Should I wrap my GN?

[forcefed3.8's]

Factory Lacquer should always be striped. It will check under a paint job, and nothing sticks to lacquer. You will get peeling under the trim, rings around and bodywork, etc. Every job I do gets striped.

I can get a set of headers from ebay for under $200, but are they as good as TA'a or some custom BWR's? I heard $1000 won't even cover the metal to make a custom set, I can get multi bends from Summit for afew hundred. Will the final product look the same? Last as long? Will I be happy in the end with some money in my pocket, and a piece of junk that need redone? Same idea here. You get what you pay for.

 

[notacarlo]

I work with a company here in Dallas that does wraps for our racing series and NASCAR, NHRA, Municipalities, you name it.

These guys have top quality material and it stands up to severe wear very well. Anything you can imagine can be done. Plus, the wrap can be done in one day and driven out. If you damage a panel, they can splice in a piece in an hour and you are driving again.

here's a couple of pics of our cars.

 

[GNRick]

I work with a company here in Dallas that does wraps for our racing series and NASCAR, NHRA, Municipalities, you name it.

These guys have top quality material and it stands up to severe wear very well. Anything you can imagine can be done. Plus, the wrap can be done in one day and driven out. If you damage a panel, they can splice in a piece in an hour and you are driving again.

here's a couple of pics of our cars.

Thanks for sharing!

 

[scot w.]

Another thing to remember before doing a wrap is the car Must have a shinny top coat to Begin with for the wrap to stick properly. NO PRIMER! There is a shop just down the road that does professional wraps and that is what they told me.

Plus a wrap don't look that great up close with the seams,patches and so on needed to work around objects, they look A LOT better from a distance.

PS: The good thing about the GN's being black is when your doing a wrap for a black car it's real easy to match the black ink to the paint so you can even do a partial wrap and it will be barely noticeable plus they can do designs and fade away the edges of the design so it literally blends real nice too.

I seen a new f-150 they were doing for Knoxville HD and the black was identical to the paint. On the hood wrap you couldn't tell a difference at all between the hood and the fender.

 

[Grumpy]

I was thinkin of wrapping my mazda beater to.. wonder how the wrap holds up to street driving ..

 

[TRiv]

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" as they say, this stuff may be ok for companies advertising, for personal vehicles though, JMO, it destroys the lines of any vehicle they are applied to. The car manufactures should use this stuff on there test track vehicles to disguise them, probably better than the matt black blotches they currently use. Sorry JMO.

Less of an opinion here, most of the cost of a good paint job is:

1 Body preparation (labor)
2 Paint preparation (labor) priming,blocking
3 Shop overhead; floor space,utilities,equiptment,taxes, EPA,
misc. labor, etc.
4 The painter (labor)
5 Materials, primer, paint,sandpapers,fillers,etc.
6 Profit, if any

Even if done "on the side" eliminating #3 & 6 you still need #1 & 2 ( 60-70% of total cost) before you get to painting. Point here is even if "wraped", just as with paint, you need #1 & 2 or your just "wrapping the junk underneath". If you are going to "wrap" a car as is, it would'nt be any better than "painting" a car as is, in which case the painting would'nt really cost much more than "wrapping" Maaco??? or even some collision shops.


Either way it's only going to be as good as what's underneath, and be sure that more people than you think (even non car people) will see it.

 

[alwayscode390]

Another thing to remember before doing a wrap is the car Must have a shinny top coat to Begin with for the wrap to stick properly. NO PRIMER! There is a shop just down the road that does professional wraps and that is what they told me.

Plus a wrap don't look that great up close with the seams,patches and so on needed to work around objects, they look A LOT better from a distance.

PS: The good thing about the GN's being black is when your doing a wrap for a black car it's real easy to match the black ink to the paint so you can even do a partial wrap and it will be barely noticeable plus they can do designs and fade away the edges of the design so it literally blends real nice too.

I seen a new f-150 they were doing for Knoxville HD and the black was identical to the paint. On the hood wrap you couldn't tell a difference at all between the hood and the fender.

The Ferrari above is flat matte black ---

 

[notacarlo]

that flat black car is white underneath.

 

[GNRick]

Another thing to remember before doing a wrap is the car Must have a shinny top coat to Begin with for the wrap to stick properly. NO PRIMER! There is a shop just down the road that does professional wraps and that is what they told me.

Plus a wrap don't look that great up close with the seams,patches and so on needed to work around objects, they look A LOT better from a distance.

PS: The good thing about the GN's being black is when your doing a wrap for a black car it's real easy to match the black ink to the paint so you can even do a partial wrap and it will be barely noticeable plus they can do designs and fade away the edges of the design so it literally blends real nice too.

I seen a new f-150 they were doing for Knoxville HD and the black was identical to the paint. On the hood wrap you couldn't tell a difference at all between the hood and the fender.

Scott- what do you mean by "shiny"? Paint and clear coat in good condition? Bodyshop owner said he heats it up to get it to stick. He's thinking $3k. I told him that's too much. He charged the radio station $6k to wrap their SUV, but it was a picture of the basketball arena. He said more ink/colors costs more. Just plain black would be a little cheaper. He also does vinyl lettering on trucks so he is certainly a one stop shop for this sort of thing. Stay tuned.....

 

[88 CuttyClassic]

why not do the prep work yourself? its not rocket science. My dad and I did the prep work on my hurst olds.. and had another guy spray it. i got $2000 in materials and labor. My car took first place in the 83-84 hurst olds class at this years Oldsmobile Nationals. My car is also the month of Feb in the 2010 All Oldsmobile calender. Me personally i'd never pay someone over 5k to paint a car.. its not my job to help them drive around a 50k work truck and buy their wife diamonds... Find a local Vo-tech that offers a body class. paint your car there. Another reason i'd never pay that much is because i drive my cars...if i got thousands into paint i'd get so anal i'd never want to drive the thing. I mean if you have gobs of money go for it but i dont think most of us do.

 

[Sleeper-6]

How long are you looking for the wrap to last? I thought they were only good for 2-3 years topps before things start going south on the materials. If I had less than 1K to spend and my car really neded paint that bad I'd pull off all the trim and parts I could at home and take it to maaco. It won;t last any longer than the wrap and it won't be a perfect paint job, but I think it would look better than the vinyl and you get to keep a couple hundred more dollars in your pocket.

 

[CH@Dbee]

i know alot of people do matte black wraps....has anybody ever seen a matte black GN? i wonder how that would look....

 

[CH@Dbee]

i know alot of people do matte black wraps....has anybody ever seen a matte black GN? i wonder how that would look....

never mind, search feature is my friend :smile:

 

[GNBRETT]

No offense, but I would burn my car to the ground before I turned it into Fast and the Furious. That's really gay and reserved for Hondas and Acuras in the ricer world.

 

[Grumpy]

No offense, but I would burn my car to the ground before I turned it into Fast and the Furious. That's really gay and reserved for Hondas and Acuras in the ricer world.

so your saying I should wrap the Mazda

 

[88 CuttyClassic]

nothing i hate more on a car than primer or matte finish... have some pride in ur car and have some gloss!!! alot of my friends like that look.. i think its garbage.

 

[GNBRETT]

so your saying I should wrap the Mazda

Only if ur gonna ship it then maybe some bubble wrap might be appropriate.

 

[charlie]

Wrap

I like the idea. In fact trying to talk the husband into wrapping the stage car. He doesn't like the idea....yet.

If it's done right I think why not. I have seen some really good work and good designs.

Post up pictures if you get it done.

Kelli Cox

 

[CH@Dbee]

i know this isnt a TB but heres my friends 700awhp evo.....

 

[88 CuttyClassic]

dresses come in satin finish...i'm just sayin