Go Big and Go Chrome
by Abby Bowman
Paint protection film (PPF) isn’t solely about protection. It’s also about style. While PPF can shield a standard, factory paint job from nicks and scratches, it’s commonly used to protect custom aftermarket paint, detailing or wrap jobs. The growing popularity and availability of color PPF means that the film itself is becoming part of the aesthetic.
Installers apply PPF on rare cars and wild designs daily, but some jobs still stand out more than others. Jeremiah Bienko spent three weeks working on one such job, which, quite literally, outshone all his others.
“When the customer called and said he wanted his six-door truck wrapped in chrome, I immediately went, ‘Hold on, I have several questions,’” says Bienko, owner of Sick Wraps in Tampa Bay, Florida.
Bienko learned that his customer, Brent Jackson, owned a chain of gentlemen’s clubs with locations in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Jackson’s brand revolved around chrome.
“He was one of the coolest guys I’ve met,” Bienko says. “That’s ideal when you’re quoting someone for a $20,000 job.”
Bienko used a chrome wrap and clear PPF from Avery Dennison—the company even volunteered to cover some of the film costs.
“That’s pretty rare, that a customer flies you out to their beach home, and the supplier sponsors the job,” Bienko says. “Plus, the car itself was so rare. It was such a cool job.”
Bienko says his friend and fellow installer John Eardley referred the customer to him. He decided to thank him with a gift as luminescent as the job itself.
“He’s a big Star Wars fan, so I ended up buying him one of those almost movie-quality light sabers,” Bienko says.
As for Jackson, he says the results of the job speak for themselves.
“He wanted to be able to park his big, chrome vehicle out front to say ‘I’m the biggest and baddest,’” Bienko says.
The vehicle in question was the two-row cab of a Ford F650 dually combined with the back row and bed of another vehicle. The truck was custom-made by Extreme Supertruck in Georgia, Jackson says.
Since Sick Wraps is based in Tampa and Jackson was in Myrtle Beach at the time, he hosted Bienko at a beach house for a few weeks as Bienko worked on the truck.
“It’s a showstopper,” he says. “If you have a deadline to be somewhere [in that truck], you better leave an hour early because people stop you on the streets for pictures.”
The truck functions as a shuttle for VIP clients at Jackson’s clubs.
“We’ve had customers blowing our club phones up asking what it takes to be eligible to get picked up by the truck,” he says.
Jackson says he’s already making plans to expand the brand with similar trucks.
Abby Bowman is the editor for PPF magazine. Email her at abowman@glass.com and follow her on LinkedIn.
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