Sorry for the delayed response everyone. I’ve been traveling out of the country for the past few weeks and have not been checking messages.
I’m no pro with the wrapping of things. I’ve practiced on some other stuff and watched a handful of videos from some pros on YouTube. It’s important to have a good “kit” of wrapping tools. That helps a lot. There are some tricks you learn just by doing it. So practice on some other stuff. I went to a local sign shop and asked for vinyl remnants and they gave me a bunch of random pieces of different sizes and I used those to practice on things like mirrors. Mirrors are a good thing to practice on because they can have some complex shapes.
Then I wanted some practice on larger surfaces so I blacked out the hood and scoop on my Land Cruiser.
Then I got really ambitious and wrapped my son’s truck. I learned a TON from wrapping the truck.
Before:
After:
Bottom line is get a bit of practice and watch some videos and you can probably figure it out.
Wrapping the wheels was pretty complicated since the face is one surface and the sides of the spokes need their own pieces of vinyl. The shapes are just too complex for the vinyl to stretch properly around all the different surfaces. Using knife-less tape is critical for doing this. Look up knife-less tape on YouTube and you’ll see what it is more quickly than me trying to explain how to use it. Most vinyl sheets are 5’ wide and you can usually order it in whatever length roll you want. I think a full roll is 5’x30’ but I could be wrong. I think I ordered 5’x7’ to do the wheels. That let me basically cut it in half and then half again to have roughly a 24x24” square for each wheel face and then some left over to cut into the pieces to do the insides of the wheel spokes.
The durability on the wheels should be comparable to any other wrapped surface on a vehicle. Depending on the quality of the vinyl and environmental conditions (like is the car parked outside all the time or is it in a garage?) it should last anywhere from 2-7 years on average. Of course if you get curb rash on the wheels it’s going to do the same thing as paint.
Prep work is KEY! If the surfaces aren’t extremely clean and free from oils of any kind then the vinyl won’t adhere well.
The reason that a full vehicle wrap can cost several thousand dollars and as much as a paint job is because it’s very labor intensive. You can definitely save a lot of money if you do the work yourself but the vinyl isn’t that cheap either. I think I purchased about $450 worth of vinyl to do the red truck. And I had just a few small scraps left over. If I had messed up on any of the pieces I wouldn’t have had enough so I got lucky. Unless you’re confident in your wrapping abilities get some extra material for when you mess up.
I will say that the grills on the stinger are pretty complex shapes and not the easiest to wrap for a novice. But with some practice and patience it can be done.
