Guides
Running a wrap and tint shop day against a fixed SOP
A daily SOP checklist for a wrap and tint shop: opening the bay, the pre-application gate, handover between people, and closing down safely.
What to take away
- Four checklists cover the dayopening, the pre-application gate, handover, and closing.
- The pre-application gate is the one that saves money. Nothing is unrecoverable before it and most things are after.
- Handover fails in the same place every timewhether the final solvent wipe has happened.
- Closing is about the vehicles that are staying overnight, not about tidiness.
- Sign the checklists with a name. An unsigned checklist is a wish.
Print these and keep them at the bay. Each one is short on purpose.
Opening the shop
- Bay temperature brought to the working range before the first vehicle comes in
- Floor swept or damped down, and nothing dust-generating scheduled in the film areas today
- Task lighting working and positioned, including a light that can be raked low across a panel
- Today's jobs checked against materials physically present in the building
- Any printed panels checked for having had their outgassing time before lamination or application
- Vehicles held overnight in cure or hold checked, and their release times confirmed
- Blades, solvent, and waste containers stocked and where they belong
- Today's arrivals confirmed with customers, including the arrival standard
The pre-application gate
Run this on every vehicle after preparation and before any film touches paint or glass. It is the last cheap moment of the job.
Pre-application gate checks
- Arrival photos filed to job number
- Paint inspectedno peeling, respray, rust
- Refusal rule applied and acknowledgment signed
- Scope matches vehicle, jambs and hardware
- Hardware removed and stored
- Wash, decontaminate, dry, final solvent wipe
- Film line, color, lot recorded
- Bay and surface temperature checked
- Paint condition verified against the arrival notesscratches, chips, previous repaint, and anything the customer flagged
- Contamination checkthe panel wiped with IPA and inspected under raking light for tar, sap, wax, or silicone
- Panel edges and gaps clean, with no polish residue or trim adhesive left in the seams
- Hardware removal confirmedhandles, mirrors, lights, and badges bagged and labelled
- Customer-noted damage recorded on the job sheet with its location and a photograph
- Any prior film or tint removed, and the adhesive stripped
- Glass areas masked or protected where the film job does not cover them
- Film batch and roll number logged against the job
- Temperature and humidity within the film maker's range for the day
If any line fails, the vehicle does not proceed. Fixing a gate failure costs minutes. Fixing it after application costs a panel, and sometimes costs paint.
Handover between people or shifts
- Stage of the job stated in words, using the workflow stages rather than a percentage
- Whether the final solvent wipe has been done, stated explicitly, because it determines whether the panel can be touched
- Post-heat statuswhich areas are done, which are outstanding
- Anything found and not yet resolved, including anything the customer needs to be told
- Where the removed hardware is
- Written at the vehicle, not remembered
Handover held in someone's head fails the first time that person is off sick. The full stage list this refers to is in the operations and workflow guide.
Handover stated in words
- State job stage by workflow name
- Confirm final solvent wipe done
- List post-heat areas done and outstanding
- Flag unresolved findings and customer notes
- Say where removed hardware is
- Write it at the vehicle, not from memory
Before release
- Inspected by someone other than the installer, under raking light, from two distances
- Post-heat completed on every stretched area at the temperature the film maker specifies, typically 80°C to 100°C (176°F to 212°F), film-specific
- Hardware refitted, aligned, and tight
- Cure or hold period complete, as the film manufacturer requires, typically 24 to 48 hours, film-specific, before the vehicle leaves
- Completion photographs taken in the standard positions
- Written aftercare given to the customer, matching the manufacturer's instruction
- Both warranties explained separatelythe film maker's on the material, yours on the workmanship
- Invoice raised against the job number
Closing the shop
- Vehicles staying overnight secured, and any in cure or hold noted with their release time
- Bay temperature set appropriately for anything curing overnight, typically 18°C to 24°C (65°F to 75°F), film-specific
- Solvent containers closed and stored, rags in the correct labelled container
- Blades accounted for and disposed of in sharps disposal
- Waste film separated from general waste
- Heat guns unplugged and cool
- Tomorrow's materials confirmed as physically present
- Anything that went wrong today written in one line in the defect log
Waste separation at close is not housekeeping. Waste film, used solvent, and contaminated rags fall under the EPA's RCRA rules on solvent-contaminated wipes, listed at automotive sectors regulatory information, and a shop that sorts once a month has already mixed the streams. Your state agency will usually have requirements on top of the federal ones.
A late arrival should move the booking, not compress the pre-application gate.
Making the checklists stick
- Keep them at the bay, on paper or on a tablet that lives there, not in a folder in the office.
- One name per completed checklist. Shared responsibility becomes no responsibility.
- Review them quarterly against the defect log and remove any line that has never caught anything.
- Add a line only when something has actually gone wrong, and say which failure the line prevents.
Filed checklists are also records. The IRS recordkeeping rule for documents that support what happened is explained in what records a business should keep. A signed pre-application gate answers disputes about a vehicle's state on arrival.
Safety lines throughout, on solvent, blades, and roof access, are the everyday version of OSHA's recommended practices for safety and health programs, covered in its guidance on safety management programs. Those practices call for finding and fixing hazards before an injury or an inspection exposes them.
Day planning before work starts appears in scheduling jobs without delays, and the bay conditions these checklists assume are in the equipment and setup guide.
Qualification to sign each gate is a training matter in the hiring and training guide. Running a second site is covered in the expansion and market guide.
Common questions
Are four checklists too many for a small shop?
They are four short lists covering four different moments, and a two-person shop uses all of them. Combining them into one long list is what makes checklists get ignored.
What if an installer refuses to fill them in?
Ask which lines they think are pointless and look honestly at the answer. A checklist that carries lines nobody believes in trains people to tick without reading, which is worse than having none.
Can the pre-application gate be signed by the installer doing the work?
For preparation, yes. For the paint condition decision, it should be the named person who owns the refusal rule, because that decision protects the business rather than the job.
Should the checklists be kept after the job?
Keep the pre-application gate and the release list with the job file. Opening and closing lists can be kept for a short period and then discarded, unless something went wrong that day.
