Questions about wraps

[Kristian]

Hello all, I am quite new to this forum so you may need to bear with me here.

I have been doing vinyl graphics for about 8 years now and finally have convinced my boss to get a digital printer. It arrives tomorrow. Yay.

Anyway. I was wondering about Vehicle Wraps. There is a seminar at the end of the month that I have been considering going to but I am not sure if it is something that would really be neccissay at this time for me. We operate out of a small city of about 60-70 000 people, and in the time I have been working in the sign business I have only ever been queried about wraps once.

It will take me a fairly short time to get up to speed with the printer we are getting but I am still unsure that the vehicle wrap seminar is going to be something that will be of benifit to someone in my situation at this point in time.

Would it be better to do the seminar now or would it bee a better plan to get a year of experience with the printer first? I have experience using flexi to prepare material for printing and have of course loads of application time under my belt, but for the 1 or 2 wraps I might be asked about in the next year I'm not sure about the necesity of getting into it right now.

Thanks in advanced for any input here.

 

[petepaz]

just started my first wrap this past week end after about 5 hours 1/3 done all i can say is i hate them
but if you are going to do them you need a lot of hands on practice
seminar or class is great to get information
but i think the more hands on you can get the better

 

[oc63rag]

I agree with Petepaz. I've been wanting to get into wraps for a while now but haven't taken the plunge. I took a 3M class (only $200) and it gave me the chance to try it firsthand. I came out of the class with a new appreciation for the people that do this day in and day out. The process is not easy by any stretch. Applying vinyl to complex curves is an art.
Good luck with whatever you end up doing.

 

[Kristian]

Thanks guys. Yeah I have done a tone of vehicle installs with just regular plain old Avery vinyl many many times. The newer vehicles can really be a bearcat to maneuver the curves. Toughest I think I've had to do is a new H3 hummer where the company logo needed to go from body and into the windows. Well the windows are inset about 2 inches so I had an interesting time on that one, as well as the flared tire areas. Looked great once it was finished though.

 

[MADWRAPPER]

Try and do little wraps maybe like just the back half of a car or just cover two doors on a 4 door truck. I have installed wraps for about 7-8 years but i started with a new company and they had never did one so I kind of brought them up to speed by doing small wraps until they got use to it and then we started doing more and more big ones. Remeber to take as many measuremants and photos as possible and always measur both sides.

 

[Downs]

I would definitely learn to do them. I live in a town of about 65,000 people and we have done a few wraps. Most people are scared away by the cost but they are definitely good to know how to do.