Last week our very own wrap installer and graphic designer (or as he likes to be called, "the wrap master") Rich Novia decided to wrap his own 2008 GMC Sierra himself.

For Rich, the truck wrap felt like the natural thing to do! Not only is it what he does for a living, but he's been interested in customizing cars since he was a kid. When he was younger he painted every car he owned himself and would often help his friends paint their cars. Of course, that was before his wrapping days. He is so over paint now. He said it really was a "no brainer," that he would wrap his own truck. 

Still in progress, Rich and Mike look at the details of the wrap.

Although he was initially looking at different shades of matte gray for the wrap, Rich ultimately chose a matte military green color we had in the shop—the 3M 1080 OD Green, to be specific. He wrapped the truck himself on his own time over the weekend. Because he normally works with at least one other person, he said it was challenging to wrap his large truck by himself. The roof in particular was difficult to wrap because it was a chillier day which meant that the vinyl was more brittle and more prone to tearing and breaking. He also couldn't disassemble his truck as much as he normally would for a full-coverage designer wrap because it's the vehicle he uses every day to get back and forth from work. Normally, when our wrap installers install a full-coverage wrap, they take apart some of the hardware so they can get vinyl down into the seams really well and completely cover the vehicle's paint job. But, since he needed to be able to drive it he couldn't pull it apart so getting the detailed areas of the truck wrap was more difficult than it normally would have been. He was able to do it, though!

The finished truck. Looks great!

As a sort of finishing touch, Rich designed a really subtle skull graphic for the front of his truck. I bet you didn't think there could be such a thing as a subtle skull graphic, but there is! He designed it in Adobe Illustrator and then plotted it on vinyl. The skull is modeled after the skull design for The Punisher comic books and the skull design for Chevy Corvette ZR1. He placed the cut vinyl shape of the skull on the hood of the truck before he wrapped it so it created an embossed look.

Rich's skull graphic up close and personal.

To finish off the details, he blacked out his grill using Plasti Dip, a product that evenly coats a surface in a black plastic finish. 

So, what do you think? Would you get a wrap like this? What graphic would you get put on the hood of your vehicle? Leave a comment below!