Vanity is a terrible thing, but wanting to be unique is a virtue… whatever the reason I wanted to customise the TVAN so it better matched the Landcruiser and looked less like a big white esky being towed through the outback.
I liked the aesthetic match of the graphite grey Cruiser and Patriot X3 so we decided to get sides of the TVAN covered in a dark grey wrap, giving it protection against scratches and stone chips while providing a custom look. We also added a protective film to the perspex side windows, similar to the clear paint protection film that we have on the Landcruiser.
There is minimal cost difference between a plain colour and a custom graphic wrap so we took the opportunity to add a distinctive appearance to the travelling home of the Travelling Two. We agonised over plenty of designs and settled on something we think is subtle, classy and a little patriotic – the Southern Cross.
The wrap includes a subtle fade from grey at each end to black in the middle, and we added a grungy look to the light grey stars so they weren’t too bold. We’re pretty pleased with how it came out but reckon it will look even better when splashed with some red outback dust and mud 😉
A big shout out to Steve and Jeff at Exclusive Wraps who pulled together seven different design variants before we settled on this one, then doing a great job of applying the final product. Here are a few of the other variants we played with;
For those interested in wrapping your own TVAN, the cost was ~$1,600 including design and the wrap itself, adding PPF to the perspex windows was an additional ~$400. I’ve since been told that 3M S70-Ext is also a great product for protecting the windows so it might be worth doing some homework if you are wanting to protect your windows too.
Great choice on the design, definitely my favourite out of those options you’ve shown. Looks good. Hope you guys are enjoying your travels. Love and hugs to you xxoo
Thanks Ilka
Our travels will be slowing up for a while, due to moving house and the new anti-cancer drug trial that I’m starting since chemo stopped working. Also the weather up here gets too hot to enjoy being out and about, though we see you are still getting some snow on Mt Wellington
Hi Shane just looking at Wrapping the TVan and got a quote of $3100 for the sides and the windows with PPF installed. I see in your blog you have a price of $2000 with PPF is that fitted ( I assume so ). Was not sure if you did it yourself being the handy guy you are 🙂
Hi Steven – I just noticed that I hadn’t replied to your question, perhaps I did on Facebook but here’s the info again just in case I haven’t.
The TVAN wrap was $1,600 fitted, for a satin finished printed wrap – it looks black but its actually a dark grey fade that is meant to match the Landcruiser but doesn’t quite work that way because the car is metallic and the wrap isn’t. It also has the Southern Cross stars printed on it too. There was a bit of work for them to fit the wrap as they had to remove a few items plus a lot of cutting around brackets and latches, etc. I also replaced the side LED lamps with black versions because the standard white ones looked odd on the dark wrap background. I also had paint protect film (PPF) added to the TVAN windows to protect the acrylic window material from scratches, its a similar product to what I have on the Landcruiser and is self healing so scratches disappear when the film gets hot (e.g. in the sun). So $1,850 all up, I rounded it to $2,000 in the blog knowing that different shops could charge a different amount.
I like the look of the dark sides but it does get dirty quicker than the unwrapped TVAN, I think the film gets a slight static charge that holds dust, plus the satin finish holds dirt too. I mainly applied it for scratch protection and to break up the white “esky on wheels” look, which the wrap has done so far.