People have been customizing their cars for, well, as long as cars have been around! Car wraps are the latest, innovative way to trick out your vehicle, and also offer long-term protection for its paint and surface.
But how much does a car wrap cost? The answer can be a bit tricky because the cost of a car wrap depends on several factors such as the vinyl hue you want, the make and model of the vehicle, the parts of the car you want to have wrapped.
What Makes Custom Vinyl So Expensive?
Quite frankly, custom vinyl car wraps may seem like a relatively straightforward job, but in reality, requires a fair bit of patience and expertise to execute correctly. Another big reason why custom car wraps are expensive is that you get a wrap that’s exclusive to your vehicle, which is a multi-step process.
This process involves selecting the best design for your wants and needs, meeting one of our custom car wrap experts to help create a mock-up design, after which we get to work, that is printing your vehicle wrap using premium quality vinyl.
Most of the costs incurred from having your vehicle custom wrapped by our experts at Sterlings Customs stems from the labor-intensive nature of the custom car wrap process. For example, even if you have a simple vehicle to wrap such as a Tesla (surprisingly, this brand’s vehicle has a smooth, flat, and simple exterior design), the cost of a custom car wrap quickly adds up when you add special vinyl, custom designs.
You can scrimp on a professional custom car wrap by doing it yourself, but we highly advise leaving this job to the experts, because as we’ve mentioned before, applying a custom car wrap can be both complicated, and tedious.
How to Tell if Your Customized Vehicle Art is Legit?
From a distance, you may not be able to tell if your car wrap is legit. However, if you take a closer look, you will be able to spot the signs of a poor-quality car wrap.
Too many patches in the wrap
Applying a car wrap around recessed corners and curves isn’t an easy task. If your car wrap has large patches or visible seams, it’s definitely not a job done well.
Sloppy trimming around the edges
If your car wrap looks like a bad sticker rather than a custom paint job once it’s installed, the final trimming isn’t the work of a professional.
Peeling edges on the vinyl
Most car wrap installers work with 3M primer 94 and edge sealants to ensure that the edges of the wrap will not peel off.
However, what they forget to do is clean the residue from this primer off the edges, and post-heat every inch of the edge to the temperature recommended by the manufacturer.
Speaking of edges, they should be wrinkle-free, and squeegeed flat for the car wrap to look good
Bubbling vinyl
Bubbling is one of the most common issues with car wraps. Gauging bubbling issues can be a bit tricky, because the bubbles don’t show up a few days or a few weeks after the car wrap installation.
There are four main factors that cause bubbling issues: wrong choice of material, overstretching of the vinyl, skipping the post-heating process, and wrong installation techniques.
Tips to Get the Best Car Wrap for Your Money
The first, most important tip to getting the best car wrap for your money is choosing a professional service.
Car wraps when well done will last you for years to come, and the last thing you want to do is rewrap your vehicle owing to a poor quality job the first time around.
The second tip to getting the best car wrap for your money is choosing the right size of film for your project.
Buying too large of film is a waste of both money and material, and too small will result in having to reorder and redo the surface.
Full wraps can draw most people’s attention, and even though it is highly effective, partial wraps in 3/4, 1/2, or 1/4 partial wraps are also a great way to incorporate graphics and the original color of vehicles.
And most importantly, choose high-quality vinyl to wrap your vehicle, because even though it may be tempting to save a few bucks, a high-quality wrap installed by a professional car wrapping company goes a long way.
Why Hire Sterling’s Customs for Customized Car Wraps?
Well, for several reasons, most notably we only use top-quality car wraps from Avery Dennison and other industry top performers. Our in-house certified installers have a wealth of experience in creating custom colors or wrap with custom art and photography.
And best of all, Sterling’s Customs offers an industry-leading one-year installer warranty, so you can rest assured a car wrapping job done by our experts will serve you well for many years to come.