Man, I’m surprised anti-wrap there is in here. Done properly I’m a fan, but it depends on the reasons.
If you’re doing it because you just want a color change or something fun and don’t mind the $1-2k, then yea, it’s great. Anyone doing it and thinking it is a replacement to paint does not understand it’s purpose. But anyone thinking a decent paint job can be had for under $5k is also not thinking straight either.
Me personally,I’d rather have a factory paint job with factory paint on an Audi that is dinged and nicked up any day over some indy shop doing a replacement paint color. You can often fill in small nicks on a factory paint and buff out a lot more. An aftermarket paint job usually cuts corners, and often can even raise further suspicion (was there body damage, rust issues, how bad was the car really treated, etc).
I’m actually planning on wrapping my Porsche (and maybe even my jeep for fun). I’m probably going to do a bulk of it myself and then have a friend who does it professionally do the rest. It is VERY common now adays for high-end cars to to have the full body wrapped in clear wraps. That is probably 75% of his business. He just got done wrapping a custom build on an original RSR porsche that the paint job alone was $60k+. But mostly it’s guys who get a new $100k+ car and have him do a full detail and then wrap it in the clear wrap. The biggest thing most people don’t realize is how much better the wraps have gotten from 5 years ago, and even 2-3 years ago to today.
Also, you need to remember there is a big difference between a honda or B5 kid buying cheap wrap with no experience and slapping it on himself, vs a professional shop using a high quality material and has done it for many years.
I had a clear bra put on my Audi when I got it, and 3 years later it did look pretty shitty, but after I pulled it off and buffed it, there was virtually no difference and thankfully no damage to the front end for what otherwise would have been a peppering of rock chips etc.
Last year at SOWO, there was a fellow Porsche guy who had his 996tt wrapped and I swear, from 1ft away, you could barely tell it was a wrap job. And I was with several other car enthusiasts (heck, one of them is a even founder of stanceworks) and we were all impressed by it.
I do agree with Saki though in the regard that most people would be / are going to be very suspicious of a wrapped car when it comes time to sell it. But I would just plan on the removing the wrap when it comes time to sell it. You also could have professional photos taken before wrapping it just for documentation sake, but people are still going to be suspicious unless it’s in the right market.
Anyhow, sorry for the long rant, but for me, I’m a fan given the right circumstances.
For your given situation though, if a good shop feels they can match/blend the paint for the damaged panels to be re-done without having to paint the whole car, then I would do that first and then wrap the car. But I would not consider a wrap being a replacement to paint and I would plan on it being likely that you’ll end up pulling the wrap off before it sells.
If a good shop feels a full paint job is required, I would seriously consider thinking long and hard before re-painting the whole car a different color as far as longevity and resale is concerned.
