[clg82]

I don't mean the clear PPF that we've all heard about, I'm talking about a full color change. I don't plan on doing it myself, I'll leave it up to the professionals but wanted to get everyone's thoughts first. If you have done it post it up, and post your thoughts good/bad/otherwise on wrapping your car.

[Corbs09]

I have wrapped a few cars.. a couple of things to consider:

-Who you have wrap the car makes a big difference, dont go for the cheapest price or you will be disappointed when you remove it and see cut marks all over your car
-Be realistic with how long it will last. Most wrap jobs stay looking good for 2-3 years max
-It will be expensive (4-5k)
-If it scratches, you will need the panel re wrapped
-If you are keeping the car outdoors, the wrap will last about half of the time it should

[Mac7504]

How does it affect the paint under it? Suffice to say it will not look good after removal?

[clg82]

Originally Posted by Mac7504

How does it affect the paint under it? Suffice to say it will not look good after removal?

My ZL1 is a garage queen, so I would expect that the wrap will last longer than they predict. But to answer your question, I have watched the same place that I would have do my wrap, remove one and the paint underneith looks flawless. They said the only time they have problems is when the car had either been in a wreck that the owner was unaware of and had a bad paint "redo", the wrap may peel the bad paint job off when being removed. If it's stock paint there should be 0 issues with removal.

[clg82]

Originally Posted by Mac7504

How does it affect the paint under it? Suffice to say it will not look good after removal?

From speaking with the shop, it has 0 affect on the paint underneath it. Unless there is some unknown "paint repair" that was done in the past that wasn't good there should be no issues.

[Camaro1973]

Originally Posted by Corbs09

I have wrapped a few cars.. a couple of things to consider:

-Who you have wrap the car makes a big difference, dont go for the cheapest price or you will be disappointed when you remove it and see cut marks all over your car
-Be realistic with how long it will last. Most wrap jobs stay looking good for 2-3 years max
-It will be expensive (4-5k)
-If it scratches, you will need the panel re wrapped
-If you are keeping the car outdoors, the wrap will last about half of the time it should

Expensive always doesn't mean better.... You can buy good vinyl and a shitty install or vice versa.



You don't need a razor to cut vinyl btw. Knifeless finish line can be used on most of the car. Good wrap lasts much longer then 2-3 years. Also, there's self healing wrap, I have it on my car scratches are a thing of the past.

[clg82]

Originally Posted by Corbs09

I have wrapped a few cars.. a couple of things to consider:

-Who you have wrap the car makes a big difference, dont go for the cheapest price or you will be disappointed when you remove it and see cut marks all over your car
-Be realistic with how long it will last. Most wrap jobs stay looking good for 2-3 years max
-It will be expensive (4-5k)
-If it scratches, you will need the panel re wrapped
-If you are keeping the car outdoors, the wrap will last about half of the time it should

Thanks for the thoughts Corbs. I have found a reputable shop that will do it for a starting price of 4K. They mentioned it all depends on what film I go with. They claim the wrap is "self healing" like PPF. Is that untrue? The car is a garage queen so I should get pretty good time out of it.

[Camaro1973]

Originally Posted by clg82

Thanks for the thoughts Corbs. I have found a reputable shop that will do it for a starting price of 4K. They mentioned it all depends on what film I go with. They claim the wrap is "self healing" like PPF. Is that untrue? The car is a garage queen so I should get pretty good time out of it.

I just explained about self healing 3m 1080 wrap above

When heated, or just heat from sun many imperfections vanish.

[clg82]

Originally Posted by Camaro1973

Expensive always doesn't mean better.... You can buy good vinyl and a shitty install or vice versa.



You don't need a razor to cut vinyl btw. Knifeless finish line can be used on most of the car. Good wrap lasts much longer then 2-3 years. Also, there's self healing wrap, I have it on my car scratches are a thing of the past.

I believe the shop that I’m going thru does some sort of a “fishing line” to cut the vinyl. What color did you end up going with? And how long did it take for them to do?

[Corbs09]

Originally Posted by clg82

I believe the shop that I’m going thru does some sort of a “fishing line” to cut the vinyl. What color did you end up going with? And how long did it take for them to do?

I have wrapped a handful of cars, and some good buddies own a wrap shop that I frequently hang out at. The film is self healing to an extent. Heat will remove swirls and light scratches, but not everything. What you are referring to is called knifeless tape, 3m makes it and it is essentially a thin line in between two really thin pieces of tape, you lay it down before you wrap the panel.

I agree that expensive doesn’t always mean better, I always recommend going to a shop in person and seeing them wrap a car, the tools used and the cleanliness of their shop before signing up for anything. A good shop will be happy to take you on a tour.

Every time I have removed a quality film from a car with no paintwork it has come off and the paint underneath was exactly as it was before I wrapped it.

[KaMaRow]

Not sure this will help but Ill add my story for consideration. I have always been against ppf ( I know that is not wrap but its a film and my story would be same for ppf or wrap ) for several reasons. One its costly and any ding or what ever I would get without it can be fixed for a fraction of the cost among other things. Well I got a new supra and against my better judgement my wife insisted we get ppf on the hood and front end. I argued against it but lost. So I paid someone 1200 to do the front end and hood. On way home car in front of me kicked up a rock and it punctured and dented the hood( Im sorry at 80 miles and hour with a sizable rock coming dead bang in the opposite direction not even ppf is gonna stop it). so almost immediately 1200 bucks out the window. The issue is now with the ppf punctured only way to fix is to completely remove and reinstall which aint happening as i just dropped 1200 bucks not 10 mins before this happened. And to top it off with the ppf on the car the dent cant be fixed. SO I have now been living with a torn ppf and dent on my hood for the last year because there was no way i was ripping off 1200 worth of ppf. Anyway never again with films or ppf. Sure they look great but when something does happen they are gonna cost your azz to fix on top of the cost to install. If I had not had PPf on the car I could have had the dent and paint chip fixed for less then 100 bucks instead im living with a dented and torn 1200 ppf that to replace would cost another 1200 plus the dent repair. Not worth it.

[Gunkk]

What will really bake your noodle is when you realize that if you hadn't done the PPF you wouldn't have been driving home at that time on that road when the rock was kicked up.

[vampire]

i did my corvette and would do it again

[Idaho2018GTPremium]

Originally Posted by KaMaRow

Not sure this will help but Ill add my story for consideration. I have always been against ppf ( I know that is not wrap but its a film and my story would be same for ppf or wrap ) for several reasons. One its costly and any ding or what ever I would get without it can be fixed for a fraction of the cost among other things. Well I got a new supra and against my better judgement my wife insisted we get ppf on the hood and front end. I argued against it but lost. So I paid someone 1200 to do the front end and hood. On way home car in front of me kicked up a rock and it punctured and dented the hood( Im sorry at 80 miles and hour with a sizable rock coming dead bang in the opposite direction not even ppf is gonna stop it). so almost immediately 1200 bucks out the window. The issue is now with the ppf punctured only way to fix is to completely remove and reinstall which aint happening as i just dropped 1200 bucks not 10 mins before this happened. And to top it off with the ppf on the car the dent cant be fixed. SO I have now been living with a torn ppf and dent on my hood for the last year because there was no way i was ripping off 1200 worth of ppf. Anyway never again with films or ppf. Sure they look great but when something does happen they are gonna cost your azz to fix on top of the cost to install. If I had not had PPf on the car I could have had the dent and paint chip fixed for less then 100 bucks instead im living with a dented and torn 1200 ppf that to replace would cost another 1200 plus the dent repair. Not worth it.

You would only have to replace the panel that was damaged, in this case, the hood. I doubt that would be more than a couple hundred $$, certainly not the cost to redo the entire front of the car. I have Xpel PPF on my ZL1 (entire front, hood, fenders, in front and behind the rear tires, mirrors, and door trim), and 5,200 miles into it, the front looks like a new car, minus the grille that has a couple of tiny rock chips because it can't be covered. I have one ding in the PPF on the hood that hasn't self healed, but the paint appears undamaged underneath, so it did its job. Because of the PPF it just looks like a normal small rock chip. Without PPF that would have been a serious rock chip prominently displayed on the hood.