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How much PPF did you get?

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I thought about PPF, but then decided that, even if I keep this car as long as I currently plan to, after 4-5 years I can just get a color change wrap or something, to freshen it up.
Yea, I leaned in that direction a long time myself. There really isn't a wrong answer. For me, I know myself. Once I settle into a car, I tend to keep them for at least 5-7 years, and I'm too lazy to have my 4 year old car wrapped.

I have 15 year old twin boys, so after that timeframe, the car will likely go to them. The PPF will keep the paint surface in great condition, and then THEY can have their new to them car wrapped in the color they prefer.
 
I personally feel PPF is way overpriced for what you get. I would opt for a Ceramic coating with a big brand that offers 5yrs+ warranty that is 1/3 the cost of PPF.

Put the other money towards a new set of wheels/tires, drop the suspension, other interior parts or visual stuff. Save yourself $2-3k for other stuff.

I've just had my wife's new BMW X3 ceramic coated with IGL product from a certified installed. They do like everybody, paint correction (which they found white overspray on the paint, even though it sat in the dealer showroom floor after they received it!?!), everything done, all exterior, wheels, paint, plastic, chrome whatever...windows, interior stuff...all for $1100 with a 5yr warranty/guarantee. PPF can't get into the same places ceramic can. You can't wrap a wheel for example...Ceramic coating, is it liquid, it goes where you apply it, which is pretty much anywhere, and they have specific products for each type of surface, and you can ala carte the parts/places want to do. PPF is very limited where it is applied for $$$$.

My 2015 435i has had ceramic coating for 5yrs, still looks amazing, beads up the water like it would after a fresh wax, bugs wipe right off...it's crazy how quality ceramic is, plus it makes the paint look even better, along with plastics looking new etc...it can also be easily corrected to remove swirls/marks like clearcoat, or removed entirely.

But, to each his own. Each has it's advantages/disadvantages.

Good luck.
 
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I personally feel PPF is way overpriced for what you get. I would opt for a Ceramic coating with a big brand that offers 5yrs+ warranty that is 1/3 the cost of PPF.

As you said, both PPF and ceramic coatings have their advantages and disadvantages and I respect your choice of ceramic coating over PPF.

Personally, I see things the opposite way. I chose to get as much PPF as I could and skipped the ceramic coating. IGL makes amazing coatings. But even the most advanced ceramic coatings will not protect your paint from rock chips and scratches like PPF. PPF has self-healing properties and is 4-6 times as thick as clear coat. As long as a rock or pebble does not penetrate the out layer of the PPF, it will self heal. And even if it doesn't self heal, it will still likely protect the paint. Worse case scenario you have to replace a piece of PPF which is really not that expensive to do.

I think the main advantage of a ceramic coating is that it makes washing your car much easier/faster. If you do not enjoy washing your car or you do not enjoy applying waxes or sealants, then a ceramic coating would serve you well. But if you enjoy washing your car and you don't mind applying a spray sealant every 3-4 months, then I would personally choose to put my money into PPF and, instead of a ceramic coating, apply a ceramic spray sealant once every 3 months.
 
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I personally feel PPF is way overpriced for what you get. I would opt for a Ceramic coating with a big brand that offers 5yrs+ warranty that is 1/3 the cost of PPF.

Put the other money towards a new set of wheels/tires, drop the suspension, other interior parts or visual stuff. Save yourself $2-3k for other stuff.

I've just had my wife's new BMW X3 ceramic coated with IGL product from a certified installed. They do like everybody, paint correction (which they found white overspray on the paint, even though it sat in the dealer showroom floor after they received it!?!), everything done, all exterior, wheels, paint, plastic, chrome whatever...windows, interior stuff...all for $1100 with a 5yr warranty/guarantee. PPF can't get into the same places ceramic can. You can't wrap a wheel for example...Ceramic coating, is it liquid, it goes where you apply it, which is pretty much anywhere, and they have specific products for each type of surface, and you can ala carte the parts/places want to do. PPF is very limited where it is applied for $$$$.

My 2015 435i has had ceramic coating for 5yrs, still looks amazing, beads up the water like it would after a fresh wax, bugs wipe right off...it's crazy how quality ceramic is, plus it makes the paint look even better, along with plastics looking new etc...it can also be easily corrected to remove swirls/marks like clearcoat, or removed entirely.

But, to each his own. Each has it's advantages/disadvantages.

Good luck.
Do you know what PPF is?
 
Two rolls of vvivid 3m ppf from Amazon for under $50. Covered those shiny chrome door sills right away as they look like they scratch easy and placed some ppf under the mud flaps to protect the paint from rubbing. Then after seeing how much headlight enclosures cost I also put the ppf on them and the small light fixture under that. Other than that I just don’t worry about the paint…no kids or large dogs to worry about and so far after almost 20k miles (a lot on gravel steep mountain roads) I’ve only found a couple pinhole size chips…need to order that paint repair kit from Tesla someday I guess. Maybe in 10 years or so I will spring for an appropriate body wrap, but from experience those only last a further 10 years so will probably just wait and see what the future brings. Oh, and this is what my Tahoe Body Wrap looks like after sitting outside uncovered in over 10 years of Florida and GA sun and a few MN winters (never garaged or covered)…it is a 1996 model and the wrap covered a horrible paint job. Nice not to ever have to wax the car again but leaving uncovered (and maybe driving through too many backroads and shallow rivers) was pretty hard on the wrap…debating on if it is worth reapplying with 250k miles.
551A8E07-ADC3-4938-9E27-099758582A13.jpeg
 
Full front (including A pillars), lower body and lower door portions, rear bumper portion where there's spray from wheels. Call it a half full... I live in Canada where there's snow, ice, road salt, sand being put on the road to give traction etc. It'S very abrasive. Many people have had paint issues on Teslas (around here) after just a few weeks/months so I took no chances. A full would have been best but cost 2.5x more and took a week to install instead of a full day.
 
A couple weeks ago I was backing out of someone's driveway and turned short. There were small 'boulders' lining the driveway say 8-12" in diameter that were somewhat round but sort of sharp an pokey. One caught up under the right front bumper in front of the tire (because the wheel was turned allowing it to hit there).

So some of the weight of the car on that rock and the front bumper as the rock rolled between the bumper and ground (ugh!!!)... caused a pretty nasty dent maybe 2" wide and close to an inch deep and that underside bumper area was scratched all to heck. I was certain the paint was torn up as there should be no way PPF could protect that much weight/damage...

Well, I was wrong it did protect it. I cut that little say 4"x5" section of PPF away and voila, perfect paint underneath and all the scratching was just the torn up PPF. I was flabbergasted the PPF protected to that extent. Luckily, I was also able to remove the wheel well cover for the front-right wheel (enough to get my arm in there) and push the dent back out to so the damage is pretty much corrected at this point - other than if you look real close you can tell it's not perfect but dang close.

I had a roll of PPF to manually apply to my rockers lying around so I cut a piece of that to replace what I cut out above, so for now at least, I'm pretty sold on the ability for PPF to protect. YMMV. I wish I had taken pictures but at the time I was stressed enough that I didn't think about it.

For the main question: I had the entire front and mirrors done and it was around 1500.00 IIRC.
 
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Picking up next Friday M3P in Philly and planning to drive straight to PPF place in NJ (AO Detail) to do full frontal end and rocket panel for $2.5k. They do paint correction before applying PPF. They get about 6 Tesla’s a week. Expensive but seems like they know what their doing. Also thinking of doing a windshield PPF that’s suppose to be game changer that will release in next couple months called Stek.
 
I'm dealing with PPF installation right now, and let me say that PPF is kicking my ****ing ass.

I like to think that I'm skilled with my hands, work with tools all the time, and am all around a handy person... but yeah, PPF installation is definitely a very specialized, acquired skill, and when you pay for install you are paying for professional skills, professional (perfect) results.

I've managed to get the wrap done on everything except for the rear bumper... and it already looks like trash LMAO. People are like: "is your car okay?" because of all the wrinkles, bubbles, fingers, and dirt in the film LMAO. I watched every single PPF install video on YouTube too.

I'm in too deep to get out, I've already got a full pre-cut PPF set horribly installed that I'll just have to completely tear off, and 16 hours invested. I've gotten a let better, learning the hard way, probably just gonna re-do the entire car. That's another 10-20 hours.

I'd recommend just paying the pros to to the PPF install or do a Ceramic Coating. Ceramic coating and paint correction is easy: I've learned on my truck and GF's car in prep for the Tesla
 
I am about to get a full body xpel stealth PPF done. I figured it is the best of both worlds as it looks like a wrap but is actual protection. Also getting two layers of ceramic coating on top on that. Its about 6k total.

Not my car but will look exactly like this when its done.

tesla.jpg
 
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I'm dealing with PPF installation right now, and let me say that PPF is kicking my ****ing ass.

I like to think that I'm skilled with my hands, work with tools all the time, and am all around a handy person... but yeah, PPF installation is definitely a very specialized, acquired skill, and when you pay for install you are paying for professional skills, professional (perfect) results.

I've managed to get the wrap done on everything except for the rear bumper... and it already looks like trash LMAO. People are like: "is your car okay?" because of all the wrinkles, bubbles, fingers, and dirt in the film LMAO. I watched every single PPF install video on YouTube too.

I'm in too deep to get out, I've already got a full pre-cut PPF set horribly installed that I'll just have to completely tear off, and 16 hours invested. I've gotten a let better, learning the hard way, probably just gonna re-do the entire car. That's another 10-20 hours.

I'd recommend just paying the pros to to the PPF install or do a Ceramic Coating. Ceramic coating and paint correction is easy: I've learned on my truck and GF's car in prep for the Tesla
Are you me? This was my experience - a few nights and mornings ended with me in the garage until 4 AM... I take pride in DIY-abilibuddy, but this is one project where I found the limits to my abilities & risk tolerance (and my wife's sanity). I'd say it borders on "art" - things like bodywork, paint, etc., that take tremendous time & resources to learn to do well, and just aren't worth it for a DIY-er. I say borders because if you gave me an infinite number of templates, I think I could eventually figure it out. But I ain't got that kind of cash. Plus... for some areas, even the pros use more than one person to apply.

In the end, I think I found my balance: Buy bulk sheets for the easy stuff. Fenders, doors, etc. - you can cut out rough templates for relatively flat surfaces that can be handled with some experience, and mistakes are cheaper than destroying a $200 - $300 precut piece. Edge wrap for a clean finish - or, if you're comfortable, take a sharp razor and score the film like the pros (this is actually easier than I imagined... at your own risk & replace blades VERY frequently). You'll still spend hours in the garage, but at least you won't want to kill yourself in the end.

Learned my lesson after poorly installing a precut front bumper piece for my TM3. Took it to an XPEL shop to get 10-mil film installed... the guys were actually pretty impressed with what I'd achieved, but there were clearly areas where you could spot the stupidity.
 
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Have you seen what Model 3 headlights cost on ebay? I've never seen cheaper OEM headlights in my life. The likes of BMW/Audi can easily run way past $2,000 a piece... not so with the Model 3. They're also stupid easy to replace.
I’ve checked ebay. Even ones i saw there with lens stains and scratches were up to $600 range each. Kinda defeats the purpose as the scratching and general road wear frosting is what I want to avoid :). And the ones that said buffed and polished I REALLY would avoid...been there and done that on several cars...typically doesn’t last long...even shorter life if they clear coat them. $20 of vvivid PPF was trivial to install and you can’t even tell it is on them (press tin foil to surface of light and into edges, flatten, trim at edges, use as template, stretch ppf up to or over each edge while very wet, remove bubbles, done). Be sure to get the PPF that says for headlights.
 
Leave it to the pros to do your PPF. Even if you did your PPF install right with no bubbles you have to realize precuts show the lines easily which gets dirty later, and the precut doesn’t extend or wrap around the edges. Most professional installers do bulk on the hood and bumper from a plotter sort of a printer that you can make edits on the computer like extending the edges. PPF is the only thing I would pay for an installer to do as it really takes skills and is an art. It’s is a good investment if you keep your car for long time so bite the bullet, spend the money. Ceramic coating is a scam too, do it yourself instead.
 
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I got the full front clip (front bumper, hood, front fenders, headlights, fogs, and side view mirros) PPF'd shortly after I picked up the car. Then I just did some light correction and ceramic coated the car myself. At first I thought about doing the PPF myself. But I bought some PPF and tried doing the headlights myself and messed that up. After that I decided to leave it to the pros.

However, I did decide to do the rocker panels myself. I figure it's low on the car and you're not going to be able to see it too much if I mess it up (which course I did). I do have a big roll sitting in my garage since I wanted to do the doors as well. Bought just enough to do 1 door (driver's) - we'll see how that turns out. If I like it and have the time I might do the other doors as well.

Good luck.
 
Leave it to the pros to do your PPF. Even if you did your PPF install right with no bubbles you have to realize precuts show the lines easily which gets dirty later, and the precut doesn’t extend or wrap around the edges. Most professional installers do bulk on the hood and bumper from a plotter sort of a printer that you can make edits on the computer like extending the edges. PPF is the only thing I would pay for an installer to do as it really takes skills and is an art. It’s is a good investment if you keep your car for long time so bite the bullet, spend the money. Ceramic coating is a scam too, do it yourself instead.
The one catch is that some tight-fitting panels may cause lifting as they rub against each other from normal driving & vibrations. So you have to be a bit selective in some places.
 
Is it just me, or are PPF prices coming down? A good thing, and totally expected, considering the cars that my local XPEL installers drive & the hours they work. I think a number of years ago getting a full wrap was $7K+ and yes all wrap quality is not equal, but prices seem to be coming down to more reasonable levels.

For me, it's worth it, but I'm cheap, so I DIY'd all the "easier" high-wear areas - full hood, full fenders, A-pillars, door mirrors (NOT easy), full rocker panels, and door bottoms. I paid professionals to do the front bumper since there's considerable risk & I wanted it absolutely perfect - even they had to throw a way a few before they got a method down for the Model 3. They threw in the headlights, fog lights, behind the rear wheels, and rear bumper applique for "free."

Now I don't get pissed when I'm driving down the highway & *sugar*'s flying all over the place. Car won't be looking like crap in a few years.
I DIYed using bulk rolls (total around $1200 after tax for a 5x15ft roll + 5x25ft roll of 3M Scotchgard Pro) and am working toward a full wrap. So far did full hood, full doors, full front bumper, full rear bumper, full front fenders, full top pillars; still getting to finishing the trunk, the rocker panels; will do the rear fenders soon. If I have spare material left, I'll do mirrors (which look hard from the shape) and headlights.

You made the right decision to have pros do the front bumper. It's a pain in the butt due to the curves (especially the top near the frunk). The trunk was similarly very difficult (I didn't finish yet, had to cut at the "spoiler", couldn't get the middle part to shape correctly, so would have to do two sections as some pre-cut kits do also), as was the rear bumper. All these require some stretching of the film (after watching some videos) to get enough tension in middle to fit the curves (otherwise it's a long and tedious process to try to work wrinkles out of the film, which I had to do). The hood was the easiest and the doors were easy too as the shape was mostly flat, with the curves pretty simple. For people looking to do DIY PPF make sure you have the right tools and solution, especially the yellow squeegee and a sprayer (the ones you can pressurize and not have to pump manually each time) for the "slip" solution (which you will use a lot of).

As for the results, I didn't have PPF in my previous car, and I'm loving how it makes it so easy to wash off. Just a quick rinse and everything comes off. I did clean my car thoroughly and washed with the slip solution before PPF, but didn't do the paint correction pros do (like buffing etc), but the PPF actually does an amazing job of hiding any micro-scratches in the paint (that was visible without it). The negative is any dirt that was stuck inside is quite obvious, so you have to be extra careful to get all the dirt off your car (and the sheet itself), and also have to make sure to apply enough pressure to get the water out, otherwise you will be left with bubbles after it dries off. Also I'm not worried at all about scratches because it's a 8 mil thick layer. The typical clear coat in a car is only 2 mil, and something like a ceramic coat is even thinner (like 1-2 microns or 0.04-0.08 mil).
 
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