Wrap your truck and buy the hamster car?

[David Iannone]

A few weeks ago while visiting my family in DE I decided to partial wrap my 2001 Ford F150. I had all graphics printed and laminated before I drove the 800 mile trip. My 13 year old daughter and I installed the graphics in 1 day. Day #2 in my dad's shop we built the gate I have been wanting for my house, then rigged it up to go back to GA in one 12' long piece.

I am now thinking of wrapping the bass boat I fish tournaments out of in GA, and believe it or not I am going to see how cheap I can get a Kia Soul in white with the least options financed and wrap it. I will use it as a delivery vehicle for the next 3 years, then when my daughter turns 16 she can drive it.

Anyone else out there had any success with wrapping a few vehicles with your brand?

Dave

[willmorgan]

Hey David,
We have not wrapped anything promoting the CNC cutting or manufacturing side, but we have wrapped for the sign business in general and it is also a big part of our business. It does work well, everyone see's it. It also helps protect the car if you wrap the whole thing.

[RossMosh]

I don't do wraps but here is a constant issue I have with wraps and truck/vinyl jobs. They very rarely hit the who, what, where, when, and why. Sometimes one of those isn't as important, but I think you should more often than not hit 4 out of the 5 in a strong way. I also think scale is important and underrated. Too often is it hard to read files. For example, it's hard to read the tagline on your logo which in your case tells me possibly "why" I should buy from your company.

Personally, I think your name should be larger and you should also focus on how people can contact you. If I type in Sign Express on google, you aren't easily found. I also think including a location is advisable. If I own a company and find you're 10 minutes from me and I normally drive two hours to another sign shop, that may be the deciding factor in giving you a call. Last thing, I'd make better use of the rear. I'm not from the south, so maybe an American flag will get you business, but I'd rather throw my contact info and services there or at least on top of the flag.

[David Iannone]

I will be the first to admit I am NOT a designer. We do a few wraps a year and the design work is always sent out. I print and install.

My theory on this was to finally just get something on my truck so when customers come in they can look at the install quality up close right then. I just bought the piece of high res art, sized it then dropped my logo and text on it. I didn't want to clog it with too much busy text so the "signs, wraps, CNC cutting" was my best shot at what I wanted to promote. No phone numbers, just my website on there to make it easy to remember and with today's smart phones www.247signs.net (http://www.247signs.net) is easier to remember than a phone number (I need to have my website redesigned, its much outdated) But my new site will have everything about what I do and how to contact me which I prefer email or text message, but my phone number of course will be on the website. I stopped advertising in the yellow pages years ago. I don't think anyone even uses phone books any more.

I have had the wrap on there for 3 weeks so far and actually am getting positive response. I had a new customer come in last week and told me he found out about us from seeing my truck wrap. Numerous people comment all over town, I keep business cards with me and am steady handing them out. I have one guy that ordered the exact same american flag for his tailgate that I will print and install, and had another guy stop me a few days ago and is coming in next week to talk about a full camo wrap on his truck. None of the other Sign Shops in my town have thier vehicles wrapped so they will start to notice me too, and when I get around to going to their shops and offering them CNC cutting service, the wrap hopefully will be a conversation piece.

But most of all I am having fun with it, and my wife and daughter are proud that I am getting back out into sales mode and trying to build business back up. My Daughter is also learning flexisign and doing very good with it so far, and wants to go to design school and be the design talent I have always lacked in this business.

Dave

[bleeth]

I like it Dave. Strong believer in K>I>S>S

[signsbyjay]

Dave,

Add one of these to the back window and let the truck work for you anywhere you park

http://www.staples.com/Grab-A-Card-Outdoor-Business-Card-Holder/product_132754

Jay

[myxpykalix]

the only thing i'd say is that if you think about it, the back is the place most will be exposed to you, say going down the road, and that would be where i'd put contact info.

[tri4sale]

the only thing i'd say is that if you think about it, the back is the place most will be exposed to you, say going down the road, and that would be where i'd put contact info.

The american flag is nice and all, but it offers zero information to people who see it. Your sign on the back window is dark and hard to read, and googling "Sign Express" results in 296,000,000 results and you're not on the top 2 pages.

Back of truck should have your website, which I agree is easy to remember (on a side note, don't you hate it when you have to take the .net domain cause the .com domain is taken but nothing on the site! 247signs.com is just a blank page when I try to open it). If you travel with your bed down alot, then back window is good place for the web site address.

And front of truck should have the domain name mirrored so that it is readable in rear view mirrors.

[Ajcoholic]

I doint have my truck and van wrapped, but I have the entire rear windows covered.

Plain and simple - My business name, number and what we do.

I have gotten a lot of calls and work, and people tell me they saw my truck while parked down town, at the grocery store etc. Or even just in the driveway at my home.

I'd like my van wrapped. Its a 2001 3/4 ton Chev. Only has 175,000 km and is in great mechanical shape. But the body is rusting badly now... maybe the vinyl would hold it together for a few more years :) ??

[dakers]

http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=25854&stc=1we did this last year, never had a photo of it so the post reminded me to take one. I think it has helped but we really do not want to do alot of vehicle wraps. this one is probably close to a $3,000 to $3,700 depending on deisgn time if we did for someone else

[David Iannone]

Andrew,
I wish I was closer to you. I would like to see your shop and learn some of what you would share, and it would be bad ass to wrap your vehicle.

Here is what I would suggest:

-Have a design firm design a concept wrap for your vehicle. (this is the hardest part) I then print and install the wrap.

-I would have to see how bad the rust is, but if it was MY truck I would wet sand, grind, clean and prime with quality paint myself. Then Wrap it. I wrapped over dents and peeling paint spots on mine, all look great so far.

What I did on mine is actually do what 3M does not suggest. I went right over crappy paint, I didn't use the 3M primer, and didn't even post heat the wrap. I only use 3M materials and have had NO failures so far since 1999. But on my wrap I figured I wanted to really try to beat it up to the max. I'm even gonna run it through automatic car washes which is a BIG NO NO in the vehicle graphics world.

If the full wrap or partial wrap is something you might consider, I would give you the same wholesale price I give to all my wholesale guys, size, print, ship for printed graphics on 3M IJ180Cv3-10 GRAPHIC FILM and laminated with 3M 8518 GLOSS OVER-LAMINATE $6 sq/ft. You would then either need to hire an installer or give it a shot yourself. If you do a partial wrap I think you could install it yourself with a helper. BUT.... the most important thing is TEMP. Body temp of vehicle should be around 72 degrees and the vinyl is a dream to work with. Colder than 68, its no good, and anything above 79 degrees suckes too, it becomes too "soft" to work with.


Dave

[David Iannone]

http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=25854&stc=1we did this last year, never had a photo of it so the post reminded me to take one. I think it has helped but we really do not want to do alot of vehicle wraps. this one is probably close to a $3,000 to $3,700 depending on deisgn time if we did for someone else

Thanks for the photo. This is exactly what I am talking about! I really like your design. Wraps sometimes seem like a pain, but if you take away the part you don't want to do and send it out.....then it can be a winner. ME...I want to print and install (my strong point) If someone is not willing to pay $500 for a wrap design to the company I sub out to, well....enough said. NO WRAP FOR YOU.....lol

I charge $15 sq/ft for print, lam, install. No design included. That is full retail.

Yes many other high production wrap shops will beat me every day of the week. But I am selling myself as well as my business. I have my hands on every job that moves through my shop rather it be a pair of magnetic to a full wrap. Each new customer I acquire I feel confident that they will be back when the next project comes up.

That's just me, I'm a positive thinker. Been in the sign business since I was 15. I am now 40. All I need is a good graphic designer and I could double my business in 2 years.

Dave