How hard is car wrapping ?

[Shane Drew]

Ben, it takes a lot of practice. If you have never done it before, I’d be signing up for a course if one is near you.

It takes a lot of patience, practise, stuff ups and the odd :banghead: before it gets easy enough to be considered ‘hard’ 😮

Don’t mean to be negative, but don’t be confused with what looks easy.

Applying it is one thing, getting the design and measurment right is another thing entirely.

There are a few here that are very good at it, I’m sure they will offer any help that is required.

[Ben Hansen]

HaHa I take it its hard then. Im hopefully going on a course in a few weeks and then maybe Il have a bit more of an idea.

Thanks for your reply, any other opinions welcome

Ben

[Robert Lambie]

hi ben and welcome to the boards mate…
wrapping? 😕 its a big step for signmaker kind. 😉

nah seriously though… how are you at general vinyl application?
by that. how would you lay up a 2ft x 2ft flood coated bit of vinyl covering painted aluminium? wet or dry? not a trick question, just something i need to ask before giveing any decent advice mate. 😀

[Carrie Brown]

Hi Ben

Welcome to the boards.

We will be looking into wrapping courses again next year. Havent had a spare minute this year to really look into anything new. As they say and from reading members posts on other similar threads … practice is everything!!!

Im just about ok with applying vinyl to a flat, very flat, extremely flat surface … just about 😕 …….. wrapping … hmm … got in a bit of a mess having a go at a teeny weeny bit 😕 :lol1: I dont get chance or time to really have a go at the fabrication of signs or applying graphics etc as much as I would like to …… hopefully in time I will get more free time to get more involved?

😀

[Peter Normington]

quote Carrie Brown:

Hi Ben

Welcome to the boards.

We will be looking into wrapping courses again next year. Havent had a spare minute this year to really look into anything new. As they say and from reading members posts on other similar threads … practice is everything!!!

Im just about ok with applying vinyl to a flat, very flat, extremely flat surface … just about 😕 …….. wrapping … hmm … got in a bit of a mess having a go at a teeny weeny bit 😕 :lol1: I dont get chance or time to really have a go at the fabrication of signs or applying graphics etc as much as I would like to …… hopefully in time I will get more free time to get more involved?

😀

Carrie, you should really get more involved, you may even find that you can make a living out of it 😀 😉

[Carrie Brown]

:lol1: Yeh hopefully one day we might just make a decent living out of it!!??

I would like to get more involved but my time gets taken up with all the other job roles involved with the business … admin, designer, cleaner, sales girl, receptionist, canteen girl, customer service girl …. you know how it is :lol1: Plus I work from home quite a bit, so only really spend half of my week at the office/workshop ….. When my lil boy starts nursery next year it will be a bit different, I will have more free time to spend at the office/workshop …… that sounds bad doesnt it …… crikey how mad am I wanting to spend more time there 😮 :lol1: I enjoy what we do though so it never seems like a chore.

😀

[Shane Drew]

quote Carrie Brown:

:lol1: … admin, designer, cleaner, sales girl, receptionist, canteen girl, customer service girl …. you know how it is

😀

Crikey, what does your other half do 😮 He must be feeling a bit insecure right now. All you have to do is master the appliaction side and he’ll be looking for another job 🙄 :lol1:

[Gav]

quote Robert Lambie:

hi ben and welcome to the boards mate…
wrapping? 😕 its a big step for signmaker kind. 😉

nah seriously though… how are you at general vinyl application?
by that. how would you lay up a 2ft x 2ft flood coated bit of vinyl covering painted aluminium? wet or dry? not a trick question, just something i need to ask before giveing any decent advice mate. 😀

At a guess i would say wet.

I have just started on the road to enlightenment so i havent had the joy of doing stuff like this.

Do i win a prize or have i still got alot to learn. 🙂

[Phill Fenton]

quote Gav:

At a guess i would say wet.

I have just started on the road to enlightenment so i havent had the joy of doing stuff like this.

Do i win a prize or have i still got alot to learn. 🙂

You have failed the first question grasshopper. The answer should have been “dry”. You need this wisdom before you can be inducted into the vehicle wrappers craft 😉

Here is your first lesson.

Take a football and wrap it up in christmas paper. Keep practicing untill you can do this without creasing the paper. Once you have mastered this you are ready to move on to the next step 😉

[Robert Lambie]

i know the fastest way to wrap a balling ball…. 😀 two people hold the vinyl out and gently heat the vinyl. get someone else to drop the balling ball into the vinyl being pulled taught. 😉
p.s…. this must be done dry!!! :lol1:

seriously though… 😀

This is “just my opinion”, but…
Ide say don’t waste your time trying to wrap until you can apply something this size dry.
That’s not meant to be insulting in anyway… it is just how I see it. I think moving onto wraps at this point would be a bit of a waste of time and money.
Think about it this way, to wrap & get the best performance out of your materials, it should be done dry. What part/area of a van is only 2ft square? The answer is probably none. The bonnet, roof, side panels etc are large areas… sections of vinyl can be in peaces of about 75inches by 54inchs in one go & need applied over recesses & uneven surfaces. With that in mind, you may see where I am coming from?

[Peter Normington]

For those that are wondering (balling ball…. )= BOWLING BALL
😀
Peter

[Robert Lambie]

:lol1: :lol1: :lol1: :lol1: :lol1: :lol1: :lol1: :lol1: :lol1:

[Andy Gorman]

I didn’t know you spoke Scottish Peter!

Anyways, back to the subject. I personally think you should be a competetent fitter of vinyl onto flat surfaces before you could consider wrapping. It’s very important to understand the feel of self adhesive materials and this only comes with practice. Even after wrap training, an experienced fitter needs to practice a fair bit before they get good at wrapping. It aint easy.

Once you’ve mastered Phill’s football wrapping lesson, then do it with a 16 foot football! 😉

[Robert Lambie]

couldnt agree more andy. god knows how long i have been applying vinyl dry, huge section flood coating, wrapped god knows many flat box trucks, but come to a car or van and its a new ball game. the process is the same, but first time onto a vehicle you ahvent done before and you feel like your starting oout again. well i do anyway… :lol1:
its not only application of the vinyl, the type of vinyl for the job in question plays a big part too… so having tried a few wrap vinyls is always good too.

[Nicola McIntosh]

quote Andy Gorman:

Once you’ve mastered Phill’s football wrapping lesson, then do it with a 16 foot football! 😉

has anyone seen the new slimline maradona? :lol1: he’s still got hands like shuffles 😀

nik

[Ben Hansen]

Thanks for all your replies guys. Cant belive how friendly you are lol. Iv wrapped a van for the boss and thats come out ok, although on the joins its started to bounce back, so i need to use cast vinyl. I applied this wet at first but have been practising dry, any tips on how to apply dry lol ??

thanks guys , il try and get some picture up asoon as

thanks 😀

[John Childs]

We had our first attempt at wrapping last month. You can see the result here….

https://www.uksignboards.com/viewtopic.p … 680#116680

We started with silver cars. I would have preferred to have the whole things printed but there wasn’t time and so we just wrapped the front ends in blue and then applied the black spotty bits as a seperate layer on top. The customer was happy with this as he wanted them quickly and they were only intended to be used for four weeks before being stripped.

The lads that did the work are fairly experienced but, apart from the odd false start on one or two panels, did not have any problems whatsoever. Naturally there was a learning curve and the first car took them a whole day but at the end they had cut that time in half.

One of the boys has since been on a course and says that anybody with a bit of experience would have no problems as the application technique is the same as he has always used, it’s just a matter of learning about the capabilities of the material.

[Lorraine Clinch]

Good day everyone!

I’ve read this post with interest, cos I think car wrapping has got to be the most fabulous thing going to the sign world (not that I’ve had a go-probably won’t for a long long while either).

The thing that springs to mind, reading these posts, is the phrase ‘teaching old dogs new tricks’!

I wondered if, as someone completely new to applying vinyl, it will possibly be easier for Ben to learn wrapping, as he’s not going to have any expectations of how the vinyl is going to be. I should have thought that going on a course is a wise move, though.

[John Childs]

Sorry to disagree Lorraine, but my opinion is that wrapping is so much easier if you have the basic skills already.

It’s probably a bit like asking the cabin boy to navigate an ocean liner on his first voyage. It’s possible, but unlikely to have a favourable result. 😀

[Lorraine Clinch]

Hi John,

Sorry, you’ve read me wrong 😎

I didn’t mean that Ben would be able to wrap with no training (I know I do say some daft things though! 😳 ) but that he might find it easier than someone who has been used to laying vinyl on to flat surfaces (I think wrap vinyl has a different ‘feel’ about it too?

Just the same as someone who is used to doing wraps exclusively may find it difficult at first doing say, err, oh, I don’t know, 4-colour layering perhaps? (All dry!) coz with wraps I think you get a 2nd chance, but not with vinyl on vinyl you don’t!

No good at explaining, but I know what I mean!

[Andy Gorman]

To some degree you are right Lorraine. The first thing I had to get used to when I first did wrapping was to forget the limitations of regular vinyl. Bravery is very important when wrapping, but so is confidence in the material which is very different in many ways from what I was used to.

[Peter Normington]

Andy, I dont really speak scottish, I can however understand most of it,
any problems a just go here http://www.whoohoo.co.uk/scottish-translator.asp
and get it translated.
Peter

[Nicholas Hedges]

Hi Ben,

I’d say ~after the fitting course~ go and spend a few days with the taxi wrapping guys in London. -Sometimes some of them go to the provincials to fit at taxi garage workshops (“Coming to a town near you…” and all that)! I used to work for one a taxi fitting place in London and it’s pretty damn impressive!!

…good luck!

Nic