Paint or Wrap?

[nick729]

Hello,

My Type 65 will be ready for paint in a few weeks time. One question that has been bothering me ever since I bought the kit was whether to paint it or wrap it instead.

The car was sent to the body shop for it to be painted, but during the body work stage, the painter suggested that maybe i should consider wrapping the car instead of painting it. I have no doubt in their abilities to paint my car as they specialize in restoring high end old cars, they have also repainted loads of older corvettes too, so i have no doubts in their abilities to paint my car, but their suggestion made me doubt my choice once again. The reasoning they provided was that due to fiberglass tendencies to flex in the sun and due to temperature differences, they are worried that the filler used to eliminate all the defects of the fiberglass body are likely to crack over time, which will also crack the paint.

From my point of view, wrapping makes sense to me due to the fact that any dings or scratches (which are inevitable in my opinion due to my kids running around as well as many other circumstances) can be easily fixed, as well as having the option to change colors at relative easy if i feel like it.

Has anyone had any experience with wrapping an unpainted Type 65 or any other fiberglass bodied vehicle? Any thoughts or suggestions on the matter?

Nick

[J R Jones]

"easily fixed"? small panels but not big panels.

[Dgc333]

I talked to an outfit that specialized in warping cars and was told that if there are any color variations such as filler along seams and gel coat in the larger areas it will show through the wrap. Also because of the shape of these bodys there will be seams in the middle of panels that will be visible. He also said that wrap doesn't stick well to primer and he could not offer his usual 5 year warranty. If I was to go with a wrap he would want it primer and sealed. At that point you might as well finish the job and paint it.

[Waterman]

I went deep down the wrap rabbit hole but ultimately painted. Body shops were giving me high quotes and long lead time and requiring money up front to paint. Plastic wrap places were hesitant on the MK4 due to all the curves and said there would be seams that show. I almost went with LIQUID Wrap as there are no seams and it is covered by std clear coat, so nice hard finish and easier to remove than plastic film. BUT as was said either wrap requires a very smooth finish, so body work needs to be sealed. I even had some body cut-outs liquid wrapped to see finish, it was quite good and peeled nice off gel coat.(not so off body work) The one advantage wrap has over paint in my mind is DIY. Bodywork, primer and sealer can be done DIY but the color and especially clear should be done using good equipment, knowledge and in a paint booth. So have Liquid wrapped after you do the sealer and save considerable $. My quote was $5,500 6 months ago....or..wait, paint..$$ In the end I had a friend of a friend paint mine, nights and weekends. It is not show quality but decent as was done in a garage setting.

[nick729]

Thank you for the input guys

@J R Jones - relative to repainting the whole car since my initial plan was to paint it candy red, which i was told cannot be touched up perfectly :)
@Dgc333 - I missed out the key part that the car will have primer and will be sealed if i ultimately decide to wrap it.
@Waterman - well i was quoted ~18k euro for bodywork and paint, so at this point i really don't care about cost, just want to finish the car. I will be driving up to the body shop hopefully at the end of the week as the car should be prepped for either paint or wrap - so i have to make my choice soon. By the way, the body shop does not wrap the cars themselves, so the fact that they suggested wrapping the car and therefore receiving less money from me made me second guess myself..

[Jphoenix]

I wrapped my Coupe-R because it's race only and will get beat up by rocks and tire rubber. I also plan to do some body mods this winter after the first season of racing, so didn't want to take the time to paint it just yet. I did it myself and it took some time and patience and resulted in a good 10 foot finish. Biggest problem with wrapping is the garage must be completely dust free because even the tiniest dust more shows through the wrap and looks like a big rock is underneath. It's very difficult to get it clean and free of dust, then keep it free of dust while you spend an hour or two getting that one panel to stretch and conform and lie down.

The body must be as perfect and smooth as though you were going to paint it, as you said above - any imperfections will show right through the wrap. I didn't primer it and the different colors of filler, gelcoat, primer did not show through the wrap. Probably cost $1k for the wrap.

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[cv2065]

Get it painted the proper way and then put a PPF to protect the front end.

[Smith is Retired]

For what it is worth, I had my Gen I Coupe painted twenty years ago by a collision shop that also specialized in Corvettes. It was expensive -- about $6K at the time -- but in the twenty years there has been only one small area where there has been any sign of cracking and that is on a bubble that had to be built into the hood to allow for clearance for the fuel injection air intake (learance was off by about 3/8").

[nick729]

I wrapped my Coupe-R because it's race only and will get beat up by rocks and tire rubber. I also plan to do some body mods this winter after the first season of racing, so didn't want to take the time to paint it just yet. I did it myself and it took some time and patience and resulted in a good 10 foot finish. Biggest problem with wrapping is the garage must be completely dust free because even the tiniest dust more shows through the wrap and looks like a big rock is underneath. It's very difficult to get it clean and free of dust, then keep it free of dust while you spend an hour or two getting that one panel to stretch and conform and lie down.

The body must be as perfect and smooth as though you were going to paint it, as you said above - any imperfections will show right through the wrap. I didn't primer it and the different colors of filler, gelcoat, primer did not show through the wrap. Probably cost $1k for the wrap.

214511214512214513

Very nice, i am looking at a very similar color myself - Inozetek Vampire Red (but it has been out of stock in Europe for months for some reason, so not sure if I can even buy it). What brand of film and what color did you use on your Couper R? Looks great!

I am not even considering wrapping the car myself, I will have it done professionally if i decide to wrap it instead of painting it. Body shop will prepare the body for painting so regardless if i choose to paint or wrap, the prep will be the same.

Mind sharing some more pictures of the edges? Like around the rear window or arches?? Or other spots that are difficult or impossible? As far as I am aware the film is meant to wrapped around the edges and have a few millimeters wrapped on to the inside of the body. Not sure if i made myself clear but i mean something like this: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/x_lxpf_N79k/maxresdefault.jpg
I have the inside of the body coated with Raptor, so i doubt the vinyl would even stick to it. Did you wrap the vinyl around edges or did you just cut it flush with the edge?

Am I correct in assuming that the stripes are covering the red vinyl seams/joints or did you make them somewhere else?

[Jphoenix]

Very nice, i am looking at a very similar color myself - Inozetek Vampire Red (but it has been out of stock in Europe for months for some reason, so not sure if I can even buy it). What brand of film and what color did you use on your Couper R? Looks great!

I am not even considering wrapping the car myself, I will have it done professionally if i decide to wrap it instead of painting it. Body shop will prepare the body for painting so regardless if i choose to paint or wrap, the prep will be the same.

Mind sharing some more pictures of the edges? Like around the rear window or arches?? Or other spots that are difficult or impossible? As far as I am aware the film is meant to wrapped around the edges and have a few millimeters wrapped on to the inside of the body. Not sure if i made myself clear but i mean something like this: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/x_lxpf_N79k/maxresdefault.jpg
I have the inside of the body coated with Raptor, so i doubt the vinyl would even stick to it. Did you wrap the vinyl around edges or did you just cut it flush with the edge?

Am I correct in assuming that the stripes are covering the red vinyl seams/joints or did you make them somewhere else?

I used this wrap: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08MWQ7GS8?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_ti tle_12&th=1

I trimmed the edges flush with the inside edge of the body, I’ll see if I have a photo. At first I wrapped it all the way around to the inside if the panel, but that didn’t work, it just didn’t lay down very well and I watched the pros just trim it to the edge, works fine.

The 50” wide material will cover one full half of the body, from the stripes down around the quarter panel all the way under the sills and rear of the car. I laid down knifeless tape for the stripes - under the red and then white overlapping the red, then pulled the tape. Lots of YouTube videos showing that - they make it look easy, it’s not.

So far it’s withstood the rocks and tire rubber pretty well. At the end of the season, I’ll remove it as I plan to make some mods to the body.

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[David Williamson]

I had mine clear wrapped over the paint to protect it. I was going to just get the front done but the "extra" to do the complete car was not great so we did it all. On mine the it goes around the edges of the body panels by about 1/2 an inch. It took a pro about a week to do the car as each piece had to be hand cut to fit. She does a normal production car in about a day. On normal cars there is a template and the vinyl is computer cut but this does not exist for our cars. One nice thing with the wrap is it is easy to clean, bugs and dirt just wipe off, dry it with a micro fibre cloth and it looks like I spent all day waxing.
David W

[FFRWRX]

Here is my experience with the 818C. This is in Canada so I'm quoting Canadian $'s and this was 2 years ago.

I did the prep work on the car, not sure if I was going to paint it or wrap it. I sanded the seams down and used filler in spots that needed it. Didn't use primer, just sanded everything nice and smooth. This is what it looked like:

214691

I got several quotes for painting. The lowest was around $10k and I wasn't 100% sure the place was experienced with fibreglass. Around $15k for ones that seemed good and $20k+ for ones that would have been very good. Then I checked out a couple places that wrapped cars. I visited one that wrapped Lambos and other high end cars; and this is wrapping, not PPF. I got a quote from that place for $4k to wrap it. And this was with a color that changed slightly from green to gold in the sun. In paint, something like that would be incredibly expensive.

My thinking....will the wrap look as good as paint from any distance, even fairly close up? From what I saw, yes. Will there be some seams? Yes, but only noticeable from very close. And the major one, if/when I sell this car (with me, it is pretty much a certainly that I will in 2-3 years) will the car be worth at least $10k more with paint compared with wrap? Definitely not. Now this is the 818C which do not sell (completed) for much money. Here they go for around $20k (Canadian) give or take. So with a much more expensive car the eventual selling price might make paint worth it, but I don't think so. But even with the Type 65 selling prices (selling, not asking) I don't think you will get the difference back in paint vs wrap. But maybe that isn't a factor for most people.

So I had it wrapped and was thrilled with it!

214692

Of course I sold the car within a year. I had no complaints about the wrap at all. The body filler areas did not show at all (the wrap place told me they wouldn't), didn't need to make sure it was glossy at all before wrapping. Included in the price was a look over and reseal any areas that looked like they might be lifting after a few months.

If you are considering wrapping, find a place that does really high-end cars and check out their work.

Rick

[Skuzzy]

It really depends on a couple of things. How long do you intend to keep the car? What environment is the car exposed to?
I keep cars a minimum of ten years. A good quality wrap will last about 5 years in Texas weather. If I am buying a car I will not buy one which is wrapped. The value of wrapping drops with time. It simply will not hold up as well as a good quality paint job, especially if you wrap the front with clear to fight chips.

At least, that has been my experience.

[FFRWRX]

If I am buying a car I will not buy one which is wrapped.

I agree. I would be very reluctant to buy a car that was wrapped; that is, a production car. If it is a kit car or something like that, that has never been painted then you know what you are getting. Otherwise you don't know what it looks like underneath. But the wrap will not hide even the smallest defects. The car has to be prepped almost as good as it would be for painting. But this prep can be done by most people at home. Prepping for paint is another matter. A high end paint place won't paint your car if you have done the prep work. Any issues later you will blame them and they will blame your prep.

[nick729]

It really depends on a couple of things. How long do you intend to keep the car? What environment is the car exposed to?
I keep cars a minimum of ten years. A good quality wrap will last about 5 years in Texas weather. If I am buying a car I will not buy one which is wrapped. The value of wrapping drops with time. It simply will not hold up as well as a good quality paint job, especially if you wrap the front with clear to fight chips.

At least, that has been my experience.

I don't have any plans on selling the car, as the market for these types of cars ir Europe is insanely small and also it is impossible to properly register the car here without serious modifications, not to mention the fact that it is not easy to find a buyer for a home built 100k+ euro kit car :)

We have all 4 seasons where I live, so the car will only be driven occasionally during the summer when the weather is nice, the rest of the time it will be kept is heated/cooled garage. I don't think the car will be driven more than 1k miles per season. So i am guessing the wrap should hold up for 5+ years no problem.

Since, it is being prepped for painting, after 5 or more years if the wrap deteriorates I will have the option to either paint it or rewrap it without any major prep work.

I decided to go with this wrap: https://teckwrap.ca/products/velvet-red-gal30-hd also known as Dragon Blood Red with silver stripes/rear to match the exhaust and gas cap.

Thank you all for the input and sharing your thoughts and experiences.

[nick729]

Just a small update, decided to go with a wrap in the end. The car prep was done same way as you would for painting, thus i can remove the wrap and just paint if i want.

I have yet to see the car in person, but the pictures look amazing (at least to me):
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Very happy with the result, far exceeded my expectations.

[TXeverydayDad]

That looks really good! Please share some pictures of the car in the sun when you get a chance!

[cadtdi]

That looks really good!

How long has it taken the shop to apply the wrap? Lots of curves and lines to work around....

If the wrap lasts 4-5 years and then you have it done again in a different color you are probably only out what a good paint job would have cost at the start, I don't think that is a horrible deal...particularly if you drive the car on a regular basis.

.c
.

[JR-FFR5011]

Just a small update, decided to go with a wrap in the end. The car prep was done same way as you would for painting, thus i can remove the wrap and just paint if i want.

I have yet to see the car in person, but the pictures look amazing (at least to me):
217364217363217362217365217366217367

Very happy with the result, far exceeded my expectations.

Looks amazing! Do what you want, drive, and enjoy!

[Jphoenix]

Beautifully done - love the color!

[cv2065]

Just a small update, decided to go with a wrap in the end. The car prep was done same way as you would for painting, thus i can remove the wrap and just paint if i want.

I have yet to see the car in person, but the pictures look amazing (at least to me):
217364217363217362217365217366217367

Very happy with the result, far exceeded my expectations.

What did you pay for the body work plus the wrap all in?

[nick729]

@TXeverydayDad will do, but I won't receive the car for at least another month, so it might take a while :)

@cadtdi it took a few weeks to do, but since I was shafted by the first body shop, and had to find another one ASAP, the car has been in the body shop since the end of march. I live in a small country, so my choices are limited for anything custom. This wrap will last many many years, as i will only drive it occasionally during the summer (so like ~5 times per year) and the car will be kept in a heated and climate controlled garage the rest of the time. I am also going to PPF the entire car, so that is double the protection and the PPF makes the wrap "pop" even more :)

@JR-FFR5011 and @Jphoenix - thank you :)

@cv2065 I'll know on Wednesday, but it will be around 20k Euro or a bit more. p.s. i like your avatar, i'm sure you could guess why there is a number 5 on my Daytona :D

[2JZ]

That’s a tough call for sure, but I kinda see the painter's point. I had a buddy who restored an old Vette (fiberglass, obviously) and the paint looked stunning for about four years, then he started seeing those hairline cracks near the seams and stress points. It was heartbreaking after all that money he put in.

Fiberglass is just fidgety like that. What you're building is going to be driven, right? And you mentioned the kids, scratches happen. Being able to just peel off a damaged panel section and re-wrap it is a huge convenience factor that paint can't match. It’s also much easier to handle the inevitable small dings.

If you're near Tampa or Orlando, you might want to look into professional vinyl services. I know Tinterz (https://tinterz.net/) has a rep for being really meticulous with their custom wraps and PPF, it makes a massive difference who you use for the install, especially on difficult curves. Just something to consider before committing to a final paint job!

[Skuzzy]

That’s a tough call for sure, but I kinda see the painter's point. I had a buddy who restored an old Vette (fiberglass, obviously) and the paint looked stunning for about four years, then he started seeing those hairline cracks near the seams and stress points. It was heartbreaking after all that money he put in.

Fiberglass is just fidgety like that. What you're building is going to be driven, right? And you mentioned the kids, scratches happen. Being able to just peel off a damaged panel section and re-wrap it is a huge convenience factor that paint can't match. It’s also much easier to handle the inevitable small dings.

If you're near Tampa or Orlando, you might want to look into professional vinyl services.

Playing devils advocate here.

The older Vette's (circa 50's, 60's, and early 70's) all had resin issues, which have been addressed in the new formulations of resins for fiberglass. I have a friend with a restored 63 Vette which wins car shows quite regularly. It is one of two daily drivers. Going on six years now and the paint is still flawless. New generations of resin have all but eliminated the problems with the older resins.

I have another friend who got his wrap scratched. It was two years old. He went to get it repaired, but the vinyl he chose was no longer available. He had to wrap the entire car again.


Now, to be fair. The friend with the Vette takes immaculate car of the car. Any road rash is addressed immediately. The other friend, with the vinyl wrap, chose a very exotic metallic wrap.

[Smiley]

As a commercial business owner I have had hundreds of vehicles wrapped, in general its good for 3-5 years while fading the entire time.

It DOES NOT just peel off!!!

If you want a vehicle that looks okay from 50-100 feet away, go with wrap.

My coupe will be painted.

[Jeff Kleiner]

... I had a buddy who restored an old Vette (fiberglass, obviously) and the paint looked stunning for about four years, then he started seeing those hairline cracks near the seams and stress points...

If your buddy's Corvette was accurately restored it was done with lacquer. Lacquer cracks. It ain't the 'glass. Doesn't matter whether it's on metal or fiberglass, it cracks with age. You don't get that with modern urethane base/clear finishes. I have FFRs out there that I painted 15 years ago that are still 100% intact.

Jeff

[flight_83]

Vinyl wrap all day every day. Couldn’t imagine paying $10k or more than hearing rocks pelt the front end. I’ve wrapped a couple cars and it’s not that difficult. Seems are almost invisible if you plan their placement accordingly.