How much to wrap a formula car?

[Bardahl77]

Anyone do a simple wrap on a formula car? I have a vee I'd like to keep the current paint scheme but wrap it in a different color for a while, nothing fancy. How well do they last?

Thanks!
David

[E1pix]

I was a longtime custom and sign painter in a former life, but applied some vinyl in my endtimes.

My concern here is removal when the time comes. Using a hair dryer is my only experience, but I think the odds of the wrap pulling off paint is huge — on a fiberglass race car, especially.

[OneWayOut]

I got a quote a few years back, and it was in the thousands. That was enough to squash my interest in a full wrap, and I went with a full repaint instead.

If anyone knows someone in the midwest that can do it for a reasonable price, I would certainly be interested.

[billtebbutt]

Keep in mind, if you think the wrap will hide a lot of surface imperfections and poor quality surfaces, it will not. You'll end up doing largely the same amount of body prep work to do a wrap as to paint - the vinyl needs a nice smooth surface for adhesion.

I've looked at vinyl, never got there.

cheers,
BT

[Brian Graham]

I just did a wrap on a 3rd Crossle, the prep is important but that applies to whatever choice you make. I have been dealing with the same graphics shop for a number of years and think they give me a break as the invoice that I just got seems very fair. It is in Cdn funds and is around $1200 per car including a spare nose. All of these cars had new bodywork so they are just gelcoat underneath. The one time I did some wrapping on a painted car (one of our Pipers) the paint did come off in a few spots when we removed it. That probably had as much to do with the quality of the paint job than anything else......

Brian

[Raceworks]

Anyone do a simple wrap on a formula car? I have a vee I'd like to keep the current paint scheme but wrap it in a different color for a while, nothing fancy. How well do they last?

Thanks!
David

The wrapping cast material is pretty resilient: it's a good bit thicker than regular sign / graphics vinyl. You'll still want to helicopter tape surfaces that frequently get hit by rubber or dirt. Depending on how much you run you can get about the same life as a paint job: 2-5 seasons.

The nice thing about a full wrap is that if you do hit something the wrap tends to hold the broken pieces of fiberglass together which not only facilitates repairs later but also reduces post-crash debris.

Like others have said, the surface needs to be prepped properly. Wrapping cast vinyl conforms to whatever surface it's applied to so if you've got chips or cracks on the fiberglass the impression of them will show through on the vinyl.

If you use a heat gun at relatively low temp you can remove the vinyl without removing paint provided the original paint is well bonded to the fiberglass. If it's not you're going to lose paint.

I've done full wraps on a variety of S2000 cars and they run at least $1,500 to 2,500 depending on how complex they get. A wingless formula car would be roughly half that.

[ejsprint30]

The material is pretty cheap. I bought mine on Ebay...you need to make sure you get the correct type with air release holes. I have found that removal with this material is a non-issue.

I wrapped my front composite wing in carbon fiber and then clear PPF (first pic). The PPF is an added protection, and is almost self healing from stone dings.

I also wrapped my spare aluminum wing with carbon fiber. I was able to correct the dents with bondo before wrapping. Material cost was about 25 bucks per wing. A little patience and a cold beer is all it takes...if you get a wrinkle, it can easily be pulled back and re-applied. I went over all of the bends afterward with a heat gun for just a few seconds. My complex body panels were done by a pro.