Pimping Project: Car Graphics Wrapping

Altapac do vinyl signage for all sorts of vehicles. Usually it's for professional purposes. They've gone one step further though by bring in this huge Roland printer and training their guys in the application of what you and I see as a BIG sticker.



For the layman this expensive piece of equipment is by all accounts just a really large inkjet printer. The printing process can take anywhere between 45 minutes to an hour or more, depending on how big the sheet is that's needed.

As you can imagine the Mighty Boy didn't need too large of a sheet, but it still looked the size of a double bed sheet when it was hanging up to dry.

And speaking of drying time, they have to left to dry for 3 days before it can be applied.

Here's the five sheets hanging up to dry.



I saw the work they had done on a couple of Tritons for Big M and it looked absolutely fantastic. Unfortunately we didn't have the size and shape to really go to town with the artwork, but even looking at the artwork printed out you know it's going to attract some major attention once it's on and cruising the streets.

This stuff is amazing...

I've experienced vinyl before, in relation to car signage that is, and one of the biggest hassles with applying it is the bubbles and pockets of air that get caught between the vinyl and the surface of the vehicle.

If you check out the accompanying image you'll notice the honeycomb pattern. This actually helps with squeezing out the bubbles of air.

First they had to nudify the body of the vehicle. Take off all the extra bits. Back bumper, side mirrors, window wipers, all that and more: off.

As heart breaking as it was to cover over that immaculate paintjob we knew the Wow Factor was going to be upped by at least 500%.

They positioned the bonnet sticker into place and used some masking tape to mark out where it would sit once they peeled off the back.

It was a slow going process, akin to watching someone get massaged. Terry and Nathan's hands touched every inch of the body, several times at least.

Heat helps mould the vinyl into shape on some of the trickier bits. Occasionally they'd have to pull it off a bit. Heat again is applied to the vinyl and the vinyl goes from being wrinkled back to what it was as if it was never stretched or creased.

Deft skilful hands also wielded a scalpel to cut inside and outside of shapes.

The excitement mounted as they got closer to the finish line, mind you these photos were taken on day two of the Altapac stage. Right at the end of day two. In fact barely hours before we had to take the car to the launch of The Shoot Out competition.

After the bits and pieces were screwed back on it was looking like a hot date waiting for good time.




While the work was being done Tim did the window tinting (it's a fantastic looking blue colour that goes from a lighter tint to a darker tint like a gradient). Nathan and Terry spent the most time on the vinyl application. Steve and Todd were also involved and of course special thanks to Stephen for his time, talent and team in being a part of the Pimp My Mighty Boy project.