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 1.3 metre wide white self adhesive vinyl using a 2 metre Mutoh wide format printer. This vinyl is a superior stretchy vinyl which the sign industry call cast.

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 not 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 soapy liquid, like Fairy liquid, then you should get three years out of your wrap. The material that we use is from a very reputable manufacturuer and retailer http://www.hexis.co.uk and is actually a 10 - 12 year vinyl, however the inks that 90% of the sign industry use and we use will start to fade after 3 years. We use Eco Solvent inks from http://www.itlgb.com. Solvents, polish, wax and hard abrasion should never be used.

Is the wrap laminated?

Some sign companies laminate, some do not, some give their clients the option. We give our clients the option. 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 30% 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. 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 areas of the vehicle.

The material we use has unique bubble free technology so bubbles will never be an issue.

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 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 no 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