Signwave Penrith has wrapped a 179kg solar car for a 3000km race from Darwin to Adelaide in the ‘most unusual job’ it has ever done.
Owner David Amor says the wrap for a Western Sydney University project was a complicated job on a tight turnaround.
“It was less than two weeks from the first brief because the launch was scheduled for mid-September and a little over a week later they were scheduled to travel to Darwin,” he says.
“Once we arranged the artwork and created the print file, the shell of Unlimited was brought to the centre and they applied the wrap, which had to cover the lower part and underside of the car – most of the flat top side was covered with 391 solar cells.
“The student-led, non-profit green initiative is about to compete in the world’s biggest solar endurance race and needed its solar-powered, sustainably-engineered, catamaran-shaped vehicle christened.”
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Amor says this job required an even greater degree of care and planning than most vehicle wraps as the shell is made from carbon fibre.
“For vehicle wraps we need to heat the vinyl so that it forms a memory that will allow us to work with complex curves. However, in this case we had to be careful not to overheat the vinyl to avoid delamination of the carbon fibre,” he says.
Amor says because the Unlimited will be periodically displayed on its side, the underside – featuring an Aboriginal design – will be viewed by many.
“Unusually we had to turn the car upside down to complete the job – it is fairly rare to be asked to wrap the underside of a car,” he says.
“The wheels are almost entirely enclosed and the catamaran shape added to the intricacy of the application. Also the cockpit was quite challenging because it has extremely complex curves.”
Signwave Penrith also wrapped the trailer that will transport the car alone with magnetics for the support vehicles.
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