Guides
Sizing wrap and tint shop offers by bay-block length, not guesswork
Seventeen wrap and tint shop service packages, each with the bay block it needs, the skill it demands, and the sentence that has to appear in the quote.
What to take away
- A package is a bay block with a name on it. Define the block before you define the price.
- Seventeen configurations are listed below, grouped by how long they hold a bay.
- Every package needs one sentence in the quote that states its limit, or the limit becomes an argument.
- Do not publish a package your least experienced installer cannot deliver on a busy day.
- Nothing here includes a price, because bay cost, film cost, and local labor all differ too much for a number to travel.
The list is a menu of shapes, not a recommendation to sell all of them. Pick the ones your building, your crew, and your local demand can actually carry, and use the third column as the wording test before anything goes on a price list.
Short-block packages: part of a day
- Front two windows tint. The volume seller. Quote states which windows and that the darkness level is set by state law.
- Full vehicle tint, side and rear glass. Quote states one piece or two on the rear glass, and how defroster lines are handled.
- Rear glass only. Usually a replacement or a repair. Quote states that matching an existing older film exactly is not possible.
- Windshield strip or visor band. Quote points at the state vehicle code for where a band may sit, and states that you install to that code.
- Tint removal, single vehicle. Quote states a rate and an estimated block, never a fixed price, because old adhesive is unpredictable.
- Chrome delete. Trim, window surrounds, badges. Quote states which pieces are included by name.
- Badge and emblem work. Quote states whether badges are removed, wrapped, or replaced.
- Headlight or taillight film. Quote states that light output changes and that legality is a state matter to check.
Medium-block packages: one to two days
Medium-block packages
- Roof wrap or contrast roof. Quote states how the edges terminate and where the film tucks.
- Hood and fender accent wrap. Quote states whether the underside of the hood lip is wrapped.
- Partial commercial graphics, doors and rear panel. Quote states that placement is repeatable across a fleet only if all panels come from one print run.
- Partial paint protection film, front end. Quote states the exact panels and how far up the hood the film runs.
- Wrap repair on a single panel. Quote states that an existing wrap cannot be color matched after weathering.
- Fleet vehicle re-livery, one unit. Quote states the release window and what happens if the vehicle arrives dirty or in service.
Long-block packages: multiple days
Long-block packages
- Full color change wrap. The definitional package. Quote states whether jambs, recesses, and the roof are included, and whether hardware comes off.
- Full paint protection film. Quote states the panels covered and that a clear film shows contamination that a colored film would hide.
- Full wrap removal and re-wrap. Quote separates the two halves, because removal is its own service with its own unpredictable block.
The bay-load view
Packages
- Part of a day
- 1 to 8
- One to two days
- 9 to 14
- Multiple days
- 15 to 17
What it does to the schedule
- Part of a day
- Fills gaps, funds the week, easy to reschedule
- One to two days
- Predictable if scoped tightly, disruptive if not
- Multiple days
- Parks a bay and everything behind it
What it needs from the shop
- Part of a day
- Clean air, controlled temperature, fast turnaround discipline
- One to two days
- A bay that can be committed without blocking short work
- Multiple days
- A second bay, or a week planned around it
A single-bay shop that sells package 15 on a Monday has sold its whole week. That is a legitimate business, but it must be priced as a week rather than as a vehicle.
how to package services for customers covers how the packaging decision follows from that. The article on the most profitable services works through which of these actually carries margin.
What every package needs in writing
- The panels or windows by name. Not "full vehicle", which means different things to a customer and an installer.
- The condition the vehicle must arrive in.
- The refusal rule. Repainted panels, failing clear coat, and rust are grounds to decline, because film pulls the weakest layer when it is removed.
- The cure or hold instruction the customer must follow after collection, as the film manufacturer specifies it.
- The two separate warrantiesthe film maker's on the material, yours on the workmanship.
Claims made in package names and descriptions are advertising. The Federal Trade Commission's advertising guidance for small businesses requires that claims be truthful and substantiated, which rules out durability promises the film manufacturer does not itself make.
The costs that hide inside a package
Removal-heavy packages generate waste film, solvent, and adhesive residue, and disposal is a regulated matter rather than a shop preference. The EPA's automotive sector regulatory information is where to start on the federal and state requirements for solvents, wash water, and waste from a shop of this kind.
Job-level records are the only way to learn which package is worth keeping. The IRS guidance on the records a business should keep describes a system that shows income and expenses with documents behind them, and a job number on every film order and every timesheet is what makes that usable.
Staffing long-block packages is a hiring question before it is a pricing one. The hiring and training guide covers what an installer must prove.
The wider structure of the menu these packages sit in is in the services and packages guide. The case for the second bay long blocks eventually demand is in the expansion and market guide.
Common questions
Should a new shop offer all seventeen?
No. Start with the short-block tint packages and one long-block wrap package, and add families as the skill and the building can support them. A menu that outruns the crew produces late work and rework, both of which cost more than the missing revenue.
Can these packages be bundled into good, better, best tiers?
They can, and tiers help a customer decide. The risk is that a tier name implies a quality difference in the workmanship rather than a difference in coverage. Make the tiers differ by what is covered, never by how carefully it is installed.
How should a package handle a vehicle that arrives with existing film?
As two jobs. Removal is quoted separately after inspection, and the new work is quoted on the assumption that the surface underneath is sound, which cannot be confirmed until the old film is off.
Which package causes the most disputes?
Full color change, almost always over scope: jambs, recesses, and hardware. Naming those three explicitly in the quote removes most of the argument before it starts.
