A wrap idea

[Ewan]

The dark green gelcoat on my 1993 SEiGHT is beginning to show its age, with a few areas of crazing, scratches, etc. I’m loathed to paint the car, but getting a good colour match with gelcoat repairs I suspect will be next to impossible.

So the obvious other option is a wrap. (Which can be taken off in the future if required, with very little chance of any damage to the existing gelcoat.)

 

I could go dark green, and keep it looking original. But that seems a little bit of a waste of the opportunity. I’d like to do something more fun.

 

I’ve been thinking of race liveries. There’s a lovely Gulf car locally, but I’d feel a fraud copying that. Can’t do Martini as I’m not so keen on the main body of the car being white. And liveries that split the car in two horizontally, such as Gold Leaf or Rothmans do not suit my car which has the butterfly wings.

 

Hence at the top of the idea leader board currently is JPS. Wrap the car in gloss black, then add the gold coachlines, wording, logo’s etc.

Given the age of my car, and the wings, I’d rather go with more period/classic look, than something too modern.

 

Has anyone got any other ideas? Would love to hear other suggestions or see pictures.

[Ewan]

My bonnet has a lot of grills/ducts, so not much room for a logo there. Maybe a stripe or two, but that’s about it.
 

[Captain Colonial]

If you do JPS, be aware that you will have an overwhelming desire to either get your existing wheels refinished to gold or get new gold wheels, so factor that cost into things.

[mega ade]

Paint matching is incredibly accurate these days if your existing paint is scanned then that's exactly what your get i can understand you wanting to wrap there's a gulf wrapped car that I keep seeing at mk open days even has mud on the print looks awesome it's done really well seems a popular wrap unless it's the same car.

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman)]

Just generally with wraps, it very much depends on your expectations, quality of finish wise. If just looking for a race car finish standard, or "10 yard" finish, where you can't see all the imperfections, then as long as there are no raised sharp edges, you can just go over the top of moderate condition bodywork. But if you're wanting it to look good when stood next to it, surface prep is everything - it basically needs to be almost as flawless as it would be for a paint job, so sanded and filled where necessary etc. Thus if you removed it, it would either need re-wrapping or painting.

Not sure how the JPS scheme would go with flared arches, as they would cut through the gold pin stripes on the side of the car? It can look great on a Westfield though!

[Rhett Turner - Black Country AO]

to keep some green in the mix there is the 7UP or Falken Tyres liveries. 

[Ewan]

2 hours ago, Captain Colonial said:

If you do JPS, be aware that you will have an overwhelming desire to either get your existing wheels refinished to gold or get new gold wheels, so factor that cost into things.

Yes - I am planning to re-paint the wheels, if/as necessary, depending on the final design choice.

[Ewan]

1 hour ago, mega ade said:

Paint matching is incredibly accurate these days if your existing paint is scanned then that's exactly what your get i can understand you wanting to wrap there's a gulf wrapped car that I keep seeing at mk open days even has mud on the print looks awesome it's done really well seems a popular wrap unless it's the same car.

I don't have any paint. Just the original green gelcoat. So matching is much harder.

I work in the yacht coating industry and have had a couple of gelcoat repair specialists look, and they both said it would be a very tricky match.

 

Painting the car would be an easy option, but then the original gelcoat would be lost forever.

 

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman)]

1 hour ago, mega ade said:

Paint matching is incredibly accurate these days

 

Very true, though just keep in mind that paint and gel coat do reflect light differently, so some colours don't math quite as well under all lighting. (My Electric Blue looks radically different under electric light compared to daylight, and under daylight, a bright, intense, high summer sun, looks completely different to a weaker winter sun. (Even where colour temps should be similar).

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman)]

1 minute ago, Ewan said:

had a couple of gelcoat repair specialists look, and they both said it would be a very tricky match.

 

It is, even Westfield gave up on offering their old green in the colour matching service they had. From memory, the chemicals used in the pigments for the old greens have been banned from use for years now, amd without them, you can never get a true match.

[Ewan]

I may now have to rethink this project. Having decided on a JPS inspired theme of a gloss black car with gold (well, copper) decals, I had a possible design drawn up. But the cost has come in at approximately £3400 inc. Vat - which is too much for a project being done just for a bit of fun. Perhaps naively, and based on nothing in particular, I had thought it might have been around half that, given the diminutive size of the vehicle. Oh well.

 

So, plan B, look at having it painted, and probably stick to a gloss dark green.

 

Anyone have a ball-park idea of the cost to paint a Westy?

[kenton]

How about replacing all the bodywork? 

I went from the original blue to black with carbon highlights. Obviously you would loose the period look.

Kenton

[dvd8n]

Maybe I'm in the minority here but I think it looks brilliant in that green with the classic body.  Are you sure that it couldn't be improved with a gentle cut and polish and just embrace the dings as part of the history?

[Mark19691]

@Ewanas an alternate to a full wrap, how about staying on the Lotus F1 theme but go with the Martin livery the team used on the 79 cars. 

using the livery as a base so you can strategically place stripes/decals over the blemishes in the gellcoat. Also takes the eye away from any nasty areas.

 

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman)]

3 hours ago, Ewan said:

Anyone have a ball-park idea of the cost to paint a Westy?

Unless you rent a booth and do it yourself, not cheap.

 

Even doing all the prep work themselves, the last time I saw someone quote a price on here, it was over £2k, possibly nearer £2.4k, I can’t remember.

 

I know when I’ve asked paint places about doing the complete job in more recent times, low end has been £3k, high end, over £5k; but I soon realised they were talking show car finishes. Needless to say I passed. (Materials alone, with primer, base, clear coat on the first quote were the best part of a grand.)

 

if you know someone in the trade, shop around etc, I’m sure you could get cheaper, and as I say, doing the initial strip, clean, fill and sand yourself, would help.

 

Also, just for clarity, the quotes I got were from decent road car finishes (apart from the one that wanted to do show car stuff). If you opt for someone that will do a “race car” finish, ie looks good from a distance, not so much up close, then obviously it’s much cheaper.

 

The other option is to have a go completely yourself. @corsechris achieved amazing results with ingenuity at home on his amazing Midlana.