Wrapping advice.
Hi all, a bit of advice on wrapping from a vehicle wrapper.
Carbon fibre exterior wraps should be thought about carefully. We currently have some on our van. Most importantly, the textured effect is difficult to keep clean,
black is not to bad, but colours are a nightmare. We had red and yellow carbon and it only ever looked good after a really thorough clean - be aware. I would never advise the use of silver or white carbon to wrap a car. The best colours by far for wrapping are the metalics. They are like paint. Gloss black will never look as good as metalic black paint. 3M 1080, Hexis 30000 and 20000, Avery supreme wrap. These are good wrapping vinyls from £15 - £30 per linear metre by 1.5m wide.
They all have easy apply technology for bubble free application, but this technology aids rather than making wrapping a simple job for anyone. If I wrap a vehicle on my own, I would expect to do it in 3 days, with an hours help from someone on the roof and and an hours help for each bumper.
Price guide. We are wrapping a Porsche in a couple of weeks. The material costs to customer is £500 (Candy metalic red) and £1100 labour.
Price should only really reflect materials cost, as most car wraps (within reason) should be about labour. 2-3 good wrappers will do it in 1 - 1 and a half days
1 wrapper 3 days etc. Standard colours from £15 per metre to stupidly expensive chrome at around £100 per metre.
I would give a customer a discount if they had door handles logos and trims pre removed, as it saves me plenty of time removing and re installing so I pass the
saving of this time on to the customer.
Pros and Cons
Pros - Changing colour does NOT need recording on your log book.
A 350z in a metalic wrap would be approx £1500 (I don't know how much a good respray is.)
Keeping some spare material means is someone scratches or keys it, you have the material on hand
Good paintwork underneath remains good if you want to sell it in original condition.
Cons - Wraps don't go all the way inside places like engine bays etc.
Some original colours would remain on the inside
Wrapping does not generally involve prep work, it will cover stone chips, but not hide them completely
Matt black, gloss black, chrome etc show them up more.
Wraps are good, but a perfect wrap will still never be as good as a perfect respray and lacquer.
