Facia wrap instead of paint

[john 05141]

I found one thread here about wrapping a Delorean incl the facias, but is there anyone that has wrapped onlt the facias using A color matching the original?
I do not plan to do this myself, and have it done professionally instead having it painted. I think a wrap is stronger. I doubt there will be much price difference.
Also I am hoping this can Be done without removing the headlights.

Any experience or advice is welcome!

John

[Timeless]

My experience with vinyl materials has been less than stellar for exterior applications. UV and other weather situations take their toll after a couple years not to mention the aggressive angles with the front fascia can cause lifting. Especially if there is a cut off/transition from grey to black.

If the car is garaged all the time it may not be a big deal.

[Helirich]

Interesting! Please post pics if you have it done. I’ve never seen a wrapped D. Would be good for someone wanting advertising, but not screw with the original car.

[Mark D]

https://www.slashgear.com/3m-makes-a-4th-gold-delorean-for-back-to-the-future-day-21410914/


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF-acicxQwM

[Helirich]

That video is cool, but it didn’t look gold to me. More like a yellow/tan. Maybe it looks better from a different angle.

[john 05141]

They wrapped that with the headlights still in there.
If I proceed I will send pictures.

[john 05141]

It will be done March 12.
I’ll post pictures

[David T]

I have seen 2 Deloreans "wrapped". One was the Dominos Pizza car and another was a local bar called the Breakfast club (they had it parked outside forever). Even if you use a high quality materiel to wrap the car, it does not last very long if the car is left outside in the sun and the weather. As important as the materiel is, the skill of the person applying the wrap is also important. For a really good job they should remove as much as they can so they don't have to cut the materiel up like the side mirrors, the rub strip, emblems, lights, etc. For what you could spend on a wrap job, IMHO, I would just go ahead and have it painted. They also make a chrome wrap but that is really wild (and EXPENSIVE$$$$$).

[Michael]

David is right (holy crap we agree!)
Wraps are meant for short term (a few months to several years).

Painting the fascias would be money well spent in the long run. The only caveat is if you want to try something new or unique (like a stainless wrap) and don't want the finality of painting.

[john 05141]

I live more in central Europe, we do not have hot summers and my car is always indoors.
Police cars and taxi’s have wrapped cars. I chose a high quality German wrap.
I paid a deposit to order the color material so I’ll go ahead with it anyway. Not that much to loose.

jan

[john 05141]

GRRRRR!!!!!

Got a call from the wrapping company.
They basically told me and gave up and to come get the car + they will never ever do classic cars ever again.

I prepped the faciaS by removing loose paint and sanding edges.
They sent me pictures that show the facias have been painted several times before and you can simple pull off a lot of old paint.
So they had to sand the whole facias bare.

Now the wrap foil does not stick good enough.

It is completely sanded, and they told me it is ready to get it painted and go for this option.
Last year the whole summer the car was away for repairs, tooks like I face that again. I will try and see if there is a company that can do this short time as I will not drive the car looking like this.

Should I do it myself with a can?

I should not have touched it and leave it alone.

[David T]

The quick, short, cheap answer is Yes, get some spray cans and do it yourself. It won't come out great but it would be passable. The other choice is to find a good body shop and have them do it. It should not take very long to do, it is not a big job to a good shop that knows what they are doing. Resist the urge to remove the facias to paint them, it is a LOT more work to remove, fix, paint and reinstall them. The shop can do a very nice job just masking them and painting them in place. Can be done in just a couple of days.

[DMC-81]

Do yourself and the car a favor and have the fascia painted by a reputable auto body shop. That's what I did with both fascias and I was not disappointed. It sounds like the wrapping business may have done much of the preparation already.

[Helirich]

Too bad that didn’t work out. Something seems odd about that. I’ve seen several cars wrapped that were painted multiple times. The facia should be easy.

I have to agree with some others, why do a wrap for this location? The only reason I would do a wrap on a Delorean is for promotional purposes. You could do some wild graphics and then remove them later. The stainless is part of the character of the car.

Having said all that, I have heard that some wraps have “healing” property where you can remove a scratch with a heat gun. Not sure if I believe that.

[Timeless]

I have to agree with some others, why do a wrap for this location? The only reason I would do a wrap on a Delorean is for promotional purposes. You could do some wild graphics and then remove them later. The stainless is part of the character of the car.

Having said all that, I have heard that some wraps have “healing” property where you can remove a scratch with a heat gun. Not sure if I believe that.
My non-DMC vehicles are wrapped with Xpel Ultimate PPF and it does self-heal in the sun/heat provided the impart does not penetrate the first layer. It's incredible and must have for anything driven daily if you care about the paint and lights. Every car I have owned since 2004 has had PPF installed. Here is my latest acquisition as of May of 2021. This car is entirely wrapped with PPF including headlights + GTECHNIQ HALO ceramic coating. Even opted for windshield protection film as well. ~1000 miles and it's already got some divots. Worth the $ of admission and cleaning is a breeze.
68165

[john 05141]

The facias were professionaly painted on the car. It all took a lot more work than I wanted to spend on it.
Cost me 550€ but the result is very good.

[gulwng3]

Sorry to be so late to this thread. I don't check this forum much anymore. I had my entire painted car wrapped in 4.5mm 3M wrap last year about this time. They charged me an extra $400 in labor costs because they had to completely sand the fascias (only 1 paint layer) down to the gray plastic to get the wrap to stick. It sticks very well now, but the car is always garaged. Most think it is painted (well, it is under the wrap). Even wrapped the top of the air cleaner.

[Quinn]

Sorry to be so late to this thread. I don't check this forum much anymore. I had my entire painted car wrapped in 4.5mm 3M wrap last year about this time. They charged me an extra $400 in labor costs because they had to completely sand the fascias (only 1 paint layer) down to the gray plastic to get the wrap to stick. It sticks very well now, but the car is always garaged. Most think it is painted (well, it is under the wrap). Even wrapped the top of the air cleaner.

Did they cut around the exterior rubstrips, or remove them for the wrapping process(then reapply them)?

[Helirich]

Sorry to be so late to this thread. I don't check this forum much anymore. I had my entire painted car wrapped in 4.5mm 3M wrap last year about this time. They charged me an extra $400 in labor costs because they had to completely sand the fascias (only 1 paint layer) down to the gray plastic to get the wrap to stick. It sticks very well now, but the car is always garaged. Most think it is painted (well, it is under the wrap). Even wrapped the top of the air cleaner.

So are you saying the whole car is painted under the wrap, or just the facia? Looks well done. If I wanted a different color, I think I would go this route.

[gulwng3]

Did they cut around the exterior rubstrips, or remove them for the wrapping process(then reapply them)?

They cut around the exterior rubstrips. I had just taped them all off and repainted them and I didn't want them messed with.

I only took off the tail lights, license plates, headlights and exterior mirrors.

[gulwng3]

So are you saying the whole car is painted under the wrap, or just the facia? Looks well done. If I wanted a different color, I think I would go this route.

Thank you. Yes, whole car was dealer painted in 1983 so the lacquer was started to show its age - mostly cracking, but some flaking off. I'm hoping most of the paint comes off when I rip off the wrap in a few years. :)

[glockworks21]

reviving this thread.
I have cracking and peeling in corner of facia around headlight. mine has the typical warping along the top. I made the spider cracking worse trying to align the lights when i got the car. since the screws are near impossible to get to without a bit of flexing. Ive called 3 of the more trusted body shops in area and nobody wants to touch it. two of them tried to send me to maaco. I want to do the light conversion that timeless has/ get everything aligned and then have repainted without being removed from car. Anyone used maaco? anyone near sacramento area that knows a decent paint shop that will even look at it without charging me a fortune?

Thanks in advance.


Dave

[David T]

reviving this thread.
I have cracking and peeling in corner of facia around headlight. mine has the typical warping along the top. I made the spider cracking worse trying to align the lights when i got the car. since the screws are near impossible to get to without a bit of flexing. Ive called 3 of the more trusted body shops in area and nobody wants to touch it. two of them tried to send me to maaco. I want to do the light conversion that timeless has/ get everything aligned and then have repainted without being removed from car. Anyone used maaco? anyone near sacramento area that knows a decent paint shop that will even look at it without charging me a fortune?

Thanks in advance.


Dave

If you go to a chain shop like MAACO do not expect a high quality job. They do volume OK work on daily drivers and their focus is to get as many cars done as quickly as possible. You want a shop that does high end cars and/or restoration work but expect it to be expensive. One way to get a referral is to go to a high end dealer like BMW or Mercedes, or Cadillac and ask the service manager where they send their cars. As for getting turned away for 3 shops, better they turn you away then to do a cr-ppy job, at least they are being honest and telling you they aren't qualified to to do it! Make sure the shop you find understands that they must use a flexible additive in the paint. That may be the hardest thing, finding a shop that can use the right type of painting system. Most shops can only do clearcoat/basecoat water based type paints now.

[Timeless]

I want to do the light conversion that timeless has/ get everything aligned and then have repainted without being removed from car.

Thanks in advance.

Dave
When I repaired my eyebrows & replaced headlight buckets in February, I laid down blue painters tape to protect the original fascia paint. The paint peeled around the headlights when I removed the tape. I'm lucky to have a great body shop locally that specializes in classics and has worked my other classics.
My plan is to have them repaint both fasicas later this year.

[Helirich]

reviving this thread.
I have cracking and peeling in corner of facia around headlight. mine has the typical warping along the top. I made the spider cracking worse trying to align the lights when i got the car. since the screws are near impossible to get to without a bit of flexing. Ive called 3 of the more trusted body shops in area and nobody wants to touch it. two of them tried to send me to maaco. I want to do the light conversion that timeless has/ get everything aligned and then have repainted without being removed from car. Anyone used maaco? anyone near sacramento area that knows a decent paint shop that will even look at it without charging me a fortune?

Thanks in advance.


Dave

I would not recommend Maaco. If you do use them, you need to sand the area they are painting. They are not completely inept when it comes to spraying and their equipment is good, but they dont do addiquite prep work. (Won?t last) You also might want to supply the paint.

[Michael]

Maaco will screw it up. Period. They mostly use single stage and base/clear cost extra and it isn't applied with the most skilled techs to put it diplomatically. To be truthful, if someone knows what he is doing, he is not working at Maaco. There will be plenty of body shops that will do a fine job, but if they are like they are around here, you will need to book an appointment and expect a month or so, or more wait.

There is one truth in paint...you get what you pay for, sometimes. To be more precise, you MIGHT get a nice job for a big price, but you will NEVER get a good job for a cheap price...unless you find someone who is willing to do it in his spare time. Imagine a triangle, at each corner a word appears: CHEAP : QUICK : RIGHT You can have two, but not all three.

To disagree with David T, (and I do so quite often) there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING wrong with waterbased technology. Most all cutting edge bodyshops are now using it these days as well as most car manufacturers. There is nothing wrong with it. It is what broadband was to dial up.

[glockworks21]

I will keep searching around my area for a paint shop that will do it. Im not in that big of a hurry. two of the big name body shops i talked to are only writing tickets for collision repair. Apparently they are so busy that they are not doing just paint. the third shop i talked to told me the same thing and then another lady behind desk overheard and acted as if she was going to make an exception and squeeze me in for and estimate in 2 weeks. So they started taking my info and as soon as i said 1981 they stopped me and said they wont work on anything that old. LOL

[Mark D]

If you're looking for long lasting results paint is probably going to be the better choice over a wrap.

For what it's worth, I recently had a set of bumpers painted for my BMW wagon and got a handful of quotes from local body shops. No masking was required since they are all one color, and there was minimal prep required since they are new parts from the dealership already in primer.

Prices for getting the two bumpers painted started $850 at a smaller independent shop but they had a 3 month wait. The highest quote I got was $2,300 at a larger dealership that was also booked out a few months. The guy I dealt with seemed annoyed about trying to fit it into his already busy schedule of larger collision repair jobs. So it was basically a F*** off quote.

The shop I went with was an independent body shop that mostly does collision repair, but also has a backlog of classic restoration projects. They had a few cool old cars in process in the shop when I stopped by for a quote. They were able to squeeze me in about a week later, and did a great job for 1k.

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