Wrap vs Paint

around what?

 

Larry Bull (SOC labull) has a checkered wrap on his Speedster.

 

They sure have!  Click it for more images.

I thought Larry's hood was painted?

Nope! It's a wrap. 

I like Checkers!

 

The wrap was done by Desi, a member on this site.

 

Larry

 

 

 

I like Checkers too!

I like those.

I've not seen any in person but it sure looks like the best of both worlds.

I have never seen a Speedster wrapped since I'm a newbie to the Speedster world but I have seen a '56 Chevy 2-dr station wagon that was wrapped. It belongs to one of our younger, late twenties, car club members. Mark has a wife and 2 young kids and not a lot of disposable income. He has owned car since he was 17 and he and his dad have rebuilt it over the years, his dad did most of the major bodywork, prep and then primed it in his garage. Mark couldn't afford to have it pro-painted at $10-15k but he did find a shop in Ft Collins that wrapped the car for around $450.

 

It actually looks very good, up close you can barely see or tell

that it is a wrap and from a few feet away you can not tell it is not painted and it has held up surprisingly well.

 

 

The car is vinyl wrapped to look like an original paint job? That is amazing.

 

Here is an example of a large scale wrap. 

 

Larry

 

 

A few years back I spent an afternoon creating some wacky wrap ideas. Like 'em or not, anything can be done with a wrap, it just takes some imagination and the will and money to complete. If anyone needs help conceptualizing their idea, let me know.

 

MINI has offered wrap options almost since day one on the new generation (BMW- engineered) cars. They're factory accessories, but are installed at the dealer.

 

The most iconic is the Union Jack, but there have been many others over the years (I think some in the photo are after-market).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MINI's famous hood stripes are also wraps, not paint, but are installed at the factory (I think).

 

 

 

 

When we asked about wraps at the dealer, they said expected life was about five years before they started to deteriorate, but I've seen cars with stripes on the street much older than that that still looked good.

 

 

How do you remove a wrap?

Heat gun and pull or park it in the sun and wait a bit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoKVuiE9WCM

I'd love to wrap my original CMC gel coat (black) to look like the Janis Joplin 356C (or tribute look to avoid possible copyright issues).  One of Rich's would cut it too!  At a recent Destin Poker Run a speed boat ran out of gas at our Condo's dock.  It was wrapped in chrome mylar.

Maybe this for Natalie's hood Star Wars Han Solo in Carbonite Star Wars Fathead Life-size Wall Decal Sticker Graphic https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00H..._r_awd_b-7pvb0P2PQM8
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00H..._r_awd_b-7pvb0P2PQM8

I took my wife's Honda into the dealership for service awhile back and there were 3 young technicians using heat guns to remove the wrap on the dealerships old customer courtesy shuttle. It was/is completely wrapped including the see through windows. I watched them for a little bit and they'd heat up a small maybe 3x3 area then one of them would begin pulling on it at a corner or the bottom at a corner, lifting it away while the other continued to apply heat. The wrap would come off in big sheets.

A basic primer on applying a wrap:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2jfgb9uv0P8

That's definitely something I wouldn't try myself.