A protective and decorative sheet material for covering substrates comprisesa flexible carrier film,a paint layer adhered to one surface of the carrier film containing light reflective flakes;a transparent polymeric topcoat overlying and adhered to the paint layer having a thickness of at least about 0.1 millimeter.The sheet material has a substantially unstressed relaxed state and a relaxed area and is heat softenable to a substantially plastic state in which it is extendable to an extended state having an extended area up to at least 50% greater than the relaxed area. The paint and topcoat layers have substantially uniform quality and appearance in both the relaxed and extended states. The thick transparent topcoat provides improved retention of gloss and distinctness of image when the sheet material is stretched. A method of preparing the sheet material comprises the step of extruding in laminar flow a layer of a crosslinkable transparent topcoat composition over the paint layer.