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Wrapping – A cheaper alternative to paint?
I seem to be getting more and more enquiries from people wanting me to wrap something, be it a vehicle, a snack bar or even shelving. When questioning their reasoning for wanting a wrap the reply is mostly "because it’s cheaper than painting it".
I’ve always mantained that wrapping was an alternative to paint – but not necessarily cheaper. It has advantages over paint in that you can print on it and it can be removed again at a later date to revert back to the original finish. On the other hand painting would be a more permanent and longer lasting solution.
Am I wrong to think that wrapping is not a cheaper solution than painting. Should an accomplished wrapper be capable of carrying out this task for less than the cost of an accomplished sprayer?
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6 Replies
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Good point Phil, most customers that come into our shop are under the impression that wrapping is far cheaper that getting a respray. In all truth when we done our wrap course we were told it was a cheaper alternative to a quality paint job. However the reality is, there are so many spray shops round here spraying full vehicles for £500 – £1000, wrapping is no longer (if it ever was) a cheaper alternative to getting a vehicle sprayed. However you only get what you pay for and im sure you would be able to tell the difference between a £500 spray job and a £2000 spray job 😀
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Hi Phil
We generally find in our location that a straight basic colour change is dearer to wrap than a spray job. That said the quality of the cheap spray jobs are usually poor but people don’t seem to be bothered with that? (when I know what response we’d get if we turned out a less than perfect wrap job!!)
If done properly then prep time seems similar for both spray/wrap, thereafter I’m guessing the spray can be done quicker than the wrap. I don’t know how materials costs compare but I can sort of see why the spray could be cheaper.
But as we say to our customers that’s not the point of the wrap – why go for a standard basic gloss colour when wrapping can give you 100’s and 100’s of colours, effects and finishes simply not available with paint? (and as you say can be removed, or can have printed parts etc.)
Cheers
Macky -
I think a lot of it is down to peoples perceptions, you could paint a car with a tin of gloss from a hardware store & a brush but people know that’s not a very good way to do it & most people wouldn’t even consider it (I say most because I know people who have done it). They have seen the right sort of paint in Halfords & it’s not that cheap to buy.
Vinyl to them is just sticky back plastic & you can buy it on ebay very cheaply, we know it’s not the right stuff but I don’t think a lot of them do. From that perspective a wrap is going to be pretty cheap from a materials point of view compared to the expensive paint from halfords.
Unfortunately I don’t know what the answer is, I do try to educate customers but I am sure some of them think you are making it up lol
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i was speaking to a go about wrapping his car for him, was talking to him about different products etc and what finish he was after and his reply was, as cheaply as possible (aint that what they all say!) i asked him how much his budget was and he told me..
wait for it…
£150! 😮
i laughed and said you must be joking right? you need to be adding another digit on the end of that!
his reply was, but you can get the material on ebay for £50..
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as a spray painter ( retired) its like vinyl you get cheap paint and good paint, and the £500 full respray boys wont be going into too much detail with prep etc
full respray u may have primer £15 a litre prob take 2 for a full car
basecoat £40 a litre require at least 2.5
then laquer around £15 a litre f, or decent stuff plus you rhardeners n thinners.
then you rprep materials. dome properly a respray should be far mre costly than wrapping, altough you can get cheap wrapping films, i wrapped my own e46 bmw and would much rather paint one! ( as i have to do after wrap removed lots of laquer lol)
paint will also last much longer.
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i laughed and said you must be joking right? you need to be adding another digit on the end of that!
his reply was, but you can get the material on ebay for £50..
OK so lets say you buy the materials for £50, how long did he think it would take for you to complete the job?
If he budgets £100 for your time & profit he is either expecting you to wrap the whole car in a couple of hours or he believes there is absolutely no skill in what you do & expects to pay below minimum wage.
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