Long-Term Vinyl Wrap Review - Should You Wrap Your Car? | Pros + Cons of 3M Vinyl

today we're going to talk about that my car recently went viral on Instagram because I let my kids draw on it with chalk turned out to be a bad decision today we're going to talk about vinyl wraps [Music] today we're going to be talking about the wrap that's on the dad wagon since October of 2020 or almost three years the car has been wrapped in 3m's 1080 vinyl and an olive green and a matte finish and on the roof I have a satin black in the same material I had my wrap installed by a professional who came highly recommended for installation and it cost me just over a thousand dollars at the time which was an insanely good deal since the day I came out of the shop with the wrap on it the wrap has been the number one thing that gets questions asked about it the number one thing that the general population of car enthusiasts noticed and want to know more about I think the combination of the unique color the unique finish and the fact that it's a wrap and not paint just causes a lot of curiosity in people I've had on a number of occasions when I'm driving around it's a good thumbs up as people pass by and I've even had people stop roll down their window ask me the simple question is that paint or is it a wrap then they say cool and then they drive off so I figured given the length of time that I've had this installed and my experience with it as well as the fact that I've recently gone viral on Instagram because I let my kids draw on it with chalk the cool part of having a Mac car is taking draw with chalk on it let's hope it doesn't hurt it well it did hurt it so I figured now would be the perfect time to do a long-term review on my wrap specifically in this video what I plan to go over are the five main things one why did I wrap the car and how did I decide to wrap it versus something else two what's the condition of the wrap and its current state after three years versus when I first got it what are the benefits or what have I found the best positives of wrapping the car for what are the cons or the downsides to wrapping the car and finally the big question now that I've had it done for three years and had that experience what I wrapped the car again so let's jump into that right now so topic one is why did I choose to wrap the car in the first place and there's two main reasons for that I had recently installed the GTI front end conversion kit on my car which comes primered but not painted so it's gonna have to be paint matched to my car anyways and looking around the prices were anywhere from 750 dollars to fifteen hundred dollars depending on where you go knowing that I was going to have that sunk cost either way I started looking into vinyl to see what it would cost for a full car wrap and the prices were more expensive but could be something different and fun to do and that's kind of the second point was I had the Instagram account was starting this YouTube channel and I always like stuff that's a little bit different it's kind of in line with everyone else but maybe just just that little bit different and that's what the vinyl wrap was for me so on that October day just about three years ago here's what the car came out looking like just being Freshly Wrapped take this all in because we're going to use this as a comparison to see what the car looks like today now let's take a look at the rep after three Winters 30 000 miles and a whole bunch of other stuff overall the condition in the wrap is fantastic to the average person walking by they would notice probably no difference from the day that it was installed other than the recent chalk scratches there are just a few Rock chips in the hood there's a couple sections under the handles that start to Bubble Up in the winter time and like a dummy I pushed on them and they cracked and there's just a few spots where it's starting to peel up on the really tough to sealed creases like in the spots near the hatch and places like that finally and this one I'm not even really sure because you just have kind of photos to compare it to which are all different but the color may have faded over the past three years but honestly I just said that's kind of a hard one to tell other than the most recent damage by the chalk my kids were using I rate the overall condition of this wrap as a seven or eight out of ten now let's talk about the benefits wrapping your car or in my experience what I've really enjoyed about having Rapture so number one is cost and when I'm talking about cost I'm not talking about value but the objective cost final installations are typically going to be much more affordable than paying for your entire exterior to be painted I paid about a thousand dollars to have mine installed by a professional a deal that you're not going to find anywhere in any Market as of late and I've heard people paying upwards of 3 500 to 4 grand to have their car wrapped still generally more affordable than painting your car number two is toughness and I see all the time people saying rap isn't tough or it's not resilient and I can tell you otherwise I've had a great experience with my 3M vinyl and that leads me to believe that it's mostly depends on what material you use and who you have install it and if they did a good job my car has been able to stand up to almost anything that's been thrown at it any stretches stuff stains anything has been able to come out for the most part with a little bit of heat or a little bit of cleaning and it's really stood up against all the winters we've had and has had no problem at all until the chalk number three is maintenance having a wrap car it's specially one that is a matte finish is super easy to take care of I never had to wax it and you're not supposed to wax it I hardly ever washed it maybe once a month and it was always just fine the only thing I had to do on a regular basis was simply apply some matte car detailer so that way it would keep the vinyl protected and kind of rejuvenated at times and finally the most subjective point of all I just love it I love how easy it is to take care of I love how strong it is I love the way it looks and finally I love hearing other people ask questions about it and want to know more about it it's always a fun talking point with the car now let's talk about the not so great parts of owning a vinyl wrap car one is the damage that can't be fixed so as I mentioned in the winter I had some bubbles come up under the handles and I pushed on them and they cracked and split open when this happens there's not a whole lot of options to properly repair that especially in the winter it starts pulling back because it's so cold out you can kind of patch it up with another piece of vinyl if you have some which looks okay and some professionals I've seen do it on YouTube are very good at it but you can always kind of tell unlike on a painted car where you can paint correct and buff it out and really clean it up again and fix the damage and vinyl it's a little different you can either patch it up or replace that entire panel of vinyl my number two point really has to do more with the fact that I chose a matte finish vinyl more so than vinyl in general and that is when I go to car shows or car meets and see other cars there's just something about a gloss finish on a paint job that looks really great when paired with a vehicle sometimes I miss that I love how unique and different my car looks at times but I do just miss having a shiny car every once in a while because cars seem like they were meant to be shiny and you know I don't get those days very often but when you have some extra time and you just want to wash your car and then wax it afterwards and look at how good it looks that doesn't really happen with a matte finish so that one's probably a little more personal but something to consider if you might have those same feelings so here we are the finale with the big question would I wrap my car again and if you watch the rest of this video and didn't skip ahead here you probably already know the answer and that is one thousand percent yes I would totally wrap my car again now based on some of the cons I shared with you if and when I wrap my car again I will definitely be testing out a gloss finish wrap versus a matte wrap I love the matte look but I do miss having a shiny car and I'll probably go that route in the future when that time comes my experience has been fantastic with my 3M vinyl I believe now they do the 280 vinyl or maybe it's something different I had the 1080. and it's been fantastic it's tough easy to clean easy to maintain I really hope me sharing my experience in this video can help you in your decision making process when choosing some vinyl for your car or choosing two vinyl wrap your car if it has or hasn't let me know in the comments below if you have some color suggestions or some brand suggestions for what I might use in the future on the Sport Wagon put that in the comments too I really haven't picked my next Direction yet on what I want to do and how I want to handle the damage from the chalk with me and my kids um I might just re-wrap the hood and keep going with this olive drab color or totally change it up but still waiting to figure that out so thanks everyone for watching and I'll see you soon foreign [Music] foreign foreign

Channel: DadWagon

Views: 8,504

Keywords: vinyl, vinel, rap, vinal, vynel, vynal, rapped

Id: IqMlOvyYMcs

Length: 9min 50sec (590 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 13 2023