What to Consider When Adding Color Change Wraps to your Workflow From Print Shop to Custom Shop

The Shop

By Adam Sumner

Color change wraps are quite possibly the one thing I love to hate. Let me clarify: while they may not be my personal favorite, there's no denying their appeal. A high-end car in the shop looks far better than Jimmy’s plumbing van, and they dominate on social media. Yet, despite our substantial investments in printers, laminators, routers, and other equipment, something about altering a car's color doesn't quite hit the mark for me.

Now, don’t get me wrong we do a ton of color change wraps and the one thing no one talks about is the different versions of color changes they offer. Our bread and butter color changes we refer to as commercial color changes. What this means is we leave as much on the vehicle as possible and when you walk up to the car what you see is what we wrap. These by far make up the majority of color changes we sell and complete. Starting around the 3500-4000 price range. This style of color change has its appeal for price and is usually the best option for anyone with a dark-colored vehicle. The darker the car the less coverage and parts we need to remove saving us time on labor and the customer on cost.

Then there are high contrast color changes, like turning a white car to satin black. These require more time, film, and parts removal. We even inlay into door jambs a few inches to ensure seamless transitions and eliminate visible paint between door seams. costing an additional $600 to $1,200 depending on the vehicle type, sedan or SUV, and original color of the vehicle, and what material color choice they have made.

At the top tier are complete color changes, ranging from $8,000 to $12,000 depending on the size of the vehicle and amount of parts needing to be removed. Those that have wrapped a G wagon know exactly what I mean. Complete color changes include the removal of just about every trim bumper light and accessory piece you have. Typically labor for these vehicles includes 2-4 days of disassembly and reassembly of the vehicle on top of the time to wrap the car. We try our best to sell options 1-2 as much as possible because the time of the vehicle in the shop for us is not worth it in the long run, but shit complete color changes look good on the gram.

The trick to adding color changes into your workflow as a print shop is one build in the time if you think it’s going to be a 3-day install tell the customer 5. Nothing has pissed me off more was to have a color change in the shop and my number 1 customer calls and needs 3 vans done that week and I have to tell them no or burn the guys out on installs to make it all happen. We always build in extra time for color changes to fill in gaps between our bread and butter commercial wraps.

The key to a successful color change is to set the expectations for the customer before you even begin. (Below: before, Right: color change wrap) helping hand. Well, with today’s inflation who knows what they would charge now, but it’s always worth looking into it. Color changes to me are no different than installing a commercial wrap in some aspects I think they are easier and in others, they are way more difficult.

We teach 3M’s vehicle color change and have seen a ton of small print shops coming into the class to start offering color changes to supplement their day-to-day. The most common thing asked is how we take apart the cars. My opinion - DON’T. If you’re not comfortable wrenching on vehicles partner up with a local body shop. Back in the day when I was a solo operation I would grab a 30-pack and an envelope with 300 cash walk to the local body shop and ask the owner if I could borrow one of his guys to take apart a car for me. He told me to go in the back and offer it up and let me tell you I never had an issue finding someone to lend a

The key to a successful color change is to set the expectations for the customer before you even begin. We will walk the customer through the vehicle point out issues in paint and also discuss how we will install the wrap and all the parts that will be removed, where we will have to have seams in the wrap. YES, SEAMS. There are a few cars we install that don’t have a seam or multiple on the vehicle. And I will tell you 98% of mirrors and antennas leave our shop with a seam. Can we do them in one piece sure most of the time they last forever but I’m not in the business of most of the time I want vehicles to leave and never return unless they would like a new wrap. We outline to our customers exactly where the seams will be and if they are unsure of what it's going to look like or have reservations we show them with some scrap film exactly what we are going to do and almost every time they say “Wow, that disappears”. My goal for each wrap color change or commercial is to set the expectation upfront so that when they come in they are not looking for problems they are looking at the transformation.

Over the years especially with social media, our customers are coming in with what they think is knowledge and sometimes they are correct and others they just think they know what they are talking about. It is my goal with each interaction to school them on wraps and in the nicest way possible (tell them they don’t know shit and that is why they are standing in my shop) to get the wrap done and not doing it themselves. I actually never sell them a wrap. I educate them on the process the materials the good and the bad what the wrap will be like in a month in a year in 5.

What they need to do to prolong the life of the wrap how to maintain what to look out for, so if there is an issue with the film or my installation we can catch a problem and fix it immediately so that it won’t be a costly repair either for us and time fixing out a mistake. Or to them for leaving the wrap on too long causing damage to the vehicle or putting a dent in the pocketbook because the removals will be a nightmare.

Offering color changes or expanding your current offerings to include them is vital to the success of your business. The key is setting expectations knowing your limits getting help when you need it and don’t be afraid to make a mistake. Just own up fix it and move on.

Adam Sumner Adam@wrapixacademy.com Owner, Wrapix Academy Owner,