vehicle wrapping: porsche

[Peter Normington]

Alex
Thats a good job, what material did you use?
and did you need to "patch" the front bumper, looks very difficult around the grills to do .

Peter

[Alex Wilson]

Hi Peter

The only vinyl we could use was purchased from Hexis. part of their KPMF range (Many thanks to Mark Monksfield of Hexis for all his running about with samples). All the other samples we tried lost opacity when stretched over the front & rear wings and you could see the silver through the vinyl. We patched in the front grill area and the rear number plate section as I did not want them pulling out. Other than that 3 days of hard work really paid off. Customer was over the moon and went of with a handful of business cards.

Kind regards

Alex

[Paul S Martin]

Great Job Alex

Paul

[Cheryl Smith]

Kewl….

[Neil Davey]

quote Alex:

Other than that 3 days of hard work really paid off.

Alex

Looks good to me but……..

Forgive me, with all the attention wrapping is getting on the site these days and I’m not being nosy here but 3 days of hard work at what cost to the customer?

Is wrapping really worth the trouble and effort…….? 😕

Neil

[James Martin]

looks great in that colour

[Alex Wilson]

Hi Neil

For me yes..lol This is part of a job that involved vinyl graphics on 3 of his business vehicles,the Porsche and their main shop sign which included built up letters & logos fully LED lit. Total job was somewhere between £6000 and £8000+VAT. You will excuse me if i do not give an exact total as I have other local companies who quoted on this job and I do not want them knowing my quote..lol.

I understand what you are saying about wrapping and the prices people charge but I find this type of work quite a challenge to my skills and am happy to charge good money for what gives the customer a great end result. If I was charging for this as a 1 off I would want between £1500-£2000+VAT. The owner got a price of over £3500 to respray orange and when he finished his promotional work in a couple of years would need to pay the same again to have it back to silver this worked out reasonably cheap for him. Although for me it was not bad for 3 days work baring in mind the KPMF material was not like buying a Wrapping film & Laminate which would need to be charged extra for. I just wish someone would let me loose with my digital printer on their car..lol

Kind regards

Alex

[Neil Davey]

Thanks for the reply Alex, it’s good to see you’re charging what would amount to a realistic and profitable price for all the hard work you put into the job.

Still don’t fancy doing this type of work though, I’ll spend hours with a brush in my hand pushing paint around!!!! Each to their own aye 😀

Neil

[Alex Wilson]

Hi Neil

This i going to sound really sad but i find doing this type of work very relaxing. I think we spend so much time doing the day to day work that when something like this comes up you have to enjoy it.

Kind regards

Alex

[Nicola McIntosh]

nice job done alex 😀

nik

[Neil Davey]

Hey Alex, I’m not knocking it mate…….. 😀 I’m just the same if something that isn’t ‘run of the mill’ comes along.

Don’t know about you but I’m terrible for saying ‘yes’ to unusual work and then when the customer has left I start thinking ‘right, now how am I going to do this’….. 😮

Just glad your not giving your work away.

Neil

[Alex Wilson]

Hi Neil

Could not agree more mate no point in being a busy fool!. I like to think there is not a lot we would not take on but we know our limits and there are only 2 of us…ll

Its just nice having a challenge now and then. But you are right in that you do have to be realistic.

Many thanks for the kind words everyone. I should get round to posting some more work.

Alex

[Richard Urquhart]

First class !!!!!

[Phill Fenton]

Nice one

And even better if it was something you enjoyed doing as well as getting paid for it.

I often find myself pitching in with a keen price if it’s a job I really want to do. Conversely, jobs I am less keen on tend to be priced a bit higher to make the hassle factor worthwhile

[Karl Williams]

Love it! 😉 3 days or 4 days…….If it’s a quality job when complete it’s worth all the time spent on it. Plus the referrals should be well worth it too.

[Robert Lambie]

well done alex, job looks great mate…

Ill be honest, i find wrapping a complete vehicle really takes up my time and unless i am allowed to do it without interuption and at my own pace it kills the joy of doing the job for me. with this in mind, if i have to do a wrap, i always price it as i think it should be and thats with a very good profit margin.
my opinion of wraps as a signmaker is that the good quick money is in part wraps complimenting cut vinyl lettering/graphics. there is just far to many cowboys out there doing it for nothing just to dip their toe into this side of our trade. by then it is too late… the damage is done…. 🙄

[Jason Xuereb]

Very nice work.

[Alan Drury]

Good job on the Porsche.
I too have my reservations about wrapping. I look at loads of wraps as I go about my normal business and I have yet to see ANY that haven’t either popped out of a recess or have faded or both, that doesn’t mean to say all are in the same area or have been done by the same people. I think that full wrapping is verging on being overated and that at best partial wraps would be the most profitable and ordinary vinyl can be more profitable still and far less hassle. As a small signmaker working primarily for other small companies not many of them would even consider the cost involved being worth it. I wonder how many companies who have had full wraps continue with them in the future.
Alan D

[Alex Wilson]

Thanks for all the comments everyone.

t does seem that from some of your comments that wrapping has lost its wow factor already and the cowboys have kicked the backside out of it. I suppose if i thought about it would i have taken this on as a one off job without all the other work involved with this client. Wrapping a vehicle is hard work and if you are not costing for the prep work and the time it takes to do the job properly then what is the point of doing it. I have seen a lot of wraps & cut vinyl popping out of recesses lately so maybe their are a lot of cowboys out there at the moment. I for one would walk away from doing a cheap job if it meant cutting corners i knew would come back to bite me later on.

Kind regards

Alex

[Alan Drury]

I don’t think it’s even a case of cowboys doing this stuff I think it’s more a case of the materials not being as flexible and easy to use as they (manufacturers) would have you believe. I can believe the media performing well in exact, controlled conditions, I just wonder when any of us fixed vinyl in the perfect conditions the manufacturers specified, if this is the case then we will always see the wraps failing one way or another and for the money they obviously must cost it can only lead to less than satisfied customers.
Alan D

[Alex Wilson]

hi Alan

Interesting!

I hope for everyones sake you are wrong on that one…lol. I did one wrap on a smart car about 6-7 years ago and that is still going strong with the KPMF vehicle wrap. I have also done a few part wraps with the Hexis easy apply which must have been 6-8 months ago and have not had any bad feedback on that. I must admit though I have not done a full digital wrap yet so I think our LWB Relay and Berlingo may have to be the first.

Kind regards
Alex

[Jason Xuereb]

They are proper an improper techniques when applying any vinyl in deep recesses, channels and so forth. Any time you are stretching the vinyl you are going to risk a failure. As a vinyl/wrap applicator we can minimise the potential failures by using the proper techniques.

I’ve been to companies who ask their clients to clean the vehicle and don’t do any prep work whats so ever and when theres a failure they put the blame on the cleaning. Having a clean vehicle is the most vital part of the durability of the wrap.

I’ve seen applicators do whole vans and smaller cars by themselves in 3 hours. So there is a viable market in the industry and like anything else in the industry you must be setup to benefit from it. It would be like our company at the moment consider a cnc machine when it wouldn’t make a big enough return on our investment. In wrapping you also have to invest in the training along with the equipment or outsourcing either.