Hey Sean, gratz on the new ride.... err.... what izzit?
We want the scoop! (and pix)
Anyway... I got the film done on my new Accord. Definitely wouldn't have a new black car without it. Keep in mind that there are only a couple of manufacturers of this film, and lots of places that market it under their own names. Xpel and RockGard I know for sure are 3M. Not sure on some of the others, but it's easy enough to find out, just with a phone call.
The guys that did mine use the Avery film. It's a clearcoated film, just like the newest generation of 3M film, and has a 7 year warranty, as opposed to 3M's 5-year warranty. They said it is also much much easier to work with from an installer's standpoint; goes better around compound curves, less wrinkles/bubbles to get out. They're another trusted name, as Avery makes a lot of the vinyl for the vinyl graphics industry, as well as their numerous paper and label products.
Something to check into, if you're worried about it, would be the applicability of the warranty if the product is not professionally installed. I say "if you're worried about it" because installation is 50% or more of the cost of getting it done, so you could, in theory, do it yourself, have it yellow or peel in half the warranty duration, do it again yourself and have it last that long again, and you'd be at the same point as if you had it done professionally and done again under warranty for free.
As far as installing it yourself... I'm sure that with your skills, you would be able to do it. It will be neither fast nor as easy as it looks, but I'm sure that you'll be able to achieve professional-looking results. The guy who did mine took about 5 hours to install the whole kit, including a custom piece for the front ground effects, and custom pieces for the rocker panels. The pre-cut kits are computer-cut, and mine was perfect. Just remember to round all your corners. Pointy corners will peel in a heartbeat. (That's pretty much a golden rule of any type of decal.) As a matter of fact, once you've done your own car with it, you might find yourself wanting to add this as a service for your business. It's a lot of work, but the profit margin on it is very high. For instance, I paid $800 for my install. I could have purchased the full kit plus enough bulk film to do the ground effects and rocker panels for in the neighborhood of $350. Based on that price alone, the guy made about $80 an hour for the install. However, since he does it for a living, he made the investment to buy the knife plotter that will cut the kits, so the bulk film probably only cost him $100 or so for everything he used on my car. That's a heck of a profit margin. If I were running a detail business, I would definitely be going to get trained as a certified installer, and offering this service. And the plotter would pay for itself in about 4-5 kits.
Anyway.. if you're planning on doing it yourself, just see where you can get the kit the cheapest (there are lots of retailers of this stuff, all selling it under their own names), find out whose film they use, and as long as it's 3M or Avery, get it the cheapest place you can find it, cuz it's all the same.
You can take a look at my
picture thread for some pix of the car with the film on.
-Mike
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