Feedback please - experiences with Wrapping a Vantage
 

I have a Onyx Black V12S - first, not a fan of Black, and second, ALWAYS having to wash it after every drive to keep it looking good. Just sitting in my office this winter every few weeks having to dust it. Exploring changing the color via wrap. I do have a ceramic coating which might make a wrap difficult to adhere. Exploring options. Those that have done the wrap - please provide feedback - good and bad points of your experience. I was looking possibly to trade, as there is a bunch of V12S on the market, but to change color via trades, the deals I've been offered are insulting - essentially $30K to trade what is essentially a similar car (options and miles) and same year, or if very low miles, $50K for same year and options! So now I'm looking at wraps. Mine is a zero issue still under warranty 13,000 mile V12S - no accidents, if I trade I'm taking a chance that I'd get someone else's problem.

Keep in mind that wraps are good for 2-4 years, depending on use/sun exposure. After that point, they begin get brittle and become more difficult to remove.

Vinyl Wrap: Pro: cheaper than PPF, huge range of colors; Cons: thin at about 2-4mils and doesnt protect anything, fades over time and lasts 2-3yrs approximately; costs only a bit less than PPF

Satin Black PPF: Pros: unique satin black, 8mils thick, self healing etc...... Cons: more expensive than vinyl.

My suggestion and you can pm me further. Only ONE company makes Satin Black PPF and that is S-TEK which is the best PPF film on the market today. ( you could just get the whole car done in clear or carbon fiber PPF sections and then your car would act just like if you changed the color) Your vehicle in satin black would look stellar. Warrantied to 10 yrs, protects all panels of the vehicle from rocks and scratches and doesnt look cheap like vinyl does.

https://www.esotericdetail.com/colum...show-esoteric/

1. Finding a competent installer for vinyl or ppf should be a huge priority for a owner
2. Cheap likely means somewhat inexperienced and now you have a inexperienced person with a razor blade cutting on the car; I see brand new high end cars cut up quite often. With someone doing anywhere from 30-50 cuts on a vehicle, one slip is all it takes. You will never know till the PPF comes off either.
3. You pay for what you get these days. A lot of PPF installers are doing the work for production rather than quality.

Yes the coating does promote a problem. I would suggest having a polish done to remove as much as possible before putting anything on top. They dont have to really do a paint correction if you do Satin due to the color change. Just run a medium polish over the paint to remove the coating depending on what coating you have and how many coats. If you have GTechniq or Ceramic Pro they are very very very difficult to remove. Most all others are simple, just compound them off.

You SHOULD always coat PPF when done. Yes they have hydrophobic coatings on them built in the top layer. However, what the new coating does is provide a sacrificial layer on top of the PPF so that the PPF will last much longer. When your spending 5k + or whole cars at 10+ why not spend 1k or slightly higher to protect that. Confounds me why people dont do this. Although probably 90% of your PPF installers don't recommend it. Why you ask? They are for production. They don't want to spend any waiting time for a paint correction to be done first, nor arrange for the coating to be done. They just want to schedule then get paid and on to the next.

My suggestion if you want to do this right: Satin Black PPF, change wheels to gunmetal or black (BC Forged 20's) and coat those too, and make sure all window surrounds are vinyl'ed black. YEs maybe a bit blacked out, but check out a AMG GTR Columbus Auto Show in Satin Black and you will see how awesome and unique you car should be. I was there when the vehicle was delivered to its new owner and the work was being done to ti.

Thanks for that extensive explanation! Wow. Good stuff there, but I'm looking to get away from Black, so the satin finish would not work for me. I'd lean towards the silvers (but might change my mind when I see actual color choices). I prefer the chrome trim also to remain. I'm more old school. Anyway great advice. I'll check out that PPF.

3 M film is guaranteed for 7 years? sun, rain, and its also the best to remove apparently when you want to go back it has to do with the adhesives they use.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.6sp...587a9f33f.jpeg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.6sp...d7889da27.jpeg
I wrapped mine myself last august for Monterey Car week. So far its going on 7 months and I still love it. Ive had no issues. No plans to remove it anytime soon.

I wrapped mine myself last March as you may remember https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...our-aston.html

I drove my car across the country in november, and due to sand/rocks on the road (they don't use salt in Wyoming just frigging gravel) and semi trucks literally sand blasting my wrap the front got chewed up pretty badly, I will have to redo the front for sure, which kind of sucks but I have extra material to do it at least, however daily driving my car I have had no issues. I hand wash my car whenever the weather is nice (this winter it hasn't been all that often)

I would highly reccomend Avery over 3m as it is a MUCH higher quality product and far easier to install

I absolutely love the color I chose though, Avery Matte Metallic Silver... it hides dirt SO very well and frankly looks incredible in person, pictures really don't do it justice, I get comments all the time about what kind of paint is that and such even when my car is filthy

but yes, wrapping my black car was probably the best thing I have done in a long time to any of my vehicles!

I've never seen a wrap with a finish that I was impressed with. They lack depth. I suppose that's why flat finish is so popular.

You've mentioned before that you're not planning to hold onto the car in the long term, but if you were, getting the car repainted (gasp) to a color that you loved can last much longer than the factory finish and actually be of a higher finish quality.

Repainting Option
 

I had a Porsche 928 with extensive bodywork that was once black (see below) that I had Vescio's Customizing repaint in BMW Mini Orange. It was a daily driver, and end of every summer I had Vescios repair any scratches (no 3M clear bra) for about $500 a year.
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.6sp...90ee5a03bf.jpg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.6sp...4c4f1aefe7.jpg

Great color. The Vantage looks great in a copper color as well!

I have a black SL500 with the same problem, got sick of trying to keep it clean. So I had it wrapped in Avery pearl white.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.6sp...0f5e22d869.jpg

I was so happy with this that I had the Vantage wrapped as well (Tungsten Silver).

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.6sp...982c7ec576.jpg