Vehicle Wraps [NA]

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Mtns2Skies

Final Approach
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Mtns2Skies
Oh wow not a thread about my EV... craziness.

Has anyone here ever gotten a vehicle wrapped? How does it hold up over time? Does it do okay in the rust belt or will it damage the underlying paint?

I actually use my truck on trails and for hauling (pics for proof), so I'd like something durable. While I do love the color of my truck as a copper, I've always lusted after the desert tan color that Tacoma's and Colorado's come with, so that's an added perk of the wrap.

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I thought about it on my wife’s RX350. The quotes came back around $7K, so I passed.
 
Wraps won't hurt the underlying paint in the short term, but it will impact the clear coat over time. You have a material adhered to the surface of the paint that is constantly expanding/contracting with the body panel, so there will be abrasion over time. The higher-quality wraps will last 5+ years, but cheaper stuff will start to fade in a shorter period. For as expensive as a quality wrap is, you could have the car painted. The only time I would recommend wraps is when you want/need some type of graphic art for advertising or a design that would be prohibitively costly/difficult with paint. Also, unless you want the resale value permanently dropped, don't rhinoline/line-x/etc your paint, even though I've seen instances where it looks great.
 
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I too had a few wrap quotes and the price was ridiculous. I had a few areas or my car wrapped in clear as I knew the gloss black would take a beating. Even that was crazy expensive for what it is. As long as you don't get any major scratches a good buff and wax job will fix light scratches from overgrowth off roading for far less money. As far as long term damage. I wouldn't expect there to be any from the wrap it's self. Might take a good buffing to clean the paint after removal. The key is to keep an eye out for damage or bubbles in the wrap. As soon as it occurs it needs to be fixed so it doesn't trap moisture.
 
My service truck is a partial wrap. 6 years in and one side has been replaced due to sun wreaking havoc. The other side needs replacement for the same reason. I've brushed up against shrubs and the scuffs definitely show way more than paint. Maybe my guy is using an inferior product. But the manufacturer warranted it
 
I like my color
but I'm a little bit stuck
it's probably my fault
for driving a ford truck


I can haul stuff in my truck
cause I don't have a bed cap
gonna buy a tan chevy
and that's my vehicle wrap

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Unless your advertising a product ,can’t see why you would pay the outrageous prices
 
I thought about doing wrap on the Model X around key areas (tire self inflicted) but an entire wrap? Nah, not worth the money.

Drive with a good gap between vehicles will minimize chips. Touch up paint on hand when that fails.
 
Velocity173 said:
I thought about doing wrap on the Model X around key areas (tire self inflicted) but an entire wrap? Nah, not worth the money.

Drive with a good gap between vehicles will minimize chips. Touch up paint on hand when that fails.
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The 3M Clear Bra type applications are decent if you're just trying to to minimize rock chips and such on the front end. They're pretty imperceptible when applied correctly. Doesn't work for changing paint color though.
 
Mtns2Skies said:
Oh wow not a thread about my EV... craziness.

Has anyone here ever gotten a vehicle wrapped? How does it hold up over time? Does it do okay in the rust belt or will it damage the underlying paint?

I actually use my truck on trails and for hauling (pics for proof), so I'd like something durable. While I do love the color of my truck as a copper, I've always lusted after the desert tan color that Tacoma's and Colorado's come with, so that's an added perk of the wrap.

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Nice looking old Cub Cadet! What year?
 
Racerx said:
This would keep the carjackers away...
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I had a fiiiiiine Toyota Corona that looked about like that except the doors were mismatched colors under the rust. One big college weekend thieves stole batteries out of cars parked to either side and left mine untouched. Not sure whether it was out of concern or sympathy. If wraps had been available I'd've done it in matte black and added gunports.

Nauga,
and the rolling rustblock
 
Half Fast said:
Nice looking old Cub Cadet! What year?
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Late 60's Cub Cadet 122. I ended up putting a blower on it for snow clearing, it was a gift from a friend.
Hangar also came with a pristine early 70's Cub Cadet 108 that I use for mowing and as an airplane tug... so I haven't paid for either of them :D... but they match the era of my plane for sure.

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Nice! Those old Cubs were great little tractors. The new Cubs (I have one) are half plastic and are stamped out in the same Chinese factory as all the other brands. I’m happy with it so far, but I don’t expect it to last like those old ones.
 
Half Fast said:
Nice! Those old Cubs were great little tractors. The new Cubs (I have one) are half plastic and are stamped out in the same Chinese factory as all the other brands. I’m happy with it so far, but I don’t expect it to last like those old ones.
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That's what happens when MTD buys up most of the mower brands, lol.
 
SoonerAviator said:
That's what happens when MTD buys up most of the mower brands, lol.
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Truth!

We looked at several brands and most of the differences were cosmetic, often just in the molded plastic. Frames and decks were mostly the same.
 
soilboy said:
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Looks interesting, and the prices are much easier to swallow than the pro jobs - even if it is DIY. OTOH, the FAQs say you can expect it to last 3 years - which is not
good enough IMHO.

Last week I saw a Tesla Model 3 with a professionally done wrap job. Looked great - but Chartreuse? Yuk! In related matters I note that even Tesla is offering wraps
these days on select models. As the owner of a plain vanilla 2023 Model Y I might be interested if the price were reasonable - but they are in line with the pro jobs,
So no thanks.

Dave
 
I had a great wrapped professionally in the past. A black car will be cheaper to wrap. Then you have to decide if you want the jambs done as well. I think i paid 3k for the job and it was Avery Denison product. Held up really well and I would do it again in a heart beat.
 
We started doing wraps on fracking equipment many years back. For those who aren't aware, the color of your equipment is a BIG deal in the patch, and the paint color is very specific to a particular brand so they can be identified from a long way out. In any case, our paint subcontractors were always backed up and there was cure time involved as well, so that added delay to getting the equipment shipped out the door. We had custom wrap templates done and had some of our assembly crew trained to perform the wrap process which got rid of a day or two of lead time. It did NOT save money over having g a 3rd party paint them though, as the internal labor and materials were more expensive than the paint cost. It was just a stop-gap for us to help push a few more units through the door each month. It did let us do some cool prototype wrap designs for marketing and trade shows.
 
172andyou said:
Pics or it didn't happen.
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Lol, well I didn't take any pictures of it back then so it must not have happened, but equipment like this (although we generally only wrap the fluid end, not the power end). We did a few carbon-fiber patterns, matte black or metallic stuff. Often for displays at OTC and similar energy trade shows.

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SoonerAviator said:
Lol, well I didn't take any pictures of it back then so it must not have happened, but equipment like this (although we generally only wrap the fluid end, not the power end). We did a few carbon-fiber patterns, matte black or metallic stuff. Often for displays at OTC and similar energy trade shows.
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Did you only wrap part because of physics (e.g. heat) or cost or aesthetics or something else?
 
172andyou said:
Did you only wrap part because of physics (e.g. heat) or cost or aesthetics or something else?
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Mainly just complexity of the surface of the power end. More bolts/flanges and welds in addition to radiused areas makes it easier to just paint. The power end is also much larger, physically, which adds to cost. There's a sales volume aspect to it as well, since the fluid ends are more consumable so the power ends tend to last much longer in the field which means you sell fewer of them and can generally not be volume-constrained for production/paint. Fluid ends are eaten up by pressure (+40K psi)/corrosion after a few thousand hours for stainless steel. Tough to see in that pic, but a fluid end is about the size of a large office desk and is a solid block of milled stainless steel. The power end is about the size of a golf cart and gets attached to a 2000-3000HP diesel engine or electric motor. To keep it related to the Toyota Tacoma, a frac pump like that weighs about as much as 3 Tacomas, lol.
 
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SoonerAviator said:
Mainly just complexity of the surface of the power end. More bolts/flanges and welds in addition to radiused areas makes it easier to just paint. The power end is also much larger, physically, which adds to cost. There's a sales volume aspect to it as well, since the fluid ends are more consumable so the power ends tend to last much longer in the field which means you sell fewer of them and can generally not be volume-constrained for production/paint. Fluid ends are eaten up by pressure (+40K psi)/corrosion after a few thousand hours for stainless steel. Tough to see in that pic, but a fluid end is about the size of a large office desk and is a solid block of milled stainless steel. The power end is about the size of a golf cart and gets attached to a 2000-3000HP diesel engine or electric motor. To keep it related to the Toyota Tacoma, a frac pump like that weighs about as much as 3 Tacomas, lol.
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Very interesting, thanks.

Since we're mostly americans here and refuse to use metric, can I propose that we switch the official weight metric of PoA to Tacomas? We already count money in AMUs. I've been referencing time lately in Oppenheimers. e.g. A one hour flight would be a third of an Oppenheimer.
 
172andyou said:
Very interesting, thanks.

Since we're mostly americans here and refuse to use metric, can I propose that we switch the official weight metric of PoA to Tacomas? We already count money in AMUs. I've been referencing time lately in Oppenheimers. e.g. A one hour flight would be a third of an Oppenheimer.
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Lol right up there with "banana for scale"
 
At some point in college a friend suggested that we could use the standard beer as a unit of measure. It can work for weight, cost, volume, even time and potentially even subjective things like boredom and attractiveness.
 
Off topic but what do you all think about the faux rust paint on old cars? I honestly don’t get it. Same thing I’ve seen on new houses in my area. Why fake something to make it look not only old, but an unattractive characteristic.
 
Velocity173 said:
Off topic but what do you all think about the faux rust paint on old cars? I honestly don’t get it. Same thing I’ve seen on new houses in my area. Why fake something to make it look not only old, but an unattractive characteristic.
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Can't imagine why you'd want to fake "patina".
 
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