The Seven Steps to a Perfect Car Wrap

Wrapping your car in vinyl may have started as a quick way to transform domestic vehicles into government taxis in Germany, but it’s now worth its weight in gold as a low-cost, high-impact way to advertise your goods and services. Mobile advertising creates more impressions than any other form of advertising, and it creates a great impression with your potential customers, who perceive your business as create and innovative.

So there are plenty of great reasons to choose vehicle wrapping in Hailsham and across the South East, but how do you go about getting the perfect car wrap for your vehicles?

Choose Your Company with Care

There are sign companies and there are are car wrapping companies, both of which can do half the job you need. Of course, if you have a talented design team, then you could go ahead and get your vinyl printed and then installed by a wrapping place. But for a precision job like vinyl car wrapping, you need a sign-making company that can take your ideas from conception right through to installation. You’ll have input at every stage of the process, and your sign-making company will have the expertise to create and install the wrap you want, modelling potential outcomes for you so you can get the best possible RoI on your new car wrap.

Get the Design Right

Putting your logo on your business card is straightforward. After all, it’s a simple 2D rectangle. But a car or a van is a 3D surface with curves and different planes that need to be taken into account when designing your car wrap. An experienced designer will have access to a wide variety of vehicle templates, so they can model your design for the best possible effect. You don’t want to find that your image looks distorted or your message doesn’t fit, do you?

A great designer will take every inch of the vehicle into account and will have previous experience in designing wraps for your type of vehicle. They’ll be able to make suggestions about what works best so that your vinyl wrap is both easy to understand and easy on the eye. A car wrap failure is the easiest way to switch off potential customers.

You Get What You Pay For

Choose a low-grade vinyl and you might save a few pounds but you’ll pay the hidden costs of taking a hit to your reputation when your vinyl wrapping quickly starts to look tattered and tired. You’ll also have to take into account the costs of having your vehicle rewrapped. If you make the same mistake across your entire fleet, it can really hit you in the pocket.

Having said that, simply choosing a brand name rather than a vinyl which is the most compatible for the job you want doing can have its own problems. Again, an experienced sign-making company will be able to advise you on the best materials for the job. You don’t want to ruin your car wrap graphics because you used the wrong materials.

Print and Prep

Once you have your killer design and choice of materials in place, it’s time for your sign company to print your images on to vinyl using a wide-format printer. A good company will respect the print profile of the vinyl you’re using, which instructs the printer about exactly how much ink to use, resulting in a vibrant and eye-catching image. Ignore the profile and you can end up with a flat, muddy image or one that’s over-saturated. Neither will give you the effect you’re looking for.

But let’s assume you’ve found a great company to design and produce your vehicle wrapping in Hailsham and it just needs to be applied to your car. Not so fast, because what follows is possibly the most painstaking part of the entire business. In order to get the very best results for your vinyl wrap, you’ll need to have your car prepared for wrapping. And that means removing every speck of grease, grime and oil that could stop the vinyl from sticking properly.

Your installers will also fill in any dings in the paintwork and deal with any rust so that the installation is as flawless as possible. Even a squashed bug can make your vinyl wrap bulge and ruin the seamless effect you’re looking for.

Why is this so important? Because great preparation is the only way to make the most of your beautifully printed and brilliantly designed car wrap graphic. Any bulging, lifting or adhesion problems will lead to a poor end result. Unfortunately, it’s a long and tedious job, and one where a poor-quality installer may be tempted to cut corners.

Install and Go

Every other step of the process now hinges on getting the installation right. That’s why it’s so important that your print company can offer high-quality installation. It takes hours to get this step of the process right and requires experience, patience and a steady hand. A good installer will not overstretch the vinyl or skimp on the all-important post-installation step of heating the vinyl to kill its ‘memory’ so it doesn’t ping back into its old shape. All these steps are time-consuming and can be boring, so unscrupulous wrapping companies can be tempted to skimp on them. You’ll be the first to notice if they do.

Ask the Professionals

If you want to get the best of car wrapping in Hailsham or anywhere else in Sussex, then you need to contact the Sussex Sign Company. We offer the integrated services you need to design, produce and install superb vinyl car wraps that will create thousands of impressions. Get in touch with us via phone or email today for more details.