Constructive criticism regarding wrapping

[Phill Fenton]

Well done Martin – great effect and well presented. I’m just wondering if you removed the sections wrapped over the plastic it would simply look like a beam running across the back of the van and would not destroy the effect. The "body would simply look like it was lying behind the beam. If I was being picky it would be to suggest the body needs to be larger as it’s not quite full size. Never the less – Well done :claps: :claps:

[Martyn Heath]

quote Phill Fenton:

Well done Martin – great effect and well presented. I’m just wondering if you removed the sections wrapped over the plastic it would simply look like a beam running across the back of the van and would not destroy the effect. The “body would simply look like it was lying behind the beam. If I was being picky it would be to suggest the body needs to be larger as it’s not quite full size. Never the less – Well done :claps: :claps:

Thats a good point about the beam, never crossed my mind. Take on board your point about her body it could have been made larger from wheel arch to arch.

My other concern which i didnt list was that it took me 3 hrs with cleaning and heating in. Am i painfully slow or is this a realistic time?

[Phill Fenton]

Whenever I have done a van rear it usually takes me the best part of half a day. Maybe we’re both slow I don’t know Martin?

Possibly someone doing vinyl wraps all the time would be quicker?

[Chris Wilson]

Seems like a good time to me also. Only ever done big vans for back doors and it’s normally half a day.

Did a full rally car the other week and that was 17 hours..

[David Stevenson]

Hi Martyn, Love the van, looks brilliant 🙂 I’ve found that cleaning is super important, especially around the edges. Don’t do that properly and you’ve set yourself up to fail from the start. One thing I’d ask (while no expert) did you prime the bare plastic with anything before wrapping? I wrapped bare plastic bumpers on a berligo once using a primer film made by sott as the material doesn’t stick to it very well. They failed, twice! The plastic had very small dimples on it which allowed water to slowly make it way in lifting the film. Binned the primer film as it was rubbish and ended up painting the bumpers 1st with 3m primer 94. Vans been on the road 2 years without any problems thankfully.

[Martyn Heath]

So expensive materials and long times to fit. Cant see my customers paying for any wraps really but its good advertising for me nevertheless.

So on your rally car chris you charged your full rate for 17hrs or had you under charged on time?

Agree with you on the cleaning david it did take much longer than the usual wipe over with avery. I actually washed the back and then got out the avery. Something i now realise has to happen and time has to be charged for.
No i didnt primer the plastics first, i will see how they get on i may have to take the same step you did. i did paint over some rust patches with metal paint just to give it something to adhere to. Luckily its an old shitter that im just using as an advertising board around my 20 mile working radius.

[Martyn Heath]

Regarding the time you leave the vehicles in optimum temperature once wrapped?

My garage is not heated 24hrs a day so it was brought upto temperature for this job, 1hr before and 3 hrs after then slowly cooled down over the night. Temperature was between 15 and 27C!!!! yes its hard to control with a 20kw diesel heater.
Outside temp was -2c.

[Chris Wilson]

So on your rally car chris you charged your full rate for 17hrs or had you under charged on time?

Charged £0.00 as it’s going to a few shows with us (he says having not booked his place yet and so up to the eyeballs in work I don’t know why I want more) and as experience having not done a full one, just loads of part vans, back doors, but always the bigger ones. We sponsor the girl anyway and did it at night times after work.

To be fair though we did pick up another 6 rally cars once I started showing wee teasers.

[Simon Worrall]

First class job Martyn.

In my opinion wraps are done much too cheaply.
Considering the huge levels of skill required to accomplish, and the very long hours it takes to get it right.
I seem to spend about twice as long as I have quoted for on a wrap.
I dont think I am particularly slow, although there are people on these boards who are much better and faster than me.

And there is so much to go wrong, not only during the wrap but in the weeks and months following delivery, when the mistakes you might have made begin to show up as fails, and have to be replaced.

[David Stevenson]

A problem we notice when pricing for wraps is some people seem happy to use crap materials in order to get the cost down. Personally I don’t see the point been a busy fool working with rubbish materials. Any money saved on materials is spent on time messing around. Used to take ages using a cheap wrap at £12 a metre. Using Oracal 970 or avery supreme times are at least halved and frustration / worry gone

[Bernard Gallagher]

We do loads of rally cars. Very easy to be a busy full & be blinded by the “sure u will get loads of (bad paying[emoji85]) work from this car.
My accounts guy got me to follow this for pricing
1) Design (most designers are charging £400) some design can take days.
2) Add your mark up on your wrap allowing for your operating costs, ink, wages, heat & light, Printer & laminator Wear & tear this can be surprising.
3) fitting we charge per hour per man. We allow 2 days for most wraps. 1st half day stripping handles. Lights etc & cleaning. 2nd day finish wrap, rebuild & post heat which is as important as cleaning.

Here a video of my favorite full wrap
https://www.facebook.com/296444654466/p … 67?sfns=mo

[David Stevenson]

Lovely job Bernard, great video. Always wondered who done the work on John’s rally car. I fit all the advertising graphics for his cars in L-Derry

[Chris Wilson]

quote Bernard Gallagher:

We do loads of rally cars. Very easy to be a busy full & be blinded by the “sure u will get loads of (bad paying[emoji85]) work from this car.

Not what I was meaning, I couldnt comment as didn’t charge.

However sticking to a similar formula as to how we calculate if I had charged full price we would of over charged by £130 if I stuck to the hourly rate. So quids in.

[David Hammond]

We stick mainly to commercial, partial wraps, rather than full wraps, especially on cars.

We can make more doing a partial wrap, than what some of the local ‘wrappers’ do on a full wrap. As some have already pointed out, the time involved stripping & cleaning, before even applying the vinyl. Then there’s the boy racers who want to pay as little as possible, but expect a paint like finish.

The mechanic sent over a couple the other week who wanted their roof wrapping, and the car dechroming. I explained it’s not really what we do and put a price I thought it was worth to me, I was £30 dearer, but as I don’t do it all day, everyday it wouldn’t a quick job. I suggested they speak to another company who wraps vehicles daily.

They returned earlier this week, mithering about having two characters printed and cut, and put on the sun visor… expecting us to do it there and then.

Anyway they’ve got their wrap done, £100 cheaper than anyone else… however looking at the car there was no wrap on the roof :rollseyes: Ahhh yes, "he tried doing it, and the vinyl snapped when he was applying it, so he’s ordered more oracal vinyl, and it’s not turned up, and he needs to order some spray, so the vinyl doesn’t stick until it’s heated with a heatgun."

I pointed out that in the 8 years I’ve been in the industry I’ve never heard of any such spray, and if he’s using the oracal wrap film, he probably shouldn’t be using a spray at all, shook my head and directed them to another local company who may be able to print the file whilst they wait, and do it for £10 :bangshead:

We no longer guess prices, we work out materials + time, and if the customer doesn’t like it, they can go elsewhere :thumbsup:

[Martyn Heath]

quote David Stevenson:

Hi Martyn, Love the van, looks brilliant 🙂 I’ve found that cleaning is super important, especially around the edges. Don’t do that properly and you’ve set yourself up to fail from the start. One thing I’d ask (while no expert) did you prime the bare plastic with anything before wrapping? I wrapped bare plastic bumpers on a berligo once using a primer film made by sott as the material doesn’t stick to it very well. They failed, twice! The plastic had very small dimples on it which allowed water to slowly make it way in lifting the film. Binned the primer film as it was rubbish and ended up painting the bumpers 1st with 3m primer 94. Vans been on the road 2 years without any problems thankfully.

So after a week the plastic area is failing as you said. Do you think HT vinyl for low energy surfaces would do the job or shall i just go straight to the primer?

[David Stevenson]

quote Martyn Heath:

quote David Stevenson:

Hi Martyn, Love the van, looks brilliant 🙂 I’ve found that cleaning is super important, especially around the edges. Don’t do that properly and you’ve set yourself up to fail from the start. One thing I’d ask (while no expert) did you prime the bare plastic with anything before wrapping? I wrapped bare plastic bumpers on a berligo once using a primer film made by sott as the material doesn’t stick to it very well. They failed, twice! The plastic had very small dimples on it which allowed water to slowly make it way in lifting the film. Binned the primer film as it was rubbish and ended up painting the bumpers 1st with 3m primer 94. Vans been on the road 2 years without any problems thankfully.

So after a week the plastic area is failing as you said. Do you think HT vinyl for low energy surfaces would do the job or shall i just go straight to the primer?

Hi Martyn. I tried using a plastic printer film made by sott. It was incredibly sticky and without a doubt the most hateful material I’ve ever used, apparently designed for this purpose but still failed. Done them with 3m primer 94 and thankfully hasn’t moved. Also broke them down into a few pieces to relieve the tension. You need to get it right 1st time though as it grabs pretty well.

[Martyn Heath]

ok i will go down that route. Thanks for your help :thumbsup: