Do any of you other shops offer VIN Etching as a side-service? I got some brochures on it today with a rock chip repair brochure. It looks interesting and isn't that expensive to get into.

Vin etching is a decent add on for AGR, but can be used most effectively as a sales aid. Set up "VIN etch days" at ins agent offices or ins co's, schools, anywhere anyone is to give you a referal.You can make as big or small a deal as you deem neccessary.

The police dept. does it for free here.

thats nice of the police , i wonder how many people they give tickets to fir expired plates :) when they drive in...

There are 2 types of VIN etching.

The first is the actual VIN Number from the vehicle and as I understand, it can be more expensive. I believe most auto dealers will do this for around $100.00 or more.

The seecond is to etch a code number onto each piece of glass with an accompanying phone number to register with in case of theft. These are much less expensive for the kit. Diamond used to charge $20.00 for this which I thought was too cheap. You could probably get away with $35 or more.

ninja:
be sure you pactice on some broken w/s first. i used to work for a company that got into vin etch maket.
we replaced quite a bit of glass do to poor etch jobs. guys who didnt read up on how to, or just got lazy , or what ever excuse they used.
it's not hard just practice first.
also if you want a pic of a real simple w/s repair system let me know i make my own. it works like a charm.

Sounds good "uguys". I haven't invested in a repair system yet, but I will need to eventually I am sure. I haven't followed up on the repair issue a lot becuase most of it seems to be insurance work and I don't expect to get a lot of that.

As far as the etching system I got a brochure on there is no real "etching" about it. Its more like an impression or something. I can't really describe it well, but look at www.glassmedic.com

Thats where the brochure came from.

ninja
the vin etch system i talked about was glassmedic. you had to type the vin on a stcker put it on the glass then wipe acid on the sticker let it sit for a few then clean up. it was ok if you payed attention.
by the way there big vacume pump w/s repair system was not impressive to any of us techs. but the guys in suits bought it hook line and sinker.
send me your e-mail and i'll send you some pics of my w/s repair bridge.

we did this for a while charged $45 for the first pc of glass and $10 for each additional.

AHAG

You said you did this for awhile. I take from that statement that you no longer do it? Any reason why?

click mailbox for my e-mail "UGUYS"

I think it's better to hide your vin #. Had a few instances in the news where a vin# was taken to a car dealer and duplicate keys made, cars boosted.

hey uguys... show me the bridge! atech

I agree , the way customers can not like somethign I would never etch a vin simply because it is one more thing for someone to be picky about..