Paint vs. vinyl wrap
If your company car or van looks like it’s in need of a little TLC, then you might be wondering how best to polish it up. Many people would instantly think that a lick of paint wPaint vs. vinyl wrapould be the quickest fix, but car vinyl wraps are now so much easier and quicker to design and install that they’ve already become a popular alternative.
Paint and vinyl both have their advantages and disadvantages, so to help you decide how best to enhance and customise your vehicle, we have put together a breakdown of the pros and cons.
Paint: the plus side
Paint is a very reliable way of sprucing up your commercial vehicle easily, and skilled painters and signwriters can achieve very neat, long-lasting results. If you want that ‘straight off the factory floor’ look, then having the entire vehicle resprayed can get you the result you’re after.
Similarly, if you’ve changed the colour scheme your company uses, then getting your vehicles painted in the new shades you have picked is straightforward, and allows you to recreate the same scheme across an entire fleet of vehicles, if needs be. One final advantage is that painting is a simple job and so there are plenty of companies which can provide their services to you, whereas vinyl wrapping is a more specialist route to go down if you want top-quality results.
Paint: the downsides
One of the major disadvantages of painting your vehicle is that you have to get all the bodywork done, so it can become expensive. Variations in shade and finish mean you can’t simply touch the paintwork up here and there, but will need to have the whole vehicle entirely resprayed to ensure an even coverage – otherwise it could end up looking like a very silly patchwork!
Paint also has a tendency to fade, flake and rust over time, so while it might seem like a long-term solution, you could find it starts to look shabby within a relatively short space of time, depending on the quality of the job and the conditions your vehicle is exposed to. There’s nothing worse than spending all that money only to see your company name and logo are becoming so bleached by sunlight that passersby can no longer see them properly.
Depending on the complexity of the paintwork and the text or images you want painted on to the side of your car or van, your vehicle could be out of action for a number of days while the work is carried out. You might have an alternative runaround to see you through this period, but bear it in mind when deciding.
Vinyl: the plus side
One of the main advantages of car vinyl is that it acts as a second skin for your vehicle, meaning all those annoying little scratches, scrapes and nicks which are part and parcel of everyday driving don’t affect the paintwork underneath. Because it can be so easily peeled away, you can also be confident that vinyl won’t damage the bodywork and your vehicle’s resale value won’t be affected, should you decide to sell it on.
Also, thanks to that easy peel aspect, if a section of your vinyl wrap is damaged then it’s incredibly easy just to replace a small part of the vehicle wrapping – with a paint job, you’d be looking at the expensive route of having the entire vehicle resprayed. It also means you can quickly and easily change your vehicle wrap at any time, whether it’s simply to update your contact details or as part of a major rebranding exercise.
If you own a fleet of cars and want brand unity across all your vehicles, this is far easier to achieve with vinyl. Custom-made designs can easily be replicated across any number of cars and vans, and there are multiple types of vinyl car wrap to help you achieve the exact look you want for your fleet.
Vinyl: the downsides
There are very few negatives, but one of the disadvantages of car vinyl is that it can take a couple of days to install, so you will need to factor in some down time for your vehicle. That said, paint can take anywhere between a week and ten days to be fully applied and allowed to dry, so vinyl can be the quicker fix.
In some cases, vinyl might be more expensive than paint, but that is entirely dependent on what you request from your vehicle vinyl wrapping company. If you have a large sided vehicle, then more material will need to be used, and going for an incredibly detailed and complex design will also push the costs up. In general, however, the technological advances behind vinyl have made it much more cost-effective in recent years.
Ultimately, the choice you make will depend on the vision you have for your car, van or fleet of vehicles. Both paint and vinyl wraps have their pros and cons, so it’s important to weigh up the advantages and disadvantages of both before you make your final decision.
If you do decide that vehicle wrapping is for you, then you need to ensure you work with a company who can deliver the highest quality car wraps to guarantee they will be well-designed, well-fitted and made to last. The Sussex Sign Company has been providing local companies across the south-east with the best bespoke vehicle wraps for a number of years, and our experienced team of designers and fitters can see you get the very best vinyl for your vehicles.
To find out more about the types of vinyl car wrap available to you and the services we provide, simply get in touch with our expert team today.