Oh, What a Feeling!

Campos Creative Works (CCW), Santa Monica, CA, and Crush Creative collaborated to develop distinctive, tractor-trailer graphics to market the Toyota Tundra, Tacoma and FJ Cruiser trucks to off-road enthusiasts by touring motorcycle shows across the United States. CCW developed initial layouts in Adobe® Illustrator® software and then refined the templates with Photoshop®. Correctly scaling the second layer of the Tundra’s wrap required a paper template.

To wrap the Tundra, Crush Creative output one vinyl panel for every corresponding metal panel on the vehicle, and, according to Rosenberger, installers finished the wrap with no visible seams. The first layer of the Tundra’s wrap comprises black, 3M Graphics Market Center IJ 180C-12 vinyl with a matte-finish 8520 overlaminate; for the second layer, fabricators incorporated white 3M, inkjet film with a gloss-finish overlaminate.

Rosenberger said crafting a two-tiered wrap with one matte layer and one glossy layer proved complicated, but Crush Creative incorporated image contrasts within the design that sufficiently muted the finish contrast. To minimize tractor-wrap seams, fabricators spread vertical and horizontal seams out every 53 in., and they were visible only on the hood and sleeper berth’s sides.

The shop output the wraps on its EFI UltraVu II 3360 solvent-ink printer, produced the laminate on its Orca III Pro-Tech dual system, and created the paper template with a Graphtec America Inc. Cutting Pro FC5 100-130 cutting plotter.