Wrapping a smart car door

[Chris Wilson]

I wonder this about a great many vans/cars. I do one wonder if designers actually think about the end result of a van. That I will be used by a business.. that wants to advertise. Old style kangoo’s are the worst!!!

All vans should be VW caddy shaped.

[Simon Worrall]

I agree Pane, this recess is almost a guarantee of wrap failure.
The one smart car we ever wrapped, we decided to cut along the recess to release the stress on the vinyl, and painted a matching colour of one-shot inside the groove to future-proof our work.

[Daniel Evans]

Wrap straight over it and forget about it. If vinyl text then I tend to trim but I do my best to avoid it.

[Kevin Mahoney]

quote Chris Wilson:

I wonder this about a great many vans/cars. I do one wonder if designers actually think about the end result of a van. That I will be used by a business.. that wants to advertise. Old style kangoo’s are the worst!!!

All vans should be VW caddy shaped.

Worst offender is the god awful Mercedes Citan,
Got a customer who buys a new one on the same day every year & has the dealer deliver it directly to my house so I can take it to work & he only sees it wrapped. I beg for no more but he loves the damn things.

[Robert Lambie]

I think i have only done about 4 smart cars in my life. Only one was a 100% wrap, 2 part wraps and 1 cut graphics.
I know the recess you mean. not sure if it is the new ones, but could be wrong.

From memory…
I fed the vinyl into the recess which caused a slight puckering of the media to one side, which i applied heat to relax the vinyl again and lose the puckering, i then progressed to apply. This isn’t always possible and can depend on what you are wrapping with and the design you are working with. if done wrong you can distort the image if its intricate or text.

if it is cut text, then you can feed the letters in and out but dependent on where the recess hits the letters, your alignment of the text at the base line or top may run up and down.

To be honest… the recess is easy enough to stretch or inlay into, dependant on quality of media used, but its the little tight ridge thats the real problem. sometimes slitting and inlaying the graphic is the best solution long term. but its always better to explain this with the customer when the job comes in. because it could be something like white text with the black hairline showing. however with the wrap, again leaving it bridging the little line, not full recess, is another option.

As i say, i am sure there are more than one Smart Car recess on the door, so i am hoping i am talking the same one as its been years since i did one. :smiles: