Wrapping

[Bravo73]

No, I'm not talking about the Run DMC variety. And before George has an aneurysm, no, I'm not talking about matt black, white, gold, lambo green or anything else of that ilk.

Let me explain. When I was looking for my V8 Vantage, I was ideally after one of the 'traditional Aston Martin' lighter green colours. Such as AM Green, AM Racing Green or even California Sage green. However, as we know, these colours are as rare as rocking horse doodoo on the V8V. So I ended up 'settling' for Meteorite Silver.

Now, as lovely as Meteorite Silver is, I've still kind of hankered after a lighter green car. So much so, that when I saw that Little Donkey was chopping in his California Sage car for a V12V, I tried to see if we could arrange some sort of swap deal first. LD was up for it but the car was essentially already in the hands of Grange Brentwood. And the price to change that Grange wanted (for what were essentially very similar cars)? £6000! The greedy shysters.

So, I'm now entertaining the idea of getting my car wrapped in a light green colour. I don't want anything bright or lurid, just a nice, traditional OEM colour. Has anybody had this done to their car? Or could recommend somewhere to go? (I spend most of my time either in London or Norfolk so this part of the world would be ideal).

(Oh, the thought of someone cutting vinyl off my car with a scalpel brings me out in a cold sweat so no cowboys, please - obviously!)

[outofstepuk]

isn't a decent wrap between £2-3k? Almost half way to the £6k, so if they'd come down a bit you'd have the car you wanted, rather than a wrap you'd probably end up taking of to sell, or would need re-doing over time.

[jeremydb9]

My assumption whenever I see a wrapped car advertised is that it has a history of some sort - accident, poor repair, other paint damage that is being hidden. If you Google removing it you will see that generally it is OK, but if a car has had a bit of paint then there is some fair chance that it could remove the topcoat.

I think it has its place but on an Aston? Not personally.

My dad was in the motor trade. Mum always had green cars ... considered unlucky so they never sold!

http://www.autocar.co.uk/forum/any-other-business/...

[RichB]

Presumably they can't wrap the engine bay, inside bonnet lid, boot, door pillars etc.? Must look ste and would drive me mad every time I lifted the bonnet.

[Beoon]

There was a V8 Vantage for sale when I was looking for mine.
The seller had it resprayed black at Aston Martin works and I think he said that it cost £5K

[Little Donkey]

Beoon said:

There was a V8 Vantage for sale when I was looking for mine.
The seller had it resprayed black at Aston Martin works and I think he said that it cost £5K

Works quoted me £4,200.00 to blow in the front bumper and bonnet. £5k for the entire car is a bit optimistic.

[Lunablack]

I don't know anything about wrapping, but this is the reason I will not compromise on the 4.7 I'm looking for....
It has to be the right spec, or I just won't bother...

Out of 100 or so coupes on PH at the moment only around 10 are not some form of silver, grey or black..

[George29]

I'm sure there are places that can colour match a wrap. Would look great in California Sage. Hardley Green looks fantastic too.

Only problem I have with wraps is it's always quite obvious when a car is wrapped not painted. They just seem to lack the depth of really nice paint such as Astons. Make sure you get the door sills etc done too, it looks stupid when someone opens a car that's one colour with the other colour exposed underneath!

[RichB]

George29 said:

I'm sure there are places that can colour match a wrap. Would look great in California Sage. Hardley Green looks fantastic too.

Only problem I have with wraps is it's always quite obvious when a car is wrapped not painted. They just seem to lack the depth of really nice paint such as Astons. Make sure you get the door sills etc done too, it looks stupid when someone opens a car that's one colour with the other colour exposed underneath!

But as I said, do they do the engine bay?

[George29]

RichB said:

But as I said, do they do the engine bay?

Doubt it! Never had a wrap done so wouldn't know though

[Gibberish]

RichB said:

Presumably they can't wrap the engine bay, inside bonnet lid, boot, door pillars etc.? Must look ste and would drive me mad every time I lifted the bonnet.

The engine bay is not a problem on the later Gaydon cars; it isn’t painted.

If it was a colour change to a rarer colour, or it made the car your ‘ideal spec’, I’d get it painted.

But it would have to be a top job, no short cuts and picture documented, to prove no spurious reason for the colour change.

Wrapping is always a poor second, to a real paint finish.

[Shmee]

Time for me to jump in, albeit not on my Aston but my R8. I wanted a purple R8 having seen one for sale but the dealership in question wanted £10k over a better spec'd blue one, easy decision there!

So I went to get it wrapped and I'm not joking it looks so good. Nobody knows that it's wrapped until I tell them, you can now get materials that look almost as good as paint too.

My wrap was done by KIK Customs in Basildon, who have now done about 3 of my friend's cars too - every one has been done to the absolute top quality. The trick in this game is to go to somebody that actually cares, you get big companies that churn out wraps in 2 days but they will be poorly cut, not settled properly, the prep work not completed accurately and so on. Don't be put off by somebody who says 3 or 4 days as it just means they will look after it and do it properly and at the end of the day you want it to last.

When it comes to price, it won't be as much as people above have suggested, if you can find a stock colour that's out there (and believe me there are thousands of samples) it should come in under £2k I'd guess. I'd be happy to put you in touch with Paul if you're interested, or even answer any other wrap related questions I can, but now I've done it once I'll be buying all my cars in boring resale colours and doing them how I want.

[michael gould]

Little Donkey said:

Beoon said:

There was a V8 Vantage for sale when I was looking for mine.
The seller had it resprayed black at Aston Martin works and I think he said that it cost £5K

Works quoted me £4,200.00 to blow in the front bumper and bonnet. £5k for the entire car is a bit optimistic.

For £4200 I would want more " blown" than the bonnet and front bumper !

[RichB]

Aside from understanding that the engine bay of a V8V isn't painted what about the boot, under bonnet lid etc. surely that can't be wrapped, doesn't that bother you?

[Little Donkey]

michael gould said:

Little Donkey said:

Beoon said:

There was a V8 Vantage for sale when I was looking for mine.
The seller had it resprayed black at Aston Martin works and I think he said that it cost £5K

Works quoted me £4,200.00 to blow in the front bumper and bonnet. £5k for the entire car is a bit optimistic.

For £4200 I would want more " blown" than the bonnet and front bumper !

Absolutely, never said I accepted their quote.

[Shmee]

RichB said:

Aside from understanding that the engine bay of a V8V isn't painted what about the boot, under bonnet lid etc. surely that can't be wrapped, doesn't that bother you?

You could wrap inside anywhere you wanted to, but why you'd bother beats me.

[RichB]

Oh, whenever I've had cars that have been resprayed colour change it always irritates that the engine bay is blue when the car is red etc.

[George29]

Shmee said:

You could wrap inside anywhere you wanted to, but why you'd bother beats me.

Because it looks stupid having two tone paint when you open the door etc!

[Shmee]

George29 said:

Shmee said:

You could wrap inside anywhere you wanted to, but why you'd bother beats me.

Because it looks stupid having two tone paint when you open the door etc!

He asked about under the bonnet, doors are different because you see that all the time. Even with the bonnet up you don't really see much of the underside (in the shadows anyway).

[Bravo73]

Hello Schmee,

Thanks for your input. I was going to post this anyway:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjrhHer-pf8