hdAge
Member
Two things.. first, I bought the car used and it already had the XPEL on the hood, fenders, and mirrors. I surely wasn't going to remove it for the Autoflex.
Second, XPEL is 4 to 8 times thicker than Autoflex, and offers much greater protection from road debris and other hazards. XPEL is 8.5 mils and AF can be between 1.2 and 2.4 mils depending on application. XPEL Ultimate Plus can also be "self healing" from minor scratches and damage.
My car was side-swiped in a parking lot last year, and deeply scraped up the XPEL on the front bumper (see below). Autoflex alone would not have survived that kind of damage and likely the factory paint also would have been damaged. I would have had to peel and repaint (factory) and re-dip (AF) the bumper.
With the XPEL, I just got some standard auto scratch remover and a cloth, and buffed out 95% of the scratches before putting on the Autoflex. You could barely tell it was there and the factory paint remains unaffected.
So yes, AF does provide good original paint protection, but nothing like XPEL or the other film based PPF products. And the XPEL still offers the same protection underneath the Autoflex. AF just ads a tiny bit more.
If you already had the XPEL then it makes sense to just keep it. As far as thickness, AF can be quite effective depending on the number of coats, in my case I specifically pushed for atleast 15 coats and so far it has handled rock chips and debris quite well (of course I maintain it regularly too). As far as that side-swipe, yeah that looks deep. How many coats of AF did you have? I do agree XPEL might be better, but costs several times more than AF Sprayshield.