As a sort of journaling exercise, I'm going to post the mistakes I made here for future reference.
1) Humidity was too low. I thought this would be a good thing. The manufacturer recommended humidity at less than 70 percent. However, humidity was less than 30 percent when I applied the product, so it dried way too fast creating issues when removing the tape. As this product is designed to be removable, you have to remove the tape before it dries. I ended up having to trace around with a blade to cut through the puddle at the bottom (see mistake #3) to get a clean edge when removing the tape. Longer dry time (i.e., not bone dry air) is better with with product.
2) Applied the tape layers backwards. I started with the tape job around the shark fin and then fanned it out to the plastic drape. I should have gone the other way so that I could more easily pull the drape away and then work on the tape work around the edges. Or start removing that tape work first. The drape should have also been cut away instead of a hole in the middle, again, for ease and safety in removing while the fin was still wet.
3) Taking questionable manufacturer's directions as gospel. The can said you can continuously recoat this stuff without wait times. Apply 4-6 coats. So, I did six coats in quick succession, never even letting the product flash out. It worked, but there was a LOT of product pooled at the bottom on my tape lines. Next time, I will wait longer between coats. Might even remove and re-tape between coats.
4) Going crazy with draping. This goes back to mistake #2, and isn't really a mistake, just a waste of time and materials. The product is like a removable rubber. If you overspray onto the car metal, it'll just wipe right off with a microfiber towel. And if the spray travels through the air for more than 12 inches or so, it basically turns into tiny rubber dust balls that don't even stick to the paint.
5) Lighting, This stuff is GLOSSY and the lighting in my garage was poor. It was hard to see where the edge of the shark fin was (and this also goes back to mistake #3 with the excessive amount of product pooled at the bottom). I'll just do it outside next time. It dries so fast that the threat of a leaf falling on it or something is a short window.
6) Get better tape. The crap I bought on Amazon that I thought would be good turned out to be garbage, and failed in many ways. Oddly, it stretches to make an outside curve really nice, but not an inside curve (where you need it). It also ripped unexpectedly in ways you don't want when removing, like tearing in half and leaving bits under the edge of the fin. Maybe the product degraded it? Need a more-expensive plasticized detailer's tape, or even a cut line tape.
Even with all those problems the product lays down pretty nice. Lightly rubbing it with a rag and/or a Q-tip wetted with diluted alcohol seems to have relaxed the product a bit, smoothing out defects.
After a few days, I'll apply some tire shine protectant.
Wait... in order to avoid another mistake, I'll just paint some piece of throwaway metal and try the tire shine to make sure that doesn't do anything unexpected. I'll test some wax products, too.
