Believe it or not I get the question of just how much vinyl it would take to wrap an entire car sometimes. In so many ways I think it would be easier to just have your car painted but, since I'm in the business of vinyl, I felt compelled to figure it out. I wrote up the following article a few years back and have just updated it on our site here: https://www.rvinyl.com/DIY-Wrap-Buying-Guide.html

So, if you're really interested in finding out how many yards you need for an average, USDM sedan please read on.

does it help prevent rust in older cars? or does it make it worse?

If it is well sealed it will prevent it but the application surface would need to be pretty well cleaned for it to apply well anyway.

Unfortunately, rust attacks sheet metal from both sides.

How much to wrap my truck :

Yikes Balthazar! that doesn't look like something that Vinyl is going to take care of in the long term. But on the short term for appearances just get yourself twice the vinyl you need after you've measured the outside square footage of the vehicle. Chances are that as it's being cut you're going to lose 60% of your usable flat surface area. 

On 5/2/2014 at 7:14 PM, balthazar said:

Unfortunately, rust attacks sheet metal from both sides.

How much to wrap my truck :

Probably Cheaper to go to Business Costco and just buy the commercial box's of saran wrap and wrap her yourself! You can get it in many different colors!  

39 minutes ago, dfelt said:

Probably Cheaper to go to Business Costco and just buy the commercial box's of saran wrap and wrap her yourself! You can get it in many different colors!  

Just don't forget to park it in the sun for awhile when your done...!