There's a bloke on the GTi club getting 1 piece decals made up for the tailgate of MK2 Golfs for £55 +VAT a pop. I know you said you can get a good join with the 3 piece ones, but is a 1 piece one going to be £30 quid better? I know it's a bit of a how long is a piece of string question...
SWMBO said that if done properly you'd have to be right on top of it to see the joints and actively looking for them. The only thing is that once the vinyl is a few years old, it may shrink slightly when it is very hot so you'd end up with a hairline gap eventually.
I'll only be respraying the tailgate once hopefully, so the better one might be worth it as the originals seem to last 15-20 years until I attack them with a pressure washer. One other thing - is that a reasonable price bearing in mind it's made of 3M Scotchcal (apparently the stuff VW used)?
I've said it before, and I'll say it again.... get it masked up and
*spray* on the black bit. Longer lasting, and easier to do. If you pick the right paint (ie. not gloss.....) then you'd be hard pushed to notice the difference.
I'd say go for the sticker. If the DokiDude is wanting his Golf to look original then the sticker isn't silly money.
Well...it's all subjective. If it is a single piece you're going to have alot of wastage - you need to use a length off a roll at least as wide or long as the width or height. If it's a one off job or they only sell a few, they've still got to buy a full roll which might sit there for years. They've also got the cutter and the software as well - Signlab 5 has a price of £1000's and my wife's boss just forked out £21k for a printer/cutter. For the cost of material alone for that length, it's a few quid at most.
TBH it depends on how you are planning to do it up and how long you are intending to keep it. If you want a concourse type rebuild go for the one piece sticker. If not, go for the 3 piece or, IMO better, mask and spray - silk black should look the part.
I can't argue. I just paid £45 for a NOS original Ford metal passenger mirror for my Capri. Could've got a plastic repo for half of that.
I'll be keeping the car unless something vicious expensive / irreperable breaks. The interior's near mint, and hopefully it'll end up near mint on the outside too after paint.
Spend the money ona single piece then. FWIW I know how you feel. I've just forked out £ for a pair of new front indicators for the Capri and £45 for a passenger door mirror as it is in for respray and the old stuff looks s**te on it.
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