KSTrooper
Wrapper, designer, illustrator
huh, weird. I see them fine on my browser, I even logged out and back in to make sure. I will reupload them shortly.Me either. Cripes, I thought I was going blind.
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Started at a new shop recently....
- Thread starter KSTrooper
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KSTrooper
Wrapper, designer, illustrator
On this car there really weren't any silicone seams I needed to avoid. Any seams that were sealed used a paintable sealer that I could just go right over. On actual silicone seams, yes you would have to either remove the silicone or cut the vinyl just short of the silicone bead. I had to do that on a trailer I'm working on right now.
Texas_Signmaker
Very Active Signmaker
Question... why wouldn't they just paint the car?
The Average paintjob is around $3-5000 depending on the vehicle... I'd say a BMW would range in the 5K.
Now if you're doing a crappy maaco it can be done for under 1K... But I wouldn't maaco my beater vehicle let alone a BMW.
We do lots of color changes... People like them because it's a layer of protection... So when they go to sell the vehicle you peel off the wrap, and your car looks brand new with zero scratches/scuffs/dings. Or if they're keeping it they can change it easily every other year. Generally wrapping is cheaper and quicker than a paint job.
Now if you're doing a crappy maaco it can be done for under 1K... But I wouldn't maaco my beater vehicle let alone a BMW.
We do lots of color changes... People like them because it's a layer of protection... So when they go to sell the vehicle you peel off the wrap, and your car looks brand new with zero scratches/scuffs/dings. Or if they're keeping it they can change it easily every other year. Generally wrapping is cheaper and quicker than a paint job.
Ignore the blurs. A couple co-workers didn't like being in photos... and I edited out the plate.
This customer spent hours sanding and prepping his vehicle so the wrap would look good - At this point we asked him why not just get it painted... He said it'd have cost a lot more, and they said with the condition it's in it would likely have defects in the paintjob and wouldn't look good, so he opted for a wrap. After we wrapped it and he saw it... he said it was better than any paint job they could have done,and he was expecting it to look half good, while this made it look like a brand new factory painted vehicle. - PS... Ignore the crappy text placement. That was an art room mistake that got corrected once we saw where it landed... We just let the new guy practice putting that side on since it was printed already and would have just been thrown out
Lots of reasons to do color changes over painting. Time + price is usually the main factors, but in some cases you can get a better product out of wrapping than painting.
And I imagine in OP's case... since it was the owners care, his cost was likely material which is under a grand. And it was a good way to test his new employees skills, which by the looks of it are pretty good!
This customer spent hours sanding and prepping his vehicle so the wrap would look good - At this point we asked him why not just get it painted... He said it'd have cost a lot more, and they said with the condition it's in it would likely have defects in the paintjob and wouldn't look good, so he opted for a wrap. After we wrapped it and he saw it... he said it was better than any paint job they could have done,and he was expecting it to look half good, while this made it look like a brand new factory painted vehicle. - PS... Ignore the crappy text placement. That was an art room mistake that got corrected once we saw where it landed... We just let the new guy practice putting that side on since it was printed already and would have just been thrown out
Lots of reasons to do color changes over painting. Time + price is usually the main factors, but in some cases you can get a better product out of wrapping than painting.
And I imagine in OP's case... since it was the owners care, his cost was likely material which is under a grand. And it was a good way to test his new employees skills, which by the looks of it are pretty good!
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Texas_Signmaker
Very Active Signmaker
I get testing a new employee. But wouldn't that wrap cost $3k at least? Don't they take more time then regular wraps? I would think paint would last longer.
I mean, don't get me wrong, take the business if it comes in. I wrapped a few old trailers last year for an oil field company. I told them to paint them but they said, they don't care how much it costs and I'm already setup in their system... fine by me, I took it.
I mean, don't get me wrong, take the business if it comes in. I wrapped a few old trailers last year for an oil field company. I told them to paint them but they said, they don't care how much it costs and I'm already setup in their system... fine by me, I took it.
equippaint
Active Member
A wrap is not better than painting and wont last as long. Wraps can get scratched, tear and wont stop dings. Youre trying to compare the cost for a full on factory quality paint job to a wrap and its not really a fair comparison. You could shoot that truck with good paint for 1500-2k jambs and all including prep. We do old penske 10’ box trucks for 2500 with 2k urethane, 1 guy can do 1/day, $300 material. Isuzu cab color changes no jambs $1k and 2 guys can do 2-3 a day with $200 in material.
depending on who's wrapping between 2 and 5 days for a color change. Yes, they take a lot longer because you have to remove handles, loosen fenders (In most cases), as well as a ton of other prep work... But once you're good at it, you can do 1 day of prep work.. 1-1.5 days of wrapping, and half a day to put it back together...so 3 days. A shop that does a ton of wraps can throw 2 guys on it and be done with it in 1 day. we don't do wraps primarily so we're slow... and charge more because of it. But there's a wrap shop that does 1+ million per year just in wraps... they knock them out like they're nothing.
Around here an experienced wrapper makes $30 an hour - Lets say that took a full week... so 40 hours. Thats $1200 in labor, maybe $500ish in material? Still cheaper than a paint job. By the way the wrap looks, I'd guess he's pretty experienced and did it in half the time.
Paint generally does last longer... But vinyl has better protection. And you'll never get as good a paint job as a factory paint job. a Factory paint job will last a lot longer than an after market paint job... that's why when you wrap a vehicle that's been repaired, theres a good chance that upon removal the paint on the repaired panel is going to flake off with the vinyl.
Of course the average customer doesn't know all these details... I'm sure for them its from a cost perspective only. I imagine half don't even get a quote on a paint job because they think it'll cost more than a wrap... Or they google and see how bad paint jobs can be, and don't want to risk it.
When most people think paint jobs, they think maaco due to all their commercials... but look at the first results when googling "is maaco worth it?"
https://www.reddit.com/r/cars/comments/9euc4f/maaco_is_it_worth_it/
People recommending to get a wrap because it costs half the price of a good paint job bad painters give wrappers good publicity!
Around here an experienced wrapper makes $30 an hour - Lets say that took a full week... so 40 hours. Thats $1200 in labor, maybe $500ish in material? Still cheaper than a paint job. By the way the wrap looks, I'd guess he's pretty experienced and did it in half the time.
Paint generally does last longer... But vinyl has better protection. And you'll never get as good a paint job as a factory paint job. a Factory paint job will last a lot longer than an after market paint job... that's why when you wrap a vehicle that's been repaired, theres a good chance that upon removal the paint on the repaired panel is going to flake off with the vinyl.
Of course the average customer doesn't know all these details... I'm sure for them its from a cost perspective only. I imagine half don't even get a quote on a paint job because they think it'll cost more than a wrap... Or they google and see how bad paint jobs can be, and don't want to risk it.
When most people think paint jobs, they think maaco due to all their commercials... but look at the first results when googling "is maaco worth it?"
https://www.reddit.com/r/cars/comments/9euc4f/maaco_is_it_worth_it/
People recommending to get a wrap because it costs half the price of a good paint job
bad painters give wrappers good publicity!equippaint
Active Member
Itd devalue the car. They check paint thickness on trades, auctions etc. Dealers all want original with no paint work. Color change would be even worse and may even get flagged on carfax
equippaint
Active Member
Maaco generally does a fair job for what they charge. The problems come in with people expecting a factory paint job for $1k and whoever is selling the job not weeding these pita people out. Their business model is fast production work and that is what you get. Were repainting some service trucks now (color change) that maaco did last year and the finish is flawless. They took all the door handles off too.
As for wraps, we have all seen crap in that. Bet ive seen more hack wraps than paint jobs in all honesty.
As for wraps, we have all seen crap in that. Bet ive seen more hack wraps than paint jobs in all honesty.
Tons of bad wrap jobs. Heck, a lot of people think it's easier than painting and try it themselves.
I've never painted professionally so I don't know how hard it is. We've had a bunch of vehicles come in for re-wraps after a crash though... We do lots of police vehicles. We've done panel repairs on a dozen or so where we replace the panel after its been painted... We always wait 1-2 weeks after the painting to out the vinyl on.
They recently rebranded... So we've done about 30 removals and re wraps... A good 30% of them had panels where paint peeled off with the vinyl, and 10/10 times we traced it to being a vehicle where we wrapped after a paint repair.
Maybe that paint job would have lasted 10 years without a wrap... But aftermarket painting has been a pain in our side, wrap wise for awhile. Even using a whizzy wheel on an aftermarket painted panel tends to eat the paint... It's just not as durable.
Maaco paint jobs are great for changing the look of your vehicle, and just like wrap shops every Maaco shop will be different quality wise.
A crappy.maaco / paint job is a lot harder to fix than a crappy wrap though.... Unless someone is taking a razer to your BMW and cutting through your paint.... it should.be as easy as grabbing and yanking it off. So that may be another reason some people tend to veer towards wraps over painting.
I've never painted professionally so I don't know how hard it is. We've had a bunch of vehicles come in for re-wraps after a crash though... We do lots of police vehicles. We've done panel repairs on a dozen or so where we replace the panel after its been painted... We always wait 1-2 weeks after the painting to out the vinyl on.
They recently rebranded... So we've done about 30 removals and re wraps... A good 30% of them had panels where paint peeled off with the vinyl, and 10/10 times we traced it to being a vehicle where we wrapped after a paint repair.
Maybe that paint job would have lasted 10 years without a wrap... But aftermarket painting has been a pain in our side, wrap wise for awhile. Even using a whizzy wheel on an aftermarket painted panel tends to eat the paint... It's just not as durable.
Maaco paint jobs are great for changing the look of your vehicle, and just like wrap shops every Maaco shop will be different quality wise.
A crappy.maaco / paint job is a lot harder to fix than a crappy wrap though.... Unless someone is taking a razer to your BMW and cutting through your paint.... it should.be as easy as grabbing and yanking it off. So that may be another reason some people tend to veer towards wraps over painting.
KSTrooper
Wrapper, designer, illustrator
Absolutely. I yanked a chunk of paint off a hood on a Transit a couple weeks ago. I wasn't even removing vinyl, I just had a scrap piece of wrap film laid on part of the hood while I worked on the fender. Peeled it off and took about a 2" square of paint off. Also ran into a bumper cover with no clearcoat, dripped some Rapid Remover on it and it took the paint right off. I've never seen Rapid Remover harm paint.
rjssigns
Active Member
Stuff like that always worries me. Lettered a transom last week and paint was only a week old. Paint was a catalyzed polyurethane.
Gino
Premium Subscriber
One of the reasons at the first shop I worked, we were not allowed to use scotch tape to form the tops & bottoms of flat letters. Too many trucks in those days were re-paints and the conditions were generally not very good and nothing was baked afterwards. Can't tell ya how many trucks had stripes above and below lettering back in those days. Happened to me once. Never again. I learned to form my letters perfectly without the use of tape.
equippaint
Active Member
Try to be careful around edges, door handles, and low areas where the people don't sand it good or at all before painting if it's not factory.
KSTrooper
Wrapper, designer, illustrator
Posted the next one I did in the portfolio thread - 1974 Corvette Stingray.
https://signs101.com/threads/1974-corvette-stingray.154452/
https://signs101.com/threads/1974-corvette-stingray.154452/
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Kentucky Wraps
Kentucky Wraps
All that work taking it apart and wrapping it, for a 2 year warranty on the Roof & hood...
Hopefully you priced it right. If you did, they could have got a paint job for the same price.
Which begs the question...why get it wrapped? (other than the fact it's the Owner's wife's car of course)
Hopefully you priced it right. If you did, they could have got a paint job for the same price.
Which begs the question...why get it wrapped? (other than the fact it's the Owner's wife's car of course)