Customise Your Car

[RT-Performance]

Here in this thread I'd be showing some of our work and what we do here at RT-Performance.

Fallowing a few enquiries about the A5 I posted in another thread so I thought I'd show a how you all how it started off and what it became when we finished with it.

It was one of the first cars we wrapped in Hexis's matt titanium when it was newly released last year. Since we had quite a few demands of the same colour.

This was how the A5 first started off before the wrap. The car was restored by our selves with some minor body touch ups and the alloys where referbed in gloss black.

All the window chrome trims where wrapped in matt black including the front grills and badges. Sides and rear windows tinted using lumina window tint film by our selves.



Unlike most wrappers, we prefer to remove the lamps, locks and sometimes bumpers and panels for much better results.
Obviously this adds to the man hours for the job but this is what separates us from from amateur wrappers because we fallow official procedures.




Once stripped the entire car is chemically cleaned using a 3 stage process to remove dirt, degrease and final clean.
Only then in a contrilled stable enviroment can we apply the vinyl to ensure minimal contamination.

[RT-Performance]

Then we work on the sides


notice that the door handles are off. This is because they're wrapped separately along with the roof antenna

[RT-Performance]

Though it's not totally necessary to remove bumpers, we do undo the fixings to allow us to over wrap the edges rather than wrap to the edge and trim. In many cases we've seen where cars had been done that way, the vinyl tends to retract slightly over time and exposes the original panel.
We go over and tuck in where it's possible.



Starting to look like a brand new shell

[RT-Performance]

When everything is finished, post heated and sealed we leave it to settle in a steady temperature over night before re-assemble.
the result?











Any questions pls feel free to ask.

[RT-Performance]

A5 dont appeal to you? Then how about an R8?
The customer of the R8 saw the A5 and wanted the same thing. His was already wrapped in matt black.


Unfortunately for him it wasn't wrapped by us but from a very reputable known wrapping company and lets just say it wasn't very good.
Poorly trimmed, untucked and unsealed meant that it was rolling back and also a lot of original colour was exposed.
Here where the problems after just 1 year up close:






So we spent an entire day carefully stripping it back which was a very painstakingly slow process.











and here it is naked

[RT-Performance]

so now that we got the car back to its original state, the same process begins.

[RT-Performance]

The sides where to go carbon along with the mirrors





Alloys powder coated in black

[RT-Performance]

the results

[andy]

R8 looks top, big improvement How many hours did that job take then?

[RT-Performance]

Typically to wrap something like a med size car takes about 3-4 days plus we like to have the car to stay for 1 more night to allow the vinyl to settle before exposing it to nature.

[joesnow]

Typically to wrap something like a med size car takes about 3-4 days plus we like to have the car to stay for 1 more night to allow the vinyl to settle before exposing it to nature.

And cost???

The aerial on the a5 and wing mirror on the r8 look excellent. Did the aerial have a join on it?? It looks like the vinyl has been shrunk over the top.

What's the paint like under the vinyl if you ever wanted to remove the wrap??

[MikeFish]

The R8 looks nice! Especially surprised at how good the carbon wrap looks!

[RT-Performance]

Typically to wrap something like a med size car takes about 3-4 days plus we like to have the car to stay for 1 more night to allow the vinyl to settle before exposing it to nature.

And cost???

The aerial on the a5 and wing mirror on the r8 look excellent. Did the aerial have a join on it?? It looks like the vinyl has been shrunk over the top.

What's the paint like under the vinyl if you ever wanted to remove the wrap??

Thanks
Cost are all dependant on exactly what you want done. The A5 job you see costs £1300 inc VAT with Hexis Vinyl inc 5 Year Warranty. This car had many small extra's done which a basic wrap doesn't cover.

The paint work is protected and the vinyl comes off fine if the original paint work initially was not damaged or repaired.
The R8 you saw, although poorly applied, they did use a very good vinyl and the originals body was perfect with no repairs. That came off (not easily) perfectly.

Regarding joins, there where only 1 join which you can't see on both the antenna and wing mirror.
The antenna was 1 piece over the frontal side and the back piece was separate.
Wing mirror main front side was 1 piece but the inside facing the glass is separate.

Now take a look at this A4 cab. Have a guess what colour we wrapped it in?

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The work looks stunning and I do agree with the apporach of "if you gonna do it then do it properly.
the previous wrap on the R8 would have pissed me off every time the bonnet was lifted and seeing the shocking excess just folded in.

My only concern would be things like this:

The panel gap is very big. Understandable if it was still work in progress but if my car came back like that it'd piss me off also.
Not having a dig - just commenting on the picture.

[RT-Performance]

The work looks stunning and I do agree with the apporach of "if you gonna do it then do it properly.
the previous wrap on the R8 would have pissed me off every time the bonnet was lifted and seeing the shocking excess just folded in.

My only concern would be things like this:

The panel gap is very big. Understandable if it was still work in progress but if my car came back like that it'd piss me off also.
Not having a dig - just commenting on the picture.

Thats ok. That was actually how thecar came to us and the customer knows this.
Another spot similar was this:


Only thing we took off was just the front and rear bumper off and which most wrappers wouldn't even bother.


However what we did take off we did put back and amend in some aspects such as the front grills which was loose and head lamps which we evened out.