Justin Young's GT500's New Look: Achieving the Perfect Wrap

Mustang guys know Justin Young from Mod Motor Mustangs and the group’s quickly-growing annual ModNationals drag race held at South Georgia Motorsports Park. Our readers will remember him from the recent coverage of his GT500 build. We absolutely adore Justin’s passion and attitude towards modern muscle cars, and his car has left a big impression on our staff and readers alike.

Over the last few weeks, Justin has been teasing the internet about an upcoming appearance change to his Shelby, and he’s giving us the first look at what he’s done. While he has at least let on that he’s having his car wrapped, he’s kept the color and/or graphics totally secret from the watchful eyes of the internet. So here it is:

The wrap was done by the artist at Elite Custom Installs in Fredericksburg, VA.

“We knew this wrap had to be absolutely perfect because the Mustang community would be waiting to offer their critiques, and we’re proud to present the new look of Justin’s Shelby.” -Chris, Owner and Wrap Artist at Elite Custom Installs

Something not many people consider is that no matter how careful you are with them, cars can get scuffed during normal operation. Towing to the track, and just driving around town, the body of any car can quickly become ‘too damaged’ to wrap, which can mean even minimal dents or paint scratches. We’ll talk more about the technique behind wrapping and this myth that you can wrap anything in an article that’s later to come.

To get his car up to snuff for a proper, professional wrap, Young enlisted Extreme Custom Collision, a high-end body shop in Virginia, to fix the bumpers and repaint some spots needed to get the car ready to be enveloped in its new hue. They were also the ones who recommended Justin take his car to Elite Custom Installs to make sure he was in good hands to have the wrap performed and give the car new life.

Justin Young is the kind of person who doesn’t make a move without some serious planning and reasoning behind it, so we wanted to know more about his choice to change the appearance, and why he went with the look he did. We once again got Justin to sit down with us and offer a little insight on his decision to change the color, and the choices he made along the way.

P&P: Why did you decide to change the color?

Photo by NJS Media

I absolutely loved the grey color with the Sonic Blue stripes. It looks so good in person. Unfortunately, Grey cars go unnoticed, and with the number of sponsors and vendors that were paramount in helping me build this car, I felt a color change would be just the ticket to get this car viewed by more eyeballs. The white-on-black theme will never get old and it looks amazing without being overdone.

P&P: Why did you decide to wrap instead of paint or dip?

Justin Young: I can’t paint a Shelby. If it was a base model, sure but not this car. But since it is a Shelby, a full and complete color change was needed. It’s a high-end Mustang, it deserves a top-notch wrap job. It looks like a paint job. The quality of today’s wrapping material is insane. Most people that’ll look at this car, will assume and believe it’s a paint job. The amount of detail that went into it is remarkable and you’ll have to look very hard and close to see the telltale signs that it’s a wrap.

“The shop set the bar high and I feel you’ll see more Shelbys getting wrapped like mine.”

The benefits of the wrap are many. Firstly, and specifically for a Shelby, you aren’t diminishing the value of the car by changing the color. People who buy Shelbys generally want an OEM color. If I ever were to sell this car, with or without the wrap, they have the option to go with an OEM color.

Secondly, protection of said OEM paint. This paint will be showroom condition as long as this wrap stays on. Thirdly, if I don’t absolutely love the color, it’s a lot easier to change than a full paint job.

Finally, if I do get scratches from the kid’s bike, or a door is dinged or scratched, we can just replace the vinyl piece that was damaged very easily and cheaper than paint. With the ceramic coat protection we added, this wrap could very well last 10 years with proper care.

P&P: Why did you choose this color?

JY: My whole life, it seems like I’ve been drawn to white cars, as I’ve owned my fair share of them, not even intentionally. Their starkness has always drawn me in.

We were so serious about this wrap and making the car white that every body panel that could be removed was. We wanted every piece of exposed grey to be white and as you can see, we went to the extreme. We even plastidipped the engine bay, inner body panels, door hinges and inner gas cap lid black to complete the transformation.

When I went to Memphis for the first year of ModNationals, I met John Bonner of Dynospeed Racing. John owns a very fast and very clean white S197 on Weld wheels and it spoke to me. That was the new goal with the car.