For the first time, TeckWrap has launched its three-day training program with the master, Tadashi Kariya in Guangzhou, China last Friday. Eight participants were chosen to attend on behalf of their own cities’ wrapping community. Here are some reviews for those of you who missed it -Keep your eyes with us, you might be the next attendee with us. 
If you happen to be new to this industry and have not known who Tadashi is yet, he is a one of the MOB (Masters of Branding) members and one of the most experienced wrap installers in the world. Running his own company DesignLab in Japan, Tadashi is also devoted to the wrap community by participating in international events like SEMA and Wrapscon, as well as throwing trainings and workshops around the world.
If you were here on the spot during the three days, you would have known what a great teacher he is. It is not like the training schedule said such and such, then he would follow. Instead, for the first day, Tadashi asked our attendees to wrap by themselves for the first half an hour to see on what level each of them is standing. Our wrappers then excitingly started to wrap the units that they are confident in (or could be the other way round): rear bumper, door handle, mirror, door, fender, and some others.
DO NOT OVERLOOK ANY STEPS
Now, if you are meticulous enough, you would have noticed that we did not mention anything about them cleaning the vehicle before any application took place. We have written some articles about the importance of pre-installation before -if you have been with us for a while, because this is something that most wrappers will overlook. Just like Tadashi mentioned, installers are too familiar with this job so that they usually skip certain steps to save time (like cleaning and post heating).
Of course Tadashi gave feedback to their wrapping in the rest of the day, but in order to keep this lesson in their blood, he asked them just to clean certain units of those cars for the first half an hour on the second day training -Well we better say it was a test, rather than him asking them to do so. Nevertheless, when the time was up and Tadashi wiped down the parts they cleaned, the white tissue still turned out to be partly black. One attendee mused and finally realized why there would be bubbles on the wrap, even when all condition were right –but only because the car was not clean enough, and this leads to a bad adhesion which as a result, the film bubbles up.
TREAT EVERY WRAP LIKE THE MOST DIFFICULT ONE
The first day of the training was more like a “getting-to-know-each-other”, but the second day was more advanced -even the cleaning process was. Tadashi has taught our attendees about solo hood wrapping, head/ tail light wrapping, fender wrapping, as well as mirror wrapping (some with illustration of usage of knifeless tape, which is what Tadashi is specifically specialized in).
If you asked me what the most impressive part was, I would say the mirror wrapping was. Not necessarily because how Tadashi perfectly did it without removing the mirror, but because of his attitude. The thing is… when our wrappers did it, they were using a gloss film, which was not stretched in the right direction, although this could be just fine for a this kind of film.
However, our master told them to stop, and started illustrating by drawing patterns on the film. To him, if we pay no attention to direction of stretching a film, it will be easy for us to forget to do it when we deal with a textured or metallic film, too. And this was another important message that Tadashi wanted to deliver: Treat every wrap like the most difficult one you would have come across!
As happy moment always flies, the program came to an end just like it only began yesterday. All the attendees have told TeckWrap that it was truly a well-gained experience. As for Tadashi, after meeting all these young people, he sees a great potential for this community in China –the country that has the most population and the biggest market, as most installers here start their wrapping passion in early age (our youngest attendee is 22, yet has been in the industry for six years), and soon they will become masters in the field if more professionals would like to reach out to this great need.
