Vehicle wraps

Any idea what the going rate is on vehicle wraps in comparison to die cut vinyl?

I'm looking to put some "sponsorship" on my car, and of course the logo turns out to be multicolored, and would be hell to set up with die cut vinyl. It's a case of where the "sponsor" is a local charity that I believe in. Seeing as how I don't have any real sponsors, I thought it would be good karhma to plaster the charity's name on the car. Since I'll be footing the bill, I'd like to keep cost down. I could do one color vinyl, but the logo looks far better in color.

According to the issue of "Hot rod" where they just did a multi page write up on them, a basic one color wrap goes for I think they said $3500 and up... a multicolor one is around 5k.

andrave wrote: According to the issue of "Hot rod" where they just did a multi page write up on them, a basic one color wrap goes for I think they said $3500 and up... a multicolor one is around 5k.

Wow. The film itself isn't that expensive - according to my large format media supplier - like less than $100/car. I can see where it could take a decent amount of design time to model the shape and get the cuts/print right for big areas or complex shapes.

There's an article in the latest issue devoted to it. I'm not sure if it goes over prices, I haven't read the article yet.

It's a ton of labor. From that article, I'd never attempt one myself.

Contact Erron Spalsbury at www.stickyvinylgraphics.com. He is a friend of mine, a hard core racer, and supplies a lot of race teams. Lots of experience, and will work with you.

I was just discussing this with my mechanic yesterday, as he had a local, prepped e30 track car in his shop. He mentioned that the owner is going to have the car wrapped soon. I asked him what the cost is going to be and he said it is going to be ~$1500 and will be white with the BMW ///M colors. He also said something about that being for "2 year vinyl".

I volunteer with Big Brothers and one of the local vinyl shops did a bunch of "sponsor" decals for my car free of charge. It's worth it to ask around. The Big Brother's office just had to send him a digital file of the logo.

the hot rod article was for "5 year vinyl" btw if that makes a difference.

It was a very informative article, for me at least.

Thanks folks. The company I work for actually has a sign shop, where we can do the die cut for the cost of the material. I was more curious about the vehicle wrap due to the complex colors and such of the design. A local place is getting into the vehicle wrap business and is looking to practice doing it. Just got off the phone with them. Said they'd do it for $400 installed. That is a lot for my budget, but seems like a fair price. The say the advantage to doing a wrap is the smoothness of the lines, where die cut, every edge creates a bump.

link to article

sachilles wrote: Thanks folks. The company I work for actually has a sign shop, where we can do the die cut for the cost of the material. I was more curious about the vehicle wrap due to the complex colors and such of the design. A local place is getting into the vehicle wrap business and is looking to practice doing it. Just got off the phone with them. Said they'd do it for $400 installed. That is a lot for my budget, but seems like a fair price. The say the advantage to doing a wrap is the smoothness of the lines, where die cut, every edge creates a bump.

I wonder if you could talk them into "donating" the wrap, given the charity logos you'll be running.

It would give them a) practice b) exposure for their new business venture/service and c) a writeoff for taxes.

Carson wrote: There's an article in the latest issue devoted to it. I'm not sure if it goes over prices, I haven't read the article yet.

Not a whole article; that's still coming. There's a quick preview in the tech section, and I'm working on a story for the full install. Here's the cliff's notes...

Usually when talking about my vinyl job, there are two questions. 1) It's not paint? 2) How much?

The first question is easy. Nope, it's vinyl. The second question is harder, and it really depends on a lot of factors.

First is the quality of material. The good stuff (rated at 5 years of outdoor use, pliable enough for compound curves, UV resistant, good adhesive that won't release or damage the paint underneath) is about $1200 for a 50 yard roll. Not inexpensive. If you've got a big car, it's gonna be pricey. A little car like my Miata uses less material. Bob at Bargain Signs has messed with some cheaper stuff, but after some bad experiences now swears by 3M products. Sometimes you get what you pay for.

Second is complexity of installation. Flat surfaces are easy and can be covered quickly. Curvy sports cars can be a real PITA to cover without wrinkles or ugly seams. This can mean additional installation costs, and the learning curve is too steep for me to recommend a DIY approach. Mistakes are expensive.

The design phase can also be pricey. It's not just about a pretty picture, there's can be trial and error involved that can lead to more material costs.

In the end, I'd say the Hot Rod estimate is a little high, but not ridiculous. Costs are pretty comparable to a real paint job, but depending on the complexity of the design it can be much cheaper. It also starts to make a lot of sense if you're trying to preserve original paint while changing the look of your car. You should also consider the repairability of vinyl; replacing a body panel is completely doable.

I think the materials will start getting cheaper in the future, and in a few years custom paint will be rare in race applications.

...sorry for the long post, but I've become a total fanboi for the vinyl stuff.

Sachilles, why not simply get a printed version of the charity's logo and use that? It's a big step to wrapping the whole car when all you need is four-color printing.

Hot Rod is probably assuming a fairly large car in their costs

It's a very cool way to get a very complex look in a quasi-temporary manner, and I think Tom's right about competition cars going that way in the future. At the very least, it'll be because of the ease of repair. Rub up against someone and you just slap another big sticker on the side of the car. I gotta tell you though - when people find out the Martini stripes on my car are paint, they look at the car with more respect

The hot rod application doesn't make sense to me, because they could have actually painted their car with a finish that would surely last more than "5 years" for what they paid (or didn't pay, as the case more likely is).

For a racecar I agree wholeheartedly that vinyl makes far more sense. They even go into that some in the hot rod article, about being able to save the graphics and replace them one panel at a time if need be due to accident damage.