Marc-andré Riopel an automotive wrap star
Montreal artist puts vinyl touch on vehicles
He may not travel from gig to gig with an entourage trailing along behind him, nor does he wear dozens of gold chains, but Marc-andré Riopel is a true wrap star in the Canadian car scene.
In the car customizing world, a wrapper is a person who applies specialized vinyl films to the exteriors of all types of vehicles. Their tools are a heat gun, squeegees and X-acto blades instead of a microphone.
You may not realize it but you’ve seen thousands of examples of vinyl applications on the road and in retail stores. Those giant images of hamburgers on the sides of 53-foot long tractortrailers? Vinyl. The lettering on a plumber’s truck? Vinyl. The giant images of cosmetics on the walls of your local pharmacy or clothing store? Vinyl. It’s an art medium that is everywhere in the modern world and yet goes unrecognized by most people. In many ways it is overexposed and under-appreciated, even scorned by more traditional artists as an affront to their creative talents with paint and brush.
“I like the nearly unlimited possibilities that computers and Photoshop offer me in the designs,” Riopel explains. “The vinyl wrap film I use is made by 3M and there are many colours and textures available, like carbon fibre and brushed metals. It allows for personalization of a vehicle without being permanent like custom paint.”
The costs can be less than traditional paint jobs but with a shorter lifespan.
“A job that may cost $5,000 to $6,000 could be only $2,000 to $3,000 with a wrap. Having just a hood wrapped will cost about $350,” Riopel says. “That would last three to four years in constant exposure to UV, which is harsh on any finish.”
A custom car that only sees the open road during the summer would naturally last twice as long barring a physical impact. That’s when the vinyl wrap has another advantage over paint. It can easily be replaced where a specialized mix of paint can be both difficult to match and very expensive with highend candy flake paint costing up to $1,400 a gallon.
“3M designed their films so that no glue is left behind after it is removed. There is no damage to the original paint.”
The 35 solid colours on the 3M Series 1080 palette is only the beginning of the possible choices. Then there are the transparent, white and black films that can be printed on with large-format printers that have a width of five feet and a length as long as you want.
Each sheet of film is applied with a slight overlap of 1/8 of an inch and all edges are wrapped underneath the exposed surfaces. This is where Riopel differs from your average vinyl shop.
“I’m known for being the one of the top installers in Canada for good reason,” Riopel says proudly. “It takes more time and extra patience but when you look at this car you will not see any of the original paint showing in the gaps. Lots of shops don’t bother to do this, they just lay the wrap and cut the edges with a blade.”
Riopel’s attention to detail has earned him a good reputation both regionally and on the International scene. He’s done wraps on ex-habs player turned gentleman racer Patrice Brisebois’s Ferrari Challenge car and race cars for other drivers. A 360 Ferrari was shipped up by train from Miami for one of Riopel’s wraps and then shipped back south.
“I’ve done everything from go-karts to race cars to helmets, even speedboats, using my own tricks of the trade.”
Riopel learned these tech- niques on his own. There are no courses available to teach how to wrap cars. After taking a course in tourism that introduced him to the world of computers, a chance meeting while working at a gas station led to his first wrapping job. A friend had a commercial truck that needed lettering and he asked Riopel. “I saw the chance to merge the computer with the art of lettering and thought ‘why not?’ ”
Twenty years later, Riopel has a workshop that can hold up to three trucks at a time and does many jobs on location, completing an average of 700 vehicles each year. Most jobs are still for commercial clients for vehicles, store installations and trade shows, but more and more customers are coming from the custom car scene.
“Traditional painting and vinyl wraps both have their advantages and their limits,” he says. “One does not replace the other. “With the wraps, all the difference is in the installation. The computer work is one service and the installation is another. We’re the only shop to have both to offer our customers.”
And Riopel will be using his creativity on his own personal ride this spring when he completes a customized 1968 Chrysler Newport fourdoor sedan.
Thanks go to Pie IX Chrysler (www.pie9.com) for providing the 2012 Dodge Charger R/T whose hood was wrapped in carbon-fibre film that was supplied by ND Graphics (www.ndgraphics. com). Contact Marc-andré Riopel at 514-992-5101 or marc.a.riopel@live.ca Want your car or story profiled in this space? Send us an email to gearbox@montrealgazette.com, and be sure to include your name, daytime contact information and some details about your car or story.