Phill's Capri Wrap

[Phill]

As many of you will know, I have a project Nova (two in fact - but one is just a set of body panels) which I bought in 2007 but they remain a "project" for later.

Meanwhile, what have I been doing with my spare time in recent years? Well the answer is I have been restoring a Capri. I bought this car new in 1986 after I sold my original Nova and ran it up until 1997/8 when it failed its MOT on a number of serious faults so I took it off the road and parked it up at the side of my house where it sat for many years. Then about 5 years ago I decide the Capri would be my pet project (over the Nova) and I spent the odd weekend working on getting it back on the road. Finally last winter, spurred on by the many doubters who thought I would never finish it, I made a determinded effort to finish it and get it back on the road. This was completed in June last year, and I ran it for six months until the end of October when I sorned it for the winter.

The car is currently Mot'd and insured and I decided to utilise the Christmas and new year break to vinyl wrap the car. Why vinyl wrap (you may ask)? Well first and foremost, I'm a signmaker and wanted to gain some more experience in wrapping (I've done a few over the years). But more importantly, I wanted to be able to retain the cars originality and revert back to the original "laquer red" colour at some point in the future.

The following series of pictures show the process:-

This was the car before work began
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First job was to remove everything that would get in the way of the wrap including bumpers, mirrors etc.
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Now the work could begin
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First side completed
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2nd side completed
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Roof and tailgate done

[Phill]

Roof and tailgate done
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Front valence done
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Finally completed and bumpers decals re-fitted
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Side view
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Front view
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So what's next?

With the Capri back on the Road and more or less finished, maybe now I'll finally get around to rebuilding the Nova?

[Spacenut]

Very impressive Phill - it looks just like paint!

I've got a roll of satin black wrap for doing my dashboard display masks, I'm hoping for similar quality results - the material has capilliary channels which prevent air bubbles forming, apparently.

Lauren

[Peter]

Love wrap, shame it has such a relatively short life on a car, down here it could be as little as 3 years. On the interior I have stopped using it as much as I used to as it just gets killed by the heat and shrinks, comes unglued and generally a disaster, small things like the handbrake and gear change I can live with redoing once a year though but the centre console I have had to do in alloy and leather cloth dash, (as the expensive real black suede just shriveled and turned brown). I want to wrap my bonnet and boot (possibly door tops) in black carbon fiber and the rest in satin black paint, (and hide 13 years of abuse and abandoned styling attempts.

[Phill]

Yes Lauren - the vinyls with the air escape channels in the glue really do work as intended. It's well worth paying the extra to use a vinyl with this feature as the application is so much easier and bubble free.

3-5 years is a reasonable life expectancy for a wrap. We don't get as much heat and sunshine in Scotland so the vinyls tend to last a bit longer over here, but I think I'd prefer a bit more heat and sunshine if I'm honest

[Mostin]

Hi all.

Looks good Phil & like you said you can just peel it off & your back to the original paint which is a bonus. In a way the wrap would help protect the original paint.

As for the "life" of a wrap that too could be seen as a bonus because you could just keep changing the colour / custom style every couple of years!! Off with the old & on with the new.


Mostin

[Peter]

Wadaya think the cost to warp a Nova would be in vinyl alone?

[Phill]

I reckon you would need about 10 metres of vinyl at 1520mm width. Prices for vinyl vary a lot but using a good quality film with air release channels would cost £250 - £300 for the vinyl alone. There are cheaper films available but these compromise on performance and are much less likely to produce a satisfactory result

[letterman7]

Yer a better man than me, Phill! I won't do wraps. Too much liability if something might happen when trimming or removing at a later date. There must be a dozen people within 10 miles of me that do them, and each one trying to underbid the other. Sometimes it's fun to sit back and watch because only the customer loses in those deals.

Nice job on the Capri, though. I'll bet those rear quarter corners at the bumpers were a pain!

[Phill]

I'ts the same here Rick. Lots of competition and silly prices being quoted for full wraps. And yes the rear quarter panels were a bugger to do.

The first wrap I ever did was a few years ago on my daughters car, when we took it off again 9 months later it removed some of the laquer on the roof. So something to be wary of. Of course it shouldn't happen on a car with decent (factory finish) paintwork.