Getting a car ready for a wrap

Paint condition: the one thing that decides everything

Vinyl adhesive bonds to the top surface of the paint. If that surface is sound lacquer, the wrap goes on, stays on, and comes off years later leaving the paint as it was. If the lacquer is peeling, crazed or lifting at the edges, the film bonds to a layer that is already letting go of the car. It looks fine on collection day and then the film, and the lacquer with it, starts to come away, usually at an edge in the first hot spell. That is not a wrap failure; it is a paint failure with a wrap on top of it.

We check the paint before we quote a colour change, from the registration and a set of close daylight photos, looking for failing lacquer, previous repairs, filler edges, rust bubbles and any panel painted since the car left the factory. If anything needs a closer look, we tell you before you book, and every panel is checked again under workshop lights on day one. Sound paint gets a wrap. Panels with failing lacquer need a body shop first, and we say so rather than wrap over it. A car with rust coming through is not a wrap candidate at all until the rust is dealt with.

What film hides and what it shows

• Hides: faded paint, light swirls, a mismatched panel colour, minor stone chips that have been filled and levelled.
• Shows: dents, ripples in filler, raised chip edges, deep scratches with a lip, rust bubbles, orange peel on a repaint, any texture at all on a gloss film.
• Makes worse: a sharp chip edge. Film stretched over it becomes a small tent that catches the light and eventually punctures.

Chips are filled and sanded flat before film. Dents are pulled or filled. A single scratched panel can often be corrected enough; a panel with a dozen dents is a body-shop job. None of this is us being fussy; it is the difference between a wrap that looks like paint and one that looks like a wrap.

Old wraps, badges and trim

An existing wrap has to come off completely, adhesive included, before a new one goes on. Film over film traps the old adhesive and the old edges, and the new film telegraphs every one of them. Removal is real work, especially on cheap calendered film that has baked on for a few summers, and it is quoted separately once we have seen how it lifts.

Badges, door handles, mirror caps, lights and trim come off wherever the car allows. It is the only way to run film under them rather than cutting around them, and it is included in our colour-change quotes. Aftermarket badges and stick-on trims that have been on for years sometimes leave paint that has aged differently underneath; we will show you before deciding whether the badge goes back on.

What you can do before drop-off

• Wash the car properly the day before, especially the door shuts, the sills and under the bumper lips. We clean it again, but a car that arrives coated in road film adds hours.
• No wax, sealant or dressing in the week before. Anything that makes paint slick makes adhesive weak, and it all has to be stripped off.
• Take out anything from the boot and cabin that you need; the car is with us for several days on a full colour change.
• Tell us about previous accident repairs, even small ones, so we look at those panels first.
• Decide the details: roof and pillars in the new colour or not, door shuts or not, mirror caps, badges back on or deleted. Changing your mind mid-job costs time.

What happens on day one in the workshop

The car is washed again, clay-barred to lift bonded grit, and every panel to be wrapped is wiped with a solvent that leaves no residue. Trim comes off and is bagged and labelled. Chips and marks are dealt with. Then the car is inspected once more under lights, this time for anything the wash brought out, before the first piece of film is cut. The workshop is kept warm and the floor damped down so dust stays out of the air. From that point the job is fitting and edges, which is a separate guide.

If the prep turns up something that changes the job, we stop and talk to you before doing anything you have not agreed to.