Ever wrapped your car?

Matthew K

Matthew K

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Broke Engineer
With the "new" car I've gotten, I've been looking at the cost to put a clear vinyl wrap on to protect the paint from small rocks and what not.

Just wondering if anyone on here has ever had their car wrapped, their experience, and what price range is fair depending on car size?
 
If you did a full car in xpel PPF it would probably be around $5-6k. Most people just do full hood/bumper/fenders/mirrors. That runs ~$1700
 
Matthew K said:
With the "new" car I've gotten, I've been looking at the cost to put a clear vinyl wrap on to protect the paint from small rocks and what not.

Just wondering if anyone on here has ever had their car wrapped, their experience, and what price range is fair depending on car size?
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Whole car?? Heck no.

I've put those 3M "clear bras" on a few, basically covers the areas that get chipped, been quite happy and they are easy to install if you take your time and follow the directions. But doing the whole thing seems silly.

When I do the front clip, head lights, front edge of hood, mirrors and lower edge of the fenders (the areas that get chips) takes me a afternoon, and normally the good pre cut 3M kits are 3-500 bucks online.
 
Might as well have some fun with it. Maybe an aviation version of this one:

skyline-vinyl.jpg


Or an aviation version of this one:

timthumb.php
 
As others have said, clear bra...yes. works great and have it on all my cars. Full wrap? No...would be way too expensive.
 
I wrapped my race car. It's z lot cheaper when you allow them to advertise on your wrap.
 
James331 said:
Whole car?? Heck no.

I've put those 3M "clear bras" on a few, basically covers the areas that get chipped, been quite happy and they are easy to install if you take your time and follow the directions. But doing the whole thing seems silly.

When I do the front clip, head lights, front edge of hood, mirrors and lower edge of the fenders (the areas that get chips) takes me a afternoon, and normally the good pre cut 3M kits are 3-500 bucks online.
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Yea I wasn't seriously considering doing the whole car. But definitely looking into doing basically everything on the front bumper and the mirrors.
 
I used to have my tailgate wrapped with logo, pictures and phone number of my woodworking business. This was for a GMC Sierra 2500 and it was $425. It lasted about 4 years before it started cracking and I removed it.
 
One thing too

A wrap is a different product than a clear bra / paint protector.

Different material and different use.
 
I have a buddy who races Covettes and he got his whole car wrapped in matte black. It actually looks quite nice. Have no idea what he paid for it. Certainly won’t have the long term durability of paint, but if you have a reputable shop install it, it should last a while.
 
I'm only familiar with car wraps used for advertising purposes.
 
I recommend Xpel or Suntek, in that order. Get it paint corrected before if you want it to look really good
 
Why buy a new car and then make it look like a taxicab ? The only car this could make sense for is on one purchased as an investment good. Some type of limited release that some people put in cold storage just to wait for appreciation to kick in.
 
weilke said:
Why buy a new car and then make it look like a taxicab ? The only car this could make sense for is on one purchased as an investment good. Some type of limited release that some people put in cold storage just to wait for appreciation to kick in.
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He means paint protection film. It’s a clear thick (~8 mils...twice what “car wrap” vinyl is) self healing film that protects from scratches and rock chips.
 
ktup-flyer said:
He means paint protection film. It’s a clear thick (~8 mils...twice what “car wrap” vinyl is) self healing film that protects from scratches and rock chips.
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.....and still looks ugly.

I just bought a new car. It replaces a car that has served us well in 10 years and 210k miles. Just like the old one, the new one will have rock chips, get assaulted by bollards, shopping carts and hail stones. It's a car, it gets my wife from point A to point B. Its not a statue or painting.
 
weilke said:
.....and still looks ugly.

I just bought a new car. It replaces a car that has served us well in 10 years and 210k miles. Just like the old one, the new one will have rock chips, get assaulted by bollards, shopping carts and hail stones. It's a car, it gets my wife from point A to point B. Its not a statue or painting.
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Not really, you can't even tell it's on my cars, and it's much cheaper to remove and replace a film vs properly fixing paint damage on a car.

Of course it depends, on a Honda economy car, or for a driver who always hits things/curbs rims/tailgates/opens doors into stuff who cares, but a vette, classic, etc with a drive who gives a damn, it does make sense.
 
weilke said:
.....and still looks ugly.

I just bought a new car. It replaces a car that has served us well in 10 years and 210k miles. Just like the old one, the new one will have rock chips, get assaulted by bollards, shopping carts and hail stones. It's a car, it gets my wife from point A to point B. Its not a statue or painting.
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Suit yourself
1B19C234-502A-49D9-9B73-274ACC818853.jpeg
 
I wrapped one around a light pole in a foggy parking lot.
 
weilke said:
.....and still looks ugly.

I just bought a new car. It replaces a car that has served us well in 10 years and 210k miles. Just like the old one, the new one will have rock chips, get assaulted by bollards, shopping carts and hail stones. It's a car, it gets my wife from point A to point B. Its not a statue or painting.
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Lol at this comment. :)
 
Correct - not everyone feels exactly the same about their car as they do their toilet brush.
 
BigBadLou said:
It offers support in multiple ways. Gravity support for her and emotional support for him. :) It's a win-win scenario.
Wanna start a new business and go halfsies? ;)
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I’m in Lou! The only thing I’ll ask for is a 10% royalty off each one.
 
SkyDog58 said:
I sort of thought you might also be aware of ones like this.
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Norman said:
mscard is too busy drooling over that one to post a reply. :D Just think of Odie's tongue hanging out.
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See, here I thought that Sac was fixated on getting that wrap for his car. Maybe his bike. Maybe his next Filet o' Fish sandwich as well. :p

In all seriousness, I really like the clear bra for the car. I was driving about 45K miles a year and didn't do that to a 2008 Altima I once had. That car, at 100K miles, had a front end that felt like sandpaper. It was fully sandblasted and chipped. Nothing short of a full sanding and repaint of the front end would bring it back. I installed the clear bra on my 2011 Jetta TDi and after 5 years and 250K miles, that front end looked perfect. I had the front 24" of hood, bumper, headlights, foglights, and mirrors covered with Xpel. The plastic film was slightly hazy from being parked outside all that time, but the car still looked great up until the point I sold it back to VW as part of the emissions scandal. I miss that car.
 
rtk11 said:
See, here I thought that Sac was fixated on getting that wrap for his car. Maybe his bike. Maybe his next Filet o' Fish sandwich as well. :p

In all seriousness, I really like the clear bra for the car. I was driving about 45K miles a year and didn't do that to a 2008 Altima I once had. That car, at 100K miles, had a front end that felt like sandpaper. It was fully sandblasted and chipped. Nothing short of a full sanding and repaint of the front end would bring it back. I installed the clear bra on my 2011 Jetta TDi and after 5 years and 250K miles, that front end looked perfect. I had the front 24" of hood, bumper, headlights, foglights, and mirrors covered with Xpel. The plastic film was slightly hazy from being parked outside all that time, but the car still looked great up until the point I sold it back to VW as part of the emissions scandal. I miss that car.
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How much did you pay for the xpel at the time?
 
Matthew K said:
How much did you pay for the xpel at the time?
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For my wife's Touareg, it was about $1,000, and my Jetta was about $800. This was back in 2011 and I think the material was Ventureshield that covered about 24" of hood, bumper, headlights, fog lights, mirrors, and the upward facing part of the bumper by the trunk (on the Jetta.)

In the last year, I purchased a used BMW 328d and had Xpel put on in the same way as the other cars - 24" of hood, mirrors, bumper, headlights, foglights, rear bumper, and that was about $900.

These are Southern California prices... so you may find better in other states. But I'm very satisfied overall, not only in the product, but the no-worry driving from small road debris.
 
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SkyHog said:
I wrapped my race car. It's z lot cheaper when you allow them to advertise on your wrap.
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Some company around here was doing full car wraps for advertising and the car owner got some of the profit. They went under. Guess that wasn’t a good business model.

CC268 said:
I have a buddy who races Covettes and he got his whole car wrapped in matte black. It actually looks quite nice. Have no idea what he paid for it. Certainly won’t have the long term durability of paint, but if you have a reputable shop install it, it should last a while.
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I could have done that with some Krylon from spray cans, if all he wanted was matte black! :)
 
If it's a vinyl wrap, contact Gatorwraps, they wrap all kinds of crazy things and lettering decals. You might also want to check Gatorprints.
 
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