ONCE YOU’VE DONE something for long enough in a professional capacity, you might find yourself mastering that task like it’s second nature. That is not to say all future jobs will come easy, however. The complexity of fabrication, installation and communication, or simply the weather, can all pile difficulty onto a job. Four wrap professionals share the most challenging projects that they have completed this year.
ALL SIZES WELCOME: Wraps For Less adapts the client’s design to fit public service vehicles large and small.
Fleet Connections
For six years Orlando Health has been partnering with local signshop Wraps For Less (Orlando, FL) for their annual Breast Cancer Awareness campaign. Every October sees an extensive fleet of area service vehicles transformed to bear messages spreading awareness and reminding onlookers to get screened.
The project began in July 2019; after the first two years, the hospital started supplying their own designs. With the exception of 2022-23 which shared the same design, the overall theme is different every year, and almost every vehicle is unique. “Some of the police vehicles are Dodge Chargers, some are Ford Explorers,” Wraps For Less owner Cathy Bacot explains. “Some departments will want to wrap a community outreach van or other type of vehicle, so even though the hospital provides the art design, our graphic designer must fit the design to each different vehicle template.” The different department badges, logos, specific requirements for reflective materials and stripes must also be taken into consideration.
Arlon is Wraps For Less’ vinyl brand of choice. For the Orlando Health project, the shop opts for Arlon SLX+ cast film printed on their HP Latex printer and laminated with Arlon optically clear overlaminate. Rather than remove the vehicles’ existing graphics, the shop simply wraps over them and replaces any graphics that are damaged in the removal process at month’s end, with reimbursement from the hospital.
Wraps For Less has streamlined the process over six years, but coordination between a sprawling web of government agencies remains a formidable challenge. Each agency has a different contact person, Bacot says, whom the shop emails to determine if they will be participating for the year. The contacts then pick a five-day window to leave their vehicles for wrap installation and send over information on the year, make and model of the vehicles.
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OVER EASY: Wraps are applied over the existing graphics.
After the shop’s graphic designer creates a proof of the pink breast cancer awareness design on the vehicle template, they forward the proof for approval and schedule for installation. Everything must be completed within six weeks. The agencies must keep the wrap for the entire month of October; once the month is over, they call Wraps For Less to schedule a removal date.
Even with this structure in place, nature can throw a monkey wrench, to use Bacot’s words, in the works. “As happens in Florida in the very months we are doing this project, August and September, we have been impacted by hurricanes coming through and the vehicles that were on schedule are needed for disaster relief,” she says.
At the end of it all, Bacot enjoys everything about the project, which both brings in good revenue and promotes a good cause. “Also, since these are fire engines, rescue vehicles and police cruisers, it’s fun when we spot them all over town and can say, ‘We did that!’”
UTILITY CURVE: The wraps had to flow around the four-sided utility boxes.
Color Geometry
Creative Color Graphic & Print Studio (Minneapolis) was awarded a project to wrap nine outdoor electrical utility boxes for the city of Bloomington, located on the Minneapolis outskirts, after a contact deemed them a good fit for the job. Bloomington residents were encouraged to submit artwork to a design contest, which the city later voted on. Creative Color then decided which winning artwork would go on each utility box.
FLOWERS BRING BEES: Creative Color installers battled the sun, wind and even hives of bees while wrapping the nine utility boxes selected for resident-supplied art.
The project’s challenge lay in the variety of the electrical units, with each one coming in a different shape, size and configuration alongside lots of handles and obstructions to account for. Creative Color had to visit every location to take specific dimensions and tailor templates to those units, owner Brent Luther recalls. Not only did the art pieces have to fit on 3D objects, they also had to flow fluidly across four sides of the utility box. The Creative Color team printed the wraps on 3M IJ280 using their HP Latex 560, then added 3M Scotchcal 8520 luster overlaminate.
Installation provided its own issues. “One day it was super sunny, which makes graphics gummy and stretchy, so we were working with the clouds and shade as much as possible,” Luther says. “Other times we were dealing with a ton of wind. Some of the units even had a bunch of bees’ nests in areas that would not allow us to remove [them], so we had to be careful but still got stung.”
PERMIT ME THIS: Boxes in the county, not the city, required a different permit physically displayed to an official.
On top of that, at one point a county official came by while the crew was on site and required them to show a physical permit, which the city had never supplied, according to Luther. “We also had to communicate every day with this official to let them know when we were on site on county grounds (not city grounds). Certainly a lot of additional steps were involved in something that seemed like a pretty straightforward project,” Luther adds. Even then, the Creative Color team carried out the installation with gusto, using 3M gold squeegees, X-ACTO knives and a torch for any areas that required extra heat.
Luther views the project fondly, as an opportunity to bring some life to the otherwise unattractive and unremarkable electrical utility box. “I sure hope the city continues to embrace the local art,” he says.
WINDOW PERF-ECTION: Bismarck Sign handled this 20-yd.-wide skywalk “with a fair amount of teamwork.”
No Cakewalk Skywalk
Bismarck Sign Co. (Bismarck, ND) took the call when Bismarck State College, an existing client, contacted them to wrap a skywalk. The college’s marketing team provided the design, while the signshop’s project manager conducted an extensive survey to make sure the window perf would fit perfectly, says co-founder Alexandra Lund.
The Bismarck Sign team printed the graphics on 3M IJ180Cv3 using their HP Latex 800W printer, and used 3M Scotchcal 8518 for the laminate. Installation required Tri-Edge Squeegees with Monkey Strips Buffers, a Yellotools BodyGuard Knife for backer strip cutting, and a fair amount of teamwork to overcome the location’s spatial challenges.
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The installers needed to use an all-terrain JLG lift equipped with a telescopic boom as no hard surface was available under the wrapping area and, due to the lawn’s sprinkler system, the college did not want installers on the grass if at all possible, Lund says. Parts of the skywalk were also in an area that was inaccessible with a typical one-person lift. The skywalk itself was no small fry either, measuring 16 ft. tall by 59 ft. wide and made of metal siding.
“The main obstacle that we kept running into was that the first couple lifts we tried to rent broke down and we had to have a new lift delivered, which ate up some installation time,” Lund recalls. Even then, the project ended up being a satisfying experience.
“We absolutely love statement pieces like this!” Lund adds. “This is what makes wrapping fun!”
RAIL RIDER: Palmer Signs found that sand rails comprise different materials, shapes and additional challenges.
Smooth Sand Ride
When sand dune enthusiast Mike Ledbetter sought a bold and unique look to make his 1500hp Funco Sand Car stand out during events and outings, he reached out to Tony Palmer. Ledbetter, a client of 20 years for whose restaurant Palmer Signs (Roseville, CA) had created and installed floor graphics, wanted to incorporate the yellow stitching on his seats and dash into the new design. While he had a basic conception of the design, he relied on the shop to refine and realize it across the sand rail’s many different panels, Palmer says, which involved several rounds of adjustments so the graphics would not distort or lose detail across irregular surfaces.
In this complexity of design lay the project’s primary challenge. The vehicle’s intricate panels and pieces had to be lined up perfectly for the graphics to maintain visual flow, which required precision cutting and alignment. Another difficult task was ensuring graphic fidelity and consistency across the different materials and textures as sand rails often have metal and fiberglass components, according to Palmer.
The team began by removing the existing PPF on the sand rail, sanding down the old painted graphics to give the future wrap a smooth finish. They used 3M IJ180Cv3 base film as their wrap material, which Palmer says is crucial for vehicles that face rough environmental conditions. With 3M Knifeless Tape they managed clean cuts without damaging the surface, especially in tight areas, then applied 3M Scotchcal 8518 Gloss Overlaminate to protect the vehicle from UV, sand and debris. They also added STEP PPF for extra protection around the rear tire area.

During installation, the team used 3M Gold Squeegees with felt edges to avoid scratching the film while ensuring smooth application over the contours, a Steinel Heat Gun HG 2320E to mold the film around tight curves and edges, an OLFA Silver Knife and 3M Primer 94 to ensure good adhesion on difficult surfaces like the curved fiberglass panels.
“This project reminded us how much of an art form vehicle wrapping can be, especially with custom, intricate designs,” Palmer says. It refined his team’s ability to work with unusual and challenging vehicle surfaces and provided two important lessons. One is taking detailed measurements of each surface. “In retrospect, we could have allowed for more test-fitting time to fine-tune the alignment even further,” Palmer adds. The other lesson is working closely with the client through design to manage expectations and make sure the end result matches the client’s vision.
“The Funco sand rail now turns heads, and the client was thrilled with how everything came together,” Palmer remarks. It has also opened up new opportunities for projects in the off-road and recreational vehicle community for the signshop going forward.
PHOTO GALLERY (14 IMAGES)
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