My paint was as good as I could get it, washed, clay'd. No need to touch paint up. I saw your sheet was about half the cost, and in hindsight, I think for easy parts like the hood, buying a less-expensive sheet makes alot of sense. When I DIY'd my PPF, there weren't that many who had, so I felt it necessary to make it as easy as possible. Having said that, there may not be any other pieces that are easy enough to do with a sheet, if you don't have a 2nd person to help, to hold all 4 corners, and lay it down, taut, then both working out from middle. The Servo PPF site, looked less expensive than invisiblemask.com
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Best DIY Clear PPF for the front of the Model 3. Please Help
- Thread starter borijess3
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- diy wrap paint chip ppf xpel
If you take your time and have two helpers, maybe it’s not bad. I did the work myself, horrible
anyway I have the two headlight, two mirror and a long front piece left. $40 shipped for all 5. I will roll it up and put it in a priority envelope
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Installing PPF is not for the faint of heart. You have to have patience. If you do it, think of steps, from easy to hard. Do the easy step, first. If you have success, you can move on to the next step. I did 4 steps, with invisiblemask.com. The 30" partial front hood kit, with the easy hood, slightly harder front fender pieces and the very hard mirror cups. Next step, doors. Those are relatively flat pieces, so pretty easy, but the front door pieces are large, so having another person helps. I used rhino ramps to raise the side up, to make it easier to work on. Third step was the rockers. Very easy, since they curve under smoothly. Again, they're long pieces, so having a friend help is useful. Also, you have to lay on your back, even if you raise up a side on rhino ramps, like I did. Last step, I tried was the front bumper. Super hard! It takes forever to squish down all the fingers you create and it's easy to panic. I did, and made a couple relief cuts when I thought I wouldn't get it to lay flat. In hindsight, I think doing the bumper would be better as a sheet, since you need a little more leverage to stretch it around the curves. A precut, just doesn't allow you to apply enough leverage for all the stretching necessary. Ultimately, if there's one piece that you should leave to the pros, it's the front bumper. It still gives me nightmares.
Finished rockers and doors:
How do you squish all those fingers down?!?
Patience, here's the right side squished down. Now, just do the left without panicking:
Finished front bumper, with two stupid relief cuts. Acceptable, but I might do it over in a couple years:
Finished rockers and doors:
How do you squish all those fingers down?!?
Patience, here's the right side squished down. Now, just do the left without panicking:
Finished front bumper, with two stupid relief cuts. Acceptable, but I might do it over in a couple years:
No, as I mentioned, I only did the 30" partial hood, which includes a partial front fender. I also didn't do the A-pillar, or the rear fender or rear bumper or rear trunk. I just did the parts I felt were the most exposed to road debris or inattentive people in parking lots: front bumper, hood, fenders, mirror cups, doors, rockers. Since I bought all my pieces from invisible mask, the prices are there.
Hood/fenders/mirror cups $200
4 Doors $415
Rockers $125
Fr Bumper $185
So, around $925, altogether, not including my time!
As I've mentioned, I purchased the pieces in stages. At first, I got the hood kit with the cutouts for the sensors in the front fenders. I realized while the cutouts were good in giving you landmarks on where the film had to go, it also meant, you had a greater risk of cutout circles being stretched into ovals. The doors and the rockers had no cutouts to worry about. The front bumper had cutouts, but I ordered without, and just cutout the holes for the sensors afterward.
Sorry, I did it over a year ago. Back then I got 10% off. Do an internet search would be your best bet.
5ft by 5ft minimum? I'd measure the hood to be sure. You only need a ½ inch overlap. You'll have to remove your emblem before applying. So, $44 per linear foot, minimum of 5ft, so $220 for a 5x5 sheet.
I go to the checkout and there is no option for size. It just says you are getting a 60inch sheet for 44 dollars. Maybe it's just 44 dollars for a 60x60?
Getting a ~$220 sheet, 5'x5', and redoing my hood is very tempting. I remember a year ago, when deciding, it was between the full hood kit, ~$575 vs the 30" partial hood kit, ~$200. I cheaped out and got the 30" partial, but first I tried to analyze the risk a little.
I stood one car length away, and took a picture from ground level back towards my car, ie a pebble's POV, just to see how much of my hood was exposed to potential pebble hits.
And this is what I saw:
From the pebble's viewpoint, 15' in front of me, there is 5 and ½ vertical inches of hood exposed. The 30" partial will cover the bottom 4 and ½ vertical inches of the hood, leaving 1" exposed, vertically. Essentially the flared section that hides the wipers. I was willing to accept that, since most pebbles will hit lower, and decrease the higher up you go. Of course, some pebbles hit the windshield and even the little bit of the glass roof, as you can see. There's about 8" of vertical exposure of the windshield and roof. It does make you think about whether one should buy a windshield film. You could even have a double-strike where a pebble glances off the hood and hits the windshield. That'd be very bad luck.
Anyhow, I'm happy with my partial hood PPF, the aesthetics of an exposed bikini cut doesn't bother me, though I know it would bother some people.
Now, here's a thought, get a 5'x5' section, use it to cover the front hood. It could leave you a 1'x5' piece leftover. Use that to cover the bottom foot of the windshield, an area you don't actually look through, or at least I don't. You could lower the risk of pebble damage to your windshield.
I stood one car length away, and took a picture from ground level back towards my car, ie a pebble's POV, just to see how much of my hood was exposed to potential pebble hits.
And this is what I saw:
From the pebble's viewpoint, 15' in front of me, there is 5 and ½ vertical inches of hood exposed. The 30" partial will cover the bottom 4 and ½ vertical inches of the hood, leaving 1" exposed, vertically. Essentially the flared section that hides the wipers. I was willing to accept that, since most pebbles will hit lower, and decrease the higher up you go. Of course, some pebbles hit the windshield and even the little bit of the glass roof, as you can see. There's about 8" of vertical exposure of the windshield and roof. It does make you think about whether one should buy a windshield film. You could even have a double-strike where a pebble glances off the hood and hits the windshield. That'd be very bad luck.
Anyhow, I'm happy with my partial hood PPF, the aesthetics of an exposed bikini cut doesn't bother me, though I know it would bother some people.
Now, here's a thought, get a 5'x5' section, use it to cover the front hood. It could leave you a 1'x5' piece leftover. Use that to cover the bottom foot of the windshield, an area you don't actually look through, or at least I don't. You could lower the risk of pebble damage to your windshield.
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Not sure what you are comparing, a 5x5 sheet with 30" partial kit vs a full hood kit? Sure, it's cheaper, but you also don't get full fender pieces. The partial kit has partial fender pieces, that match the line where the 30" partial stops.
When applying the PPF are you guys worried about dust? I am going to do mine in my garage, but its virtually impossible to avoid the dust even with the doors closed.
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