Frequently Asked Questions

Yes! This is the biggest advantage of vehicle wrap. You can remove it any time you choose, but most manufacturers advise within 5 - 7 years of installation.

The only time you may encounter problems is if the vehicle has had aftermarket paint applied to repair damage. We find occasionally that aftermarket paint repairs do not always bond to the vehicle as well as factory paint, so when you lift the vinyl away, it can pull the lacquer with it, resulting in the need to have that area of the vehicle re painted again.
This is exceedingly rare even if the vehicle has had after market paint, but it can happen.

This is totally up to you. On some vehicles this is very easy, and we automatically include it in the price, on others it’s difficult and time consuming so can increase the cost of the wrap substantially.

On Black and dark grey cars there is normally no need as the door shuts look good no matter what colour you have you car wrapped in, if however for example you have a blue car and you want to wrap it red, then the extra cost would certainly be worth it due to it being such a contrast in colour.

This unfortunately isn’t easy to answer as there is no defined answer.

If you do a Google search you will see many different answers, we found ‘quotes’ from the DVLA website which turned out to be made up and not actually from the DVLA website at all.

We have even rung the DVLA themselves, where we were told Yes, if you have changed the colour of your vehicle you need to amend your V5. However, on another phone call, we were told by a different employee of the DVLA that it’s only necessary to change the V5 if you have permanently changed the colour which of course wrap isn’t, as wrap’s main advantage is it’s a temporary covering.

Our advice? Do what you are comfortable with.

It is easy to demonstrate at any time when required that a wrapped vehicle is a temporary colour change as it could be removed at any point.

We are aware that it is rare for our customers to notify the DVLA of there wrap and to date we have never known there to be an issue.

This is certainly not the case with your insurance company though, so please read on...

Yes. As a colour change wrap is a modification, all insurance companies require you to inform them.

In our experience there is a wide variety of responses from them.

Some do not care; they amend your policy with no extra charge.

Some will amend your policy but add a small charge for the privilege.

Others will refuse insurance and void your policy if you have a wrap.

If you call your insurers and they act as the later, do not worry.

A quick search on one of the comparison sites will quickly and easily find you a different insurer who operates with more sense and logic and realises because you have a wrap on your vehicle, it doesn’t mean you’re now a huge risk to them.

We recommend washing your car yourself or by a dedicated professional who understands your vehicle is wrapped.

We don’t recommend taking it to a hand car wash or an automatic car wash machine, but in most cases, we wouldn’t recommend these when your car isn’t wrapped due to the paint swirl marks and other damage they often inflict.

A jet wash can, and should still be used, but we, as well as most vinyl manufactures recommend you keep the nozzle at least 1 meter away from the edges of the vinyl.

All cars are different and often edges of vinyl wrap will always be facing away from you so a jet wash will pose little risk to them, however occasionally an edge may be facing where you would typically jet wash, so if close enough and powerful enough, there will always be the risk the jet wash can lift an edge of the wrap. In these cases, we would always show you those areas to be wary of on collection day.

Gloss colours can be polished, even machine polished with a soft pad and care. Waxes can also be applied for extra protection.

Satin finishes require little up-keep. Dedicated products are now on the market for satin finished wraps which will keep them looking better for longer, and allow for things like water beading etc.

Ceramic coatings can also be used. There are specific coatings for wrapped vehicles, and we are certified for installation if you wish to speak to us about this. These help keep the vehicle looking cleaner for longer and make them much easier to clean.

Because a wrap vinyl is a soft plastic, they are not as hard wearing as most clear coats on paint. Care should be taken to prevent swirl marks, but these can normally be removed by using a heat gun.

Vinyl wrap will always try to return to it’s natural state when it reaches a certain temperature, so if heat is applied over a light scratch using a heat gun then it will typically disappear immediately, making the wrap look new again.

On our own demo vehicles, we tend to perform this operation every 6 months, this is a basic description of what we do:

We give the car a thorough wash using a jet wash and the 2-bucket method. We then dry the vehicle and take it inside away from sunlight but under our LED’s which show all imperfections.

We then use Autobrite Tonic which is a tar and glue remover and with a soft rag, remove all the tar from the wrap, typically bottom of the doors and the rear or the vehicle.

We then use a heat gun and spend time heating each panel in a systematic way and this allows us to simply watch the swirl marks and light scratches disappear.

We would then apply a hand polish or wax.

Currently all our vehicles are covered with our 3-year ceramic coatings which has been specifically developed for vehicles with wrap and PPF, so we currently have no need for the wax
We then polish glass and treat tyres and the vehicle is ready to go again.

Ideally yes.

On all our colour change wraps we offer a post 2-week inspection.

The reason we do this is for your peace of mind, our peace of mind, and because of the nature of vehicle wrap.

Because wrap is a plastic, it expands and contracts in different temperatures, meaning when your vehicle leaves our nice warm workshop, it may go into a cold and wet environment and the vinyl would naturally contract ever so slightly.

Normally this is no problem and the wraps are designed to do this. However, there is a chance it may cause a small issue somewhere, so for peace of mind, we prefer to inspect the vehicle after a 2-week period.

This would involve us cleaning the vehicle if required, getting it raised on our vehicle lifts and thoroughly inspecting every edge and every inch of the wrap, just to ensure everything has stayed as perfect as it was. This gives us the opportunity on the rare occasion its required to correct anything which is not quite right.

The inspection normally takes around 2 hours to complete so your welcome to wait, although most customers make use of one of our courtesy cars and leave the vehicle with us for the day.

There is no charge for the inspection and no requirement for you to make use of it, it is just something we prefer to do.

Yes and Yes! Please click the tab at the top titled 'Autoshine Extras'.

Yes. We are insured to drive, work on and store vehicles up to an individual value of £500,000.

We also have full employers and public liability insurance.

We do normally require a deposit for colour change wraps which we are afraid is not refundable if you cancel your appointment.

The reason we do this is because a colour change wrap gets entered into our planner for several days.

If your job has been entered into the planner it means we have assigned employees to carry out your installation and quite often rejected other work which we could have done instead. If an appointment is then cancelled, it may result in us paying staff and other costs while not having an income during the time allocated to your vehicle.

Each manufacture of wrap vinyl has their own warranty which you will be able to access, typically these are around 5 years.

However, they all contain a lot of small print which in our experience makes them almost worthless.

Because of this, we also supply our own in-house 12-month warranty on all our wraps. This covers everything except for accidental damage!

Example of how far our warranty goes:

You may find you lift an edge by using a jet wash to close under a wheel arch or similar. Typically, this would not be covered in any warranty, but our warranty will cover this for one panel on one occasion.

This will allow you to have this panel replaced free of charge and then you will also have a better understanding of what your wrap can handle, meaning you can then take action to not lift the edge in the same manner.

The above example would only be valid if there was no damage on that panel.

If there is any damage on a panel, that panel is then excluded from any warranty claim no matter what the claim may be.

After our 12 months warranty expires, if you have a fault then we would always pursue the manufacture’s warranty on your behalf if we believed it was a material failure.