Protecting Your Investment
It’s no secret that vehicle wraps are an investment. While it is the job of your sign or wrap shop to assure that you are provided with quality design, material, and installation, the extent to which your wrap will last you, is ultimately based on the aftercare you give it. Many customers are either misinformed or not informed at all about how to properly care for their wrap once it leaves the shop. This in turn, results in unhappy customers, peeling or lifting of the wrap, fading, or other preventable issues that would not occur, had the customer been given the proper information for care. If you follow these simple measures, it can mean a difference of several years in the longevity of your wrap.
Immediately Following Your Wrap Installation
1. “Bubbling”
Be on the lookout for this type of behavior immediately following your installation. You might be tempted to press or smooth them out but DON’T do this! This kind of pressure can cause them to split and ruin the graphics. Either bring it back to us to be repaired professionally in our shop or you can also puncture them with a straight pin. This is the ONLY method we recommend trying at home.
2. Lifting
Check for any vinyl lifting. Especially along seams, door jams, & wheel wells. Lifted graphics can be repaired but only if you notify us immediately. If you wait too long, debris can work its way under the graphics and compromise the surrounding areas, much like an untreated thread that is unraveling.
Continued Care
3. Washing and Cleaning
Hand washing is always the best option. It is ideal to pre-rinse caked-on dirt with water before rubbing the surface with a sponge towel to prevent abrasions and dulling of the laminate material that covers the vinyl.
- Wash from the top down
- Rinse soap off the vehicle promptly before it has a chance to dry
- While technically, it is OK to take your wrap through a spin brush car wash; there is no accounting for what may already be embedded into the brush itself. Dirt and debris can cause abrasions and dulling. Hand washing is preferred.
- While we greatly emphasize the care you must take while washing your wrapped vehicle, we equally emphasize the importance of washing it often. Dirt sitting on the surface of the graphics can cause scratches and discoloration.
- And the number one cardinal rule…NO PRESSURE WASHING.
Companies with fleet vehicles very commonly use a pressure washer to speed up the washing of their fleet of vehicles. We can’t empathize enough, that this is not a good idea. Especially when you consider that a company with multiple wrapped vehicles has invested a significant amount of money into the branding of their fleet.
4. Storing the Vehicle
Store the Vehicle in a Garage or Indoors Whenever Possible – Like anything else that has been left sitting in the sun, there WILL be noticeable wear the more you leave the wrap in the sun. Horizontal wrapped surfaces wear more quickly than vertical surfaces, as those surfaces are the ones in most direct contact with sun. The more you are able to store the wrapped vehicle indoors, the more life you will get out of it. This can be a difference of years.
Bottom Line
Think about what a vehicle wrap really is in regard to your business. Why did you get the wrap in the first place? They act as a silent representation of your business and to attract potential new customers. Just as you wouldn’t let customers into a dirty showroom or use the wrong machine to buff your showroom floor, you ou must treat your vehicle wrap with the same care and diligence as you do your business… because it IS your business.
