Full car wraps, what's your experience?

[Daston]

Hi guys

I have come to the conclusion that trying to find a car in the right condition and colour is going to be rather tricky.

So I had a thought about wrapping. Has anyone on here had their full car done? If so what are your thoughts? My worries are things like stone chips, rips and pressure washing.

So how do you guys find it? Easy to live with or a pain in the arse?

[andy-xr]

Interested in this as well, my kit car has a load of stonechips on the front valance and I'll never get a paint match so considering a wrap. There's a company near to me offering dips for £250, but I havent really looked into it any further

[ChasW]

I have no direct experience but discovered that it's commonplace in Germany. Many of the light yellow taxis are wrapped. The last taxi driver I used explained that he buys a new silver E Class diesel every year, gets it wrapped in the taxi colour for about 1100 Euros and puts seat covers on too. Runs it for a year and sells it on the Greece or Eastern Europe. Certainly sounds like wrapping done properly is a reliable process. Also 3M are one of the producers of the material and, as a rule, they don't produce bum products.

[barker22]

I speak as an ex vehicle wrapper....I still dabble in wraps but not on the frequency I used to.

It all depends what you want from the wrap so some facts to consider.

It will not look like paint!
There will always be original paint showing in 'gap' areas.
If you have a bright red car and want a bright yellow wrap, up close in gaps it will look crap if you are a perfectionist. Also all the door shuts will be the original colour.
It does protect the original paint well(provided it isn't peeling) as it may pull it off on removal.
Jet washing the main wrap should be fine, just be careful of the edges, preferably use a hand wash and hose to rinse.
It is easy to replace a damaged section. Drive in and out for a bonnet in 45mins/ 1 hour in some cases.
It is cheaper than painting, it is quicker than painting.
Bird crap needs to be dealt with sooner rather than later
Look for someone who uses 3M material. It is the best stuff.

And the most important thing......take it somewhere reputable. A local sign company that will do it for a few hundred quid is not somewhere you want to go.

[robinessex]

I saw a Porsche Cayenne that had been done in Carbon wrap. Up close, you could see faults. The most disconcerting, ignoring the application faults, was the effects that stones seem to have. Each stone hit was a small crater in the wrap, it had lifted, and almost certainly was going to get worse. I had no idea how long this had been on this particular car, I'm guessing a few years down the line, it'll look bad, and need re-doing.

[Daston]

I am looking at RX7's so there really isnt too much to wrap as they are pretty small. The vast majority of them seem to be either black or silver and neither colour fills me with joy .

We have agreed that if we can find a decent one we will have it wrapped or sprayed in Red depending on the budget left over.

Good point on the shutlines, wonder how that would effect the pop up lights as well.

Plan B would be for me to rub the car down and do as much prep work as I can for a respray, however not many body shops like you doing that.

[gfunk]

You can't hide stuff with a wrap if you have stone chips they will show marks under the wrap.

[gfunk]

You can't hide stuff with a wrap if you have stone chips they will show marks under the wrap.

[gfunk]

You can't hide stuff with a wrap if you have stone chips they will show marks under the wrap.

[gfunk]

You can't hide stuff with a wrap if you have stone chips they will show marks under the wrap.