“Do you do car wraps? We get this question a few times a month. It’s one of those questions, though, that requires some questions from us, “What do you mean by car wrap? Full vehicle? Color change wrap? Panels of a vehicle?
There are only a few vehicles in Kailua-Kona that have what is technically called a full vehicle wrap. That means all vertical and horizontal surfaces: sides, back, hood, and roof. If it’s a color change wrap, that would include doors and handles. We have seen one of these color change wraps in Kailua-Kona and assume the car was brought in like that.
We have done tens of vehicles in Kona that can be considered a “partial wrap”, which to us means only vertical (up and down) surfaces. We never do surfaces that are horizontal to the sun, which includes hoods, trunks, and roofs.
There are two reasons why we don’t do full vehicle wraps in Kona:
- They don’t last due to the effect of the sun’s UV rays and heat. A hood of a car or van is exposed to the sun all day, and the UV rays and heat from the sun and the engine can raise the temperature to 125 degrees plus–all day at sea level. This is a prescription for a faded-out hood in a reasonably short time, less than a year, maybe a bit longer. You can see the effect of the sun on many older cars and trucks in Kona: faded hoods and roofs.
I know no customer wants a faded hood and a near-pristine side of his or her vehicle. I also know that I don’t want to create and install something that will make for dissatisfied customers in a short time. There is no way around this problem in Hawaii; even the best materials available will not hold up long in the direct sun on a horizontal surface in Hawaii.
The other issue is that if a wrap is torn, deeply scratched, or dented, there is no way to do a good fix on it.
- The other issue is cost. The design time for a wrap might be 10 hours plus. The materials are at least $1,500 (for the best quality), and the installation time is at least two days, maybe three. Add these up with a modest markup, and you’re looking at at least $4-5,000 for a car and $6-7,000 for a van.
We can do the sides of a van with printed and/or cut vinyl for $1-2,000, and it will last many times longer than the $7,000 full wrap. We’d also argue that it’ll be just as effective for marketing the business. If you want to save some money, a set of magnets is only $100.
Kona Impact has been in business for nearly 15 years, so we’ve learned a thing or two about wraps in Hawaii. We’ve seen many failures, and we’ve even bought equipment from a business that failed with a wrap business in Kona. They had so many quality issues that they decided to leave the island on Monday and were gone by Friday.
