Vinyl wrap

[Greg Potrast]

Has anyone wrapped their car instead of paint? If so how did it come out, any pictures ?  Thanks 

 

[turtle5353]

My nephew wrapped his car, it turned out really nice.  I was thinking of doing my car in a wrap till I can get it painted. 

Ford Focus SVT around 500HP. He's done some work to this thing lol!!! 

 

[Greg Potrast]

Thanks, that is what I was thinking of doing.

 

[Galucha]

I wrapped my daily driver. I'm pleased with how it turned out, but it definitely took more time and patience than I anticipated. Make sure you buy at least 20% more than you think you'll need and go with one of the name brands like 3M or Avery. 

 

[73FastBk]

I wrapped my daily driver. I'm pleased with how it turned out, but it definitely took more time and patience than I anticipated. Make sure you buy at least 20% more than you think you'll need and go with one of the name brands like 3M or Avery. 

View attachment 49446

How much did the material cost you? Definitely want to do this until I can shed 6-7k on a paint job 

 

[Galucha]

How much did the material cost you? Definitely want to do this until I can shed 6-7k on a paint job 

The vinyl itself was about $650 in total. I think I used about 225 sq ft. Squeegees, heat gun, and a roll of knifeless tape was cheap - maybe $50.

 

[TheDude]

Since the day I got my car I had fully planned on wrapping it as I've done other cars and I knew it was a fast quick way to get the car looking really good. Body work it like you are going to paint then wrap. The right wrap and color can actually hide some crimes and even things out a lot along with just looking great. 

The problem I had though was that the old paint on my car was in such bad shape that it would lift when applying the wrap. When you lay the wrap, you need to stick it to the car and lift it over and over to get it to lay down clean. Since the old paint was in such bad shape little spots would peel up and stick to the back of the wrap. As soon as that happens that sheet of wrap is done as there's no way to fix a paint chip stuck to the back. And of course then the paint is messed up and needs to be feathered, primed and evened out only to have another spot elsewhere on the panel do the same thing the next time. 

I went over and over several panels prepping and priming and things would look good and solid, then run into another spot where the previous paint wouldn't adhere and more wrap wasted and then have to start over with body work as now I had uneven paint. So after wrapping several panels over weeks I finally gave up as it just wasn't going to happen without stripping the old paint completely which was way more work than I was prepared to do. 

A lot of wrapping places won't touch old cars or cars that have been repainted for this and other reasons. So I still like the idea, but you really need to have solid paint to do this, and it can be tough to know if your paint will work out until you actually start doing big panels. 

 

[Galucha]

Since the day I got my car I had fully planned on wrapping it as I've done other cars and I knew it was a fast quick way to get the car looking really good. Body work it like you are going to paint then wrap. The right wrap and color can actually hide some crimes and even things out a lot along with just looking great. 

The problem I had though was that the old paint on my car was in such bad shape that it would lift when applying the wrap. When you lay the wrap, you need to stick it to the car and lift it over and over to get it to lay down clean. Since the old paint was in such bad shape little spots would peel up and stick to the back of the wrap. As soon as that happens that sheet of wrap is done as there's no way to fix a paint chip stuck to the back. And of course then the paint is messed up and needs to be feathered, primed and evened out only to have another spot elsewhere on the panel do the same thing the next time. 

I went over and over several panels prepping and priming and things would look good and solid, then run into another spot where the previous paint wouldn't adhere and more wrap wasted and then have to start over with body work as now I had uneven paint. So after wrapping several panels over weeks I finally gave up as it just wasn't going to happen without stripping the old paint completely which was way more work than I was prepared to do. 

A lot of wrapping places won't touch old cars or cars that have been repainted for this and other reasons. So I still like the idea, but you really need to have solid paint to do this, and it can be tough to know if your paint will work out until you actually start doing big panels. 

That's a really good point. If your clear coat isn't in great shape, it will lift off when you eventually remove the wrap. The big enemy is UV light. If you let your wrapped car sit outside with no UV protection (i.e. sealants or ceramic coatings) for long periods of time, it will "bake" the wrap onto the paint and make it alot more likely to take the paint with it.

 

[73FastBk]

The vinyl itself was about $650 in total. I think I used about 225 sq ft. Squeegees, heat gun, and a roll of knifeless tape was cheap - maybe $50.

Dang that’s amazing. I know it takes a lot of patience and more than one person to do it. Thank you for the info! You’ve definitely sparked my interest

 

[Carolina_Mountain_Mustangs]

When i lived in China the rich people over there loved to wrap their cars. They would change every couple months to another color. You would see chrome ones, Gold chrome they loved to show they had money. I did not realize it was that expensive.

 

[TheDude]

That's a really good point. If your clear coat isn't in great shape, it will lift off when you eventually remove the wrap. The big enemy is UV light. If you let your wrapped car sit outside with no UV protection (i.e. sealants or ceramic coatings) for long periods of time, it will "bake" the wrap onto the paint and make it alot more likely to take the paint with it.

For this car it wasn't the clear coat, but the paint itself. The car had been repainted a couple of times over it's life. Those old paint jobs didn't adhere to the previous coat as well as factory factory paint. So when you apply what amounts to a giant super sticky sticker to it then pull it off over and over again pain that otherwise seemed OK other than having a lousy finish would peel up. It really was a nightmare after spending ages getting a door or fender just perfect, then after a couple hours and almost done with wrapping a panel and it's looking great, suddenly a 3" chunk will just pull off. Now peel the rest of the vinyl off and of course when I do that more paint comes with it and now the door is worse than when I started body working it.

I've now done a driveway paintjob and it's OK for now, but not great obviously. There's this part of me that's saying well I just applied several coats of paint and 2K clear, surely It will stick good enough to get it wrapped. As much as I want to, not going to try that as that's just a can of worms if it doesn't go right.    

 

[Carolina_Mountain_Mustangs]

I know how you feel about the clear. Look at how many factory paint jobs you see with the sun burnt peeling look. If you do at home for sure not as good. I have a VW beetle vert that a friend had. She never drove it and was going to trade in on a Toyota. So I told her to let me know what they offered and that was $1,800 for a car that had never been crashed with like 80,000 miles. So I bought it. Where it sat in car port the sun hit one front fender and not the other. The clear coat is all peeling where the sun hit and the remainder of the paint is like new. Clear does not like UV. Did not back in the lacquer days either.