It's Always a Wrap for TV's Most Famous Big Rig Shop

Big rig customization shop Outcast Kustoms' show, entitled "Outcast Kustoms," has been running for several seasons on the Discovery Channel's Velocity Network. Each week, shop owners April and Kevin Locklear complete a large scale customization project for one of their many high profile clients.

April and Kevin opened Outcast Kustoms in Florence, South Carolina in 2000, expanding to a second site in Mooresville, North Carolina in 2011.

To handle the production needs for their show, Outcast Kustoms relies on Roland DG SOLJET printer/cutters, including a 64-inch Pro 4 XR-640. "The SOLJET is fast and reliable," said April. "I love Roland DGs. No one has been able to sell me anything else."

Among Outcast Kustoms' biggest wraps was a 43-foot long RV wrapped inside and out for the Bristol Motor Speedway. The RV project concept was to create the ultimate Bristol Motor Speedway fan experience.

Customized touches inside the RV include a replica of the Speedway's flag stand and graphics representing drag strip towers. The kitchen area is wrapped to look like a team pit box, and along the back wall of the interior is a nostalgia collage of reprinted photos.

The exterior graphics show highlights from the history of Bristol Motor Speedway and Bristol Dragway. On the front of the RV is an image of the track in daytime, while the back shows an image of the track at night. To produce all the needed graphics, Outcast Kustoms ran their SOLJET for 36 hours straight.

“I love Roland DGs. No one has been able to sell me anything else.”

"It was important that the graphics look as realistic as possible," said April. "The quality of the prints from the SOLJET is outstanding - we have zero distortion issues." The finished vehicle was revealed at the Track's fan event and continues to be a showpiece for the venue.

Another job shown on Season One of the show was a truck customization for Jack Link's Beef Jerky. The truck was brought in painted in an unattractive orange color. Outcast Kustoms did a partial paint job on the truck, and then installed vinyl graphics showing the product packaging and the company's logo.

"The client's biggest request was to have the paint and the bags shown on the sides of the truck exactly match the colors of the packaging that you see on the shelf," said April. First, Outcast Kustoms made sure that their red painted background matched the product packaging. Then they used Roland DG color matching through the VersaWorks color charts to match the graphics to the product. They even walked the samples outside to be sure the printed graphics' colors were accurate in natural light. "The colors came out flawless. This truck shows the impact a great color wrap can have," said April.

Another large customization job on the show included creating and installing yellow and black wraps for ESAB trucks and trailers as part of a branding effort by the company.

"Our client wanted us to print that bright yellow and black, and for all the prints to be consistent," said April. Outcast Kustoms used Roland DG color charts to match the PANTONE® colors. "The final prints perfectly matched the colors on all of their brochures and other marketing materials, as well as matching the additional signs we printed for them," said April.

Outcast Kustoms also customized a bus for its local summer league baseball team, the Florence RedWolves. The bus provides transportation and advertising for the team, with graphics showing the team logo on the sides and back of the bus, and a wolf image printed on window perf media and installed on the windows. "That wrap was done in 2003 and still looks great today, in spite of sitting outside in the South Carolina heat," said April.

On the show, Outcast Kustoms tackles everything from a car transport vehicle to a fire truck. "We use our Roland DG SOLJET on every job," said April. "It is absolutely critical to our success."