Five steps to creating perfect vehicle wraps
We need kerb appeal – a brandtastic vehicle that your customers can’t fail to notice for the right reasons! We don’t want vehicle graphics that peel, fade or don’t look the part. With over 20 years experience,this is the process we recommend.
Design – Vehicle graphics that impress at a glance
You wouldn’t be getting a vehicle wrap if you didn’t want to promote your business. Once you’ve decided that you want to maximise the advertising impact of your vehicle or fleet you need to create an impactful and practical design.
Our designers have the skill and experience to create the perfect vehicle design for you. Alternatively, we can advise your own design team on how to adapt your brand style so it works on a vehicle. We know where the crucial design elements should be, as well as the difficult areas to avoid – you don’t important contact details compromised by the joint of a vehicle door or the manufacturers badge.
Materials – 3M proven to last longer on a vehicle
When it comes to vinyl graphics, materials are not all the same, there are many types and grades. Choosing the wrong film for your vehicle can result in all types of problems, popping out of recesses, shrinking, fading and cracking to name a few.
If you want your vehicle graphics to last a long time, we only recommend 3M materials, and know how to select the correct combination of materials for the job. This will depend on the environment your vehicle will be operating in. For example, the recommended materials for a waste recycling truck would be very different to those recommended for 6 month’s advertising on a taxi. 3M have thousands of products, often used in combination for maximum impact.
Production – printing with the right ink for vehicle wraps
We only use water-based inks, which have many advantages for vehicle wrapping. This process uses latex which can be put to use much more quickly after printing. Graphics can come off the printer and be fitted on the same day, brilliant for urgent jobs. Vehicle graphics printed with solvent inks need to outgas for 24 hours, so are not ready for installation as quickly.
Latex inks are also far more environmentally friendly, as most of the liquid component is water. The ink doesn’t contain hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) so less chemicals are released as part of the printing process. When the vehicle wrap reaches the end of its life, there is less chemical waste to be recycled.
Preparation – getting your vehicle ready to be wrapped
Preparing a vehicle to have new graphics installed doesn’t mean just taking it to the jet wash. Yes it needs to be super clean, but as well as the blitzing of all dirt, old traffic film must also be removed from the vehicle’s surface, to ensure a proper adhesive bond.
To ensure your graphics will stand the test of time, we use the 3M Surface Preparation System. Completing the cleaning process properly, takes almost as long as the fitting!
For a perfect finish we may also recommend removing badges and door handles. It’s fiddly but it’s worth it!
Installation – The best place & person to wrap your vehicle
A warm, clean, indoor environment is the best for fitting vehicle graphics – all decent material manufacturers issue guidelines for application temperature. In the UK climate, most of the year fitting any graphics outdoors shouldn’t be considered, it’s just too cold. Outside is also a breeding ground for contaminants – flies, leaves, sand – plus it’s not good for health and safety to be balancing on a ladder in the wind with a huge vehicle graphic!
We have a large, indoor, temperature-controlled workshop and can accommodate most commercial vehicles. Our unit is set up for vehicle wrapping and we’ve got all the kit to make sure we can do it properly. Alternatively one of our qualified fitters can come to you. In this scenario we’d need to find a space that’s going to be the right temperature for the job. If it’s too cold or hot, our fitters won’t take the gamble!
The fitters working in our workshop all understand specifically how to fit 3M products. Our fitters across the UK know all of the techniques required to install a good wrap or any other type of vehicle graphics. They’re all trained to competently install the graphics we use and wherever possible we use 3M fitters.
These are the five steps we follow to make sure you get the perfect wrap for your vehicle or fleet. That’s our bit of the deal finished, sorry to say at this point we hand the baton to maintain perfection over to you! What do we mean? We mean CLEAN! Follow our guidelines on looking after vehicle graphics to make sure that you get the most mileage possible, out of your new vehicle wrap.
If you’d like to talk to us about your vehicle wrapping job then please do get in touch.
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