PPF - Cleaning Dirty Seams

[Premiertint]

When you get a chance. It is hard to coach you through this without some pics. lol.

 

[SouthBayGuy]

To prevent dirt from getting underneath, I usually spray the edges with alcohol and wipe the edge as dry as possible. I usually do this a couple of times or until I am certain the edges are dry. Then I use a hairdryer or heat gun to heat the edges and press the edges of the ppf firmly against the body and make sure the edge is sticking. I'm not a pro. And maybe there is a better way to do this. But I have done this enough times to learn from my mistakes.

 

[PhillyDoc]

My shop rolls the edges. That means the edges are tucked and rolled behind each body panel. In other words, we simply don't have an edge that is visible/exposed with the doors closed.


In this picture, you can barely see the edge of the clear bra in the bottom left of the pic. This is way down inside the mouth of the front bumper. The film edge is about 1/16 of an inch from the edge of the paint. View attachment 505280

I am curious about this...
My detailer who does a lot of Tesla’s and other much more expensive cars with XPEL said that if you roll it under sometimes there isn’t enough area for it stick in certain areas of the car....unless you start taking apart the car for it. I do trust the guy.

thoughts? Experience?

 

[SouthBayGuy]

I posted this in another forum. But one can also contact a vendor who sells pre-cut kits and ask them to extend the edges so that you can tuck the film either further in or behind the panel depending on the level of access.. That is what I did with several panels.

 

[Wattsisname]

No way for the film to adhere again, once it's covered with dirt/debris and lifts off the paint. You'll need to take a razor and carefully score/remove that little strip of film. That's what I had to do with a few areas on my vehicle. Super easy, if you have a steady hand. For those who are not comfortable using/pressing a razor on the PPF and don't want to risk scratching the paint, I suppose you could try cleaning the film as much as possible and then applying an adhesion promoter to help the dirty film stick again.

As for removing dirt that has built up along the normal edges/seams, rubbing alcohol and a Q-tip and/or soft toothbrush has always worked for me.

OMG This sounds like a nightmare. I was just about to accept a quote for full PPF with unwrapped edges for my model Y. I really could not cope with these dirty edges of which you speak. I will either gofer front end and front truck pls ceramic or just ceramic.

Now then.....SWMBE has just (quite reasonably) commented that "It might have been a good idea to do the research first". In my defence, the notion of edges, wrapped or otherwise did not occur to me until I visited an installer yesterday when that question popped, unbidden into my head. And the installer said they do not wrap edges, except for the front trunk but it will be perfectos close to the edge.

What the installer certainly did not say was: " Oh by the way, we use the machine cut Xpel without wrapped edges, except for the front trunk) and those edges will look like Sh.one.tee in about a year and you will spend every free moment with a toothbrush trying to clean them. And by the way, we will charge you £thousands for the privilege"

What the installer did say, however, is that the PPF is laid over the cameras?!? That might be good for protection but what about clarity; the PPF must reduce light to the lens...no!

 

[Premiertint]

We've never had any clarity issues or reduction of light from PPF installation.

 

[Wattsisname]

We've never had any clarity issues or reduction of light from PPF installation.

That's excellent news. Thank you. The cameras (forgive me for stating the obvious) perform several very important operational functions affecting both safety and security.