Vinyl wrap - paint prep underneath

[Cook&Dunning]

My 89 car was a dedicated track car - I have a 2 step plan for it. First, I want to get it back to street legal, so I can drive it. So far I have pulled the fire system, fuel cell, roll bar, race seats, etc. I have also pulled off some FG pieces - bumpers & whale tail. I have replaced these with stock metal parts, stripped down to bare metal and painted with epoxy primer. The rest of the body is several shades of silver from some dings during racing. For example the luggage compartment lid and leading edges of fenders are badly pitted, and will probably need to be sanded down to metal and the epoxy. The roof- perhaps just lightly sanded to be a base for primer.

Eventually I may add flares and do a glass out repaint in silver as step 2. But in the meantime, I had an idea to vinyl wrap the car - perhaps in a bold color. My question is - how smooth - i.e. sandpaper grit number - does the paint or primer need to be so the vinyl will stick properly and look good?

Of course if this is a really bad idea for some reason, I am all ears.

[sixbanger]

I just saw some video's on youtube on this subject. Might try there.

[Mike80911]

This is an excellent thread on vinyl wrapping
Going Green - My Vinyl Wrap Project

[962porsche]

a few months ago i bought a 53" vinyl cutter to do graphics and that has been going ok so yesterday i just bough a new vinyl rapping setup .
part of the setup is a two day training class in WA. so next month i will be heading out to the training class . looking forward to it .
like paint if you feel it on the cars finish you will still see it after rapping the car .
a rap is not some magic thing that covers every thing bad .
i have not ever been a fan of rapping a street car but for business and race cars it's another good option IMO .

[Cook&Dunning]

OK - thanks for all of the info - The thread on the green 911 here was one of the reasons I was thinking wrap. I agree with 962 that the wrap will show the problems underneath - I guess I was just thinking that if I wanted a wild color, but eventually I (or someone else) wants to bring it back to stock, then wrap; might be a good midpoint?

[jsveb]

I wrapped my Carrera 3.0

It is an absolute rat, but while I can't afford a paint job anytime soon, it lends itself well for some abuse.

I like it.