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Wrap Question

Jim H

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Nathan, I know precious little about wraps. What do they typically cost? How hard are they to remove?
Thanks for asking the question many of us would like to know and thanks to Nathan for joining the forum and providing his expertise and giving us additional information that may impact what our Elio's may look like.
 

Nathan Diffee

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Nathan, I know precious little about wraps. What do they typically cost? How hard are they to remove?
Well, there a few different factors to consider which can effect the price. There are varying grades of materials with different properties (durability, remove-ability, ease of application, etc). The really high end stuff is usually around 2 or 3 dollars per square foot, and that's before anything is printed on it. The amount you might pay for the design work and the labor will be different depending on who is doing the work. One good thing about the Elio is that its size would make for a fairly inexpensive and quick project. If I were to do a full wrap on one, I would probably charge around $400 for materials, design, labor, everything (however, I have yet to see one in person and don't really know the dimensions, so don't anybody hold me to that.) If all you wanted was solid colors, no graphics, it would be a good bit cheaper. You can get solid vinyl that isn't made to be printed on and doesn't need to be laminated for less than the cost of the printable stuff which does need a laminate.

All that being said, you don't have to wrap the entire thing. A black paint job with flames on it like the picture above would be considerably cheaper.

As far as removal, the longer it's on, the harder it is to take off. you can usually remove them fairly easily up to about 4 years. After that it starts to get really difficult.
 

Johnny Acree

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I was just over a Local Motors web site and saw a you tube about why they wrap their cars instead of paint.
They said they prefer vinyl because it's lighter, cheaper and better for the environment than paint .
Plus custom jobs are super easy. Sounds like a win, win, win, win !
 

goofyone

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I was just over a Local Motors web site and saw a you tube about why they wrap their cars instead of paint.
They said they prefer vinyl because it's lighter, cheaper and better for the environment than paint .
Plus custom jobs are super easy. Sounds like a win, win, win, win !

I generally like wraps but the biggest issue I see with them vs paint is usable service life. A quality modern paint job will easily look good 10+ years down the road. A top quality vinyl wrap material may hold up well for up to 10 years however the truth is that it should be replaced after about three or four years. The longer the wrap stay on it becomes more difficult/expensive to remove and the possibility of damage to the paint/primer layer underneath increases dramatically.
 

zelio

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I generally like wraps but the biggest issue I see with them vs paint is usable service life. A quality modern paint job will easily look good 10+ years down the road. A top quality vinyl wrap material may hold up well for up to 10 years however the truth is that it should be replaced after about three or four years. The longer the wrap stay on it becomes more difficult/expensive to remove and the possibility of damage to the paint/primer layer underneath increases dramatically.
I am more interested in temporary wraps. Is there such a thing? My Elio could be a patch work quilt for a while, then a flower garden, then a ?????????? What ever strikes my fancy. It would be fun to be able to subscribe to a wrap plan that allows you to change wraps periodically. Just a thought! Hmmmm, maybe dragon flies. Or butterflies. And those ideas are just the tip of the iceburg. Maybe ice cream cones? LOL :-) Z
 
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