Frequently asked questions

All questions

What is the difference between the fleet side of the business and the trade side?

The fleet side installs wraps and graphics on a vehicle someone else owns, from measurement through the finished install, in the Charlotte bay. The trade side sells the printed material itself, panels, rolls, stickers, cut lettering, and design or template work, to a shop, sign company, or contractor that installs its own jobs. Pricing, lead times, and most of the FAQs differ between the two, because the two buyers need different things from the same production line.

Does the trade side of the business install what it prints, or is it print only?

Print only by default, unless an order states otherwise. A trade order arrives as finished material, a set of panels, a roll, a sheet of cut lettering, and installing it is the buyer's own labor. We stand behind the print itself: color, registration, and how the material is packed and labeled. Installation on a trade order is not something we do, or inspect, afterward.

What does artwork have to look like before it can be sent in for a trade print run?

Vector work as PDF/X with fonts outlined, and raster photography built to the size it will actually print at rather than resized up afterward, with bleed carried on every edge and any cut path isolated on its own layer. A file missing any of those four things gets caught at preflight, before it ever reaches a press, rather than printed and left to fail on the panel.

Do trade orders ship, or does everything have to be picked up in Charlotte?

They ship anywhere in the country, by carrier as well as by local drop-off, and a buyer can still stand at the counter for a small order. Which of those applies is agreed when the order goes in rather than assumed at the end. A large panel set does not travel the way a single sheet of cut lettering does, so each order is boxed for the trip it is taking, not for a generic one.

What else comes off the press besides wrap panels?

Anything printed on vinyl runs on the same wide-format line a wrap panel does. Stickers and decal sheets, die-cut shapes, cut lettering, window graphics, and film sold by the roll printed or blank all come off it, and every one of them is orderable by itself, with no vehicle job attached to it. A small sticker run and a set of box-truck panels are the same production line, sized differently.

Can anything be done for a personal vehicle?

Design and print, yes. Install, no. Installation here is commercial and fleet work, so a personal vehicle does not get booked into the bay. What can be produced for one is the artwork and the printed film itself, ordered the way a shop orders material and fitted by whoever the owner chooses. It leaves the building as a print order rather than as an install booking, and we do not inspect the fit afterward.

Where does the work actually get done?

In the bay in Charlotte. A fleet vehicle comes to us and stays there for the length of the job, because film needs an indoor space held at temperature to bond correctly rather than a lot, a driveway, or a loading dock. Trade orders are produced in the same building and go out by counter pickup, local delivery, or shipping.

Is design included, or does a job need artwork that already arrives print-ready?

Either. On the fleet side, we build a layout from a starting brand, or carry approved artwork straight through to print without billing a separate design step on top of it. Trade buyers can also order design and template work on its own, worked from photographs and measurements where no usable vehicle template already exists.

What does a wrap or a trade order cost?

There is no set price list on either side of the business. Cost on the fleet side depends on the vehicle, the coverage chosen, and the condition of the panels underneath it; cost on the trade side depends on the size of the run, the film, and how much design work it needs. We quote every job once the specifics are known, rather than estimate from a generic starting figure.

How should a wrapped vehicle be washed and where should it be parked?

By hand, without an automatic brush, and with a pressure washer kept well back from every edge. Parking matters almost as much as washing: a vehicle left under the same tree every day weathers unevenly, because the shaded flank ages slower in the sun than the side that sits exposed to it, and that difference shows up well before either side is actually failing.

Which cities can a vehicle be wrapped in, and how far do printed orders travel?

Installing is local and stays local, because the vehicle has to reach the bay: Charlotte, Concord, Huntersville, Matthews, Monroe, Indian Trail, Mooresville, and Pineville in North Carolina, and Fort Mill, South Carolina, just across the state line. Printed material carries no such limit. A trade order ships anywhere in the country, so a sign shop three states away buys the same panels, stickers and cut lettering as one down the road and fits the work itself. The two halves of the business have different maps, and that is the reason.