This is a design mockup. Roll & Wire Supply Co. is an invented company. Every price, yield figure, film specification, transit day and telephone number on this page is a placeholder.

Roll & Wire Supply Co. Wholesale only · est. 1973 Open a dealer account

Automotive film and 12 volt, to the trade

How many cars does a roll actually do?

Every distributor will send you a price per roll. Almost none will tell you what that roll yields once it is nested, which is the only number that turns into a film cost per window. This page starts with the nesting, carries it through to money, and then tells you what we will and will not do with your customers.

Open a dealer account
Rolls of dark window film standing on end in a steel warehouse rack, plain black cores, wrapped ends, dim overhead light.
A wide aisle in a distribution warehouse, steel pallet racking both sides stacked with plain unmarked cartons, polished concrete floor.
53Years supplying installers
2 daysFreight time to 31 states
0Cars we have ever tinted
3 p.m.Same day cut-off, central time
01

Yield, before price

A four door sedan takes seven panels. Nested on a 40 inch roll they consume roughly 68 inches of length per car, and what is left between them is waste you have already paid for. The drawing below is one repeat of that nest, to scale.

Nesting diagram of one car's seven window panels on a 40 inch wide roll A 40 inch tall by 68 inch long section of roll drawn as a rectangle. Inside it sit seven panels: two front doors, two rear doors, two quarter glasses and one back glass. The back glass is the tallest panel and sets the roll width required. Unused film between the panels is shown hatched and amounts to about 22 percent of the section. Back glass 38 in. tall Front door Front door Rear door Rear door Quarter Quarter 40 in. roll 68 in. consumed per car hatched = waste
Read the hatching, not the panels. On a 40 inch roll this nest wastes about 22 percent. Drop to a 36 inch roll and the back glass no longer fits in one piece, so the waste falls but you have added a seam a customer can see. That trade is the whole of the table below, and it is why we stock five widths instead of the two that would be easier for us.
Yield by roll width, 100 foot roll, four door sedan
Roll width Length per car Cars per roll Waste Back glass in one piece
20 in.146 in.89%No, three pieces
24 in.121 in.912%No, two pieces
36 in.79 in.1516%No, two pieces
40 in. most ordered68 in.1722%Yes
60 in.68 in.1739%Yes, and most vans too
A lit cutting table with a hooked knife and a steel straightedge lying on it, the rest of the workshop dark behind.

The 60 inch roll looks like the worst line on the table and is the right buy for a shop doing vans and rear windows on lifted trucks, because a seam on a large back glass is the complaint that comes back. Waste is cheaper than a redo.

02

What the film costs you per window

Roll price on its own tells you almost nothing. Here is a 40 inch roll of our mid carbon series carried all the way through, at the second price tier, to one door glass.

Carbon series, 40 in. × 100 ft, tier 2

Roll, tier 2 price
$318.00
Freight, allocated (6 roll order)
$11.50
Landed roll cost
$329.50
Cars per roll, nested
17
Film cost per car, seven panels
$19.38
Film cost per door glass
$2.77

Which is the number to hold against your labour, your scrap rate and the price on your board. We publish it because a dealer who has done this arithmetic buys the right series the first time and does not send the roll back.

Dealer tiers, per roll, 40 in. × 100 ft
Tier Qualifies at Dyed Hybrid Carbon Ceramic
Tier 1Opening order, 2 rolls$168$244$352$611
Tier 212 rolls a year$151$220$318$549
Tier 340 rolls a year$139$202$292$504

Tiers are set on the previous twelve months and reviewed every January. Nobody is dropped a tier mid year for a slow spring.

03

Four constructions, measured

Total solar energy rejected is the figure that matters to a customer sitting in the car in August. Visible light transmission is the figure that matters to a state trooper. They are not the same number and a series that is good at one can be poor at the other, which is the entire reason four constructions exist.

Series specification, measured at 5 percent through 70 percent VLT
Series Construction VLT range TSER at 35% IR rejected Signal safe Warranty
LedgerDyed5 to 5041%18%Yes5 years
HalyardHybrid, dyed and metal5 to 5052%44%No, metal layerLifetime
CinderCarbon5 to 7058%61%YesLifetime
Cinder IRNano ceramic15 to 8074%93%YesLifetime

Halyard is on this list and we tell every new account not to lead with it. A metallised film is the cheapest way to reach a high rejection number and it can interfere with tyre pressure sensors, keyless entry and satellite radio on some vehicles. It sells well on the spec sheet and comes back on the ticket.

04

Freight, minimums and the one promise

1 dayGround transit

Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, Arkansas, Illinois.

2 daysGround transit

Twenty five further states, the whole of the middle of the country.

3 daysGround transit

Both coasts and the mountain west. Air is available and rarely worth it on film.

A wrapped pallet of long boxes standing on a loading dock beside an open roller door, a pallet jack alongside, daylight coming in from outside.

Orders placed by 3 p.m. central leave the same afternoon. Freight is prepaid on orders over $600, which is four rolls of carbon or two of ceramic. Minimum order is two rolls, and there is no minimum after your first year.

We do not sell to your customer. Ever.

Fifty three years and not one car tinted, not one roll sold to a consumer, not one online store selling pre cut kits under a second name. You will never lose a job to us, because there is no version of us that can take one.

That is not a courtesy. A distributor that also installs, or that quietly runs a direct to consumer storefront, is competing with the shops it supplies while holding their cost sheet. If we ever start, this paragraph comes down first and you should read that as the notice it is.

We will not backdate a warranty

Coverage starts the day the film is installed and the registration is filed. Shops ask. The answer has not changed.

We will not ship film below 20 degrees without a hold

Adhesive that freezes in a trailer will fail on the glass in June. In a hard cold snap we hold the pallet and tell you.

We will not private label under 40 rolls

Below that the printing costs more than the film and you are buying a logo, not a margin.

We will not quote a legal VLT

Limits differ by state, by window and by medical exemption, and they move. We publish what the film measures. What you may fit is between you and your state.

05

Opening an account takes one phone call

A resale certificate and a business address is the whole of it. We will ask what you are running now and what comes back on it, because the useful part of a first order is getting the series right, not getting it large.

Call (816) 555-0137

Amplifiers, a fuse block and coiled twelve volt wiring harnesses laid out on a steel shelf, plain unbranded housings.

Trade counter

1400 Depot Road
Excelsior Springs, Missouri
(816) 555-0137

Hours

Monday to Friday, 7.30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Will call closes at 4.30 p.m.
Closed Saturday and Sunday.

Who answers

Two people, both of whom have hung film. Neither of them works on commission and neither can see your tier while you are talking.