A JaxJournal Exclusive

Most people buy a new vehicle first and start thinking about wrapping it afterward.

Maybe we've been doing that backward.

If you're ordering a new car, truck or SUV and already know that a color-change wrap, PPF or custom graphics are part of the plan, your wrap shop may be worth talking to before you finalize the vehicle order. Some seemingly insignificant factory choices can make the eventual wrap easier, cleaner and less expensive, while others can unintentionally add hundreds of dollars in additional labor.

Start With the Factory Color

Here's an unusual piece of advice coming from a company that changes vehicle colors for a living: the factory color still matters.

If you're planning a dramatic color change, a neutral factory color—particularly black—can sometimes make life much easier. Open a door on a brightly colored vehicle that's been wrapped another color and you'll still see the original paint in the jambs unless you've paid to have those areas wrapped too.

A black vehicle wrapped green, blue, gray or another darker color generally creates a much less distracting transition.

The same thinking applies to roofs. If the vehicle can be ordered with a factory black roof and the final design works with it, there may be no reason to wrap that area at all.

And if you're planning to cover the original color anyway, it may be worth asking yourself whether that expensive premium paint option on the order sheet is really where you want to spend the money.

Look at the Vehicle, Not Just the Options List

Modern vehicles have become considerably more complicated.

Parking sensors, cameras, radar systems, charging doors, elaborate spoilers, flush-mounted handles, emblems and increasingly complicated aerodynamic components can all influence how a vehicle is wrapped.

Some of these pieces may need to be removed and reinstalled. Others have to be carefully worked around. More complicated doesn't mean a vehicle can't be wrapped—it simply means it may require additional time and labor.

Avery Dennison has even published specific guidance about wrapping vehicles equipped with parking sensors, recommending that installers verify sensor operation after the work is completed.

This is precisely the kind of thing an experienced installer notices when looking at a vehicle that most buyers wouldn't think twice about.

Pay Attention to the Plastic

Here's another detail that's easy to overlook at the dealership: textured, unpainted exterior trim.

A rugged appearance may look great on the configurator, but large areas of textured plastic aren't necessarily ideal wrapping surfaces. In its vehicle-graphics application guidance, 3M specifically advises against applying film to unpainted plastic substrates and states that applications to textured plastic aren't covered by its warranty.

So if two trim packages change a vehicle from large areas of textured black plastic to smooth painted body panels, that seemingly cosmetic difference could matter considerably if a wrap is in the vehicle's future.

Let Your Wrap Shop See the Build Before You Click “Order”

We're not suggesting that your wrap installer should decide which vehicle you buy.

But if you've already decided that wrapping or protecting it is part of the plan, show them the vehicle you're considering. Better yet, send them the online configuration.

An experienced shop may immediately spot something worth discussing: a factory paint choice that could save money, a roof that doesn't need wrapping, a trim package that adds difficult surfaces, or an exterior option that will require considerably more disassembly.

None of those things necessarily mean you should change your order.

They simply mean you can make the decision knowing what it will mean later.

At WrapJax.ai, we spend a lot of time helping people decide what their next vehicle should look like. Maybe it's time the wrap industry started helping a little earlier in the process.

Before you order the car you're planning to wrap, talk to the people who are going to wrap it.

That five-minute conversation might be one of the least expensive options you add to the vehicle.