I own an 11 year old Scion FR-S. It is painted Hot Lava (orange) and about 2 years ago the clear coat started to slowly fail, now it looks like crap.
So far the paint has held up pretty good but I am sure it is a matter of time before the paint might start to fail next.
I have gotten a couple of ball park estimates to paint it and they have been in the ball park of around $2500 to $3500 dollars.

I was told by the service advisor I deal with where I get my car serviced and advised to find out about having it wrapped instead.

This is something new to me and was wondering if anyone here had their whole car wrapped instead of being painted and what they thought.

Thanks

I was very good friends with a guy in Washington that wrapped cars. I actually helped out a few times. It’s not cheap. A good quality wrap, done well, will set you back between $1-$2k. More if you get some of the metallic or flat vinyl, and the quality/price if the install can make a huge difference.

It’ll do great at hiding any poor paint you have, but if the clear has flaked off it may not look so good. If you can feel texture on the paint where the clear is gone, it’ll show through the wrap.

I've been debating between paint & wrap for the Midget.
Following

quote:

Originally posted by Beancooker:
I was very good friends with a guy in Washington that wrapped cars. I actually helped out a few times. It’s not cheap. A good quality wrap, done well, will set you back between $1-$2k. More if you get some of the metallic or flat vinyl, and the quality/price if the install can make a huge difference.

It’ll do great at hiding any poor paint you have, but if the clear has flaked off it may not look so good. If you can feel texture on the paint where the clear is gone, it’ll show through the wrap.

Thank you for the info.
As the clear coat is flaking off it is almost leaving a texture like fine to medium grit sand paper. My thought is who ever would wrap the car would almost have to sand it smooth before applying the wrap.
If that was the case you would think if you are going to do this much prep it might just be better painting the car or at least maybe re applying the clear coat, if that can even de done.

The only experience I have w/ wrapped vehicles are two of our cruisers got wrapped instead of paint. The looked like crap after a short period of time. Faded and every door ding that you would get became a small tear in the wrap. On top of that officers w/ fidget habits would sit there w/ their arm out the window and pick away.

For you and some care it would probably work. For a fleet car…nope….

I've wondered about the longevity of wraps and can they be repaired if the wrap is scratched or torn?

I'm curious about it.

The Lovely Girlfriend's HOA keeps complaining about the paint on her mailbox peeling. We've cleaned and painted it, to no great result. I'm thinking of having it wrapped.

Lumpy wrap for $2k or new paint for $3.5k. I personally wouldn't consider it. It's an old car, just leave it. If you like the car pay for the paint.

I know a young man who wraps cars. I considered it briefly until he told me a wrap only lasts about 5 years. I chose to paint.

I was a cub driver for some time and, at some point, the owners got a deal with advertising company, so most our cars got wrapped in some commercials for banks, companies and everything under the sun. Some were O.K but most were crappy from the get go. The wrapping didn't have to look good for long, because those cars were sold every two years. They couldn't hold even that long, after a year or so, they all looked like shit - faded colors, scratches that immediately turned black and the carwash made it even worse.
Granted, we covered a lot of ground and time in those two years, so private car should hold little longer but not much. For us it was nice, as this protected the original paint nicely and there was some extra advertising money.
I wouldn't bother, just bite the bullet and get it painted, preferably in the original color (I love orange) with a custom twist.

quote:

Originally posted by Skins2881:
Lumpy wrap for $2k or new paint for $3.5k. I personally wouldn't consider it. It's an old car, just leave it. If you like the car pay for the paint.

Try $8000+ for paint. It's why my brother bought the paint booth and three paint guns to paint his corvette.

A wrap wants to be done with a cast material. That's 6000+.

Then it needs to be done on a good non oxidized surface, so clear coating first gives better results.

Not that I work with these materials for a living or anything.

^^ I was using his numbers. Painting a car here is $4-8k depending on how much prep needs to be done and quality of job you want.

V-Tail, it was $99 when I was young, and you had better tape off what you can, yourself. They did a 5 minute tape and paper and everything else was painted. Painted right over the emblems and chrome trim.

71Truck, you can always roll on rustoleum…

Thanks everyone.
It looking more and more like I am having the car painted.

quote:

Originally posted by Beancooker:
71Truck, you can always roll on rustoleum…

[FLASH_VIDEO]<iframe frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/W2qtexeLhus?si=nDDjSP05TSXeBgFv" width="560"></iframe>[/FLASH_VIDEO]

Back when the clear coat started to flake it was just on the roof. At one point I thought about taping off the car so only the roof was exposed, wet sanding it smooth and re applying the clear coat. Eventually I decided not to because other parts of the car started doing the same.

In the 40 plus years of owning cars I have never had this happen to a car that I owned. I asked the dealer where I bought the car from if it was a paint defect and they said not on this color.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:

Pretty sure that's [or similar] is who painted the Midget prior to my ownership.
Lots of trim painted that shouldn't be.

My advice is don’t. We stripe all the city vehicles in my department. Police brought us an Explorer that had been used for a recruitment vehicle. It had been wrapped and wanted the wrap removed. Wrap was cracked and crazed on the hood. Paint came off with it. We’ll never do another one.

I have been down the wrap the vehicle road. About 2 years in the wrap starts to deteriorate and can start to crack the clear coat of the original paint. If you catch it in time you will need to remove the wrap and do it again. Of course, there are variables like if you never garage it and what part of the country you live in, ie: weather and temps.
I would repaint it if you really like the car.
I run a dealership body shop in Northern California and a complete repaint can run between 5k to 8k depending on how bad the paint is.
We currently have a 2008 Honda Accord in the shop and all of the clear coat popped off and the bill is at 5k for the complete. Owner doesn't want a new/newer car and very happy to refresh it