Jeepin’ Bubba here from Black Bear Off-Road. So – you ever have one of those project cars that – besides the paint – is pretty much exactly how you want it? Then you decide to get a paint quote and it’s either 10K from a credible shop… or you’re stuck with a Maaco special. Now more than ever, people are turning to wraps over paint… so it’s gotta be cheaper right? Well… not by much actually.
I was quoted $5,000 to wrap this old Jeep Comanche…
And honestly I figured: How hard could it be? The materials were only $750… so I rolled the dice! I bought 3M material in High Gloss Mantis Green. But I quickly learned if you’re going to wrap a vehicle, you better recruit some help. I asked my neighbor, John Grobe (aka Captain John) if he wanted in. John’s a licensed boat captain with a nice shop in his backyard & a wealth of knowledge across all kinds of vehicles… “a real car guy” (IYKYK lol).
But here’s what I never considered about wrapping a car…
When you wrap a car, it initiates a real domino effect. 1) You need to get all the dings & dents out first – or you’re gonna see everything behind that slick new wrap. In this case, it’s an old Jeep – meaning – dings & dents were everywhere. 2) Another thing: If the paint is flaking, you’re gonna need to address that. There’s a lot of pulling & repositioning the wrap during installation… and you can’t have paint coming off mid-process. The Captain and I spent a month sanding on Project Ranger Bob (off-hours) before we were happy with it. Captain John worked some magic with bondo & body hammers, and got those old rear quarters looking good again. But the was a third obstacle: 3) We had to address the door jams. We decided to use a satin black spray paint. And honestly, it made a huge difference.
When the day finally came to wrap the old Jeep Comanche…
It was both easier AND harder than I thought it’d be. The big flat areas go smooth. But anywhere you come to a bend or a corner… it gets tricky. If you’re DIYing this, you better have a heat gun, a good razor knife, and your patience-pants on. Captain John would lay-out the big pieces on his garage floor, take measurements, and then cut the sections out. My top tip: Order more material than you think you’ll need. In all, I think we had over 100 man hours in this job. But the nice part is – we get bragging rights. We can say we did every part of the build ourselves. Including body filler, sandpaper, and wrap material, we were $1000 in… so that was a huge financial gain on this Jeep Comanche project.
Material: 3m High Gloss Mantis Green
The downside to wrapping a vehicle yourself…
Time. If you don’t have much of it, you may want to take it to the pros. Also – this vehicle wrap is not exactly perfect. It looks awesome to the casual eye. But yeah – get up close – and there are some bubbles, creases and wrinkles in a few places. Overall though, I love how it came out. Plus – I learned something new, & bonded with my neighbor over bondo. And when it goes to SEMA, I can take pride in knowing I didn’t outsource any part of the build. But the question remains: Should you wrap your own vehicle? Probably not haha… but do it anyways.
Jeepin Bubba (left)
