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Lotus car wrap

4269 Views 16 Replies 13 Participants Last post by  Extratx, 
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5
I did a full body wrap on my lotus over the weekend, with the avery product, surprizingly easy. Carmine red satin is the color I chose.

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E
Wow - looks smooth!

Does it get applied with a heat gun? I'm a fan of glossy, so I wonder how that would come out.
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B
ESPREE said:
Wow - looks smooth!

Does it get applied with a heat gun? I'm a fan of glossy, so I wonder how that would come out.
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Most of these wraps (Oracal/3M/Avery) are pressure-activated, not heat-activated. You can peel them up and fix the application a couple times, then when you're done you go over the whole thing with a felt-edged soft blade or a small roller, applying a good amount of pressure to make the adhesive set.

The heat gun comes in because the wrap can stretch to almost 2x its size when heated, which is how you get it around corners and into creases in the bodywork.

The Esprit looks like a fairly easy car to wrap, because there are lots of wide-open flat sections. I'm trying to do parts of my Elise right now and it's proving doable but difficult. IMO the hardest thing to get wrap into is concave edges (like the spaces around a 2002+ Esprit or Elise's taillights) because you end up with too much material in there and it bunches up.

A friend got a glossy wrap on a totally different car (BRZ) and it looks great. The gloss is a bit less forgiving when stretched and heated so application requires some more care. The 3M stuff he got is also definitely softer than clear-coat and is really easy to swirl/hologram when washing.
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SwingLo
I'm confused. It went from red, to less shiny red?
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OnAir
SwingLo said:
I'm confused. It went from red, to less shiny red?
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You could have saved yourself some work and simply left it sitting outside in the sun for a while. :p -poke-

But seriously, it looks like you've done a fine job with the installation.
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esprit888
SwingLo said:
I'm confused. It went from red, to less shiny red?
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Phew!, I thought I was the only one :panic: I admire the workmanship, but don't understand the rationale of using the same color in a matt wrap (CF I get :cool:)
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carbuff
OnAir said:
You could have saved yourself some work and simply left it sitting outside in the sun for a while. :p -poke-
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rotfl rotfl rotfl rotfl

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I bet some areas were starting to fade already. So, a wrap would achieve a uniform color.

Nice Job! :bow:
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carbuff
I just noticed the red dust on the tires in a couple pictures.


Did you have to sand or repaint anything (like, stress cracks) before you applied the wrap?
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8
Looks like you did a nice job on the wrap!

Would agree with others that the faded red look wouldn't be my first choice.
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mpesik
Fantastic work.
If you feel like it could you post a pic of the transition from wrap to paint in the door well?
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roadtalontsi
looks good. My c63 has a matte clear shield on the whole car. It actually makes the metallic flake stand out more in the sun. I've thought about doing it to the chrome orange cuz it'd look awesome. It also makes for a very good paint protection as it's extremely durable.
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mpesik
roadtalontsi said:
looks good. My c63 has a matte clear shield on the whole car. It actually makes the metallic flake stand out more in the sun. I've thought about doing it to the chrome orange cuz it'd look awesome. It also makes for a very good paint protection as it's extremely durable.
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Could you post a pic?
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Y
I bought the car with a poor quality paint (sun faded ) scratches and ripped paint on the rear left fender, wanted to try a wrap that would not change too much the original color for the door wells, Matte red is very close to the original color, doesn't show too much when you open the door or hatch. Did go around the car with a 600 grit sandpaper on any of the defects fo the paint, filled up cracks. anything you can feel with a nail will show.
I wanted a good looking car while waiting for a real paint job in a few years, for 500$ and a bit of elbow grease, I think it's going to do the job. it should last 8-10 years since the car is always garaged out of the sun.
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G
well done.

I did consider doing my Giugiaro S2.2, but I am not really into matte colors and you don't often see gloss wraps. I am afraid gloss wraps are not as shiny as a good lacquer.

I like your red matte. It is something different then all those grey or black matte wraps.

Geert
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B
A brillo pad on the paint would have achieved the same results with perhaps less effort. Just an idea.
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carbuff
I just had an epiphany:

By keeping the same general color, yhenry maintains the correct description on his vehicle registration.


Which begs the question about "wrapped" cars: What would be the wrapped car's "color of record"? The wrap color (confusing if it's graphical) or the underlying original color?

(I hate it when I think of these things)
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E
Wow that is impressive. Have you ever wrapped a car before? Was thinking I could fix my paint woes without an expensive paint job in the same way, but I had not really considered doing it myself. I am certainly capable I guess, but having never done one before, I certainly don't want a $500 ball of vinyl.

Where did you get your material?
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