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papasmurf · 07-29-2014, 02:25 PM

depending on vehicle. To do a good job (seamless as possible) you will wind up wasting some material on some vehicles. The car really needs to be spotless before it is brought in to wrap and can easily take an hour at the car wash scrubbing away sap, bugs, and road tar. If you want the best job, you have to think about removing antenna's, weatherstripping, moulding, door handles, headlights etc. Now think about the time to remove those things, and all the old brittle plastic clips you have to carefully pry off to remove those parts (ex: door panels) and you can see where you can easily spend half a day or more removing body parts just to get started. We can easily spend 2-3 days on average wrapping a car with 2-3 people. The most complex wrap we ever did was on a lifted F-250 and took close to 2 weeks, but it did look like a show vehicle when done. If you stretch the material too much or overheat it, it will discolor it not to mention the satin, chrome, and matte finishes will turn shiny if you rub on them too hard during installation or overheat them....panel ruined. The materials are not too expensive (except for the carbon fiber, metals, and chrome) but the labor is a lot more intense than most people realize. If it was me, I would probably spend my 4k on a paint job before I got a wrap but what you can get with a wrap can be near impossible to duplicate with any paint job regardless of price.

07-29-2014, 02:25 PM	#57
papasmurf Registered User Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Waco, Texas Posts: 404	The materials cost is usually in the 300-700 dollar range depending on vehicle. To do a good job (seamless as possible) you will wind up wasting some material on some vehicles. The car really needs to be spotless before it is brought in to wrap and can easily take an hour at the car wash scrubbing away sap, bugs, and road tar. If you want the best job, you have to think about removing antenna's, weatherstripping, moulding, door handles, headlights etc. Now think about the time to remove those things, and all the old brittle plastic clips you have to carefully pry off to remove those parts (ex: door panels) and you can see where you can easily spend half a day or more removing body parts just to get started. We can easily spend 2-3 days on average wrapping a car with 2-3 people. The most complex wrap we ever did was on a lifted F-250 and took close to 2 weeks, but it did look like a show vehicle when done. If you stretch the material too much or overheat it, it will discolor it not to mention the satin, chrome, and matte finishes will turn shiny if you rub on them too hard during installation or overheat them....panel ruined. The materials are not too expensive (except for the carbon fiber, metals, and chrome) but the labor is a lot more intense than most people realize. If it was me, I would probably spend my 4k on a paint job before I got a wrap but what you can get with a wrap can be near impossible to duplicate with any paint job regardless of price.