Shop Talk

The benefits vehicle graphics provide their end-users are seemingly endless. For starters, hey provide an extremely cost-effective form of advertising; they’re mostly free of regulations (hopefully, that won’t change), save DOT safety and visibility requirements, and their message can follow the user home, on sales calls or virtually anywhere.

Although fabricating vehicle wraps is conceptually simple for most sign professionals, producing them well provides significant challenges. Every phase of a successful wrap can be considered an art form – the art of design, the art of printing and finishing, the art of installation, and the art of the deal.

Three vehicle-wrap providers, all of which have earned recognition in ST’s last Vehicle Graphics Contest, offer insights into their techniques and tools that have helped them achieve success in this hyper-competitive field.

 

Garden Style
Arizona Designs (Maple Shade, NJ) proprietor Jeff Chudoff began his vehicle-graphics career in 1985 with cut-vinyl graphics and pinstripes. A decade later, he became an early adopter of vehicle-wrap design in1995. Because of the expense of first-generation, inkjet printers, he contracted the printing to Gregory Inc. (Buhler, KS). In 2005, the shop received its first inkjet printer, a Roland DGA Corporation VersaCAMM. Today, vehicle wraps represent approximately half of Arizona Designs’ business. Chudoff vividly remembers his first wrap job.

“A representative from a cellphone company contacted me,” he said. “He wanted a mobile advertisement that could spread a message on major roadways and outside major sporting events. The same truck ended up at 9/11’s Ground Zero six years later, where onsite workers were provided with free, mobile-phone services. You can’t underestimate the power of the thousands of views a vehicle wrap receives every month. Whether you’re going to the store or home for the evening, your wrap continues to advertise for you.”

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Experience has taught Chudoff to segue into promoting other graphic applications. “In my earlier years, I would just make a wrap someone ordered and move on,” he said. “Now, I’ll promote my other digital-printing capabilities, such as banners and floor graphics, or additional design services for business cards, stationery and other specialty items. A vinyl-graphics shop owner needs to approach his business as more than just a job shop; he needs to think of himself as a full-service designer, as well as a fabricator.”

His can-do attitude has helped him earn several unusual jobs. For instance, a company that specializes in recycling food waste hired him to wrap one of its collection dumpsters. Chudoff said, “The dumpster has a pretty flat surface, so I realized, if I can wrap a box truck, I can wrap a dumpster.”

A dentist – also a rabid NASCAR fan – hired him to create a 30-ft.-long, checkered-flag wall mural for his office. “I wasn’t familiar with digitally printable wallpapers at the time, so I just wrapped the wall with wrap vinyl. It was a successful application, and, since then, I’ve familiarized myself with wall-graphic products and made it a significant part of my business. Thanks to the die-cutting function on my Roland [VersaCAMM SP-540V printer/cutter], I can print custom wallpaper graphics for Dunkin’ Donuts and Popeye’s franchises.”

He’s glad the current proliferation of vehicle-graphics media provides ample choices: “The new air-release films are terrific for vehicle surfaces with complex, curved surfaces, but they’re over-engineered for your basic box truck, where a repositionable film will suffice. A vehicle-graphics provider should familiarize himself with the different materials on the market and understand the capabilities and limitations of different media.”

To prep a vehicle graphics’ surface, Arizona Designs typically uses a xylene solution because it’s aggressive without being excessively harsh when cleaning the surface. To apply vinyl, Chudoff prefers Teflon® squeegees because of their durability. And, when heat is required to finesse media into tight spaces, he likes clipped trigger extensions now available for torches because they allow the user to get on a ladder or scaffolding while leaving the heatsource on the ground. Primer tape to prep the surface for vinyl application is another key tool in the wrap professional’s arsenal, Chudoff said.

When addressing a complex truck surface, such as those with rivets, screws or corrugations, he said it’s important to consider efficiency and resources. For a vehicle with a riveted surface, he’ll use G Force Products’ RollePro or 3M’s Rapid Roller to conform the vinyl. However, for a very challenging surface, such as a trailer with hex-head screws, Chudoff recommends removing the screws first, wrapping the trailer and then replacing the screws: “The amount of time you’ll spend maneuvering the film around those screws is far more than what you’ll take replacing the screws over a wrapped surface.”

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Although he uses Auto Art vehicle templates to develop his wraps, Chudoff also takes his own measurements to verify dimensions. He said, “The flat vector usually doesn’t fully capture the contours and complexity of the vehicle’s surface. It’s important to take the time to ensure accuracy.”

Chudoff said an effective wrap requires a formula of devoting 40% of a job’s effort to design, 30% to production, and 30% to installation. He said the first part of the equation is too often neglected.

“There’s definitely room in the market for quality wrap providers,” Chudoff said. “But, there are too many design travesties on wheels today. A wrap might be eye-catching and colorful, but if it doesn’t provide a coherent advertising message, then it’s a waste of a few thousand dollars.”

He also too many wrap installers take shortcuts: “It’s amazing how many unlaminated wraps are sent out into the market today. They might look good on day one, but the slightest abrasion or dirt will mar the ink and the surface. A wrap should be regarded as a multi-year investment and be fabricated accordingly.”

Chudoff also lamented sloppy installation techniques, such as cutting the wrap off at the wheel well instead of wrapping it underneath to ensure a good seal, or just slapping a loose piece of vinyl into a corner or curve instead of a proper seam. “That’s a recipe for early failure. You might get a first job that way, but you won’t get a second. A bad reputation travels fast.”

To demonstrate a wrap’s cost-effectiveness, he mentioned a wrap he’d completed to promote a NYC club. The club had obtained a Dodge Durango SUV with a four-year lease, and immediately hired Chudoff to create a wrap.

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“I charged them $4,000 for the wrap,” he said. “Over the course of 48 months, that breaks down to $83 a month. Tell me anywhere else where you could get such an inexpensive, and mobile, form of advertising. If you choose materials, equipment and techniques that make your shop the best in your market, not the cheapest, you’ll emerge stronger in the long run.”

 

Mountaineer Mojo
Sign Factory LLC (Morgantown, WV) launched its vehicle-wrap business in 2003, when it decorated a Chevy Astro van for a Morgantown radio station. Today, vehicle wraps represent approximately one-third of the shop’s revenue, Brandy Gibson, Sign Factory’s designer, said. Commercial trucks and vans represent the bulk of the shop’s work, although it’s now wrapping more sedans and personal vehicles.

Virtually its entire signage portfolio entails inkjet-printed, adhesive-backed vinyl – wall murals, banners, architectural signs and tradeshow graphics, among others. The shop primarily uses Oracal’s 3951G RA air-egress film and 290F cast overlaminate. The shop uses a Seal laminator to apply its topcoats.

“Air-release vinyl is pretty standard for our vehicle wraps,” Gibson said. “The only time we’d use conventional film is on a flat surface, such as a trailer with few or no rivets. Air-release vinyl is thinner, more pliable and has cut down our application time dramatically, because it’s more forgiving with curves and other complex surfaces.”

Before Sign Factory begins its work, it requires its clients to run their vehicles through a nearby car wash. Next, it removes such potential obstacles as taillight lenses, side mirrors and emblems and cleans the surface with Rapid Prep (and, for particularly dirty or challenging vehicle surfaces, Rapid Remover and Rapid Tac). For areas especially prone to lifting, such as tight contours or complex body lines, Chad Pregley, Sign factory’s installer, uses 3M’s Primer 94 adhesive primer.

“A few vehicles that have been especially difficult to wrap are the VW Beetle and Chevrolet HHR, because they have very deep curves and complex surfaces,” Gibson said. “Older-model school buses are also tricky because they have deep corrugations and rivets.”

She said the shop avoids vehicle templates. In Gibson’s experience, a photo of the vehicle and Photoshop’s layering capabilities usually prove most effective in providing an accurate rendering.

Pregley prefers felt and Avery’s hard, vinyl squeegees for most installations. Felt offers flexibility to maneuver around difficult surfaces, and he said vinyl squeegees glide more effectively across surfaces than nylon. When heat is required to ease the film into place, he uses a propane torch rather than a heat gun because it warms up more quickly and can be used for offsite installations where electricity isn’t always accessible. Other essentials include an X-Acto® knife, an ample supply of replacement blades and a tape measure.

“With air-release vinyl, rivets are no longer much of a roadblock,” Pregley said. “On hoods and other curved and challenging surfaces, the only extra tools necessary are a few extra hands to hold and stretch the vinyl, tenacity and patience!”
To minimize seams, he places them where they’ll be subtle and less conspicuous on the wrap, such as within body lines or contours, in areas that will more often be shadowed.

As Sign Factory’s vehicle-wrap business has matured, the company has perfected its process. However, this improvement caused a challenge when one previous customer needed a redo. Gibson said, “We wrapped a vehicle for a local florist several years ago. His van had been in an accident, and she needed the graphics replaced over a few panels. We’ve improved our color correction over the years, but we had to go back and recreate the less accurate colors of the old wrap. Hours later, we did, and it came in handy when the vehicle was later in another accident, and we quickly produced the matching color.”

 

Clues for Good Wraps
CSI Sign Co. (Titusville, FL) has fabricated wraps since the company’s 2000 inception. They comprise approximately 25% of the company’s businesses. Banners, monument signs and billboards represent other major fabrication components.

CSI fabricates most of its wraps with 3M’s Controltac with Comply film and Avery Graphics’ EZ Apply RS, Michael Manderscheid, the company’s art director, said. However, for certain project applied to flatter surfaces, it opts for traditional films’ more aggressive adhesive. He describes late-model Chevrolet pickups and Hummers as the easiest vehicles to wrap because of their lack of curved surfaces, whereas PT Cruisers and VW Beetles pose the most difficulty.

“After dealing with so many rivets, fender flares, dents and other quirks, there’s not too much that surprises us anymore,” he said. “But, there are some cars that are more challenging and provide a teachable moment when we’re breaking in a new installer.”
Depending on the wrap’s size, quantity or graphic complexity, CSI will either print wraps in-house on its HP DesignJet 9000s or contracts printing on an EFI-VUTEk solvent-ink printer. To proof its work, the shop uses Onyx’s ProductionHouse RIP.

Manderscheid said the shop’s installers prefer 3M gold nylon squeegees because of their durability; low-friction sleeves enable fluid movement across the vehicle surface. In addition to an X-Acto knife and blades, 3M’s Primer 94 tape primer and gloves, he said laser levels and Stabilo pencils also prove vital to ensuring accurate placement.

Manderscheid added that he doesn’t view the machinations of wrap design, fabrication and installation as main project challenges: “What makes some projects more difficult boils down to several factors: the needs and demands of your client, the support of your material suppliers, and the commitment of your employees and vendors. If any stakeholder in a project isn’t 100% on board, you’re running uphill.”
 

On January 4, CSI Sign moved into a new facility, which Manderscheid said will provide twice the square footage of its prior digs.