What are your thoughts of vehicle wraps?
 

I'm personally not a fan but it's a lot better than plastic dip. Well I do understand the idea of if you get tired of it you can just rip it off but the prices of some of these wraps you could just get a legit paint job which always look better than a wrap.

It all depends. If you are paying more than $1k just get a paint job or get that clear bra-wrap to protect it.

If it's a couple of $100s eh, do what ever. Wrap it in anime chick. Better than what I spent at a Vegas strip club.

The again people spend crazy amounts on sneakers and such. So ehh.

a quality color change and clear should start at $5k with jams.
a decent wrap should start around $1.5k/2k...




you get what you pay for.

Unless you got a great deal on a car, but you hate the color, I don't see the point.


humfrz

i'm speaking of full color change not just like a roof

Once you rip it off the original paint job is done for and you'll need to wrap it again with something else.

Not necessarily. If it is applied properly and stripped properly the paint underneath can be as good as new. I helped strip an Nova of a colour changing wrap a few years ago and by taking our time with blow dryers we were able to get it off with little issue. Took all day but in the end just a quick swipe with some solvent to clean up any left over adhesive and the paint was perfect. Like any job you just need to do it properly.

As long as you realize the material and maintenance differences, I don't see a problem with wraps. I don't think a wrap holds up well on a DD that sees a lot of road debris, but I've never owned a wrapped car. I like waxing /washing paint, I like how it feels, I like that it's bonded to the metal. I'm just weird, but you may not realize that you like the properties of something until it has changed

I'm not that big of a fan. Almost every single person I see doing it just does the exterior and then when they open their hood, door, or trunk, it's a completely different color. Like the car will be wrapped in a silver or purple or something, and then when any door gets opened, you see the original red the car was painted in.

Looks cheap, tacky, and half assed to me. If I were gonna wrap a vehicle, I'd probably start with a black car. Or something as close to the planned new color as possible.

Or I'd just paint it. Yeah, probably that.

My 3M "hood protector" is torn and tattered and looks worse than the little dings in the paint. With all the small dings and scrapes up the sides of the car that result from extensive highway driving I can only imagine that a whole wrap would be nothing but a bunch of tatter flapping in the wind by now. May be fine for a DD that only sees light city driving but would totally suck for anybody that spends any time driving a highway.

I think your price perception is a bit off. When I had a clear bra installed on the front of my BRZ in 2013 it cost $1200. That was just for the front bumper/fascia, headlights, part of the hood and the side mirrors. If you wanted to clear bra an entire car it'll cost a few thousand dollars.

You are right. I'm lucky to live in a place where there are so many auto body shops the cost is really low. I keep forgetting other places are not so lucky.

I was quoted $3,000 Canuckbucks to wrap the S2000 (I hate silver, but it everything else about it was fantastic). Promptly got that expensive fool idea out of my head, and just learned to love the silver instead.

It actually looks better this way (it helps me appreciate the simple lines and curves of the car).

/StockholmSyndrome

I see paint as being a better value overall, especially if you can get something higher quality that won't flake off when you drive through a few grains of sand. It as permanence, which I like.

For a "trippy" paint job, a 3M wrap makes more sense as the material is mass produced and you may wind up with a better end result than what a paint shop might do.

If I repainted my car, I'd be looking to spend more than $5K so I can get something with more than 3 layers of thin paint that chips off when you drive through a little sand in the road. I'd honestly expect to pay $10K from a trusted shop. I've seen too many stories online from people who bought $$$ in material, ran out of money, then paid $ for some random shop to mess up the job.