Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently Asked Question.......What's a wrap? Will it hurt my paint?

 
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  1. What's a car wrap?
  2. What does 'low quality' mean?
  3. How can you tell if the graphics are low quality?
  4. Who would want to wrap their car?
  5. Do CarWrapFactory wraps come off?
  6. Will it hurt the paint?
  7. Are you sure it won't hurt my paint?
  8. Will the wrap protect the paint from rocks and vandalism, like 'keying'?
  9. Will the wrap come off?
  10. What's wrong with paint anyway?

What's a car wrap?

A car wrap is a thin sheet of self-adhesive vinyl that will take ink. We literally print our designs to the vinyl, and then apply the vinyl to a vehicle. Imagine hanging wallpaper. While the materials are totally different, the concept is similar. We print designs and patterns to the vinyl, then adhere them to the vehicle, taking care to lay the vinyl around the curves, flares and contours of the vehicle.

You've surely seen wrapped semi's and tractor trailers cruising down the highway. These rolling billboards were early adopters of wrap technology. Wraps like these are typically low quality, because they are intended to be seen from a distance.

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What does 'low quality' mean?

'Low quality' can mean different things. Commercial wraps, like those you see on many semi's are often made with low quality vinyl as well as low quality graphics. Low quality vinyl is cheaper, and doesn't last as long. Poor quality graphics are cheaper too, because they have lower resolutions and use less ink when printing. Low quality wraps are desirable on large fleet semi's however, because they are only intended to look good from a distance. They are basically advertisements (with messages that change frequently), so they don't need to last long and don't need to look great up close. That all makes sense on commercial fleet vehicles where quality doesn't matter. On private vehicles however, low quality wraps would look disastrous. For consumer wraps, you really need to raise the bar.
And we have. CarWrapFactory wraps have to look great up close and need to last for a good long while. So we use extremely high quality vinyl, and laminate it to protect it from the weather. Then we print at ultra-high resolution, and lay down a lot of ink so the result looks like paint.

 

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How can you tell if the graphics are low quality?

You can see the dot. All printed material involves laying down dots of ink. The tighter these dots are clustered together, the better the image looks. We refer to this as resolution, and we measure resolution in terms of dots per square inch. The more dots per square inch, the crisper the image. Conversely, the fewer dots per square inch, the more jagged and fuzzy the graphics will be. Our car wraps are printed at very high resolution, which means we use a lot of ink.

 

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Who would want to wrap their car?

Not everyone, of course. Small businesses love car wraps, because nothing gets attention like a wrapped car with some branding on it. But there are other, non-business types who love it too.

Many of us like to express ourselves and our personalities through the cars we drive, or the clothes we wear. We buy skins for our mobile phones and different colored shirts and pants so we don't have to wear the same thing every day.

For many of us, the cars we drive are an extension of our personalities. We jack them up, we lower them, we buy cool accessories, spoilers, you name it. And if custom airbrushing didn't cost upwards of $12,000, we'd do a lot more of that too.

And that's the beauty of a CarWrapFactory wrap. It's a ton cheaper than airbrushing, and it's NOT PERMANENT. So you're not doing anything irreversible to your car when you put a wrap on it. It's just a way of saying "My personality isn't a perfect match for the 5 stock colors Chevy makes, and I'd like to do something different".

 

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Do car wrap come off?

Yes. The nice thing about CarWrapFactory wraps is that they are designed to be temporary. WRAPS ARE NOT PERMANENT. While our wraps come with a 5 year warranty (longer than most of us will own the car), they are intended to be removed after you get tired of having it on. And we think this is one of its greatest values: Now you can go crazy and have fun with your car without worrying about whether or not you'll be able to sell it later. Just take the wrap off when you are done, and you are back to where you started.


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Will it hurt the paint?

No. Actually, it protects your paint while it's on. You see, ultra violet light in sunshine works to fade your paint over time. But with a CarWrapFactory wrap on your vehicle, the wrap is taking the UV light hit, not your paint. Remember, the wrap is a plastic film that is adhered to the top of your paint. So if anything is going to hit your paint, it's going to have to go through the wrap first. This includes highway sand, dust, insects etc. If you are really interested in preserving your paint while you own or lease your vehicle, it might make good sense to protect the paint with a CarWrapFactory wrap.


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Are you sure it won't hurt my paint?

The vinyl is low tac, meaning it's really not that sticky. It's not like duct tape or glue. It stays on though, because there's a lot of surface area making contact with the vehicle. When you want it to come off, you just peel it back. An aged wrap may get brittle, and may come off in strips, rather than a single sheet. When we remove wraps, we get a little residue left behind that cleans up easily with a little isopropyl alcohol. Wax it, buff it, and you're good to go.


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Will the wrap protect the paint from rocks and vandalism, like 'keying'?

No. It's a very thin film. It can protect your paint from the sun and the elements, but not from physical damage. Anything that will dent or scratch your paint will also dent and scratch the vinyl.


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Will the wrap come off?

It won't come off in sheets, but it can begin to peel at the edges if dirt or grease should manage to get underneath it. You need to think of your wrap like clothing: It may fray or wear at the edges. The wrap may occasionally need maintainance to prevent curling or peeling, particularly in places that get a lot of dirt (like inside the wheel wells). If you notice curling or peeling on your CarWrapFactory wrap, just give us a call and we'll help you take care of it.


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What's wrong with paint anyway?

Nothing! Except the expense and permanence of it. If money's no object, then paint is the best way to go. One H2 wrap was taken to several airbrush masters, and asked what they'd charge for the same design. It's surprising when the prices came back ranging anywhere from $10,000 to $18,000. The H2 wrap retailed for $3,200. So we think a wrap is good value. We like that it looks so good but costs so much less. And we especially like that we can remove it when we're done and don't have to worry about whether we can sell it later.


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