Full bus wrap… pro's and con's

[RickB]

Hey guys,

I have an opportunity to wrap my entire bus for a ridiculous price and I'm wondering how wraps hold up long term? Other than the windows on our old 4905 the stuff help up well for the few years between us applying them and us selling the bus. Because I have the smooth side kit I think it will be a fairly easy install. I could wrap my bus 15 times for what I would spend to have it painted once.

Thoughts?

I heard that they have extended the life of these wraps out to 7-10 years or longer if they are indoors. True or not true?

Thanks in advance,

Rick

[TomC]

Wraps look as good as paint now. The big advantage is, if you don't like it you can change it easily. I think you already answered your question by the price compared to custom paint. Good Luck, TomC

[Charles in SC]

Not to change the subject but how much does wrap cost per square foot? I had a truck a few years ago that had a wrap that I wanted to remove. It was a bugger to take off and I never could get rid of the shadow.

[oldmansax]

I checked into getting a wrap for mine a while back & it was as expensive as paint. If you have a less expensive solution I would be interested also.

TOM

[oltrunt]

You mentioned that you could do the wrap yourself--that's a labor cost you need to consider.  You might want to compare the cost of paint materials to the cost of wrap materials so you'd be comparing apples to apples.  If you are willing to do the labor on the paint job--even if you have to do it a section at a time (unless you have access to a spray booth), there is no wrap on the market that will out perform a decent 2 stage paint job.  Also, once the wrap has seen a few summers in the sun, it is h--- to get off.  Been there, done that like they say.  Jack

PS.  You still must clean and prep (which usually means sanding) prior to a wrap or the wrap soon blisters etc.  Wrap is great for things like short term advertising which is soon removed.  You need only look at the various fleets in your area to see how quickly wrap deteriorates.

[scanzel]

If you live in an area that has Peter Pan bus lines look at their MCI's they are all wrapped.

[Jim Eh.]

I have a customer that has wrapped his Prevost in black (?) (yeah I know). I guess the band has a thing for black. The reason they went with the wrap was it was comparable (at the time) with paint given the scheme they were going with. They also used it to cover previous logo.
Not holding up too well around rivets and structural elevation changes but that may just be poor prep work. Like said, the prep work is just as labour intensive as paint.
Transportation manager's comment .... he doesn't like wrap music (pun intended but the wrap comment is true.)
Coming in tomorrow to replace the upper control arms on that unit ..... oh Joy! I think I feel a cold coming on.

[zimmysurprise]

For comparison pricing, we had a 27 foot trailer wrapped on all four sides for $4500 four years ago. Colors are still holding well, but seams are starting to become more visible and areas over rivets continue to swell more and more. I'm not sure what kind of prep work would be involved to make a wrap look like a paint job over several hundred rivets, but I don't think I want to be involved.

[RickB]

Thanks for your input guys...

If I didn't have the smooth side kit I wouldn't even consider this. I have almost no rivets on my bus so I'm thinking the issues of the installation over rivets and the tendency for the rivets to poke holes in the wrap over time are things I won't have to worry about. The only issue's I would foresee is removal and fade. Not sure how hard it is to get something off that has been cooked by heat onto the side of a bus. My thinking is since I can do my entire bus and the roof for around $1000 I could do 15 to 20 wraps for the same price as a paint job. If it would last 5 years parking it outside I would be more than happy. Having done an install on a 4905 I would never do wrap over a million rivets again. No thanks. Thinking a white roof with the uv reflective type material on the roof would help keep the bus cooler and I would just copy a really nice motorhome swirl type design on the sides and it would be great.

Some good news... A side window got cracked during storage this water so I can order another peninsula slider (that will make it 3 of them for me) and since I'm planning on mounting two fantastic fans over my roof access holes we may be able to leave the AC off a lot more this summer.

Took the old girl out last week for a 50 mile stretch her legs run and for a motor that hadn't been run in 5 months it started in about a thousandth of a second and ran like a champ. Impressed.

RB

[eagle19952]

so, are you saying that the material costs are 1K$, and you are doing the work ?

Do you own  wrap company ?  that would make you a wrapper 

[RickB]

Eagle,

Yes I would be "wrapping"... Hate that music with a profound passion. Rap and napster wrecked my industry.

RB

[Nick Badame Refrig/ACC]

Hi Rick,

With all wraps, it all comes down to the final product which will determine weather the product will last or not.

Meaning, Does your quote include Clear Over laminating? if not, the wrap may only last 2 years.

Clear over laminating not only adds durability but, also adds UV protection to keep the ink from fading.

The clear over laminating also comes in different mil's and the best at 2.75 mil has a 5 year warranty. Here are some

specs from Oraguard.
https://s3.amazonaws.com/fellers/production/documents/oraguard-215-product-data-bulletin-07-2014-1117.pdf

Good and Bad in all..
Have a great day
Nick-

[Jeremy]

I'm guessing that the discussion so far has been referring to plain off-the-roll coloured vinyl rather than vinyl that's been custom printed as well (with or without laminating).

Having given thought to the same "vinyl or paint?" question for my own bus I'm probably going to use a combination of both:- specifically, cheap stock-colour paint (old english white and safety orange in my case) used in conjunction with a limited amount of fairly high grade 7 year vinyl in certain areas. Buying paint in stock industrial colours is vastly cheaper than buying any paint of any other sort of colour, but obviously greatly restricts the range of what you can do - but I reckon a bit of thought and some clever use of complementary vinyl can give you an end result that's far nicer than the budget price would suggest.

Jeremy

[DMoedave]

was riding right beside a Peter Pan bus last Saturday and from 5' there is no way I ever would have guessed it was a wrap job. going to look closer next time.

[RickB]

Hey all,

I am planning on using a complete laminated design, Researching the most durable and longest lasting brands available. Thanks Nick for another brand to look into.

One of the most difficult parts of this is the ability to do whatever you want design wise, it would be so easy to pick something custom and thought provoking and to hate it a month later or be embarrassed by it as you're pulling into a campground and it is so off the wall that people stare, That would be fun for about a minute right?

So we will probably go with what most of the hi end coaches are doing now, multicolored tan and brown complete length swirls over a gloss white background. From the rain gutters up we plan to do uv absorbing white to keep the heat down in the bus.

Rick