VOL. I
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH
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Long Lasting Wraps
By Doug Seeley Certified Installer
When preparing for a vehicle wrap, Synergy Grafix gets asked first, how much? Second, how long? Let’s talk about how long and what you can expect from your wrap warranty. Vehicle wraps are great advertising or styling choice. With proper material choice, Install, and care vehicle wraps can last many years. First, you must start with a proper material choice for applying to all the curves of a modern vehicle.
The longest lasting wrap films are Cast films. Cast vinyls are a thin printable film that starts life as a liquid. Then passing through an oven, forms to a solid. Due to the nature of this manufacturing process cast materials have more durability when applied to your vehicle. When printing a wrap there are corresponding laminates to each film. Acting as a clear protection layer for a print or color, overlaminates add years of life to a wrap. So words
to look for when you ask how long will my wrap last are definitely cast and laminated material.
All good wrap material companies warranty removal without damage to your car. This is often the biggest concern when deciding to wrap a car, because your car is a major purchase for a someone or business. Arlon, Avery, Oracal, and 3m all have upto a 7 year warranty on a vertical surface and upto a 3 years on a horizontal surface. Why are vertical and horizontal different? First the intensity of the sun is that much greater for horizontal surfaces. Warranties are also rated by geological zones as some environments have more sun exposure. (fig. 2). Second when containments sit they tend to like a horizontal seat more than a vertical one, as do I, you little containments! You should wash your wrap weekly or more after driving on salted roads. It’s imperative to keep contaminants from sitting on your wrap. So, all that is horizontal on a car is the hood, roof, trunk right? Unfortunately not, anything 11 to 90 degrees is considered “non vertical” and subject to horizontal warranty (see fig. 1). So that includes a lot more of your car. When you combine these and more factors horizontal surfaces wear faster! Just check out this Veloster we did with 3m after just 4 years figure 3. Synergy Grafix has a quality warranty of its own.
We take a lot of pride in our work, and have spent a considerable amount of time wrapping in classes and wrapping 1000’s of vehicles to develop our
installation technique to a level beyond mere proficient to straight out Excellent! So, when a car pulls out of our shop we have a one year no questions asked warranty. This covers everything! From blew off a letter power-washing, we got you! Unexplained bubble, we got you! That cup you left on your roof stained your wrap, we got you! Coming loose anywhere, we got you! We do need you to meet a 60 day, then 120 day, check up. That is your only requirement to get full wrap protection. We want to see your wrap perfect! Check up’s insure that everything can last for years of pleasure, or advertising. Plus, when you bring you wrap in for check up we clean and add a protecting sealer for you. See figure 4 We are constantly evolving and hope to always provide a better service. Thanks for reading and I hope this helps your understanding! Check out the links below for more info on warranty.
In some future blog topics you can look forward to are:“What Materials for what Now?” by Scott our production print wizard. “Has your Wrap been Post heated?” By our very own installer, Gio. “The art of design” by Mark the world’s greatest wrap designer. “What do Wraps cost?” By Coby our fearless leader. My next topic will be “Nanofilament Coatings and Wraps” due in May and look forward to blowing your mind! As always if you have any topic requests or questions contact me directly at doug@synergygfx.com! Thanks and check out the links.
3m: multimedia.3m.com/mws/media/451274O/3m-graphics-warranties-brochure.pdf, multimedia.3m.com/mws/media/202318O/3m-controltac-graphic-film-ij180-ij180c-ij180cv3-product-ulletin.pdf
www.3m.com/3M/en_US/company-us/all-3m-products/~/IJ180Cv3-3M-Controltac-Graphic-Film-with-Comply-v3-Adhesive-IJ180Cv3/?N=5002385+3293953793&rt=rud
Coby Strom
Posted at 16:51h, 02 JanuaryVery good information. Know how long you can expect your vehicle wrap will last can help you budget your marketing dollars correct as well as get an accurate ROI on your wraps.