How to survey a vehicle wrap: what to measure and photograph

A vehicle wrap survey needs three things: square-on photos of every panel you're wrapping, the measurements that size the artwork, and honest notes on the vehicle's condition, paint, dents, trim, and anything that will fight the vinyl. Wraps fail at the survey stage more often than the install stage: the artwork built from a bad template, the quote that didn't allow for the door handles, the paint that lifted with the film.

Here's what to capture before anyone designs or prices a wrap.

Identify the vehicle exactly

Record make, model, year, and body configuration precisely, wheelbase, roof height, cab type, because templates and coverage calculations hang off it. "A Transit" is not a spec; there are several sizes of Transit. If a template exists for the exact vehicle, the design work starts from truth. If it doesn't, your photos and measurements become the template, which raises the stakes on getting them right.

Photograph every panel, square-on

Shoot each side, the rear, the bonnet, and the roof if it's being wrapped, straight-on and filling the frame, not angled glamour shots. Square-on photos are what the designer builds visuals over; an angled photo distorts the proportions and the artwork inherits the distortion. Then add close-ups of the complicated bits: door handles, mirrors, badges, fuel cap, trim lines, rivets, and panel gaps, because those are where wrap labour actually lives.

Measure what sizes the job

Record the key dimensions: panel lengths and heights, total wrappable area if you're pricing by coverage, and the position of features the design must work around, windows, handles, badges, curves. If the client wants specific elements placed (a logo centred on the door, a phone number above the wheel arch), measure those zones specifically so the design lands where reality allows.

Be honest about the condition

Note the paint and panel condition, and photograph the problems. Vinyl grips paint; it doesn't fix it. Peeling or oxidised paint can lift with the wrap on removal, or stop it adhering at all. Dents and rust telegraph through film. Fresh paint needs time to outgas before wrapping. If the condition is going to compromise the result, the survey is where that gets flagged, in writing, with photos, not on handover day when the client's asking why the bonnet looks bubbled.

Note what comes off and what stays

Record what needs removing for a clean wrap, badges, trim, mirrors, existing signage or old vinyl, and whether removal is in scope. Stripping an old wrap is real labour and sometimes reveals real problems; if the vehicle's currently wrapped, price the strip as its own line and set expectations about what the paint underneath might look like.

The practical details

Capture the rest of what the job needs to run smoothly: where the vehicle will be wrapped (your bay or their site), how long you'll have it, whether it needs washing beforehand (it does, note who's doing it), and anything about how the vehicle is used, a work ute that lives on gravel roads has different film and lamination needs to a showroom car.

One record per vehicle

Fleet job or single van, keep each vehicle as its own complete record: its photos, its measurements, its condition notes. Fleet wraps go wrong when vehicle three's dent ends up attributed to vehicle five. A per-vehicle record also becomes your condition evidence if there's ever a dispute about pre-existing damage.

The survey is the cheapest part of a wrap and the most decisive. Everything downstream, the design, the print, the install, builds on what you captured standing next to the vehicle.

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SignPad keeps every vehicle as its own surveyed location, square-on photos, measurements, and condition notes in one shareable record your designer and installer work from. See a sample report.