What is a vehicle wrap?

A vehicle wrap is a process where digitally printed self adhesive material is stretched over the surface of a vehicle?

Who gets a wrap done?

Typically businesses use wraps to advertise their goods and services. Lots of businesses find that a vehicle wrap compares very favourably to other advertising mediums - newspaper advertising, yellow pages advertising etc., particularly because of the long lasting nature of the graphics.

What is the process?

After a short consultation period to determine what artwork is best for you we print your design onto a 1.3 metre wide white self adhesive vinyl using a 1.5 metre HP Latex wide format printer. This vinyl is a superior stretchy vinyl which the sign industry call cast and the ink from HP, currently the market leader in large format printing.

Can all vehicles be wrapped?

In short, yes, however if the paintwork is of an inferior quality, has rust or bumps then our material will only mask these issues. The material is only 2 microns thick so deep gouges and large imperfections will be able to be made out. We cannot wrap over textured pieces of trim, moulding or rubber seals.

How long will the wrap last?

Some sign companies give different life spans for your wrap, however we like to be honest and realistic and say that if the vehicle is taken care of and washed carefully by hand with luke warm water and a mild car shampoo (with absolutely no solvents), then you will get three years out of your wrap, infact more than likely much more if you really take care of your car like. The material that we use is from a very reputable manufacturuer and retailer http://www.hexis.co.uk and is actually a 7-9 year vinyl, however the inks that 90% of the sign industry use and we use will start to fade after 3 years. We use Latex inks from http://www.hp.com. Anything with solvents, polish, tar and glue remover, wax and any form of abrasion like jet wash or car wash should never be used.

Is the wrap laminated?

Some sign companies laminate, some do not, some give their clients the option. As a rule we do not laminate. Please tell us if you think your wrap requires additional protection. We can laminate your wrap but possibly because our clients budgets are less than in other areas of the country most of our clients opt not to have their wrap laminated. A laminated wrap will be upto 50% more expensive than an unlaminated wrap. Lamination does protect the material, however if you look after your vehicle and do not jet wash or run your vehicle through a car wash then lamination could be seen as an unnecessary cost by some clients.

How perfect is the wrap?

A wrap should not be compared to or be thought of as a replacement for an excellent paint job and in our opinion should be used to convey an advertising message. We do not undertake single colour replacement wraps on clients private vehicles as the perception of perfection somewhat exceeds what is actually possible.. As we are stretching extremely sticky and awkward material over all the contours of your vehicle, very occasionally slight imperfections may be apparent on very close inspection. The most common imperfections are tiny 1-2mm crows feet type wrinkles, these occur very seldomly but can appear where the material has been heated and stressed over the curviest or most difficult areas of the vehicle. We always attempt to remove wing mirrors, trim, windscreen wipers etc to aide the fitting process but if we feel that we can't confidently remove a piece of the cars outer attachments then we will not.

The material we mostly use has unique bubble free technology so bubbles shouldn't be an issue, however if for any reason your wrap has a few micro bubbles left these will normally dicipate over a few months under warm conditions. As we are wrapping your vehicle in a workshop environment we cannot 100% eliminate dust contamination. We obviously thoroughly clean your vehicle with tack rags and then clean it with a two part process which is a degreasing agent then standard thinners to remove stubborn traffic film. Older vehicles may have dirt and dust in areas which we cannot reach, typically around wheel arch trims, door seals etc, on these occasions it may not be possible to secure the vinyl perfectly up against these items and back trimming may be necessary.

Van Panels

On nearly all vans there a recesses or raised welded joints in the main panels. On around 50% of occasions, on new vans and old there are situations where the material will not stay pushed into these areas. This can be because your van may have had a hard life and still has imperfections even after a thorough clean or in the case of a new van it may be because it has been waxed or polished or has a Diamond Brite style protective coating. Where this happens we may have to trim a 3mm tram line right in the recess, this will show a tiny sliver of the paintwork through the wrap. If we do not do this then the graphic will bleb and fail. We must reserve the right to do this, although we do obviously try and avoid it.

Joins

If your wrap relies on a join or an overlap to tile a piece of artwork there may be occasions when the material does not join 100% perfectly. We normally suggest that it could sometimes be out by approx 2 -3 mm, this is because the material is so stretchy and conformable that it becomes impossible to perfectly piece up with the previous section. We obviously strive for perfection but we feel it is important that you know the truth. There are generally very little tiling issues if your vehicle is completely flat like a boxed transit, luton or catering trailer, these vehicles are wrapped using less stretchy material and are much easier to join.

Where the material goes over a door join or a gap in the body work we obviously have to trim this area and tuck the excess material behind the join. It may be necessary to trim the vinyl back 1-2mm from the edge of the door or join. This is done to limit the chance of the vinyl lifting over time. This may show a tiny section of the original paint work underneath the wrap. It may not be necessary to do this and we always avoid trimming back but we must reserve the right to do it, obviously for all the right reasons and intentions.

We like to think that our clients use common sense and view their wrap the same way as a member of the public would, from a distance of over 10-12 feet.

We do hope to hear from you soon and invite you to view our extensive portfolio which has many, many satisfied customers.

Thank you for your time

Steve Cogdon

Proprietor

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