy.  Just fine a sowing needle that’s just large enough to be pushed/pulled all the way though the larger holes.  Personally, I would just do the larger holes.  These may have to be redone down the road because pocket heat and normal usage seems to close some of them back up.
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HTC Evo 4G with carbon fiber DI-NOC vinyl installed on it

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HTC Evo 4G with carbon fiber DI-NOC vinyl installed on it

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HTC Evo 4G with carbon fiber DI-NOC vinyl installed on it

Video: How To Splice and Extend DI-NOC To Make It Wider

One of the complaints we’ve had with the 3M DI-NOC is that it only comes in a maximum width of 48 inces, or 4 feet. While it’s not possible to get wider material, there is a method called splicing which you can use to connect two pieces together while minimizing the seam in-between. In the below video we show you how best to use this method, as it’s very simple to do:\r\n\r\n

Video: How To Wrap Your Light Switch Plates With 3M’s Carbon Fiber Vinyl

One of the first projects we did with 3M’s carbon fiber DI-NOC material was cover our light switch plates.  It’s a simple part to wrap, it’s good practice, it doesn’t take very much material, and it looks amazing:\r\n\r\n

\r\n\r\nWe’ve seen a few of our customers do the same thing, so to help you guys out we’ve created a little video which shows you how we installed it:\r\n\r\n

\r\n\r\nHere’s a couple pictures so you can see how it turned out:\r\n\r\n

\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nIf you have any questions, don’t hesitate to post in the comments or get in touch with us.