The guys arrived around 11am and we versed them on what we wanted doing, which was to cover as much of the car as possible. They said it would be fine, but the parts which would remain uncovered would be:
Curved and vertical edges of the rear wings as the film kinks and bubbles making for a terrible finish.
Scuttle.
Louvres.
Sides around the wishbones.
The black stripe along the bonnet. We decided for this as the stripe has been painted over the orange paint meaning that it is raised off of the surface, and as it happens this was roughly the same amount as the film, so we have agreed to have the bonnet film up to the stripe to reduce the stripe.
After this in order to make life easier for them and to attain a better finish we remove the bonnet catches and the fuel filler cap so the film would be on behind.
So what would be covered:
The full nose cone.
Full sides, between the rear wings and the rear edge of the wishbones.
Rear wings, front to back.
Full rear, bottom to just under the popper bases.
All of the orange parts of the bonnet except a rectangle cut out for the two sets of louvres either side.
Nose cone covering.
Sides.
Rear of the car.
Cutting done on the car.
Film below poppers and under aero filler cap.
Film edge surrounding the louvre groups are barely visible.
Even in this one.
Car complete, looks shinier than before.
Overall they did a fantastic job and we are very pleased with their work. Then it came to receiving the bill, which we received over the phone by one of the office guys, which ended up being more than the quoted price. However we were expecting as much so weren't surprised, especially as they had never covered an entire Caterham before.
Material Cost: £300
Labour Cost: £250
All excluding VAT: +£110
Grand Total: £660 (-£60 as they felt bad that it cost double the quote)
We have arranged for guys from Signs And Graphics UK Ltd (see link on the RHS of the page) to come round on Saturday 18th December to fit Paint Protection Film to the car. They are currently the guys who fit PPF to cars for Caterham themselves, which is where they will be the day before coming to us, so will have had plenty of practice. They have quoted the total cost being around £350 for the whole car, having had experience with them in the past, however they have never done a full wrap on one so we are unsure as to whether this is going to be very accurate. To get the car ready for the guys we are going to lower the car, roll it onto the drive and give it a clean. However before we could start the trolley jack wouldn't lift any weight put on it, only raise up and down on its own. After a bit of tinkering we decided to remove the filler plug only to find that it wasn't particularly full. After a quick top-up it was working fine, so once the wheels were all on we lowered the car to the floor.
Rear Jacking Point. We found that if lowering the front first, from this height, that the oil cooling hoses foul on the jack.
First time on the floor!!!
As close to complete as we've had so far.
We didn't know if they want the catches off or not so we've left them on. We also removed the IVA trim from around the exhaust port to allow them to put the film right up to all the edges. As it's a bit late and we don't want it to get dusty again between now and then we will wash it the night before.
