Home Forums Sign Making Discussions Vehicle Wrapping Thinking of doing a Vechicle Wrap Course

  • Thinking of doing a Vechicle Wrap Course

    Posted by Craig Ross on 13 August 2010 at 15:38

    Hey,

    I’m interested to widen my skills and learn to vehicle wrap properly.

    Is there any trainers or business anyone would recommend that they have heard about or have done themselves.

    Thanks in advance.

    Craig Ross replied 15 years, 1 month ago 10 Members · 30 Replies
  • 30 Replies
  • Peter Normington

    Member
    13 August 2010 at 15:55

    Graig, many people from the boards have done the grafityp or roland courses.
    the tutor in both cases has been James Deacon, I did mine back in 2007, along with Rob Lambie.
    excellent course over 2 days, and James is second to none as a tutor.

    He is back with Grafityp now, not sure if James still does the Roland courses.

    Peter

  • Matty Goodwin

    Member
    13 August 2010 at 16:06

    Hi Craig

    As Peter rightly points out, James is your man!

    There is a lot of fitters who wrap who also teach, like myself, but we can’t certificate.

    If you contact Nigel at Grafityp I’m sure you will find out all you need to know. They have been known to teach at your premises too!!

    Matt

  • Martin Pearson

    Member
    13 August 2010 at 16:38

    Craig, if you do a search on the boards you will see that this question has been asked quite a few times and the answers are always the same as Peter’s post.

  • Craig Ross

    Member
    13 August 2010 at 16:40

    Okay I’ll look into it. 🙂 I’m quite excited.

    How much does it cost in material to vinyl wrap a car usually if it was one colour for example?

  • Matty Goodwin

    Member
    13 August 2010 at 17:39

    Hi Craig,

    Experience determines vinyl usage. A good fitter fits once.

    Surely you can use a tape measure to see how much vinyl you need?

    Sorry if this sounds negative but what are you after?

    Matt

  • Chris Wool

    Member
    13 August 2010 at 18:19

    apa do a free course 2 day if you buy a fair amount of stock.
    my son did this and found it very good mainly cos james was running it.

  • Matty Goodwin

    Member
    13 August 2010 at 18:45

    Chris….You shouldn’t have posted that….Is James moonlighting…? 😳 😳

  • Lynn Normington

    Member
    13 August 2010 at 20:27

    Matty I wouldn’t have thought so he works for his self.

    Lynn

  • Matty Goodwin

    Member
    13 August 2010 at 20:31

    IT WAS A JOKE LYNN!!!!!!!!

  • Lynn Normington

    Member
    13 August 2010 at 20:33

    sorry Matty sense of humour a bit hay wire, late dinner 😀

    Lynn

  • Matty Goodwin

    Member
    13 August 2010 at 20:56

    No Probs!! Hope Peter cooked something nice…x

  • Peter Normington

    Member
    13 August 2010 at 20:58
    quote Craig Ross:

    Okay I’ll look into it. 🙂 I’m quite excited.

    How much does it cost in material to vinyl wrap a car usually if it was one colour for example?

    Average say between 10 and 15 m linear m depending on size of car and width of vinyl.
    cost for colour change also varies with material between £6 psm and £30 psm

    Peter

  • Peter Normington

    Member
    13 August 2010 at 21:00
    quote Matty Goodwin:

    No Probs!! Hope Peter cooked something nice…x

    Frozen fish pie mate, we both lent a hand, Lynn got it out of the freezer, I put it in the oven

    Peter

  • Robert Lambie

    Member
    13 August 2010 at 21:07

    personally, ide measure it.
    dont just measure the side and say ex-amount of vinyl for this side, ex-amount for that etc…
    look at where your bumpers start and stop. panel joins and so on… hard to describe, but sometime panels come round from the rear joining onto the side. so you need extra vinyl to come right round each side.
    also, sometimes its helpful if you allow extra play in the panels for areas with weird, deep recesses like some sports car headlight areas and the like…
    i was looking at one today. has lots of bits and bobs that will need done separately to do it right. again, hard to type and explain… im crap at it at the best of times. 😕 :lol1:
    as matty says, you really should only need to do it the once, but regardless, ide still add a few metres more at least, "just in case". yes, the vinyl can be expensive, but you shouldn’t really be doing the job at the price, if you cant allow for £50 of extra vinyl. if you do manage it in one go and no waste, then bravo, you now have spare vinyl for the next job. so decent mark-up and some extra stock to boot! 😉

  • Matty Goodwin

    Member
    13 August 2010 at 21:15

    As Rob says, allow extra. As a freelance fitter we don’t get that luxury!

    Customer buys in the vinyl, often wrong media for the job, we have to deal with it!

    Peter, was it Admirals pie or fishermans pie?

    Matt

  • Lynn Normington

    Member
    13 August 2010 at 21:21

    Mariners Pie 😀 it had sweetcorn as well

    Lynn

  • Gill Harrison

    Member
    13 August 2010 at 21:28

    I came across something earlier in the week that I think is worth mentioning when doing colour change. If your wrapping a larger vehicle in any metallic and if you need to overlap then try not to rotate the vinyl as metallic vinyl has an orientation and could show a shade different………..its not noticeable enough to affect the colour from panel to panel only if the vinyl actually overlaps.
    I hope that made sense 🙄

  • Craig Ross

    Member
    13 August 2010 at 21:28

    Thanks for all your help people. Much Appreciated. 🙂

    I’m just trying to get a general gist of what is required.

    Should be good to learn.

  • Robert Lambie

    Member
    13 August 2010 at 21:41

    I’ve not used a dusted metallic vinyl in a good few years. does it still snap as easy when stretched?
    I remember getting some cheap stuff in some years ago, but before that it was a long time back and was cast only from Spandex. always found it snapped much easier when stretched, so wondering how the wrap stuff is?
    ide imagine these issues maybe all gone nowadays, so just asking out of curiosity.

  • Nicola McIntosh

    Member
    13 August 2010 at 21:45
    quote Gill Harrison:

    I came across something earlier in the week that I think is worth mentioning when doing colour change. If your wrapping a larger vehicle in any metallic and if you need to overlap then try not to rotate the vinyl as metallic vinyl has an orientation and could show a shade different………..its not noticeable enough to affect the colour from panel to panel only if the vinyl actually overlaps.
    I hope that made sense 🙄

    awh right that will explain silver vinyl doing the same then gill? 😀

  • Gill Harrison

    Member
    13 August 2010 at 22:05
    quote :

    awh right that will explain silver vinyl doing the same then gill? 😀

    After I’d looked into it it seemed common sense really but it highlights the importance of keeping a check on any print on the backing paper :lol1:

    Just shows every days a school day :lol1:

  • Peter Normington

    Member
    13 August 2010 at 22:12

    you also need to make sure when using carbon fibre that the "grain" runs in the same direction, the boy racers can be so picky!

    Peter

  • Matty Goodwin

    Member
    13 August 2010 at 22:14

    Your right Gill…

    Any metallic/silver vinyl has a ‘matching’ side, as the carbon vinyl does.

    Can’t see it to the eye until fitted then ‘WOW’ oh, yes it does!!

    Matt

  • Nicola McIntosh

    Member
    13 August 2010 at 22:19

    well as gill says you learn something new every day….and i just have, when your busy you just get on with the job in hand, and the distraction goes out the window :lol1: and it is so bloomin obvious now when think about it 🙄

  • Robert Lambie

    Member
    13 August 2010 at 22:35

    i had a problem with a customer when i did a 20ft x 5ft Dibond sign.
    The panels were two full sheets making up the sign. Both in a sort of Silver finish.

    once the sign was up, you could see one panel was a different colour to the next. i had to agree with the customer when he wanted it fixed.

    i called Europoint (at the time)
    two new sheets, double checked from the same batch, arrived next morning.
    i took them outside in the sunlight and the same thing again!!!
    Cameron arrives a few hours later after i called complaining.

    he asked me to cut a a thin black line of vinyl about 5ft long…

    he walks outside and calls me to come out.
    he asks, "does that look a different colour to that?"
    my answer was "yes"

    All he had done was stick the line of vinyl from the top of a single sheet down to the bottom. same sheet, just a line of vinyl down it…
    the weird thing was, he was right, looked like two different shades of silver.

    might, might not be the case with vinyl… and door joins being the line…

  • Peter Normington

    Member
    13 August 2010 at 22:44

    Rob,
    not quite sure what you mean,
    I do know that if using sheets of dibond, you need to align them the same way that they came out of the rollers, the protective film has arrows printed on it, indicating the direction that the sheets should be placed.
    so I assume that they look different if placed the wrong way round?

    Peter

  • Robert Lambie

    Member
    13 August 2010 at 22:57

    :lol1: Peter, trust me on this. forget what sheet is aligned to what direction etc etc i understand the theory behind this… not knocking anything, just what happened with me.
    at the end of the day i took the same sheet of dibond cameron did the example with, the same line of vinyl down it. shown it to the customer and he said same as me, different colours. i ripped the line of vinyl off it and his chin dropped. he then accepted the sign i had on the building above his head…
    so i didnt have to replace anything.

  • Peter Normington

    Member
    14 August 2010 at 06:09

    Rob, thanks for the explanation,
    that’s quite weird,
    Peter

  • Ezekiel Ikhinmiwn

    Member
    20 August 2010 at 09:33

    Now that is weird *hair*

  • Craig Ross

    Member
    30 August 2010 at 09:14

    Right, going to book myself a nice fancy course.

    But I am now stuck between which company..

    GrafityP or William Smith.

    Which do people recommend?

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