Is it Cheaper to Wrap or Paint a Car?

It’s time for you to do something about your boring work truck. Turning your vehicle into a moving billboard is a popular way to advertise your business to thousands of people but you have to choose between a custom paint job or vehicle wrap. Is a vehicle wrap or custom paint job better?

When transforming your work vehicle into mobile advertising a large factor will be the cost. Is it cheaper to wrap or paint a car? Wrapping your vehicle is almost always cheaper, but why is that and does it make a difference in quality?

Read on to learn more about out the costs associated with custom paint jobs vs. vehicle wraps and reasons why a wrap is normally cheaper than a custom paint job. In most circumstances, you’ll find wraps are more affordable with more unique advantages than custom paint jobs.

Many factors play into the cost of both a custom paint job and a vehicle wrap but wraps are almost always cheaper.

The cost in material and specifically labor on a custom paint job can range anywhere from $3,000 to $10,000 and that’s for a basic design. Labor and design intensive custom paint jobs can cost upwards of $20,000. Most full color change vehicle wraps cost approximately $3,000 to $5,000 but include a wider range of color and design options as well as other unique benefits. You can get the same graphics and colors with a wrap at a much lower cost than a custom paint job.

What about express paint services that offer to repaint your vehicle around $500 to $1000? To put it nicely, express paint services are low-quality. Express paint services use discount paint and offer one color. Most express paint service jobs will not last as long as a high-quality wrap and are not recommended.

There are many more advantages of wraps over custom paint jobs with many of the advantages play into a lower final cost. Let’s learn five unique advantages of wraps over paint.

Customization

Custom paint jobs can get intricate and complex, but the more complex, the more you’ll be shelling out. With wraps you can get 100% customization and a wild variety of colors with little to no added cost. A custom paint job requires a paint technician to carefully lay out and slowly paint the design over days or weeks while a wrap is printed and ready for application in a few hours.

Because a large format printer is doing the work and not a person, you can get as detailed as you wish. You’ll work directly with a wrap company to design the perfect wrap with the perfect color schemes at a fraction of the cost of a custom paint job.

Easy Repairs

Have you ever walked back to your car from the grocery store only to notice someone has gouged your paint with a shopping care? Even a small paint scratch on a custom paint job requires grinding, prepping, repainting, and more which can be a major pain to schedule and pay for. Wrap repairs are much easier.

Your wrap is one big sticker so to repair the wrap you only need to repair one part of the sticker. Your wrap company can survey the damage, use high end software to make an accurate color match, reprint the damaged area, and reapply all in a few hours and at a much lower cost than a paint repair.

Re-Wrapping

Your wrap is still in good shape but you’re tired of the design and you need to change the phone number. No problem. In a custom paint job, you’d have to shell out several thousand dollars for a re-do but with a wrap just take off the old wrap and put a new one on.

Faster Service

Vehicle wraps are much less labor intensive than custom paint jobs and because you don’t need to wait for paint to dry many wrap jobs are completed within a few hours. Custom paint jobs can take upwards of multiple weeks. Every minute your vehicle is still in the shop you’re losing potential business so choose vehicle wraps for much faster service.

Retain Vehicle’s Value

A wrap can be applied to any vehicle and any stock color. Because the wrap will not damage the car’s paint job, your vehicle will always retain its value. If you need to sell the vehicle all you need to do is remove the wrap and you’re good to go. If you need to resell a custom painted vehicle, you’ll first have to remove the custom paint job before repainting all at your expense.

Bonus: Because a wrap protects your vehicle’s body from wind and damaging UV rays, you get extra years on your stock paint job. This is helpful when selling your vehicle.

Vehicle wraps are more affordable than custom paint jobs but are also easier thanks to customization, ease of redoing the design, ease of repair, and much more. Call your local wrap company to discuss design, cost, and begin the vehicle wrap process today.