To Paint or Wrap your Pro-Touring Car?

[tyoneal]

Hello:



I am planning for the outside colors and graphics of the Grand Sport Corvette I'm building and I wanted to bounce some questions/ideas off you all to get your thoughts on this.

Many of you have seen it already, but I will post one of the rendering pictures of the car so for those who haven't it hopefully will give you something to visualize.

Regarding coloring my car, by Painting it, wrapping it or both, since I am going to drive this car (with any luck at all) quite a bit, on and off the road and area tracks, I'm thinking of going ahead and wrapping the car. Here are the reasons why: (Pro's)

1) Faster

2) Less Expensive (2-3k)

3) Durable

4) Easy to repair if you bugger up on single piece.

5) Easier to change designs/colors if you wanted to.

6) Don't have to worry about matching paint and fixing paint

7) Good enough for Race Cars (Which most of our Cars are types of Race cars, unless the owner just doesn't drive them how they are built to be driven) become Good enough for these Cars.

8) From the people who have used them for quite a while, they mention that "IF you do indeed have a nice paint job on your car, a wrap will do wonders for keeping the shine and finish of the paint underneath in good shape".

Now for the Con's I have thought about so far.

1) Doesn't look as nice as a painted car? (From what I'm told the finish on a wrap if done correctly looks great up to about 3-5 feet away, then you can tell it is not paint.)

2) Hurts the value of the car? (Maybe, if you didn't take the time to put a $15k Paint job on it.) I don't know about this one.

3) Feel free to add anything else you can think of.

I hope some of you will consider taking the time to give this some thought. As a Auto-X, Pro-Touring, Track/Street car, I just haven't seen this question really come up before.

Thanks in advance,

Sincerely,

Ty O'Neal

I'm going to try and get some additional information on some other sites. what ever comes up that is interesting, I'll bring over here for you all to consider.

[coolwelder62]

I am also thinking of doing the something on my next P-T project.A local company that wraps gave me a quote for around 3500.00 which is about 1/2 what I paid to get my new camaro painted.On the first 2 drives I got large chips in the fresh paint.Now I will have touch up spots on it.Which sucks since I am getting ready to try and sell it now.I like the Idea of the wrap,If you are building something you think you might be wanting to keep.Good luck,Scott M.

[vintageracer]

I think a "Wrap" is going to be the future for those of us that want unique looking car to drive, race and ENJOY. A wrap is certainly NOT for a "Waxer" or those wanna be's that build a high end car just to go Cars & Coffee to let folks OOH and AAH over their car. To make a wrap look good you still must have the bodywork and primer work on the car virtually paint ready to make the wrap look slick. As the quality of wrap materials continue to get better with respect to installation and longevity the skill of the installer will continue to be key to making a wrap look it's best. Nothing seems to change. Whether or painting or wrapping the skill of the painter or wrapper still makes a HUGE difference in the appearance of the finished product.

If you are a waxer PAINT IT!

If you are one of us WRAP IT!

[tyoneal]

I am also thinking of doing the something on my next P-T project.A local company that wraps gave me a quote for around 3500.00 which is about 1/2 what I paid to get my new camaro painted.On the first 2 drives I got large chips in the fresh paint.Now I will have touch up spots on it.Which sucks since I am getting ready to try and sell it now.I like the Idea of the wrap,If you are building something you think you might be wanting to keep.Good luck,Scott M.

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Scott:

Thanks for the thoughts. You nailed one of them right on the head In addition to this, a buyer could always change the color of the car for pennies the dollar to their own taste. Plus some of the special retro or other special paints jobs I've seen would cost a fortune to execute well and would take a long to time to get done.

Thanks again,

Ty

[tyoneal]

I think a "Wrap" is going to be the future for those of us that want unique looking car to drive, race and ENJOY. A wrap is certainly NOT for a "Waxer" or those wanna be's that build a high end car just to go Cars & Coffee to let folks OOH and AAH over their car. To make a wrap look good you still must have the bodywork and primer work on the car virtually paint ready to make the wrap look slick. As the quality of wrap materials continue to get better with respect to installation and longevity the skill of the installer will continue to be key to making a wrap look it's best. Nothing seems to change. Whether or painting or wrapping the skill of the painter or wrapper still makes a HUGE difference in the appearance of the finished product.

If you are a waxer PAINT IT!

If you are one of us WRAP IT!

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Vintage Racer:

Your Motto at the end sounds like it could be from a condom commercial. I think I do agree with you especially for those whose cars make a Historical Reference of some kind. I just finished painting my Riviera and it was not cheap by any stretch, However it was painted to look elegant and stock, so in those cases I don't thing anything looks better than a nice paint job.

I am hoping some of the members who strive to attend as many of these competitions, as possible will give there thoughts on whether or not their next.

Thanks,

Ty

[NJSPEEDER]

If you are sick in the head about weight the wrap is heavier.....just sayin

If you are going for a complicated look like graffics or a lot of colors meeting then I would say wrap it. The wrap is more durable and you can just reprint and replace any portions that get scuffed up.

If the goal is to have a clean single color show finish then paint it and bury everything in clear for protection.

-Tim

[vintageracer]

HERE is why you want to WRAP IT!!!!!

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/4p8cbE...?v=DOR9-FXdIm0

[Snake Eater]

Wrap it

[Snake Eater]

And I love the concept, very sweet.

[tyoneal]

HERE is why you want to WRAP IT!!!!!

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/4p8cbE...?v=DOR9-FXdIm0

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LMAO: God, of all the things I was expecting to see this floored me.. This was hilarious!

Nice one.

Ty

[tyoneal]

Forgot quote with response.
Thanks again.

Ty

[tyoneal]

If you are sick in the head about weight the wrap is heavier.....just sayin

If you are going for a complicated look like graffics or a lot of colors meeting then I would say wrap it. The wrap is more durable and you can just reprint and replace any portions that get scuffed up.

If the goal is to have a clean single color show finish then paint it and bury everything in clear for protection.

-Tim

==========================
Tim:

Thanks for the post. You make a good point.

About the time I really get sick in the head about putting weight on my car, I'll go straight to the GYM and start with the weight I put IN the car.

I've been lazy about that issue.

Thanks again.

Ty

[tyoneal]

And I love the concept, very sweet.

Snake Eater:

Thanks for the encouragement.

Ty

[BigMal69]

I say wrap it. I am in the same place with my camaro and have decided to either wrap or go satin black vs. getting a full out paint job. I paid almost $6K for my last paint job and chipped it up pretty bad.

[zombiekiller]

i read this thread and reached out to a few shops around nashville.

i was freaking SHOCKED at the pricing. the LOWEST price that i got was almost 3 grand!

The body shop manager at the local ford dealer ( and they do nice work, they fixed my truck when I was rear ended) offered to paint my car whatever factory ford color that I wanted for $1800 if I pull the trim for him. This includes fixing some dimples and imperfections.

I can't figure why I would opt to wrap the car for almost double the cost.

[vintageracer]

The going rate that I have continued to see for a wrap is $9.00 per square foot of wrap used. This can change slightly based upon the amount of color used in the wrap design.

[tyoneal]

I went through a similar thing years ago with a 69 Camaro and a very pretty Black Paint Job with several coats of Pearl Red over the top, and the Stripes were Candy Apple Red. (It was the 1970's what can I say) but, I opened the door one afternoon and hit the bell housing off a turbo 400 transmission, and it gouged about a quarter size piece of paint out of the door.

I learned very quickly Custom paint is a bitch to match without repainting a big part of the car and that if you want to use the car and paint the car, NEVER use a Custom color or a process that requires multiple steps. Paint a OEM color and buy touch up paint and live with the scratches. Now at least there is another choice, Wrap the damn thing and rewrap what gets screwed up.

I Always felt sick to my stomach when I saw that big gouge in the door, and I didn't like driving the car around because I was always afraid something would happen further to it. Any car from now on will be designed within these constraints. Why spend $15,000 on something that worries you 24/7 and that it takes away any pleasure you could be enjoying when your out in a project you spent hours and hours working on, and had spent 10's of thousands of dollars on?

I agree with you, Wrap It?

Ty

[Happyfunballs]

Every try to remove a wrap/sticker after it's been baking in the sun for a couple years? Once you do remove it, the paint underneath will be destroyed. Something to consider. Haven't seen one yet that looks good....always see the seams, always wrinkled. I don't get it.

[tyoneal]

i read this thread and reached out to a few shops around nashville.

i was freaking SHOCKED at the pricing. the LOWEST price that i got was almost 3 grand!

The body shop manager at the local ford dealer ( and they do nice work, they fixed my truck when I was rear ended) offered to paint my car whatever factory ford color that I wanted for $1800 if I pull the trim for him. This includes fixing some dimples and imperfections.

I can't figure why I would opt to wrap the car for almost double the cost.

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Zombiekiller: Try speaking to some chain stores in the larger cities around where you live. The cleaning company I use had all their vehicle completely covered to include the windows, and I asker her what it cost to wrap her, "Cube" car. She said about $1500 once you have the artwork done. She did hers on her PC, then turned it in. It was copies and the dimensions were taken. The company has the shapes and sizes of all major cars. They lay over the art work then have printers that will go and create all the parts that will be assembled on you car.

Once ordered it takes a couple days, then a day or so to have it attached to the car. She has had the car now for a couple years and it still looks great. I was really surprised how well you could actually see out of the windows. From one side there is a picture of an Asian cleaning your home. From the inside everything is slightly tinted, but you have no visual image from the other side. It is just cool.

Try some of the bigger chain stores and see what they have to say about things. Remember also she did her own artwork. I not sure of the program she used, but it came out real nice.

Ty

[tyoneal]

The going rate that I have continued to see for a wrap is $9.00 per square foot of wrap used. This can change slightly based upon the amount of color used in the wrap design.

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That makes sense.

Any idea how many square feet are in a 1st Generation Camaro?

Thanks,

Ty