carreragt7
New Member
First off, I'd like to introduce myself! My name is Andrew and I am currently an Industrial Design major and a Manufacturing Technology minor. I've been actively involved in many aspects of design for years and have recently been looking into vinyl wrapping for a few different school-related projects.
I have been helping layup the carbon fiber body panels for a couple different school race cars and recently helped do a wrap on one of the car's trailers. Unfortunately I arrived to it already having been semi-laid up with many problems.
Anyhow, I've been discussing the possibility of doing vinyl wraps on the cars instead of paint (3 body panels for our small electric hybrid race car cost $1100!) and have been assigned the task to look into the best vinyls for vehicle wrap.
I am definitely a novice when it comes to vehicle wrapping, but I've wrapped many objects in vinyls over the years so I've got a decent knowledge of how to go about a basic wrap: I am also hoping to attend a training class this summer to receive the 'proper' training. I've also been in talks with my university's Sign and Paint shops discussing the vehicle wrap options and found out they don't seem to have much experience in this field so I am hoping to be able to assist them after my training.
So to the point of this thread: I'd like to hear opinions on the pros and cons of the above mentioned vinyl options. I've done some basic researching via google, calling each supplier and getting their information about it, etc. so I feel I've done as much as I can without asking you professionals your opinions on it. I figure all of you that have had hands on experience with these particular vinyls would have the most valuable, truthful opinions and insights.
I attempted a search to make sure this topic hadn't been addressed already and only found a few posts mentioning one or the other, but not a direct comparison thread where the pros and cons of each are discussed, and which you would ultimately prefer to use.
From my calling the companies and multiple distributors the pricing appears to be very similar between the 970RA and HX30000, and their properties and specs appear similar as well.
The only thing I have heard regarding HX20000 vs 970RA is the HX appeared to be more easily scuffed whereas the 970RA has a more protective laminate surface.
I'm also interested in hearing your thoughts on their matte options as the current design for one of our cars is meant to have a matte white base with blue striping and logos. Matte black seems to be a much more common color chosen to be done in vinyl (or even paint) so I can't seem to find much info on the matte white durability or any special techniques needed to properly lay down matte vinyl.
Any opinions and insight you can provide would be greatly appreciated! I am hoping to become proficient enough in this field to use it to my advantage with my intended future career of 3rd party Automotive accessory designs, and these race car projects are proving to be very beneficial.
Thanks in advance for your help! I hope I properly introduced myself and explained the question well enough. If not just let me know and I will try again! I know I don't have the lingo/terminology down yet so please don't be too quick to judge: I try to learn quickly and not repeat previous mistakes.
I have been helping layup the carbon fiber body panels for a couple different school race cars and recently helped do a wrap on one of the car's trailers. Unfortunately I arrived to it already having been semi-laid up with many problems.
Anyhow, I've been discussing the possibility of doing vinyl wraps on the cars instead of paint (3 body panels for our small electric hybrid race car cost $1100!) and have been assigned the task to look into the best vinyls for vehicle wrap.
I am definitely a novice when it comes to vehicle wrapping, but I've wrapped many objects in vinyls over the years so I've got a decent knowledge of how to go about a basic wrap: I am also hoping to attend a training class this summer to receive the 'proper' training. I've also been in talks with my university's Sign and Paint shops discussing the vehicle wrap options and found out they don't seem to have much experience in this field so I am hoping to be able to assist them after my training.
So to the point of this thread: I'd like to hear opinions on the pros and cons of the above mentioned vinyl options. I've done some basic researching via google, calling each supplier and getting their information about it, etc. so I feel I've done as much as I can without asking you professionals your opinions on it. I figure all of you that have had hands on experience with these particular vinyls would have the most valuable, truthful opinions and insights.
I attempted a search to make sure this topic hadn't been addressed already and only found a few posts mentioning one or the other, but not a direct comparison thread where the pros and cons of each are discussed, and which you would ultimately prefer to use.
From my calling the companies and multiple distributors the pricing appears to be very similar between the 970RA and HX30000, and their properties and specs appear similar as well.
The only thing I have heard regarding HX20000 vs 970RA is the HX appeared to be more easily scuffed whereas the 970RA has a more protective laminate surface.
I'm also interested in hearing your thoughts on their matte options as the current design for one of our cars is meant to have a matte white base with blue striping and logos. Matte black seems to be a much more common color chosen to be done in vinyl (or even paint) so I can't seem to find much info on the matte white durability or any special techniques needed to properly lay down matte vinyl.
Any opinions and insight you can provide would be greatly appreciated! I am hoping to become proficient enough in this field to use it to my advantage with my intended future career of 3rd party Automotive accessory designs, and these race car projects are proving to be very beneficial.
Thanks in advance for your help! I hope I properly introduced myself and explained the question well enough. If not just let me know and I will try again! I know I don't have the lingo/terminology down yet so please don't be too quick to judge: I try to learn quickly and not repeat previous mistakes.
