Discussion
I think I have made the best decision of my life and the worst in one fail swoop.
Best was buying the Tuscan and worst was having armourfend fitted.
I thought I was being clever by trying to stop the stonechips but i'm begining think that it would have been worth seeing the odd touched in chip, especially as it won't be doing that many miles.
I had obviously seen a TVR fitted with this stuff before but never paid that much attention to it. Well now I have my own TVR I am gutted to say the least. It's an absolute mess. Many of my friends have seen the car and all but one have said "what's that scratch all over the front" and when they look closely they see that there are 'bits' trapped underneath. For some reason I feel a bit embarassed and try to defend the way it looks when in reality I too think it spoils the car.
I am not usally one to complain but I had to phone the dealer when I came home tonight, it had been worrying me all day so I had another look and it just jumped out at me.
This particular dealer has been more than helpful with the purchase and I cannot fault them on their level of customer service, but I am not happy at all with it. I tried to remove a small corner below the lights but found to my horror that it had been cut on the car and there are scores in the paint below!!
As usual they have been understanding saying that when it comes in for service we can go through the bad bits and get them sorted.
The truth is that I want it off, but what will happen to the scores? I'm worried that it will need a front end respray.
Thoughts anyone?
Best was buying the Tuscan and worst was having armourfend fitted.
I thought I was being clever by trying to stop the stonechips but i'm begining think that it would have been worth seeing the odd touched in chip, especially as it won't be doing that many miles.
I had obviously seen a TVR fitted with this stuff before but never paid that much attention to it. Well now I have my own TVR I am gutted to say the least. It's an absolute mess. Many of my friends have seen the car and all but one have said "what's that scratch all over the front" and when they look closely they see that there are 'bits' trapped underneath. For some reason I feel a bit embarassed and try to defend the way it looks when in reality I too think it spoils the car.
I am not usally one to complain but I had to phone the dealer when I came home tonight, it had been worrying me all day so I had another look and it just jumped out at me.
This particular dealer has been more than helpful with the purchase and I cannot fault them on their level of customer service, but I am not happy at all with it. I tried to remove a small corner below the lights but found to my horror that it had been cut on the car and there are scores in the paint below!!
As usual they have been understanding saying that when it comes in for service we can go through the bad bits and get them sorted.
The truth is that I want it off, but what will happen to the scores? I'm worried that it will need a front end respray.
Thoughts anyone?
I had it fitted on the 450SE, under front bumper line and rear wheel wing. Also had it fitted on front to bonnet line, had it removed within 3 days, as you it looked a mess, as yours loads of little sratches, mine had just had a very expensive respray.
I would say, you should if you are going to have it removed, get it done by installer immediately, as mine even after 3 days dulled the paint work, took hours of polishing to get it back.They should remove it with a hairdryer to soften the adhesive, takes them hours to remove properly.
As regards the scores, who fitted it?, as it should have been laser cut to a template of the car first and just very slightly trimmed using scissors, I watched mine been drawn, templated and fitted, with theexception of bonnet, rest is ok and definatly no scoring.
If dealer had it fitted and f
ed it up I would think its there problem to resolve score marks.
Sorry if I've made you feel ever more pi$$ed off, good luck.
Redcar
I would say, you should if you are going to have it removed, get it done by installer immediately, as mine even after 3 days dulled the paint work, took hours of polishing to get it back.They should remove it with a hairdryer to soften the adhesive, takes them hours to remove properly.
As regards the scores, who fitted it?, as it should have been laser cut to a template of the car first and just very slightly trimmed using scissors, I watched mine been drawn, templated and fitted, with theexception of bonnet, rest is ok and definatly no scoring.
If dealer had it fitted and f
ed it up I would think its there problem to resolve score marks. Sorry if I've made you feel ever more pi$$ed off, good luck.
Redcar
k77-widow maker said:
one part of me.....after spending 3 hours doing my stone chips at the weekend says get it fitted, but another part of me thinks that i'm asking for trouble with a black griff.
Stuart.
It is good, I run over some white line paint
and covered the under boot wing, thankfully because I had Armafend fitted to thisd area it was easy to scrap it off. The problem with the Griff is knowing where to finish the front cover area.
Looking at your profile photo, I would not come higher than the top of the number plate.
I used a company called www.invincashield.co.uk/. Guy is very good and will do a template of area first. Just be cautious as to high high you go up the front. I found no matter how good its fitted, if its in direct light you WILL see tiny scratches (like polish circles) in it, thats a fact of the fitting process.
Black is a difficult colour as when you polish it you will have to spend extra time making sure you remove the polish from film edge, or you will get a white line.
Hope this helps.
I have armourfend fitted to my everyday Seat Leon & considered it for my Griff & then Tuscan, I decided against it both times for the Tivs even tho' they were both fresh from resprays.
The stuff on the Leon is worth having - but *only* where it protects metal panels (i.e. where a stonechip could lead to rust if untreated). On plastic panels it's a waste of time IMHO as:
>You can leave chips on plastic parts untill they are bad enough to warrant a respray without any undue effects
>I scuffed the (plastic) bumper on the Leon, also tearing the armourfend. To repair this requires a strip of the armourfend, repaint, refit armourfend. So 500 quid min. If I hadn't had armourfend put on the bumper I could've just touched up the paint/get chips away et al in to do the job for 100 max.
So I sympathise with your problem. If ***** ******** fitted the armourfend themselves (or you paid them to have it done & they subbed out the work), you *must* insist that they make good the original finish on the car & refund you any monies paid for the armourfend.
Good luck!
The stuff on the Leon is worth having - but *only* where it protects metal panels (i.e. where a stonechip could lead to rust if untreated). On plastic panels it's a waste of time IMHO as:
>You can leave chips on plastic parts untill they are bad enough to warrant a respray without any undue effects
>I scuffed the (plastic) bumper on the Leon, also tearing the armourfend. To repair this requires a strip of the armourfend, repaint, refit armourfend. So 500 quid min. If I hadn't had armourfend put on the bumper I could've just touched up the paint/get chips away et al in to do the job for 100 max.
So I sympathise with your problem. If ***** ******** fitted the armourfend themselves (or you paid them to have it done & they subbed out the work), you *must* insist that they make good the original finish on the car & refund you any monies paid for the armourfend.
Good luck!
BTW, there should be no "bits" trapped underneath, and the Armourfend itself should only (normaly) be visible when the car has just been polished & the wax has not been cleaned out from the edges of the Armourfend.
I had mine - on the Seat - fitted by Armourfend themselves before the car left the dealers. If you want to compare how good a job ***** ******** have done on yours you're welcome to compare cars as I'm often near/passing thru' E.Grinstead.
I had mine - on the Seat - fitted by Armourfend themselves before the car left the dealers. If you want to compare how good a job ***** ******** have done on yours you're welcome to compare cars as I'm often near/passing thru' E.Grinstead.
k77-widow maker said:
thanks for the info, I've just sent them a message.
Oh and guess what.....they don't have a kit for a Griff!!!!
What he'll do is come and draw a template for the car, cut it from paper, fit the paper template to check for fit and to let you see were its going, you can adjust at this point, then once your happy he'll cut the material and come and fit it. From start to finish takes around 3 weeks.
The guy that owners the company fits it, and he is very good and works for YOUR satisfaction.
Redcar.
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