There are three ways to end up with a Bronco in a color Ford does not sell on the standard order sheet. They cost very different amounts, they last very different lengths of time, and the reason for that difference is chemistry rather than craftsmanship.
| Option | Cost | Lasts | Time |
| Ford Desert Rising package | $13,695 | Permanent | Order and wait |
| Vinyl wrap (truck or SUV) | $4,000 to $8,000 | 5 to 7 years | 3 to 5 days |
| Color-change paint | $4,000 to $15,000 | 10 to 15 years | 7 to 14 days |
The factory package
Ford announced the Bronco Desert Rising Edition as the first entry in a new range called the Horizon Series. The inspiration is genuine and rather good.
Utah’s Great Salt Lake turns an almost neon pink in high summer. The cause is biological. As water levels drop, salinity climbs past the point where most life can cope, and the organisms that remain are halophilic archaea and salt-tolerant algae. Those organisms produce carotenoid pigments, the same family of compounds that make carrots orange and flamingos pink, and they use them to absorb sunlight and shield their cells from it. Concentrate enough of them in a shrinking body of water and the lake changes color. The nearby Coral Pink Sand Dunes carry a similar saturation from iron oxide in the eroded sandstone.
The package costs $13,695 and is ordered on the Outer Banks trim through Ford’s Custom Garage. It adds pink and magenta decals across the exterior, pink treatment on the Bronco lettering and part of the grille, and magenta interior seating surfaces.
What it does not add is pink paint. The package is available on four exterior colors, and those are Oxford White, Shadow Black, Avalanche Gray, and Ruby Red.
So the pink Bronco Ford will sell you is a white, black, grey or red truck wearing pink graphics. The execution looks sharp and the limited-edition status is real, but it is a decal package on a standard color at nearly fourteen thousand dollars. If you assumed you were ordering a pink vehicle, order it knowing what arrives.
Wrapping
A full color-change wrap runs $2,500 to $7,000 on most vehicles, with trucks and SUVs landing around $4,000 to $8,000. Chrome, satin and color-shift films push past $10,000. A professional wrap takes three to five days and lasts five to seven years with hand washing and garage parking.
The five to seven year figure is not arbitrary. Cast vinyl films are plasticized, meaning small molecules are blended into the polymer to keep it flexible enough to conform to curves. Those plasticizers migrate out over time, accelerated by heat and ultraviolet light, and the film gradually stiffens, shrinks and loses its grip on the panel edges. Florida sun does this faster than Michigan sun. That is also why removal gets harder the longer you wait, since brittle film tears into small pieces instead of pulling away in sheets and leaves adhesive that takes hours to clean.
The number that catches people out is door jambs. A standard wrap stops at the outer edge of the door, so the original color is sitting right there every time someone gets in. The jambs run another $500 to $1,500 and require partial door disassembly. On a subtle color change you can skip it. On white to pink you cannot, and a truck that skipped it looks unfinished forever.
Budget for the rest of the ownership too. Vinyl-specific ceramic coating costs $400 to $900 and slows the plasticizer loss. Removal later runs $500 to $1,000. Upkeep runs around $150 a year.
The real product with a wrap is reversibility. The factory paint sits untouched underneath, which protects resale and means you can change your mind.
Painting
A quality color-change respray runs $4,000 to $15,000. Color changes cost 30 to 60 percent more than a same-color respray, because the shop has to cover door jambs, engine bay edges, trunk edges and the fuel filler area so the original color never shows through. Expect seven to fourteen days, and ten to fifteen years of life from good work.
Paint outlasts vinyl because the protective layer is a different kind of material. A modern basecoat and clearcoat system cures into a cross-linked polymer network, which means the molecules are chemically bonded to each other rather than simply mixed together. Nothing needs to migrate out to keep it flexible, and the clear layer carries ultraviolet absorbers that take the damage instead of the color underneath.
Avoid the bottom of the market entirely. A $500 to $1,000 respray uses single-stage paint with no clear coat, sands inadequately, and tapes over trim rather than removing it. With no sacrificial clear layer, ultraviolet exposure attacks the pigment directly, which is why that work fades or peels within two to five years. You pay twice for the same job.
Paint is the right answer when this is the color the truck keeps, when you are holding it for a decade, and when you want the depth that clear-coated paint has and vinyl does not quite reach.
Which one for a custom build
Paint, in almost every case, and the reason is timing rather than preference.
A truck going to a shop for suspension, wheels and interior work is already coming apart. Jambs, edges and the engine bay are far cheaper to cover when the panels are off anyway, which removes the main cost penalty that makes a color change expensive on an assembled vehicle.
Someone commissioning a full build is also not planning to change the color in three years, which removes the main argument for wrapping. The reversibility you are paying for with vinyl is worth very little on a truck that has already been permanently modified in a dozen other ways.
What to check on a finished truck
If you are buying something already built rather than commissioning it, four questions settle most of it. Was it painted or wrapped. Were the door jambs done. What paint system was used, and is there a clear coat over it. How long ago was the work completed.
Then open a door before agreeing to anything. Jambs are where corner-cutting shows up first, and they are the fastest way to tell a proper color change from a cheap one. Check the edges around the fuel filler and the underside of the hood while you are there.
Paint handled inside the build beats paint handled afterward, for the timing reason above. FL Auto Sales Group, a Tampa builder, produces custom Ford Broncos in colors Ford does not offer, pink among them, and ships nationwide through carriers who handle specialty vehicles, which matters if the truck you want is not in your state. Ask any builder whether the color work happened during the build or after it. The answer usually explains the price.
The color is the part everyone photographs. It is also the part where the difference between eight thousand dollars and eighty thousand miles of sun exposure shows up first.
from Auto Blog | Latest Car News and Reviews, Trucks, Bikes, and Motorcycles https://ift.tt/897LKHP
No comments:
Post a Comment