Hood Step by Step Guide
Prepping your Hood
Before we get started, make sure your vehicle was washed. If it hasn’t been washed, please watch the Prepping Your Vehicle module before continuing on.
If you haven’t, make sure you have your Slip and Tack solution mixed. It’s recommended to fill your Slip solution for every section of the vehicle so you don’t run out in the middle of a section.
Open your hood and place your slip solution container under the latch to lift the hood. Spray slip solution all over the hood. We’re going to ensure that all contaminants are off the surface. Using your #3 squeegee, glide gently from top to bottom. Now, you’re ready to place the material.
Placing the Material
Remove the sticker holding the roll but don’t unravel the hood all the way. Unravel it roughly 12 inches to reveal the orientation of the hood. Depending on which side you’ll start on, spray slip solution on the hood EXCEPT the corner of where you’ll be starting on. Leave roughly about 12 inches unsprayed. Be generous with your slip solution as it’s best to have enough so it can slide around the hood.
Spray your hands with slip solution to make sure you don’t have any dirt on your hands. On the table, peel the corner of the hood roughly 12 inches out. Place the peeled PPF on the corner. It should stick aggressively on the surface of the vehicle. Once placed, spray slip all over the hood again and position yourself so you can unravel the rest of the piece. When unraveling, make sure that there are no creases and evenly unravel it with two hands. Once you get to the end, discard the backing paper in trash. Go back to the corner where you started where it was sticking and peel up and spray slip solution underneath. Check all four quadrants of the hood and shimmy shimmy with the palm of your hand to make sure it is gliding. If it isn’t gliding, spray more slip solution underneath. Once you have checked all four quadrants, spray the top of the film as well. This will help your squeegee glide through the material. We’re ready to install the hood.
Installation
Before you get started, double check that the material has enough Slip solution underneath by moving it with the palm of your hand. If it’s not moving freely, spray more slip solution underneath. Align one corner first. The margins should look something like this. Do the same for the other side. Align the logo and make sure the margins around the logos are even. Once you have all three loosely aligned, we’re going to start by aligning the left corner of the hood. Double check your alignment and once you have it aligned, hold the base of the corner so it doesn’t move. Peel and spray Tack solution. A couple spray should be good. Lay the film back down and after ensuring that it’s still aligned, squeegee the corner outwards. We’re going to the do same for the other side.
After you complete the other side, we’ll double check again if you have enough slip solution underneath the film. If you feel that it’s not moving in the middle, spray slip solution underneath.
Next, let’s align the logo. Using both hands, move the material down from the middle of the hood until the logo is aligned. You may have to bring it down slightly. This will help make sure you don’t have too much material at the top.
Make sure that the margins around the logo are consistent. Once you feel comfortable with the alignment, peel the logo section and spray Tack solution underneath. Squeegee towards the logo to get moisture out into the cutout. The area around the logo should now be tacked.
Keep in mind that once you tack an area, you don’t want to bring your squeegee back to the area. Since that area is tacked much more aggressively, slip solution underneath will have a harder time traveling through that path which may end up getting stuck and create bubbles that may be difficult to remove later.
Mist the top of the hood again with slip solution. This makes sure we have enough “slip” when we squeegee the hood and prevents dragging the material.
We’re going to split the hood into four quadrants.
Starting from where you tacked the logo, squeegee straight up the middle all the way to the edge of the hood using the push method. When squeegeeing, try to keep your squeegee as flat as possible and most contact with the surface.
Next, squeegee from the middle of the hood and out the left side of the hood using the pull method. Do the same for the right side of the hood.
We’ll start with the top left quadrant. While overlapping each stroke, squeegee the water from the middle out the side of the hood. Remember not to move the slip solution towards the top corner since it’s already tacked.
Squeegee away from the tacked corner and squeegee towards the top of the hood to get the slip solution out. Make sure you’re overlapping your strokes.
We’ll work on the bottom left quadrant now. Starting from the middle, squeegee from the middle of the hood and out the left side of the hood using the pull method.
While watching your relief cut alignment, squeegee out the water on an angle towards the to get the rest of the slip solution out.
We’re going to the same steps for the other side.
Spray slip solution on top of the surface of the hood and repeat the steps again from 4 to 10. This ensures that you didn’t miss an area and no bubbles are left behind.
Using a microfiber, wipe down the hood but not the edges. Inspect your work and check for bubbles and dirt.
Bubbles: It is common for some bubbles to be there. Anything bigger than a nickel must be removed. Anything smaller will dissipate over time so it’s best not to touch those. If it hasn’t settled for too long, you should be able to squeegee it out. Just make sure you follow the same paths in the workbook and not towards a tack point. Make sure you spray on top of the surface to lubricate the surface so it can glide better. If it doesn’t come out, you can grab a #3 squeegee and use more force and quickly squeegee the section using the pull method. If that doesn’t work and it’s a large bubble, lift the film, spray a lot of slip solution into that area and squeegee it back down. When lifting the film, you should lift it 1-2 inches past where the bubble was.
Dirt: Due to the static, sometimes dirt can be underneath the film. If you want to remove it, lift the film and spray slip solution into the area. The best way to remove it is to do so without touching the film. Turn the nozzle counter clockwise to active stream mode. Using the stream mode, spray into the dirt and let it slide down. Inspect and repeat. If that doesn’t work, you can use the #2 squeegee and try to get it with the tip. You must make sure you have excess amount of slip solution when removing dirt. Once you remove the dirt, squeegee it back down the same way.
Once you’re happy with your work, spray the top edges of the hood again. Squeegee the edges towards to get rid of any lingering slip solution. Then, spray Tack solution to seal the edges. Using your #3 squeegee, squeegee out all the edges but roll over the edges slightly. Don’t worry about folding over the edges just yet as it needs to dry before we do that. The focus here is to make sure there isn’t any bubbles on the edges of the hood. Do the same for the top edges. Wipe down the top of the edges and inspect to make sure there are no bubbles left behind.
We’re going to let the edges dry but we want to make sure all slip solution is flushed out. Using your Tack sprayer, spray all the edges from the top corner to the bottom part of the hood. Do the same for the top edge as well. Go ahead and open up your hood all the way to let it dry.
We recommend letting it dry for 1-2 hours and you can move on to the next piece.
Once it’s completely dry, wrap your thumb with a clean microfiber and starting from the top corner, fold the edges in by pushing it down with your thumb. Push the down the edges all the way to the relief cut. Do the same for the other side first, then fold over the edges on the bottom edges. Lastly, fold over the edges on the top edges to full seal the hood.