One rapidly growing trend in automotive aesthetic modifications is the use of adhesive, conformable vinyl in the place of paint for changing the colour of your car.
A member of a E90 BMW enthusiast forum recently undertook the task on his BMW 335i coupe, and kindly documented the process in photos for his forum compatriots.
Originally a black model, ‘gerritg’ took his Beamer to vehicle signage specialists to be wrapped head to toe (so to speak) in brilliant white vinyl, made by the gurus at 3M specifically for conforming perfectly to the contours.
While there may still be some reason to doubt the level of perfection you can achieve by wrapping your car in big sheets of vinyl, the trade-off comes from the fact that you’re literally saving thousands of dollars in the process. The entire process is completed within a day or two, and it’s back on the road.
And you can expect the vinyl to maintain its hold and quality for around 4 or 5 years, so long as you don’t live on dirt roads or opposite a shooting range.
The process has been around for some years now—you’ll have seen it used on corporate cars and trucks for advertising purposes—but the quality of the vinyl has really started to come good in the last year or so, making it a very viable option for this type of application.
Best of all, if you wrap your car immediately after you buy it, you can peel it off when you’re ready to sell the car and it’ll be just about pristine.
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Meh, signwriters have been doing this for years. Newsworthy? Don’t think so.
G’day Paul,
I did point out in the piece that it’s not a brand new technique, and not everything posted on TMR is intended to be news. This is a general interest piece.
Cheers!
Fair enough. Actually 3M has lost its crown as the best product. If you’re interested, Arlon now makes the best one.
Three products will do the same job -
Arlon DPF-6000X
Avery 1005EZ RS; and
3M Controltac 180CV.
I should know, I’m in the game.
Haha, so was I a couple of years ago, but only as a designer. All the production and material was handled in the workshop. But yep, I recall the boys recommending Avery especially.
Mmmm does it work on people. I’d love to wrap the wife up in it and give here some new bodywork. Ha Ha
Where can I get something like this done in Sydney?
And what sort of money are we looking at?
Andy - Brendan with the white 200SX works at a signwriters, and can source you the vinyl.
As for applying it, the Auto Salon Industrie 200SX drift car has the same thing done to it with chrome vinyl. You could ask the workshop that prepares the car to give you a hand.
Thanks, Alan.
Will ask Brendan about it.
[...] in Germany undergoing color conversion by foil / tape - BMW 3-Series (E90 E92) Forum - E90Post.com BMW Vinyl Wrap: It Don’t Matter if You’re Black or White [...]
I live in Adelaide and am looking at getting this done for my car. It’s an 83 Trans Am. Anyone know of who does this sort of work and where? Seems to be all the rage in Europe and cost effective too. Has Australia not adopted this as a viable market?
Hi Mike,
We can lay light panels under the vinyl wraps. Do you have any clients interested in this? Check out http://www.elaust.com.au - Jim Beam V8 supercar.
Cheers!