Covering your van in a vinyl wrap that broadcasts a message about your business and the products and services it provides has a number of key advantages say leading signwriters.

If your corporate colour is say, deep purple or mint green, then you can buy a white van and have it smothered in the tone of your choice. It will be a lot easier to sell in a few years time when the vinyl is removed than a factory-sprayed purple or green one will.

Vinyl also protects your paint. When it’s peeled off the colour underneath should be as fresh as it was when the vinyl was first applied several years previously; good news for used values.

Wrapping a van typically takes a day to a day-and-a-half says Luca Cabano. He runs Redhill, Surrey-based Boss Dog , one of the South East’s leading light commercial signwriters.

Wrapping requires the use of what is known as cast vinyl, which will remain in all the groves and recesses typically found on a van’s body once it has been put on. Use calended vinyl, which constantly tries to pull itself back into its original shape, and you’ll find that it will shrink away from them.

Heat Helps

“Don’t forget that once a wrap has been applied it has to be heated to ensure that it conforms to the vehicle’s shape,” Cabano says. “A lot of people who claim to be able to wrap vans properly don’t realise that this is the case.

“You can of course print full colour photographs onto vinyl,” he continues. You could, for example, decorate your vehicle with pictures of kitchens if you’re a kitchen fitter or tasty crusty bread if you happen to be a baker, along with your name and contact details. Opt for white vinyl and you can have colours printed on it that fade into one another.

Properly-executed, a wrap should be more than capable of withstanding the whirling brushes of a forecourt vehicle wash or a cleaner with a bucket and a sponge. Be careful about pointing a pressure washer at it, however, warns Gary Stanley, marketing administrator at Eastleigh, Hants based Stewart Signs. Under some circumstances it could cause the vinyl to lift; especially if the pressure has been turned up to the absolute maximum. Stewart employs vinyl fitting teams that operate nationwide.

If you’re worried about the vinyl and the images on it fading over the years, then have the wrap laminated when it’s first put on, he advises. That should protect it. Laminating also means that the vinyl will be at less risk of being scratched as well as giving it an eye-catching sheen.

Partial Wrap

Vans can always be partially wrapped, a route chosen by shop-fitters O’Sullivans, which runs 100 of them. It’s had a partial wrap developed by the Cambridge centre of nationwide vehicle graphics specialist Signs Express.

The design has been formatted to fit the different shapes and sizes of the vans O’Sullivans runs. They include Volkswagen Caddys, Caddy Maxis and Transporters, and Mercedes-Benz Sprinters.

Based in Norwich, Signs Express has around 80 centres across the UK and the Republic of Ireland. Its centres have faced some interesting challenges over the years, not the least of them being applying vinyl to a Citroen H-van from the early nineteen-fifties. Its cargo body has a corrugated surface. The van is owned by Pebblebed Vineyards of Topsham in Devon and the work was carried out by Signs Express’s Exeter outlet.

Simple Approach

Not everybody wants or can afford vinyl wrapping, however. Many firms want something simpler, but nonetheless effective; and again signwriters can help through the dextrous use of computer-cut adhesive vinyl. Available in a vast range of colours, it can be used for lettering in a bewildering variety of styles and to depict your firm’s logo.

“What we do is ask the customer to send us the details of their van — make, model and so on — together with their logo if they have one plus details of whatever else they want applied to the bodywork,” says Cabano. “We also try to find out if they want a subtle treatment or something bold.”

“We’ve got a disc that holds the outlines of all the vans seen in the UK today,” he continues. “We use that plus the information we’ve received and email the chosen design to the client drawn on the vehicle to scale. They come back with any amendments and once the design has been finalised we agree on a date for it to be applied.”

Vinyl Grades