I was thinking about having a little vinyl work done on my car to change up the looks a bit. Shops around St. Louis want $350-$400 to do the roof (which seems excessive for a 4 by 6 surface), $300 for the door handles, and $150 for the mirror caps. Anyone have experience with wrapping cars? Why does it cost so damn much? I'm tempted to try installing the roof panel myself.
I just pay the pros. I tried to tint my own windows once in high school and realized very quickly why the labor was so high. I have some colleagues that have wrapped their own vehicles for their business' and all regret it and ended up paying a pro eventually. Not saying it can't be done, in fact, I'm sure someone with enough time and patience could absolutely do it. I just don't have the patience for it. YMMV
Tinting...no Wrapping the roof, I would give it a go myself. Lots of videos out there. I would try 3M 1080 vinyl wrap as that seems to be the most n00b friendly wrap. The worst is that you don't like it or it didn't come out great and you pull it off. Then you can probably try the harder things like the mirror caps, etc.
I do 3/4 wraps on my service vehicles, and it's spendy. Just wrapped two Ford Transits, and they were about $3k each. Pretty sure it's just labor intensive.
I was coming here to say it's too damn expensive. I was going to get my van wrapped - it would have cost nearly as much as I paid for the van itself!
I just called a wrap place to get clear put on the front of my daughters car. He said they don't do that with wrap, it was a clear bra and goes on dry vs. wraps go on wet? I'm waiting for a quote back but was surprised he guessed $700-1200. I thought that was high and he said if I only do the front bumper it would be less and that is what takes the most damage. Anyone have experience recommendations on clear bras on the front?
Wraps do not go on wet. Avery is a little more user friendly than 3M. 3M has more of an initial bite and sticks more initially. Avery you can move around and position a little better before you start squeegeeing down the material.
My son owns a vinyl business out here on the west coast and specializes in motorcycles, track side needs, etc. I can tell you that the labor is huge. Not because they charge a ton per hour but because it takes a lot of time to do it right. When he first started, learning, it would take a couple of DAYS to do a belly pan. Now he can do a belly pan in a couple of hours (or less, depends on complexity). That is just a belly pan which is a fairly simple piece. As far as materials, there are both wet and dry install materials for both clear and printable material. You can even print on clear material but it tends to suck if you don't apply to a very light colored unit. Cheaper than getting a paint job done and the graphical abilities of vinyl is pretty damned impressive but it is not CHEAP.
I paid 800 for the entire front end of my truck, the bottom of the kick panel inside all 4 doors and behind all 4 wheels. boggles me how they got this shit into so many small spaces. Whoever did mine was an effin pro I could never come close.
Most vinyl wraps take a light spray of water before application. Not soak the car with a hose wet, just misting. Your prices are pretty much in line with everything else. Go watch them install sometime....the work to get it on with no wrinkles is pretty intensive. Wanna guess how much this wrap ran us? hahaha
Track wraps used to be a business. Not sure they still operate, but their hook was ease of application. The wrap could literally be balled up and flattened back out again.
My quote started at 625 front bumper only. Then another 300 for partial Hood, Fenders, and mirrors. I said I'm thinking about it and he came back with $850 cash for everything and a strip on the back bumper to alleviate scratches from loading/unloading. Quote was for XPEL and comes with 10 year warranty. Edges will also be wrapped.
xpel ultimate or extreme I believe is the good stuff. if it's a lease, i wouldn't do it. and if I was going to do it, I would do the entire hood and fenders, because I would hate to see that line where the "sticker" ends.
Doing a roof is pretty easy, especially if it doesn't have a sunroof. Avery products are more forgiving then 3m. The 3m di noc carbon is really nice and goes on fairly easy. Having a torch and a squeegee with felt on it makes the world of difference. I have wrapped bikes, cars, vans, a lot of the results are in the prep work like paint. We have always used prepsol. I have the whole front of my cx5 done. Bumper, whole hood,headlights, fenders, mirrors, a pillar, door cups, door sills,and rear bumper sill. I paid the local shop $1700 for all of that using xpel. Good shops will use software that pre cuts the vinyl so you have super clean edges. I think it's a worthy investment as most of my miles are on the highway and I keep my cars until they are dead. I have 0 nicks in 35k miles.
Roof or hood, do it yourself. I wrapped my R6 tank and that was a pain in the ass with all the curves and bends. A flat area would be cake in my opinion. Get some vinyl primer to use around edges, it'll help keep them down if there is a compound curve at the corners.
I had the roof on my car wrapped in the 3m carbon, $300. It is expensive but I have tried wrapping before and it ain't easy. Pay the pros.
I did my Jeep with vvivid wrap (found it easier to work with over 3m and avery) and it was simple but also flat. Also did the Jeep in 3M clear which was a pain doing alone. Did the front of the wife's Acadia alone with no issues with 3M clear. I did it myself mainly because closest place to me that does wraps is 65 miles away.
Go get a quote from Alpha1Vinylworks in the St. Louis area. Roofs are easy unless you have a PITA car like mine with a difficult to remove shark antenna. Using a high quality air release heat activated wrap is 90% of the battle.
