Hi I've found a place that will wrap the roof of my Prius in gloss black for a pretty good price... I've heard red cars fade quickly, and will wrapping just the roof cause noticeable differences in the fading patterns as the roof wont be exposed to light? I dont want to peel it off when it comes to selling the car and have a dark red roof and the rest a slightly lighter tone Am i just being paranoid?
No your not. If you do cover the roof for any considerable time, the paint under the coating will get much less elements abuse. The rest of the car, being exposed to the elements will fade. Even with all the nice UV resistant stuff in the paint, it's not 100% effective! So in short ... Color change, YES!!!
Don't do it. You will regret it. It costs money to put on, costs money to take off (this does not last long, few years at best) and messes up the paint. Try some other tasteful mods that enhance the car's look AND function.
Okay, i asked the company about it, and obviously it's in their interest to say it has no negative effect, but they did say something interesting worth considering. Basically they said as the vinyl covers the paint and takes the most of the UV light, they think that over time the covered (and protected) area will suffer less fade than the rest of the car. This depends on how much the car is in the sun during its life. They (obviously) think the wrap on your roof will do more good than bad, as a roof is very prone to fading (being completely horizontal). When/if the wrap does get removed, they are sure the red will still be quite vibrant. I can see their point? my car is parked in the sun from 9am-3pm each work day, yet it covered at most other times. I recently de-badged it and noticed no difference in red between the area exposed to the sun for 3 years and the area not, yet i plan on selling the car my the end of next year, so possibly it might not have enough time to truly fade? Im really at two minds about this...
Let's say all of a car is wrapped.At some time in the future, would it cost more : * to remove the wrap and presumably reveal near pristine paint, or * to have the whole car repainted with no need/complications to match old and new paint? Would you get the same result if only part of the car were wrapped, the roof being a case in point?
I'm a bit reluctant to paint the roof black as it may affect the car's resale value and it would cost far more to paint the roof?
Unless you live on the equator, the sun won't be directly overhead. Angled sections could well get more sun than the roof. While the difference between dark red and black is only a few percent, I still wouldn't do anything to make my car roof absorb more sun in the middle of the day. :target:
