Paintshield

when i say thickness i mean thickness not length or width as for vat, its easily solved if its sent with usps and as a gift! Yeah its not like customs havent heard that one before, Ask StevenG off the Celica Forum what happened to him once with this "wriggle" the days of floating general products through as Gifts are pretty much gone, they will bill you and if customs see a lot of this (they do keep records apparrently) they present you with a large bill. anyhoo anyone want to take the risk knock yourself out. :) As for the thickness discussion I stand by my comments, there are only TWO standard consumer thickness of 3M PPF, all the rest will be aerospace product or OEM only product. Not that I know what I am talking about having been a 3M Wholesaler for over 3 years :) Maybe Switzerland gets special dispensation from 3M germany to sell some of this stuff to consumers, but elsewhere in Europe (and in the US) only these two thicknesses are ever sold by the Aftermarket Automotive Divisions for consumer use. Heck even I have to make a special request to get this stuff for special requirements and they get a ton of money out of me every year (minimum order 20 rolls at a time) Cheers Tom

Hi, yes Armourfend do typically do a good job and we have a good relationship with them (I do miss old Bob though now he has gone to california), I am glad you are happy with it, yes any good design house can do full cars (We have 15 to do for a collecter in France) a cautionory note though doing a full car ain't cheap so dont turn up with an Is300 and expect it to be done for 500 quid, a full car covered would be between 3-5K :) from anyone decent, (other than a maniac with a Stanley Knife and a roll of film) <shudder> they do exist ,check out why paintshield on our website if you think I am Kidding (its the owner on there who has asked us in to do these cars having learned a bitter lesson about what low bid really means) :) Cheers Tom PS I am certain that your decision will pay dividends Brian, even though you went to Harley central (oh can't call it that now that Bobs emigrated) :duh:

If you were talking about widths rather than thickness than you would have been correct as untill recently the only widths generally available were 6" 12" 18" and 24" however the film is now available in 30" and 48" widths to allow for pre-cut kits for full wings and full bonnets other thicknesses are not consumer products and are designed for OEM use only (excluding Headlight protection which is a special .020 thick Film) As for the Beer and Coke prices I guess like most countries the message is Screw the tourist then :) I have just done my price analysis from 3 Years ago and the price was higher than you state by about 35% I can only assume there was some discounting going on for some reason I cannot trace as for the VAT well you cant get away with that now as UPS and Fedex Etc collect the VAT and import duty at the door now when they deliver :) We do not openly price or run a webcart on our website for two reasons one I have no wish to have customers run price comparisons without speaking to us to understand what they are getting for their money, plus as this is almost impossible for the average person to install alone (Let alone to a decent standard). I prefer to take the ethical approach and not mislead people into thinking "buy this on line and you can install it" Which is unfortunately too often the case these days people if they really want can ring us up and get a kit only price after I advise them how hard this is is to do themselves then they dont end up tossing a bunch of money on the garage floor!!! It costs me business but at least my customers now EXACTLY what they are getting into up front! Cheers Tom

The whole bonnet can be done here in the UK the key is 48" film widths and machinery big enough to manufacture it, proffessional install makes sense because this stuff is very difficult to fit well. Most organisations will offer club discounts and group deals if approached by a Mod from the club (we do this fo many clubs already and I doubt we are alone). At the moment on a pre cut kit basis I believe we are the only people who will offer this service as standard on the 4 foot film (although I am sure that will change) Cheers tom

ok, still excessive I think check how high up the bonnet it goes, does it cover ALL of the bumper and same for the wing mirror (old IS only had the middle part covered) and important one - what is the thickness of the material as there are loads Hi guys had to jump in on this as there are a number of serious inaccuracies on this thread Firstly There are not loads of thiicknesses there are only two standard thicknesses of the 3M consumer films .008 and.012 the .012 (12 mil) is not yet available in the new SGH in Europe. There are various thicknesses of other non consumer (OEM films) but these are not designed for large area coverage of cars. Pricing: you can not get an XPEL kit for £40 this is nonsense (check their website and find out (www.xpel.com) Bear in mind Shipping and Import duties and VAT (you will pay VAT eventually) our prices for pure kits are + - 10% on Kit prices only. As for being raped with a stick, please! coming from the land of the 10 Pound Lager and £5 coke thats rich! Our installed prices are very close to the equivalent mid range pricing in the US. Also buying from the US means no warranties, whereas we provide the Warranty support in the UK (and Europe) also there are variations between US and European Vehicles (we are the XPEL Euro design Centre) so a kit purchased from the US may not even fit a Euro Spec Car (mainly it is the bumper that is affected). Although the writer is correct in the statement about it being 3M film, it is the only part they are close to being correct. Although 3M make the raw material they do NOT provide designs or pre-cut film and will not sell you film by the foot (we buy it 20 rolls at a time) also to be blunt we (and Armourfend) know far more about their product than they do (ring them up and ask them if you want), because we install it every day. On coverage this is determined by Price we can (and have) wrap the whole front of the car forward of the A pillars like everything you get what you pay, certainly however no-one is being turned over as the writer states on a quality install at the stated price on that vehicle. You need to check what degree of coverage you are getting when a price is being sought as the writer is right in the inference that different designs from different companies do give different levels of protection. I know of several instances where competitors have underbid us apparrently, only to find later that the bonnet coverage was a 6" leading edge strip where we were pricing on a a nearly two foot deep bonnet piece and matching wing ends. Sorry Mods, not meaning to sell on the board (I have lurked in here for Ages) however some of these innacuracies needed clarifying :D Cheers Tom