This is what the roof lining of my VW T4 looked like almost two years ago when I bought the van: dull, standard, generic, grey and all round generally lame…

 
This is what it looks like now:

 

Sticker Art AKA Stickerbombing

I’ll admit stickerbombing is a bit marmite and I can see why, done well it looks awesome but done poorly it does look a bit rubbish. Personally I much prefer it on the interior than the exterior of a vehicle, on the outside the weather etc plays its toll and within a short time it can look dull and scruffy. I know you can lacquer it up to protect it, but that stops the stickerbomb being evolved and added to over time, which in my opinion is half the fun.

Don’t even get me started on the stickerbomb vinyl sheets and hydro-dipping that people are using more and more nowadays. Call me a stickerbomb purist, but you’ve got to use individual stickers and build it all up yourself, otherwise what’s the point in even bothering. Vinyl and dipping isn’t stickerbombing – it’s lies.

 

How To Sticker Bomb

The way to make stickerbombing look good, is all to do with technique. As you can see I’ve had a fair bit of practice, so here are my words of wisdom, here is my top tips for awesome sticking:

• Prep your surfaces. What ever you’re going to sticker bomb, make sure it’s clean, being totally dust and grease free. You don’t want all your stickers peeling off. Sugar soap, scrubbing brushes and sandpaper are your friends.
• Collect a huge amount of stickers. Beg, borrow and steal (not literally – that aint cool kids)
• If you are struggling to collect enough stickers you can actually buy amazing books full of awesome stickers, this is a much more cost effective method of bulking up your collection. I did this for my van’s ceiling and can report that the stickers were most excellent. Check out the original Stickerbomb Book 1, the sequel Stickerbomb Book 2 and the third in the trilogy Stickerbomb Book 3 by clicking on the links.
• You can even buy bumper packs of 150 stickers which will quickly give you enough to do some serious stickerbombing!
• Sort all your stickers into three piles. The awesome, the cool and the okay.
• You want to save all your awesome stickers till last so these are the ones on top that you can easily see.
• Start by building a good base of all your least favourite stickers.
• Then add the rest all the way till you get to the coolest ones.
• Don’t be afraid to overlap, by the end you’ll probably not be able to see most of the base layer but that’s the point.
• Put them on at all angles. It should look good from every way up.
• If you leave gaps and don’t overlap it will look rubbish, overlapping and putting them on a bit randomly is what makes it look cool. The more stickers the merrier!
• You can group colours together, on my roof i’ve got a blue, yellow, green, red and black & white patches
• If you want a sticker but can’t buy it, print it. I really wanted an Obama HOPE sticker, so I printed my own. Sticker bombing in my opinion should show off your personality, character and interests.
• Finally… Go Nuts.

 
I decided to do the beaten up, seat-back table in my VW Transporter. To do this I first removed the handle and filled the holes, cracks and scratches with body filler. You remove the table back from the chair by unscrewing two screws at the base and two on the sides (all hidden by plastic covers). I then got bombing, to cover the curves and bends (which are tricky) I chose the higher quality vinyl type stickers I had or used smaller stickers which I cut up. Trying to get a big paper sticker to go over a curved object is pretty hard, if not impossible.

 
Much better after a few stickers, right?

 
I Absolutely love stickerbombing, I like how I can keep adding stickers from my travels and it’s always evolving and getting better. It’s great for everyone who has a ride in the van to be staring at the ceiling when they first get in, trying to taking it all in. Here are some more close up photos of bits of my roof lining.

I know that fans of stickerbombing have awesome taste so I’m going to shamelessly plug a really cool brand of sunglasses called SunGod (you can see their site by clicking here) or you can read my SunGod review here. Honestly, check them out, they’re way cheaper than RayBans and Oakleys, plus they look and perform better and are way, way tougher.