What is the best choice to take when you want to give your car a makeover especially when the bonnet paint has been oxidised to this extent – a fresh dose of paint or simply wrap the whole car with the original car paint intact?
Read these first:-
- Special Projects 101: Part 1: New Car Makeover 2021 – Suspensions
- Special Projects 101: New Car Makeover 2021(Prelude)
It is standard practice these days that when one gets a new car, one would often quickly do paint protection film or some form of clear protective layers like ceramic coatings or both to protect the original paint of the brand new car from the elements.
It is not cheap though – a quality full car wrap for a saloon car is priced at RM23,000 which is almost half of the price of a new car. Selective area of protection is cheaper but it is not comprehensive.
Car Wrap vs Car Repaint
After I came back from my Cambodia work assignment, I noticed the severe oxidation of the paint on my car hood. I guess it has been in the open, hot sunlight for far too long. If I was working from Malaysia, then my car would be in the basement parking, far away from the elements. With oxidation in place, my greater concern is that it may spread to other parts of the car. So I need to get this fixed.
I had to consider several factors before I decided on whether the next option would be to respray the whole car or wrap the car or do a selective portion of the car instead.
Time Factor
I know for a fact, based on feedback from several sources that painting the whole car will take at least 1 week to complete – perhaps more if the painting shop has too many cars to paint. This is because they need to scrap out the old paint, do fixes to the body and then after painting, it needs to be dried correctly.
Wrap on the other hand, if the car body is still intact and good, can be applied on top of the existing paint. It does not need drying up and thus can be done within 1-3 days.
Cost Factor
The cost of painting is actually comparable to the cost of wrapping – around RM2,000 to RM2,500 for a base start. That is of course not considering the cost of your time waiting for the job to get done. Colour-wise of course, the option of painting would have more option since paints can be mixed and matched compared to wraps.
Durability Factor
It is a subjective question because whilst proper paint will definitely make more sense than a car wrap, it too needs maintenance in form of regular washing, waxing and polishing.
My First Wrap Experience
In the end, I decided to opt for car wrap of the hood only as it is cheaper and faster – I was quoted Carbon Fiber Teckwarp for the hood cost RM400 as compared to a cheaper one from China at RM200. Further, the whole process is only expected to take about an hour to complete. After further checking on the right shop to go to, I found one that is quite near to the house.
To be frank, I was expected to turn away from this shop considering the level of oxidation and I dare say that the guys at the shop were kind of shock seeing the damage. They did not have the right shade of RED wrap for me so I opted for carbon fibre wrap instead. Unfortunately, they had the last piece at the shop so the surface was not that good.
But before they can wrap, they need to prep the car hood first so that it is clean, smooth and flat enough for the wrap to be applied.
They have to clean up the oxidation first so it was time to bring out the sand-papers and scrub away the oxidation layer. The first time this was done, they managed to scrape away the oxidation layer but it was not good enough.
When they put on the wrap, we did notice some uneven surface so the guys at the wrapping shop asked me to come back another day so that they can get the car cleaned up at a car body shop before putting on a new wrap again. This time, the quality was much better and firm. It is also shiny.
Future Plans
Of course, wrap alone was not enough as I also need to take care not to apply any strong detergents or shampoo on the wrap. Just clean water and something light will do for now. The painting of the whole car will need to be put on hold for now until the overall paint condition of the car deteriorates. Then it is justifiable to wait for more than a week for the painting to get done.
To be continued…