Vinyl Color wraps for cars?

[yank]

Does any one know a firm that does the vinyl wraps? and any sort of idea of cost? Want to change my 993 to orange,,, blame Vic "Agent orange"

[Agent Orange]

Mention the devil and all that , strongly recommend u contact Mel Spear before wrapping anything , he has just had a total mare with the process used on his cup car NOT KIDDING !

[OllieW]

Be very careful when considering having your vehicle wrapped in vinyl as the removal process can damage the gel coat/paint surface even though most wrappers use a low/medium tack vinyl.

We have not wrapped a whole car or van before, but have done enough of the stuff to know that we would not recommend it on a car of (fairly) high value.

Adding smaller graphics (logos etc) is not too bad as the area is fairly localised and any paint difference can usually be balanced out with polishing after the vinyl has been removed.

If you want a price though give me a shout.

Cheers

Ollie

[vpr]

Now there's a funny thing....I posted the same question about 6 months ago. I wanted my 996TT covered orange too.

I saw a MB CL which was done in yellow and it looked fantastic in terms of coverage.

Someone gave me an indication that it might cost a couple of bags for a total wrap.

Would be interested to know how you get on. I guess your paintwork would have to be pimple free before hand.

[Racing Rod]

Had my 996GT3 Cup car done by Signs Express, Reading branch, see link below and then click on their logo. If you want more details mail me and I'll pass on contact details, great job, NO nasty cock ups, took about 6 hours, can't give you a price as they sponsor me


www.hawthornsmotorsport.co.uk/

[OllieW]

On average a vehicle wrap costs approx £1500-£1600 for a medium sized car, this is for a fully wrapped car using a 3-5 year outdoor vinyl. You can of course wrap sections of a car, such as bonnet, roof etc and we have some carbon fibre effect vinyl which would look really cool for these areas.

As for paint surface and damage, the smoother the surface the better and remember if you have stone chips etc you run the risk of the vinyl peeling more paint off when you remove it, but if you take your time you should be ok.

[rick111s]

OllieW - i doubt carbon fibre would conform to the contours of a bonnet and i have never found a supplier of carbon in more then 610mm so you would end up with over laps. do you know of a 1220mm carbon fibre?

general -
If the paintwork is fine then wrapping is not a problem and the prices above are more or less correct depending on vehicle type etc. Alot of the potential problems can be caused by the fitter. if he cuts to deep then this will cause damage but if there are trained correctly and have experience then you should be fine. pay more and go to a company that know's what they are doing and uses the correct digital comformable vinyl plus a comformable laminte to protect the print. The extra you pay to ensure a good wrap is worth the end result so many wraps have great designs to be spoit by the fitter. If you just want a colour change then remember that most firms will not wrap any recess past what you can see when the panel is closed. so you will still have parts of the old colour on show when you open the boot or door etc. There are lots of firms that can wrap and they do but not many have ever had any form of traning so the standard on a wrap really does vary..

best of luck..

rick

[OllieW]

Hi Rick

The material I am talking about is a printed cast vinyl film with a carbon fibre pattern printed to the face of it. Looks great but is very tricky to fit as it is a lot thinner than a normal, everyday piece of film.

Looks great, but I wonder how durable it would be on a car due to its lack of thickness.

Cheers

Ollie

[doctorpepper]

There was a post on here many moons ago about total vinyl covers. Someone had a 996GT2 that was Matt Black. I think Cargraphic did the job on it... there were also a raft of other 911 photos including a 996 in "camoflage" IIRC...

[rick111s]

OllieW said:

Hi Rick The material I am talking about is a printed cast vinyl film with a carbon fibre pattern printed to the face of it. Looks great but is very tricky to fit as it is a lot thinner than a normal, everyday piece of film. Looks great, but I wonder how durable it would be on a car due to its lack of thickness. Cheers Ollie

isn't it a 3 year life?

all the carbon fibre we have ever had or played with has been a twin layered film in cast but hates to be heated, hard to cut and only availble in 610mm. and in my opinion not suitalble for wrapping onto a bonnet. I think the glue or even the material would fail quickly. one of our guys wanted to fit it to his bonnet but disliked the idea of the overlaps. have you managed to find it in any sizes?

[OllieW]

Hi Rick

I have just looked at the specs on our suppliers website and they claim:

>>>
Doro 7100 Carbon Fibre Effect Vinyl
Doro 7100. This is a quality cast vinyl and therefore ideal for difficult applications on vehicles where recesses and rivets are a problem.
The exterior life is 7 years.

Now available at 610 mm wide, in the lengths stated below.
>>>

Width is the issue unfortunately but useful to know that they recommend it for challenging jobs!

Cheers

[rick111s]

as i said i've never found carbon larger then 610mm sure it exists but i would still think that it's not truely conformable. you could not laminate it either unless you could find a matched lam so although the life if claimed upto 7 years on the road with stone chips i doubt it would stand up to it but could be wrong. Having had experience in both wraps and using the carbon i would not like to offer any kind of guarantee against in failing imo.

thanks

Rick

[doctorpepper]

Am i reading this wrong?...

....we're not talking about carbon fibre laminate are we? I thought Ollie was suggesting a vinyl sticker that looks like carbon fire?

There is a new mini around the corner from me that has got the roof sticker in C/F effect. Its all one piece... looks nice parked next to her husbands M3CSL.. matching colours - even the roof!

[rick111s]

doctorpepper said:

Am i reading this wrong?... ....we're not talking about carbon fibre laminate are we? I thought Ollie was suggesting a vinyl sticker that looks like carbon fire? There is a new mini around the corner from me that has got the roof sticker in C/F effect. Its all one piece... looks nice parked next to her husbands M3CSL.. matching colours - even the roof!

sorry if i've confused you. To do a wrap you need what is called conformable vinyl. This is a white digital vinyl that allows any image to be digitally printed onto it. Depending on the machine used this vinyl normally has a life of about 3 years. but because it's white underneath strong chemicals or if a branch etc scratched the image you might be able to see the white underneath. Therefore a conformable laminate is used. essentially a clear vinyl but with the same properties as the actually vinyl. This allows the vinyl and laminate to be heated and scretched to confrom to the shape of the vehicle. With a laminate on most companies will then offer an upto 7 year life depending on the nature of the wrap.

If it's a long term wrap then i would suggest using a lamainte to offer long term protection. if however it's a short term wrap say for an exhibition then a laminate is overkill.

The vinyl we were talking is a carbon fibre effect vinyl but i doubt it would look very good after 6 months on the front of a car due to stone chips. Give it a laminate and your chances of a term long application are much better.

still not as good as a proper 3m stone guard but the laminate will help.

hope this helps. ref the mini - the curves on a mini roof are alot gentler then say a mini bonnet hence if you know what you doing you could wrap it in the carbon effect vinyl if you can find it in a 1220mm width to reduce overlaps. or a sign company may have digitally printed the effect of the c/f weeve onto a normal wrap vinyl. all is was trying to say is that in my experience i would not like to wrap a car in the c/f vinyl we have seen and used and that i've never found a supplier offering it in more the 610mm widths. the whole point of a wrap would be totally shot by having all those overlaps..

rick

[Merritt]

Racing Rod said:

Had my 996GT3 Cup car done by Signs Express, Reading branch, see link below and then click on their logo. If you want more details mail me and I'll pass on contact details, great job, NO nasty cock ups, took about 6 hours, can't give you a price as they sponsor me www.hawthornsmotorsport.co.uk/

Not looking for an additional driver are they?

Steve

>> Edited by Merritt on Thursday 6th April 14:59

[Racing Rod]

Merritt said:

Racing Rod said: Had my 996GT3 Cup car done by Signs Express, Reading branch, see link below and then click on their logo. If you want more details mail me and I'll pass on contact details, great job, NO nasty cock ups, took about 6 hours, can't give you a price as they sponsor me www.hawthornsmotorsport.co.uk/ Not looking for an additional driver are they? Steve

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