Another vinyl wrapping thread. Questions inside.

[Jinks]

Hello prime members,

I think I am going to wrap my car soon. I am 90% sure.My car came resprayed poorly at purchase and now it is even worse after 4 plus years of ownership. The car is black and I intend to keep it that way.
This is just a fancy band aid for me as the only way I would repaint it would be to remove panel by panel myself and send it off for paint. No way in hell will the car spend months in a dusty shop. But that is not a reality for me yet as I don't have the time to do it and quite frankly I am growing tired of customizing the car. I want to just jump in and drive lately. It will never be faster, or new like later models. I like it how it is now.

So, I decided to look into Imperial works in Sacramento since another member has done so and though I have not seen it in person, they removed all panels to wrap it. Which means it is quality work.They also use 3m products which come with a 7 year warranty. I spoke to David today at imperial works. He was very friendly and very insightful. He answered a lot of my questions but not all of them...

So, for some of you here with a wrap, I would love to hear your thoughts and really really love some pictures.
I am wondering, if I wrap it, will I have to f@ck with it again 1 year, 2 years, 3 years from now?
It is uv protected but how does it hold up to California weather where it gets 110 degrees by day and 50 degrees by night. Did you have your mirrors and door jambs wrapped? If so, how are they holding up?
Also, if any bay area peeps out there have a wrap, let's meet up so I can check it out please.

Thanks in advance.

 

[mcano]

Hello prime members,

I think I am going to wrap my car soon. I am 90% sure.My car came resprayed poorly at purchase and now it is even worse after 4 plus years of ownership. The car is black and I intend to keep it that way.
This is just a fancy band aid for me as the only way I would repaint it would be to remove panel by panel myself and send it off for paint. No way in hell will the car spend months in a dusty shop. But that is not a reality for me yet as I don't have the time to do it and quite frankly I am growing tired of customizing the car. I want to just jump in and drive lately. It will never be faster, or new like later models. I like it how it is now.

So, I decided to look into Imperial works in Sacramento since another member has done so and though I have not seen it in person, they removed all panels to wrap it. Which means it is quality work.They also use 3m products which come with a 7 year warranty. I spoke to David today at imperial works. He was very friendly and very insightful. He answered a lot of my questions but not all of them...

So, for some of you here with a wrap, I would love to hear your thoughts and really really love some pictures.
I am wondering, if I wrap it, will I have to f@ck with it again 1 year, 2 years, 3 years from now?
It is uv protected but how does it hold up to California weather where it gets 110 degrees by day and 50 degrees by night. Did you have your mirrors and door jambs wrapped? If so, how are they holding up?
Also, if any bay area peeps out there have a wrap, let's meet up so I can check it out please.

Thanks in advance.

Valhalla (JC) had his car recently wrapped here in SoCal. The shop he used was excellent. You should contact JC to see if he has any words of wisdom on warps. Tell JC that Mario gave you his name.

Best of luck!

 

[shinjyo]

I had wrapped several pieces and misc parts in the pass. During these years, I had talked to many people from car industry who had their car wrapped etc. My findings are:
You should treat wrapping as a temporary solution, as the wrap itself has 5 years of life for outdoor. They eventually will have to come off or they may leave some residual on your paint which is hard to remove even they claim no residual left, but no guarantee.
Yes, wrapping is cheaper ($800- 2500) than paint job ($2000-6000), but a correct paint job will last you lot longer if you know how to treat them.
You will hardly find a shop who will get you perfect wrapping job, even it does, they use glue which no one guarantee they will hurt or they won't left residual on it. Some shady shop will cut corner to make to job faster = their cutter will slice onto your paint for sure, you won't see it if you don't pay attention.
Wrapping hold up fine under heat weather, but those are panels that are flat such as roof and hood. Any sharp corners or sharp turn surface will soon lift itself such as NSX front and rear bumper.

I suggest you do the following:
1. Find the people who had wrapped their car and later on removed, ask them why they removed.
2. Buy a $20 3M 1080p wrap from ebay, try to wrap a couple piece yourself, you only need fingers and a good cutter to start with, try a hood, a roof or an interior trim, you will quickly learn the property, behavior, and capably of the wrap itself. if you still decided to give your car to someone to wrap it, then you at least have some knowledge to ensure the shop pay attention to the detail that you know it's hard to wrap such as the side intake scoop, front bumper etc.

I am kind of perfectionism, my personal suggestions are:
1. Don't waste your money on wrapping the car unless you have money to burn and waste. Most likely u will remove it one day. Thus, if you plan to do gloss black, it's not as gloss as paint job gloss, you can see the breathing channel if you get close enough. Depends on what kind of bad paint job, you may consider finding a professional to do a paint correction and apply a crystallize layer to protect it, that could cure your issue.
2. Or, at least wrap the hood, roof, trunk, both side fenders f/r yourself, pay professional to do the door and bumpers.

Hope this helps!

 

[Wavey1]

^^^ Shinjyo is right on, on all points. I own a sign company and we've quit doing wraps because customers do not understand the realities. And that part of the business has become so competitive, there are a lot of bottom-feeder shops out there so you have to be super careful. IMO, wrapping is for commercial vehicles and race cars, and is only one step above Plastidip, which is horrible. I really think anyone would be better off getting a cheap-o Maaco paint job that either of those choices.

 

[kertong]

I don't have the relevant wrapping experience specific to NSX'es - but I did have my 2015 Corvette Stingray wrapped by a very reputable shop out here in the california bay area. It started off black, and I had it wrapped satin white (aka "michael jackson'ed")

Some photos: http://imgur.com/a/smItM

Thoughts:

1) The "proper" way to do this of course, is to wrap the panels when they're off the car. This requires all the panels and bumpers coming off, and with the precise fits and extra labor required to remove NSX body panels, this aspect of wrapping the NSX concerns me quite a bit. A roof/canopy wrap, sure - but a whole car wrap? I don't know if I'd do it. I see so many 02+ conversions done here and the biggest giveway that it is a conversion is the huge gaps left in the front bumper and headlight area - they're uneven and kind of lead me to believe it is *really* hard to put body panels on the NSX back as precisely as they were from the factory. It also bothered me knowing that the major panels / bumpers were taken off, and was placed back with a little bit of thickness added back to it. I felt like the car may have creaked/rattled more afterwards but that could also completely be placebo.

2) The fact they need to take a knife to the vinyl in certain areas of the wrap concerns me a bit, but they have a "knifeless tape" solution now. Some vinyl wrappers still prefer the knife though, and I've seen a few horror stories where the vinyl wrap was removed later down the road and revealed knife marks in the paint. So, do your homework and vet your wrapper very carefully if possible!

3) I elected to wrap my vette a "satin white" - it is neither glossy nor completely matte. Within a week it had picked up a few stains from bug splats (I was careful to carry around a 50/50 rubbing alcohol+water in a spray bottle with a towel in the car to take care of these things as soon as I noticed) - still, even with daily checks, the bug splat had sat long enough to 'absorb' into the wrap - a very faint yellow dot the size of a sunflower seed was left. I was never able to get it out. Might be less prone/noticeable on a glossy finish or darker color, though.

4) On tight corners and areas where body panels rub together, the vinyl will crinkle and bunch up a little bit. This seems unavoidable, unfortunately - within 2 weeks I had some noticeable bunching up in some tight corners of the sharper angled headlight areas. (see here: http://imgur.com/cnP5lKk)

5) On the upside - it's a great way to protect your paint. I took the C7 to thunderhill and had a little "scenic road" detour I decided to take. See all the battle scars here - http://imgur.com/dCL2x0j ? A little rubbing alcohol, towel, and 5 minutes later, it was *all* gone.


Happy to answer any other questions or things I may not have covered here.

 

[Jinks]

All very good points of interest. I think the vette came out really nice. The shop does remove all the panels.
I wonder if there are detailers who can do paint correction plus fix rock chips and paint flakes. The respray was so poor that the finish is basically lifting of the car in very small sections. Which will need to be fixed by a shop prior to wrapping anyhow. Anybody know a good detailer who also does touch up?

- - - Updated - - -

I had wrapped several pieces and misc parts in the pass. During these years, I had talked to many people from car industry who had their car wrapped etc. My findings are:
You should treat wrapping as a temporary solution, as the wrap itself has 5 years of life for outdoor. They eventually will have to come off or they may leave some residual on your paint which is hard to remove even they claim no residual left, but no guarantee.
Yes, wrapping is cheaper ($800- 2500) than paint job ($2000-6000), but a correct paint job will last you lot longer if you know how to treat them.
You will hardly find a shop who will get you perfect wrapping job, even it does, they use glue which no one guarantee they will hurt or they won't left residual on it. Some shady shop will cut corner to make to job faster = their cutter will slice onto your paint for sure, you won't see it if you don't pay attention.
Wrapping hold up fine under heat weather, but those are panels that are flat such as roof and hood. Any sharp corners or sharp turn surface will soon lift itself such as NSX front and rear bumper.

I suggest you do the following:
1. Find the people who had wrapped their car and later on removed, ask them why they removed.
2. Buy a $20 3M 1080p wrap from ebay, try to wrap a couple piece yourself, you only need fingers and a good cutter to start with, try a hood, a roof or an interior trim, you will quickly learn the property, behavior, and capably of the wrap itself. if you still decided to give your car to someone to wrap it, then you at least have some knowledge to ensure the shop pay attention to the detail that you know it's hard to wrap such as the side intake scoop, front bumper etc.

I am kind of perfectionism, my personal suggestions are:
1. Don't waste your money on wrapping the car unless you have money to burn and waste. Most likely u will remove it one day. Thus, if you plan to do gloss black, it's not as gloss as paint job gloss, you can see the breathing channel if you get close enough. Depends on what kind of bad paint job, you may consider finding a professional to do a paint correction and apply a crystallize layer to protect it, that could cure your issue.
2. Or, at least wrap the hood, roof, trunk, both side fenders f/r yourself, pay professional to do the door and bumpers.

Hope this helps!

Yes, it does help. Thank you for taking the time to explain.

- - - Updated - - -

I don't have the relevant wrapping experience specific to NSX'es - but I did have my 2015 Corvette Stingray wrapped by a very reputable shop out here in the california bay area. It started off black, and I had it wrapped satin white (aka "michael jackson'ed")

Some photos: http://imgur.com/a/smItM

Thoughts:

1) The "proper" way to do this of course, is to wrap the panels when they're off the car. This requires all the panels and bumpers coming off, and with the precise fits and extra labor required to remove NSX body panels, this aspect of wrapping the NSX concerns me quite a bit. A roof/canopy wrap, sure - but a whole car wrap? I don't know if I'd do it. I see so many 02+ conversions done here and the biggest giveway that it is a conversion is the huge gaps left in the front bumper and headlight area - they're uneven and kind of lead me to believe it is *really* hard to put body panels on the NSX back as precisely as they were from the factory. It also bothered me knowing that the major panels / bumpers were taken off, and was placed back with a little bit of thickness added back to it. I felt like the car may have creaked/rattled more afterwards but that could also completely be placebo.

2) The fact they need to take a knife to the vinyl in certain areas of the wrap concerns me a bit, but they have a "knifeless tape" solution now. Some vinyl wrappers still prefer the knife though, and I've seen a few horror stories where the vinyl wrap was removed later down the road and revealed knife marks in the paint. So, do your homework and vet your wrapper very carefully if possible!

3) I elected to wrap my vette a "satin white" - it is neither glossy nor completely matte. Within a week it had picked up a few stains from bug splats (I was careful to carry around a 50/50 rubbing alcohol+water in a spray bottle with a towel in the car to take care of these things as soon as I noticed) - still, even with daily checks, the bug splat had sat long enough to 'absorb' into the wrap - a very faint yellow dot the size of a sunflower seed was left. I was never able to get it out. Might be less prone/noticeable on a glossy finish or darker color, though.

4) On tight corners and areas where body panels rub together, the vinyl will crinkle and bunch up a little bit. This seems unavoidable, unfortunately - within 2 weeks I had some noticeable bunching up in some tight corners of the sharper angled headlight areas. (see here: http://imgur.com/cnP5lKk)

5) On the upside - it's a great way to protect your paint. I took the C7 to thunderhill and had a little "scenic road" detour I decided to take. See all the battle scars here - http://imgur.com/dCL2x0j ? A little rubbing alcohol, towel, and 5 minutes later, it was *all* gone.


Happy to answer any other questions or things I may not have covered here.

Thanks for the detailed response and great pictures. How long did you have the wrap? What is the process of removing all the glue?

 

[91 X]

I've had mine wrapped for almost two years now and it still looks brand new...of course mine is garage kept so that helps. It held up great in the heat in Palm Springs for nsxpo. I had a lot of nsxers coming up to me to talk about my wrap and everyone of them were very impressed by how good it looked and felt. Also, it blows the minds at the local cars and coffee ... I am soooo glad I did it. I shopped around and found a very reputable shop and stayed away from the local commercial type companies that cut and paste signs on vans all day. JC took my advise and used the same shop I did....do the same and use a real wrap shop that specializes in exotic vehicles...I would stay away from the matte type colors and even the satin ones because they seem to stain easily...I went with an arlon automotive gloss pearl white and it has held up really well...one tiny rock chip, ONE.

If you want to do a color change on a car like the NSX, there really is no better substitute for a wrap..it is cheaper then paint and won't kill the value of a painted color change....and in a few years you can just go back to stock or wrap it again in a different color.

Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[kertong]

Thanks for the detailed response and great pictures. How long did you have the wrap? What is the process of removing all the glue?

I had the wrap on the car for about 6-7 months, then traded my car into a dealer for the C4S - c7 was a great car on paper but owning it and daily driving it, it wasn't really my thing..

Interestingly, I traded it in with the wrap, and it was bought almost a day or two later by a new owner. He sounded like a jerk though, he bought the car with the wrap "as is", then got the dealer to call me to get the contact info for the people who did my wrap, and called them threatening to sue if they didn't fix the "wrinkles" in the car and rewrap it. Real piece of work.....

but if you do remove the wrap, the guys who did mine use a blowtorch (carefully with lots of distance) to "warm up" the vinyl and soften it along with the adhesive underneath it, and peel it off gently . They say that after about 3-5 years you should still be able to remove it safely with minimal adhesive left over if any - but anything after that and you're risking it pulling up the clear coat / paint along with the vinyl (this scenario is much more likely too if your initial paint quality is poor or cracked, like the OP mentions): http://sdgmag.com/sites/default/files/resources/3Wrap-Removal.jpg

 

[Jinks]

I had the wrap on the car for about 6-7 months, then traded my car into a dealer for the C4S - c7 was a great car on paper but owning it and daily driving it, it wasn't really my thing..

Interestingly, I traded it in with the wrap, and it was bought almost a day or two later by a new owner. He sounded like a jerk though, he bought the car with the wrap "as is", then got the dealer to call me to get the contact info for the people who did my wrap, and called them threatening to sue if they didn't fix the "wrinkles" in the car and rewrap it. Real piece of work.....

but if you do remove the wrap, the guys who did mine use a blowtorch (carefully with lots of distance) to "warm up" the vinyl and soften it along with the adhesive underneath it, and peel it off gently . They say that after about 3-5 years you should still be able to remove it safely with minimal adhesive left over if any - but anything after that and you're risking it pulling up the clear coat / paint along with the vinyl (this scenario is much more likely too if your initial paint quality is poor or cracked, like the OP mentions): http://sdgmag.com/sites/default/files/resources/3Wrap-Removal.jpg

I really appreciate your insight on wrapping. Although I am so undecided, I would rather get the tears out now...
Have you scored that beautiful ctsc' d formula red yet? You know you want it....

 

[kertong]

I really appreciate your insight on wrapping. Although I am so undecided, I would rather get the tears out now...
Have you scored that beautiful ctsc' d formula red yet? You know you want it....

Glad I can help! Let me know what you decide - if you vinyl wrap it it'll look great for the next few years, but you might have to be extra careful when you do remove it given the current condition of the paint I see that you're in the bay area - if you want I can give you a rec on the guys I used. They're in milpitas though so a bit of a drive for you, and they took about 4-5 days to wrap the vette.

Ha, I am going up tomorrow to go pick up that red ctsc'ed nsx! pending anything unforeseen (major red flags during final inspection or inspector can't make it out in time, or they look at my c4s and reneg on the trade in offer), i'll hopefully drive it back down.

 

[Jinks]

I've had mine wrapped for almost two years now and it still looks brand new...of course mine is garage kept so that helps. It held up great in the heat in Palm Springs for nsxpo. I had a lot of nsxers coming up to me to talk about my wrap and everyone of them were very impressed by how good it looked and felt. Also, it blows the minds at the local cars and coffee ... I am soooo glad I did it. I shopped around and found a very reputable shop and stayed away from the local commercial type companies that cut and paste signs on vans all day. JC took my advise and used the same shop I did....do the same and use a real wrap shop that specializes in exotic vehicles...I would stay away from the matte type colors and even the satin ones because they seem to stain easily...I went with an arlon automotive gloss pearl white and it has held up really well...one tiny rock chip, ONE.

If you want to do a color change on a car like the NSX, there really is no better substitute for a wrap..it is cheaper then paint and won't kill the value of a painted color change....and in a few years you can just go back to stock or wrap it again in a different color.

Good luck and keep us posted.

I always love looking at your nsx pictures. Your car makes me consider wrapping my own car. Thank you for your time posting and leading a way towards my decision 91X.

- - - Updated - - -

Glad I can help! Let me know what you decide - if you vinyl wrap it it'll look great for the next few years, but you might have to be extra careful when you do remove it given the current condition of the paint I see that you're in the bay area - if you want I can give you a rec on the guys I used. They're in milpitas though so a bit of a drive for you, and they took about 4-5 days to wrap the vette.

Ha, I am going up tomorrow to go pick up that red ctsc'ed nsx! pending anything unforeseen (major red flags during final inspection or inspector can't make it out in time, or they look at my c4s and reneg on the trade in offer), i'll hopefully drive it back down.

Yes please forward me info on your wrapping job as my current shop in interest is way out in Sacramento.
Man, you are going to have the best drive home from Sacramento once you pick up that gorgeous Nsx. I will never forget the drive home from Shad's shop under boost. I think your making a very wise decision. Good luck in closing.