Why the edges decide whether a wrap lasts

Why film lets go at the edge

Cast vinyl has a memory. When it is stretched over a curve or around an edge it wants to shrink back to its original shape, and it keeps wanting to for the life of the film. In the middle of a flat panel that tension has nowhere to go. At an edge it has an exit: if the film is not properly bonded and set, it creeps back, the edge lifts a fraction, dirt gets under it, and from there it peels.

Heat resets that memory. Post-heating means taking a heat gun to every edge, recess and stretched area after the film is down, bringing it to the temperature the film maker specifies, so the film forgets it was ever stretched and accepts its new shape. Skip it, or do it unevenly, and the wrap looks perfect for a few weeks and then begins to move.

What a good edge looks like

• Wrapped, not cut. Wherever the panel allows, the film goes over the edge and is tucked behind it, so the visible edge of the panel is film all the way round and there is no film edge to catch on.
• Cut lines placed where nothing touches them. Where a cut is unavoidable, it sits in a shut line, under a trim piece or on the underside of an edge, never on a face where a wash mitt or a hand will find it.
• Relief cuts hidden. Complex corners need small cuts so the film can lay flat without bunching; a good fitter places them where the overlap covers them.
• No stretch marks. Over-stretched film goes glossy on satin and thin on metallics, and it is always the film that fails first. A good wrap uses larger pieces and more patience rather than more stretch.
• Trim off, not wrapped around. Handles, badges, lights and mirror caps come off where they can, so the film goes under them instead of being cut around them.

The shortcuts, and what they cost later

Cutting on the paint is the common one. It is faster to lay the film, trim it on the panel with a blade and move on. The blade scores the lacquer under the film, which shows when the wrap comes off, and the cut edge sits proud of the paint where it can be caught. We cut on knifeless tape or off the panel, which takes longer and leaves the paint as it was.

Leaving the trim on is the other. Wrapping around a door handle or a badge means a visible cut line at every one and film that is stretched over a shape it did not need to cover. Taking the trim off adds an hour a side and removes every one of those lines. It is the difference between a wrap that looks like a wrap and one that looks like paint.

The third is skipping the post-heat because the film "looks fine". It always looks fine on the day.

How to inspect a wrap yourself

• Open every door and look along the shut edge. You should see film wrapped round and tucked, not a cut line on the outer face.
• Run a fingertip along the edge of the bonnet and the wing. It should feel like a painted edge, with nothing to catch.
• Look at deep recesses — fuel flap, bumper vents, the dip around the number plate — in raking light. Film should be flat and matt-even, with no glossy stretched patches.
• Check under the mirror caps and around the door handles for a clean line or, better, no line at all.
• Ask where the seams are. Every wrap has some; a fitter who can tell you where they are and why has thought about it.

Why we make a point of it

Precision at the edges is the part of the job that takes the time and the part that our warranty stands on. A wrap that lifts at an edge inside the warranty period is our problem to put right, so we would rather spend the extra hours on the day than come back to it. Every colour change we do is quoted in writing at a fixed price, with the trim removal and the post-heat included rather than offered as extras, because we do not consider them optional.

If you have a wrap fitted elsewhere that is starting to lift, it can sometimes be re-set with heat if it is caught early and the film is a decent cast product. Bring it in and we will look before it gets worse.