Discussion
Personally dont like it. It consists of a plastic film which covers half the service bonnet, and various strips around chosen edges ie roof panel if desired. On darker cars the service bonnet can look like someones taken a blade to it. It will protect the paint from minor chips but there is an awful lot of front still unprotected. I was told by a dealer that armorfend also invalidates any paint warranty. The cost so I'm led to believe is around £800, but someone who has had it done should be able to confirm. I found it cheaper to get a front end re-spray. As they say, you pays the money, you take the choice. If I were you I would get to a dealer and see for yourself prior to getting it done. Most will have a car or two with it on.
Prehaps the F1 boys should not paint their cars 
Los Angeles said:
Good one, Whitey. the more stone chips, the lower the weight, the faster it'll go. Superb logic. Colin Chapman would have loved that The early MX5s kept weight down by using only two undercoats and three colour coats, when other manufacturers used a minimum of five main coats as standard. That's why so many early nineties MX5s have lost their paint bloom, susceptible to oxidisation.
Excuse me but as an ex ford robotics paint engineer, I think you will find cars have the following:
Electrophorectic dip
primer (1 coat)
colour coat (1 coat)which varies between 40 - 65 MICRONS in thickness.
lacquer (1 coat),
3/4 of the total paint on a car (which aint very much) is also on the front 1/2 of the car. Jag's certainly do (I wrote the software) but the DB7 (using the XK8 assembly line) go through twice.
If the finish of the base coat has imperfections, it can go through the paint shop a max of 3 times and then it will be scrapped.
Oxidation has absolutly nothing to do with paint thickness but is caused by the sun's uv rays affecting the paint pigment (red is the worst). Paint pigment manufacturers have a standard test, it must remain stable for 3 years in california.
Alan
>> Edited by alans on Saturday 29th May 12:55
Los Angeles said:
Gulp! You'd think no one was out there on a Bank Holiday weekend. I defer to your knowledge and experience, although Mazda did use fewer coats than others. And yes, red MX5s do suffer the worst.
I know, I'm very sad
You are right about red, my tusc roof has been resprayed due to pigment fade!
You would be absolutly amazed at the actual volume of paint on a car. (robot applied, not hand sprayed)
I had it done on my car.
Firstly its very expensive my bumber was £450.
It does stop the normal light dusting of chips that one gets but it does NOT stop the larger stuff and the problem is that when the film is penetrated it looks awful.
Better to have it resprayed now and again and at least you can polish out the bigger chips
Firstly its very expensive my bumber was £450.
It does stop the normal light dusting of chips that one gets but it does NOT stop the larger stuff and the problem is that when the film is penetrated it looks awful.
Better to have it resprayed now and again and at least you can polish out the bigger chips
I give ArmourFend a thumbs up, but it's down to personal choice - I'd rather have a slight line on my paintwork than countless stone chips and regular re-sprays so got Armourfend fitted at the dealer when I ordered the car. Cost was about £750, but it should be able to get it cheaper if you go to Armourfend directly.
How it looks on the car does depend a lot on colour as well I think - I've had it on 3 cars now, a blue Griff, orange Westfield and a black Tuscan and it's been barely noticeable on all 3. I think the best thing to do is to have a look at a few cars with and without it fitted and see what you think.
>> Edited by ehasler on Tuesday 1st June 11:05
How it looks on the car does depend a lot on colour as well I think - I've had it on 3 cars now, a blue Griff, orange Westfield and a black Tuscan and it's been barely noticeable on all 3. I think the best thing to do is to have a look at a few cars with and without it fitted and see what you think.
>> Edited by ehasler on Tuesday 1st June 11:05
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