aambulo

Has anyone vinyl wrapped their C yet? I'm contemplating on a full matte white vinyl wrap on my future w205 versus spray plastidip. In you have how much did your shop charge you? Also I'm wondering about the durability of the wrap and how easy is it to take off? I've dipped my wheels on multiple cars before, but I've never thought about doing it on the body of the car

dieseldoc

Great picture of a car that was wrapped in yellow on this site. Nice job done. Would do vinyl rather than dip. Wheels are one thing. Body parts are another. Vinyl is reversible. Dipping is not.

aambulo

Both options are reversible...Dipping is reversible, once it's dried, you can just peel off the paint.

The only real differences I was thinking about was price, durability, and ease of removal...id probably speculate that vinyl is probably more expensive because it's more labor intensive but then again, it wouldn't be out of the question for a shop to price gouge on the dip pricing

Mike5215

Yeah, vinyl if anything, or better yet buy the car in the color you want. Plastidip was never intended as a resilient automotive finish. It was originally designed to allow you to add a rubberized coating to the handles of tools and stuff, which you dipped into the can and when it cured formed a nice grip.

Wrapping can screw up a finish if the installer makes his trim cuts on the car. You'll get tons of little nicks everywhere in the clearcoat that are visible when the wrap comes off. But of those two I'd wrap vs Plastidip.

RixC300

I did a black satin full wrap. The brand use was Avery and came with a 12 year warranty. I had it on for about 4 months before very small parts of it starting to come up around sharp contours on the front and the vents behind the back tires. Drove me nuts, I had sections replaced with 3M and it didn't last as long as the Avery. Pulled it off about six weeks ago to perfect paint that just needed a sealer applied. I can say the Avery came off easy in full sections (70deg weather) where the 3m came off in pieces. The wheel's were dipped and I pulled that off this weekend because they got nicked up after I put new shoes on (g-force).

I also played around with wrapping the hood in carbon but didn't like it. The wrap and dip are both very good protector. My car was never parked in the weather as it goes from one garage to another. The vinyl is very easy to maintain, keep clean and scratches are self healing. Dip stains more easy but not a bad choice if careful.


My 2cents

Mike5215

^Car looks great!

huyuci

If you see someone using a knife, stop him and run as far as you can. That person shouldn't be charging money for wrapping. What should be used is called knifeless tape, which does not do any damage on the paint. It's basically a thread under a tape that the installer pulls to cut the vinyl. Knife should only be used in non-paint areas like under the hood, etc.

huyuci

I'm not a pro by any mean, but I hate to tell you that whoever gave you a 12-year warranty on vinyl is full of crap. If you go to 3M or any vinyl manufacturer website, you'll see that the warranty is only 3-4 years. Once in a while, 5 years. And that's if the car is well kept. If it's baked under the sun everyday, its life would be shorter.

huyuci

Vinyl would come off much easier. I dipped my wheels once and when it was time to strip it off, it was so hard to remove because the coat wasn't thick enough. I lost my patience and used brake cleaner to strip it off and eventually ruined my beautiful wheels

aambulo

I usually dip my wheels almost immediately after i get my car. I left them on for the entire lease term and about a week or two before it came time to return the vehicle, it did harden considerably. But, if you spray wd40, it starts to soften the polymer almost immediately, and you can peel it right off, or even powerwash it off, no problem..my wheels looked like they just came from Sindelfingen

RixC300

They warrant it breaking down is what I was told. Regardless if it was for 30 years I never planed to leave it on longer than a year tops. I put it on to protect the paint and have a little fun at the same time. I'm doing the Ceramic Pro this week and hope that warranty is valid.