# Fleet Graphics and Vinyl Wraps > Printed and color change wraps in cast vinyl, applied over prepared paint with post heating and edge sealing. Source: https://fleetservicesocrv.com/services/graphics-and-wraps/fleet-graphics-and-vinyl-wraps Business: Fleet Services OCRV, 23281 E La Palma Ave, Yorba Linda, CA 92887 Phone: (714) 909-1844. Serving Santa Ana, California, about 17 miles from the facility. A vehicle wrap is a printed or colored adhesive vinyl film applied over existing paint to carry branding, a color change, or both. Cast film conforms into curves, rivets, and corrugation and lasts five to seven years outdoors here. Calendered film costs less, stays flatter, and shrinks back off edges much sooner. ## Specification - Price range: $1,500 to $9,500 - Labor hours: 10 to 45 hours - Turnaround: Upfit install - Insurance: typically customer pay or fleet account ## Symptoms - Film lifting at rivet heads, seams, and panel edges - Bubbles or tenting over corrugation channels - Printed graphics faded or shifted in color against newer units - Cracking or splitting film on roofs and horizontal surfaces - Edges collecting grit and peeling back after washing - Logo placement inconsistent from unit to unit across a yard ## What is the difference between cast and calendered vinyl, and why does it decide the job? Cast vinyl is made by pouring liquid resin onto a casting sheet and letting it cure without tension. It has almost no memory, so it conforms into rivets, corrugations, and compound curves and then stays where it was put. Film thickness runs around two mils and outdoor life is five to seven years in this climate. Calendered vinyl is squeezed through rollers under heat and pressure, which leaves the film under permanent internal stress. It is thicker, typically three to four mils, and it wants to return to its original shape. On a flat panel that is acceptable and it holds three to five years. Over a rivet head or a curve it pulls back and lifts. The practical rule is that flat and short term takes calendered, while anything with contour or anything expected to run past three years takes cast. A wrap is mostly labor. Saving fifteen percent on film to build a job that fails in half the time is not a saving on any fleet spreadsheet. - Cast film at roughly two mils for curves, rivets, and corrugation - Calendered film at three to four mils for flat, short term panels only - Overlaminate over printed film for ultraviolet and abrasion protection - Air release liner so large panels lay down without trapped bubbles - Cast film outdoor life of five to seven years in Southern California sun - Calendered film outdoor life of three to five years on flat surfaces - Reflective and specialty films selected per panel rather than per unit ## Why does a two year old wrap fail before the paint under it does? Two things kill a wrap early. The surface it was applied to, and the edges. Film laid over wax, silicone dressing, or a freshly refinished panel that had not fully cured never achieves a full adhesive bond, and it starts releasing at the first genuinely hot week in a Santa Ana yard. Edges fail because the adhesive is doing its hardest work there while the film is trying hardest to shrink back. Any edge not wrapped around a corner or sealed will lift, collect grit, and peel back under wash pressure. Post heating with a heat gun to around 195 degrees relieves the stress in the film and is what stops the recovery. The third factor is washing. A pressure washer wand held close to a seam or a rivet line drives water under the film in seconds. Fleets that wrap their units and then keep the exact wash procedure they used on bare paint are the ones calling about lifting inside eighteen months. ## How is a corrugated or riveted body wrapped without the film lifting? Corrugated bodies and riveted trailer skins are the hardest surfaces vinyl gets asked to cover. The film has to be pushed down into every channel and around every rivet head, then heated so it stays there instead of tenting back out as soon as the installer moves along the panel. Rivets are done individually. The film is heated, pressed over the head with a wrap glove or a rivet brush, and any trapped air is pierced with a pin and worked out to the edge. Skipping that leaves a small dome over every rivet, and each dome turns into a hole in the film within a season on the road. Corrugation is worked channel by channel with a squeegee and heat, and the film has to be brought fully down into the channel rather than bridged across it. A bridged channel collects water, holds it against the panel, and lifts along its whole length once the first edge gives up. - Panel cleaned, degreased, and wiped with isopropyl solution before film - Cast film only on corrugated and riveted surfaces - Each rivet heated, pressed, and pierced to release trapped air - Corrugation channels worked down fully rather than bridged - Post heat to approximately 195 degrees on all conformed areas - Edge sealer applied at rivet lines, panel breaks, and cut edges - Film wrapped around edges into jambs and returns where access allows ## What condition does the paint need to be in before film goes on? Vinyl bonds to the top layer of whatever it is applied to. If that top layer is failing clear coat, the adhesive holds better than the clear does, and the wrap comes off with paint attached at removal. That is the single most expensive mistake in fleet graphics and it is entirely avoidable with a gauge and ten minutes. Fresh paint needs full cure before film. Solvent keeps leaving a new finish for weeks, and film applied too early traps it, producing bubbles that appear days after delivery and cannot be worked out afterward. Thirty days after refinish is the working minimum and longer is better on a full respray. Wax, silicone dressings, and rain repellent products are the other blockers. Those get stripped with a dedicated remover and then an isopropyl wipe. A truck that has been through a wash tunnel with a wax cycle needs that prep whether the driver remembers the wax cycle or not. - Clear coat adhesion assessed before any film is quoted - Thirty day cure minimum on newly refinished panels - Wax, silicone, and dressing residue chemically removed - Isopropyl alcohol wipe as the final preparation step - Rust, chips, and lifting paint repaired before film goes on - Damaged or peeling panels refinished rather than wrapped over ## How long does a fleet wrap take and how long does it last? A wrap runs one thousand five hundred to nine thousand five hundred dollars at ten to forty five labor hours depending on coverage and body complexity. Partial coverage on a cargo van sits at the low end. Full coverage on a corrugated twenty six foot box with rivet lines running the length of the body sits at the top. Shop time is three to ten business days for most units, and the bulk of that is preparation, print, and lamination rather than application. Printing and laminating a full unit is a day on its own, and the laminated film needs to outgas before it is cut and applied or it bubbles on the panel. Life expectancy in Santa Ana conditions is five to seven years on cast film with a laminate, and less on the roof and horizontal surfaces, which take the ultraviolet load the same way paint does. Fleets planning a rebrand cycle usually budget removal and reapplication at the five year point. ## How is artwork prepared so twelve units come out identical? Consistency across a fleet comes from templates, not from good installers. Vehicle specific templates place the artwork against door lines, handles, fuel doors, and body breaks, so the logo lands in the same position on every unit rather than wherever it happened to fit on the day it was applied. Artwork is supplied as vector wherever possible, and where a raster file is unavoidable it needs to be sized at the printed dimension at usable resolution. A logo pulled off a website and scaled to four feet wide prints as a blurred edge, and no film choice or laminate fixes that after the fact. We keep the approved layout and the print profile on file under the account, so unit thirteen next year matches unit one from this year including color. Printed color drifts between runs unless the profile is held, and a fleet blue that shifts between batches is exactly as visible as a paint mismatch. ## Questions ### How long will a wrap last on a truck that parks outside in Santa Ana? Five to seven years on cast film with an overlaminate, and less on the roof and any horizontal surface, which take several times the ultraviolet load a vertical side does. Calendered film on flat panels runs three to five years. Most fleets plan a rebrand or a refresh at around the five year point. ### Is a wrap cheaper than painting the fleet? Up front, yes, usually by a wide margin, and a wrap protects the paint underneath while it is on. Over ten years the numbers close, because a wrap gets replaced once or twice in that window while a sound repaint does not. The other advantage is speed. A wrap is days and a repaint is weeks. ### Can you wrap over a truck that already has old decals on it? Not directly. Old graphics leave a raised edge and an adhesive layer that telegraph through new film and stop it bonding properly. The old vinyl comes off first, the adhesive is removed, and the panel is cleaned and wiped before anything new goes on. That is a separate line on the estimate and it is not optional. ### Will the wrap damage our paint when it comes off? Not if the paint was sound when the film went on and the removal is done with heat rather than force. Where paint comes off with vinyl, the clear coat was already failing before the wrap was applied. That is why we assess film condition first and will decline to wrap a panel with delaminating clear. ### How should drivers wash a wrapped truck? Hand wash where possible with pH neutral soap, or use a touchless tunnel. Keep pressure washer wands at least a foot back, use a wide fan tip, and never aim directly at an edge, a seam, or a rivet line. Brush tunnels are the worst option, because the brushes catch edges and start the lift. ### Can you do a color change wrap instead of a repaint? Yes, and it is a common answer for leased units that have to be returned in the original color. A full color change means wrapping jambs, the inside faces of doors, and anything visible when the unit is open, or the change reads as incomplete every time a door opens. That scope gets agreed before the quote. ### How many units can you turn in a week? It depends on coverage. Partial graphics packages move quickly and several units a week is realistic. Full wraps on corrugated bodies are three to ten business days each and the constraint is bay time rather than print time. Large Santa Ana programs get scheduled with a set number of units released per week.