Does Car Wrap Scratch Easily (And What To Do Against It)

Car wraps add to your vehicle’s aesthetic appeal and give it an eye-catching finish.

It is a cheaper way to switch up your car’s look, offering many color and design options that a paint job can’t do.

While that’s great, it’ll be disappointing if car wraps scratch easily, expose the paint, and ruin the vehicle’s aesthetic.

Quick Answer

As a whole, car wraps are quite susceptible to minor scratches and aren’t fully resistant to them.

Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) is the base of the car wrap application, which holds the wrap to the car and can protect against day-to-day wear and tear; however, that doesn’t help make the wrap scratch-resistant.

But the good thing is that minor scratches can’t compromise the car wrap or ruin the look, and you can easily fix it.

Read through the article for more insights on this and how you can fix minor scratches on your car wrap.

Table Of Contents

Does Car Wrap Scratch Easily?

Car wraps are a good way to upgrade your car’s looks, which you can customize to your taste.

They’re durable and great, but do they scratch, and how does that affect their looks?

Quick Answer

As a general rule, car wrap scratches easily and is vulnerable to day-to-day wear and tear like little scratches; however, these scratches don’t penetrate the material or ruin the car’s paint.

In fact, getting your car wrapped is an effective way of protecting the paint against scratches that can damage the body.

The good thing is that you don’t need to dwell on those minor scratches affecting your car’s aesthetics.

For example, minor scratches don’t affect the car’s paint because they occur on the surface level only.

Since that’s the case, they’re barely noticeable unless you purposely fish them out.

However, they can be noticeable if the car wrap is a gloss-finish vinyl wrap and in a darker color.

Therefore, many minor scratches will be noticeable and can dent the car’s aesthetics, but in most cases, they are negligible.

But thankfully, those scratches can be easily fixed if you can’t bear to see those imperfections on your car.

Can You Get Scratches Out Of Vinyl Wrap?

Car wraps can easily last up to five years without any issues with proper care.

However, things can get out of hand, and you may get scratches on the car wrap.

Visible scratches will make the car less pleasing, but the good thing is you don’t have to completely replace the wrap.

Quick Answer

As a whole, you can get scratches out of vinyl wrap because some have self-healing properties and will remove the scratches using heat, and for the ones without, you can polish the wrap to eliminate the scratches and imperfections.

Scratches on your vinyl wrap don’t deem it unfixable.

The major reason vinyl wraps are susceptible to scratches is that many don’t have protective coatings on them; therefore, it’s something you should consider when wrapping your car.

However, if you already have those scuffs, you can remove the scratches on vinyl wraps with different solutions.

Self-repairing Vinyl Wraps

You can easily remove scratches and scuffs from self-repairing vinyl wraps.

They have self-healing properties that you can activate using heat.

The heat from the sun will eliminate the scratches and restore the car’s look.

Otherwise, you can use a heat gun on the scratched area to repair it.

Polishing

Polishing your vinyl-wrapped car is another way to remove scratches from the vehicle.

Just like polishing works to restore a paint job, the same way it works for vinyl wraps.

Vinyl Patch

Another way to remove scratches and imperfections from a vinyl wrap is by replacing it with a vinyl patch.

You can try this if the scratch is huge and causes the wrap to peel off.

After cleaning the area with soapy water, remove the damaged section from the car, and replace it with a vinyl patch.

You should use a heat gun to adhere the patch to the surface to prevent bubbles or uneven application.

Magic Erasers

You can also use magic erasers to remove scratches from a vinyl wrap.

Use a magic eraser scrubbing pad to buff out the imperfections and wipe down the excess with a damp microfiber cloth.

This solution is effective if the scratch is nothing deep or serious.

Conclusion

Car wraps are susceptible to minor scratches; however, you can reinforce their scratch-resistance capabilities by installing a paint protection film on the wrap, adding a ceramic coating, or by using self-healing vinyl wraps on the car.

Furthermore, you can get out scratches by polishing, healing them with heat, replacing the affected area, or using a magic eraser scrubbing pad.

More importantly, you should protect your car wrap against scratches so it can last long and look aesthetically pleasing.