PSA: don't ever WRAP your car - EVER.

[Deschodt]

Caveats: unless it's a race car, the paint is hopeless, it's a delivery van or a domino's pizza truck. Then sure.

Otherwise, dumbest idea we ever had, and costly too..

We decided to try a wrap, as my wife never liked the black color of her Q7 which showed multitudes of scratches, and it cost 1/4 of a paint job (especially a color change) and 1/15th of buying her another car. Still not cheap at $4K + coating. I can see why, there is a lot of labor taking bumper, trim, lights, reflectors, handles apart... We were told you put some ceramic coat on it and wash it often and it should last 4-5Y. We went Nardo grey, it looked fantastic for about 3 months...

Ok, so disclaimer - my wife isn't exactly a car washing person but regardless, the stuff acted very porous from the get go. Pollen, bird poop, anything yellow/brown stuck to all horizontal surfaces and would not come off at all if not caught within minutes. Car sleeps outside. 15 mo later, we're impersonating the AfrikaKorps, specifically Rommel's personal transport.





Yeah that stuff is there to stay, does not come off - at all, clorox is the only thing that can do 50% off (on inconspicuous areas) but not exactly something you'd put on your car. The car looks abysmal, so off we go asking how much to pull the thing off... Because of course, the 2 y warranty does not apply if you do not keep the car in a air purified chamber dust free with 10x coats of ceramic a year... it's our fault apparently that the wrap is completely porous...

The installer refuses to quote any time for undoing - it takes what it takes at $60 an hour, "and also some paint may come with", some clear coat repairs from previous insurance repairs apparently are more susceptible to coming off... Nice. He doesn't even wanna commit to anything... None of the above was mentioned at wrap time obviously.

So the 2x Kids and I did it in about 12 hours (3 people - well call it 2 people for real on average) just for the wrap, including figuring out how all the trim/bumpers/lights/moldings come off (thank you youtube) - our fingers felt like hamburger meat. Heat gun helps at 60C - no more no less.. but that then required another 10 hours just of GLUE removal... because all the edges of the wrap left the glue substrate on the car... on ALL the edges, roof, sunroof, trunk, doors, moldings, every damn edge. 7th circle of hell.

The products to remove glue work very well and do not hurt the clear, but not as expected - they dissolve it well but it needs to be rubbed off hard and it makes clumps that ..... just re-spread further, and never stick to the microfiber nor the paper towels (riskier). So you end up pushing balls of sticky glue all around the car until finally it adheres to the towel on the 10th push, wasting 2 dozens microfibers in the process (forget washing that crap off)...

Finally I pulled the clearcoat in 2 places (previous repaint spot as forecast) that will need wet sanding and reclear, and the lower trim the wrap guy had sanded down and never painted and never told us, so I have to repaint that too... probably why he was cagey about wrap removal !

In conclusion, like the intro, wrap is for race cars, delivery trucks, and possibly brand new cars if you are a masochist or bought the wrong color. Under no circumstances should you try that as an alternative to paint of a used car. It's a trap !!!

[sc_rufctr]

Is that rust or glue?

[masraum]

Wow, crazy, and not what I'd have expected.

I wonder if there are different qualities and you got crap stuff or....

Serious bummer, but at least you didn't pay a ton to have it removed.

It's certainly a testimonial to never use the guy that you used for anything as he sounds like your typical scammer.

[fastfredracing]

I was thinking about wrapping my SC as a last ditch effort before I grind all the paint off and do a proper restore .
Mexico blue, Green, or the Pink Pig are all looming in my mind .
It was an O.K respray in guards red 30 years ago, and is showing its age pretty bad now .
Ill remove that glue residue with 80 grit when its done . No trim will be touched
I can only imagine what a pain in the ass that job was , kind of like removing wall paper .

[Tobra]

Originally Posted by sc_rufctr

Is that rust or glue?

That is crap that degraded the vinyl wrap, tree pollen and what not

[sc_rufctr]

Yes but it looks like rust in the photos

[scottmandue]

Hmmmm... Wrap removal business... With a tattoo removal place in the back...

[JackDidley]

Wow. A few weeks ago I did a thread about the longevity of vinyl wraps because I was thinking of getting my C6 wrapped. After much research, I made an appointment with a shop for paint. Will see how that works out in 2 weeks.

[Deschodt]

yeah it was either 3M or Avery, so good wrap, it looked like rust but it's just the wrap degrading and porous to all sort of junk... One of the least fun jobs I ever did, and I still need to repaint some pieces...
I believe that IF you wrap in a dark color, ceramic coat it a few times over time, keep it inside and always clean, it can work. But that is not a normal use case for most cars.. also full wrap + quality ceramic will cost you $6000 or so. The only clean horizontal spot was where he put PPF on the rear bumper.

[RANDY P]

Wrap looks like just that- wrap. Why the children think it's a substitute for paint I'lll never know.

rjp

[Jeff Higgins]

My younger son bought a wrapped 2003 M3 many years ago. That should have served as a big flashing red light...

The wrap was a really pretty blue, original paint was silver. The wrap started to deteriorate after he had owned the car for about a year. It started looking like it had black mold on it, for lack of a better description. So he had it removed by the same shop that had wrapped it and, of course, a lot of paint came off with it. The post-wrap paint repair cost more, I'm sure, than the wrap had cost.

It got worse from there. The Carfax was clean, but it turned out the car had been "washed" through a non-reporting state. The wrap turned out to be more or less the "wrap" on a laundry list of shoddy body repairs, including some structural. The end of it all was the front right suspension carrier assembly essentially separating from the inner fender and frame rail, thereby totaling the car. He sold it to a buddy, it's now a fully caged and braced race car.

He was young, it was a dream car. Five years of fun ownership before the gremlins started to manifest themselves. Expensive lesson learned, though. He will never buy another car that has been wrapped. Big warning flag now. What else was done half assed?

So, yeah - race cars, commercial vehicles, maybe a temporary wrap if you're gonna do a Gumball or something. But as an alternative to paint, on something one intends to keep? NFW...

[p911dad]

The PPF (clear) was left too long (7 years) on the front of the 993 and getting it off the hood finally required using a rotary eraser wheel one little bit at a time. Paint came out without a scratch but a huge hassle. The front bumper still looks pretty good but it is really ON there, not coming off easily so I am leaving it for the shop (someday long from now!). This stuff has a life expectancy and it is not as long as you might hope for.
Sorry to hear of your collective nightmare Deschodt!

[Baz]

For me the moral to the story is - if you don't like black....then for cryin' out loud don't buy a black car!

[Dan J]

Wrap is crap That is all

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Great thread, I was considering wrapping my Cayenne in a burnt orange. I can't imagine painting it as a color change so Meteor Grey Metallic it will stay. At least a glass out job is cake, removing the door glass is easy.

[john70t]

There are two direct opposites at play:

1). Have the wrap stick at all costs. That includes adhesion to bondo and various primers to cover up accidents. Invulnerable through freezing ice and/or boiling desert heat. Opaque to make the color continuous. For years and years. No bubbles or plastic flaws which must curve to any surface deflection and be able to be applied easily. The plastic wrap becomes a permanent shield.

2). Make it removable and guaranteed for only a few years under ideal conditions. $6k? YGTBFKM.

[sc_rufctr]

I've been thinking about wrapping my 911 for years (The delay has been because of "Life" but since COVID it's been "one thing or the other").

Looking at other options now.

[Baz]

Well.....my 356 is a driver and in no way anything close to concours. And I like it that way. Still has the nice "jealous lover" scratch down the passenger side....which I will never repair....

I always get a kick out of people coming up and saying "Wow you should get her a new paint job, she'd look fantastic!"

You know what? *Some* folks love a classic car with a nice patina!

[Otter74]

Yikes, does sound like a nightmare. Like Baz, I love the..um, patina of my car. Great color (Casablanca Beige Metallic) but it’s a ten-foot paint job from the 90s and I’m happy with it that way.

[Steve Carlton]

Is this some kind of fluke? I'm no expert on wraps, but I haven't heard of such a short useful life on this. What about the product that was used in this thread?

Color Change PPF on my "new" Diesel Cayenne