Service & Repairs
Most cars in Chicago spend the winter under a coating of road salt, then sit in full summer sun on a side street. Vinyl adds new color or graphics over the factory paint and can be removed later if you want the original finish back.
Our team takes on car wrapping in Chicago for personal cars, enclosed trailers, and small business vehicles. We design, print, and install each wrap ourselves, from the first sketch to the last panel.
A full wrap changes the color of every painted panel, while a partial wrap covers selected areas like the roof, hood, or mirrors. We install custom car wraps in Chicago on sedans, sports and performance cars, coupes, convertibles, pickup trucks, SUVs, and crossovers.
Films come in gloss, matte, satin, and specialty finishes. Your sedan might turn satin black, or your truck might get a matte hood with two stripes down the center. Some owners want only a subtle change, like a gloss black roof and mirror caps. Others want the whole car covered, with custom accents on top.
The flat sides of an enclosed trailer give a designer more room than any car. Riders who haul dirt bikes or ATVs, racing teams, and businesses with service trailers all put graphics on them. For your trailer, we print and apply:
Your company truck, parked outside a job site, shows your name to everyone who passes. Small business owners ask us about vehicle wrapping in Chicago for company cars and SUVs, pickup and work trucks, service and delivery vehicles, and enclosed business trailers. We apply full or partial commercial wraps, logos and lettering, and advertising graphics. The design follows your existing branding, or we develop one with you.
Illinois law limits what can go on the glass, and we follow it on every van and truck we letter. Nothing may cover the windshield except a nonreflective tint strip along the top 6 inches. Perforated film is allowed on the windows behind the driver, which covers the rear side windows and the back glass. That film is only legal when the front side windows carry no film, and the vehicle has a mirror on each side.
You might worry that you need finished artwork before you call a wrap shop. A logo on a business card or a photo of a color you saw on another car is enough to start. From there, we work through four steps with you:
Wrap films such as the 3M 2080 series go on between 60°F and 90°F, well above a January afternoon in Chicago. We complete every car wrap installation in Chicago inside our shop on Northwest Highway, away from snow, salt, and wind.
The cost of wrapping your car depends on its size, the areas you want covered, the film finish, and the condition of the existing paint. A roof or hood wrap generally requires less material and installation work than a full color change. Complex curves, trim pieces, and custom graphics can also affect the estimate.
We check the paint before quoting the job, point out any panels that need repair or extra preparation, and give you a timeline along with the estimate.
3M’s care guide for its 2080 film says to wait at least 72 hours after installation for the first wash. In winter, a touchless car wash is the safer choice, since brush washes can dull or scratch the film and lift its edges. Washing by hand with a mild soap and a soft cloth removes salt from the lower body between those visits.
Wax depends on the finish, and 3M names a few wax products for gloss films but none for matte ones. The guide also suggests testing any cleaner or wax on a small, hidden spot first.
With that care, 3M backs its 2080 film with a warranty of up to eight years on doors and other vertical panels. Hoods, roofs, and trunk lids face the sun more directly, so their coverage is shorter, at three years at most. The exact terms also depend on the climate zone where the car is driven.
On a gray winter afternoon, a newly wrapped car pulls out of the bay in satin red, the brightest color on the block. EPM Motorsports is an automotive and powersports shop where our team works on motorcycles, ATVs, cars, and race trailers from all over Chicagoland. A wrap gives us one more way to make each of those vehicles feel like yours.
Your free, personalized estimate starts with a couple of photos of your vehicle plus a short description of your idea. Write to epm@epmmotorsports.com, call (773) 207-3730, or leave a message on our contact form. To talk about the design in person, stop by the shop at 5590 N Northwest Hwy.
