Vinyl wrap for 80 series vs. paint

[c2dfj45]

So I talked myself into a wrap on the 80. Figured it was/is the easiest way to go for what I want out of this truck. Going with a 3M 1080 Matte Brown Metallic. Neat color. We did a G-wagon in it. Unusual color.

About the extent of my vinyl install skills

Roof looks bad. No rust though. Not sure yet as to how I will address the rack nutserts that are in the roof. Probably drill out, weld, finish. Could probably just smooth them down and vinyl right over them. If the vinyl breaks though, bad news.

Matte brown metallic...

 

[svb]

View attachment 1754294 View attachment 1754295 Just wrapped mine. 3M vinyl gloss black. Wrapped the bumpers too.

 

[Heckraiser]

OK, that looks pretty good.

 

[c2dfj45]

View attachment 1754294 View attachment 1754295 Just wrapped mine. 3M vinyl gloss black. Wrapped the bumpers too.

Looks great!

 

[SteelHunterFJ80]

Here's another option: dip it using plastidip. My buddy and I are going to do it this next month on our 80s.

Heres a Tacoma guys experience and results with plastidip:

Plasti-dip FULL TRUCK DIP THREAD

 

[Bambusiero]

To you folks that have done vinyl wraps - why isn't lifetime & degradation a problem?

I have not done it, so no personal experience, but the manufacturers have specific warranty policy that gives fair warning.

This is my understanding:

It's OK for 2 years, but then UV will start degrading it over time.
If left on too long, it will get sun-baked on and become cracked and degraded, and the adhesive will be very tough to get off.
So, they say it should be replaced at 2 years. >>> VERY EXPENSIVE for a whole vehicle wrap.
Also, one might easily forget to do this.

For best lifetime, you want premium grade "cast PVC" with solvent adhesive and high UV blocker content, rather than "calendered PVC" water based or hybrid adhesive.

ORACAL 951 fits that category grade.

Manufacturer lifetime warranty depends on the application conditions, due to UV exposure and heat.
Vertical and non-desert southwest might be 10-12 years.
Horizontal and desert southwest region is - no warranty given - thus the 2 year recommendation I got.

This site has good information Vinyl Signs – Calendered & Cast Vinyl, Cut Vinyl, Weeding, Plotter, cutter, vehicle wraps – SignIndustry.com

 

[SUMMIT CRUISERS Jr]

Paint with clear coat. After over 100k miles and 6-7 years with lots of tight tree trails in the Ozarks, three stages of buffing and then wax made it like new again.

Fresh on the left, scratched up on the right.

I have no doubt that my paint will still shine up like new in another 7 years. I’d probably be frustrated with a wrap at this point.

 

[svb]

I have a wrap on my Mercedes coupe going on 7 years now and it still looks pristine. The car is always garaged and hand washed. It never gets swirled and if someone decides to key it, just replace the wrapped panel. When it comes time for resale, remove and the original paint will be pristine. Well taken care of wraps will last a lot longer than most people think (including on this forum apparently.)

 

[c2dfj45]

The first car my shop wrapped was sometime around 2009 I think. We have done well over 150 wraps(not my primary business). Most of my customers take very good care of their cars....very little extended outside time, usually detailed on a regular basis. We have had 2 cars that I recall which had issues. They were both 3M 1080 Dark Grey Metallic. One of them was probably never washed once.....and was parked in a parking garage. It was almost if that one lost the grey part of the color. I have a close friend who had a RX7 done in a teal metallic 3M color.....we were looking at it one day and it appeared as if it had black overspray on it. It wasn't. It was the same deterioration that my customer's grey car had. His car was redone under warranty. Bad material according to 3M. That car never really saw a lot of outside time.

That's been all the issues. Not bad. And I really think the 2 gray cars we had issues with were from the same batch of material. So probably a bad roll.

The only downside to wraps......removing them. ZERO fun.

 

[Recruiter]

Here's another option: dip it using plastidip. My buddy and I are going to do it this next month on our 80s.

Heres a Tacoma guys experience and results with plastidip:

Plasti-dip FULL TRUCK DIP THREAD

learned a ton about plastidip from the videos on dipyourcar dot com. It seems like a viable alternative to full blown paint and/or wraps.

 

[c2dfj45]

learned a ton about plastidip from the videos on dipyourcar dot com. It seems like a viable alternative to full blown paint and/or wraps.

We had a 2016 S63 at my shop a few weeks ago the was Plastidipped.....it was a joke. Keep in mind, I'm very very particular about finish quality due to the type of work we do so I what passes for most people does not work for me. It was a joke. Fisheyes, orange peel, strange runs, horrible tape lines and overspray everywhere(they did it in a metallic orange which was on every surface under the car). Even the customer, who knew nothing about cars, knew it was a bad job and regretted it. I am sure some guys can spray that stuff but it would require a lot of time and a lot of work. And a lot of money. I think this particular customer paid $4k for his crap job. It's cool that you can peel it off but I would imagine that is a nightmare of a job too. I did see a McLaren that was done and it was actually really nice. So all about who does it.

Vinyl looks very smooth, very uniform. If of course the surface of the truck is nice. My job will be the true test of my vinyl guy. My paint is awful....we'll have a lot of prep before we see him. LOTS of sanding to make it smooth.....

 

[Cass007]

Roof looks bad. No rust though. Not sure yet as to how I will address the rack nutserts that are in the roof. Probably drill out, weld, finish. Could probably just smooth them down and vinyl right over them. If the vinyl breaks though, bad news.

I put a dab of RTV in the roof rack holes, let it cure and cut it off flush, then wrap over it. No issues so far and the truck eats trees and is outside often.

 

[Cass007]

Monstaliner it and wrap it .... did someone say graphics?

Before

 

[Cass007]

Avery wrap, professional installation with lots of small things like the headlight trim, emblems and got the mirrors done as well (not in pics). Door handles are actually wrapped in matte black to match the Monstaliner. Total cost - ~$2k. That included having the cammo pattern printed over the Avery matte white.

 

[HomersCanyonero]

I want to remove the fender flares, roof rack, and rear wind deflector...patch the holes nice and smooth...then probably monstaline/line-x the roof to hood plus a pattern along where the flares were.

 

[svb]

Looks good!

 

[SteelHunterFJ80]

We had a 2016 S63 at my shop a few weeks ago the was Plastidipped.....it was a joke. Keep in mind, I'm very very particular about finish quality due to the type of work we do so I what passes for most people does not work for me. It was a joke. Fisheyes, orange peel, strange runs, horrible tape lines and overspray everywhere(they did it in a metallic orange which was on every surface under the car). Even the customer, who knew nothing about cars, knew it was a bad job and regretted it. I am sure some guys can spray that stuff but it would require a lot of time and a lot of work. And a lot of money. I think this particular customer paid $4k for his crap job. It's cool that you can peel it off but I would imagine that is a nightmare of a job too. I did see a McLaren that was done and it was actually really nice. So all about who does it.

Vinyl looks very smooth, very uniform. If of course the surface of the truck is nice. My job will be the true test of my vinyl guy. My paint is awful....we'll have a lot of prep before we see him. LOTS of sanding to make it smooth.....

$4k? Man he WAY overpaid. The beauty of plastidip is you can do it yourself and fix it yourself. Like a lot of things, a good job is mostly in the preparation.

 

[c2dfj45]

Yeah....$4k. I thought that was high too BUT it's a lot of work to tape a big car up like that AND it's quite a bit of material for something that size. I've never seen a Plastidip or whatever the alternative job look good.....so we stay away from it.

You should see what we charge when we paint someone's new MB chrome trim gloss black. Ouch.

 

[ATXLX]

I want to remove the fender flares, roof rack, and rear wind deflector...patch the holes nice and smooth...then probably monstaline/line-x the roof to hood plus a pattern along where the flares were.

Hey, what did you do to get that dent on the fender mostly out? I have an identical one and it's becoming difficult to pull it out.

 

[bicycleagent003]

IMHO, the problem with wrap is it's going to go from wrap to crap in 5 years in the SoCal heat and sun I live in. Paint is too expensive to do right, and I'm kind of a paint perfectionist. So, I've settled on just living with trail rash and probably getting a large hood decal to conceal my flaking clear coat. And I'm going to start using a car cover to keep the sun off it.
The thing I really wish for...is a white 80 Series. Mine is blue, which is cool, but the dark colors get beat up by the sun. I wish mine were white. That's my only regret about my 80 purchase.

Anyone have a really nice white, locked 1997, with a gray cloth interior, no roof rack and with a moonroof, with 50K original miles, they want to sell me for $5K??? Anyone???