How Pre-Removal Checking Can Improve Your Car Wrapping Skills
There are tons of ways to know whether you have wrapped a vehicle well. But the most powerful one is probably to check the car you wrapped three years ago before removing the material, to see how it held up and learn from experience.
It takes only four to five minutes or so before the actual removal, and it is a great way to see what install techniques you used worked and what did not so that you can learn to deal with it and it will not happen in your next installation.
It is a little bit like when you start any application; you will do what it is called “pre-inspection” beforehand to take a record of paint quality and mark down everything you need, then have your client signed it.
For removal is the same. It is relatively essential to do a pre-removal inspection, where you go around the vehicle, take five minutes to check out and analyze how the wrap held up for however long it has been put on.
Today we will be taking a full print film removal for an example, which has been on a car for three years – so three summers. This is why we think it is precious to go around to analyze the performance of the material before taking the film off.
Whether for wrap shops or individual installer, what you get from this process is critical information in terms of the long term quality and durability of the film.
To start with, you can check over the wheel well and see how the film held up, looking for any lifting there. If there is no problem at all, no lifting there and all the edges are sealed still, go over how you installed three years ago, and you will know you are going to do the same thing next time because it holds up pretty well there.
Then you can perhaps check out the mirror or door handle. If the edge is holding up well and still, you know what to do next time. After going over the handle, you might want to open the door and check it out as well.
For some cases, you might find a lot of chips on the wrap right there on edge. This might indicate that whoever in the car would bang against another door in a parking lot or wherever with other things lined up with the vehicle.
This is when you should pay attention, take note and pictures. And it is a good idea to give it to the salesperson and have them upsell to next client, explaining to them that what would happen to the wrap there and ask if they would like to pay extra for a PPF tape to protect the car wrap. This is just one of the examples to show you how the observation you have from the pre-removal inspection can benefit you.
As you carry on going over the wrap, you might notice there might be lamination pealing a little bit. Try to figure out why and why thereby re-thinking how you did your install years ago. It might not happen because of what you did wrong. But it can be the weather.
When it gets super cold in winter, and the vehicle was exposed under such circumstance for a long time, the edge might be facing up and then water settled in, the material expanded and sort of became sacked, which will affect the lamination. So this might give you the idea of using liquid edge sealer next time when you do the installation around that area.
This case might actually happen to the roof as well, where the lamination might start pealing from underneath the rubber. And again, you might have done everything right, using the tucking technique, sealed it pretty well and things like that, but it might be because of weather and water, which made the material expanded and pushed the lamination out. You might then want to figure out a way to apply accordingly for your next application.
These are just a few instances to show you how you can make it the best as you do your pre-removal inspection. Removing is never just about removal. If you pay enough attention, it can be a great lesson to learn and give you a better idea in terms of wrapping.
