PPF vs. Paint Repair Kit?

[kriskeyman]

I’m curious why folks go the PPF route vs. the Paint Repair Kit offered by Tesla. Is the PRK difficult to use or does not work well? From the videos it looks fairly easy, but I haven’t tried it myself. From a price standpoint, I’m trying to justify ~$2k for PPF vs. just doing minor paint repairs every 6 months or so. I’d have to go through 36 bottles of touch up paint to break even with PPF!

 

[duanra]

I guess it is the same thing as using band aid versus knee protection

 

[Sam1]

If you have pearl white, it will be almost impossible for you to match the paint properly. The Tesla kit is trash... I ordered a 2 step kit and mixed the paint myself to get it as close as possible.

you don’t need to spend $2k on ppf. 90%+ of the chips will be to the front clip, so just get that done... should be $750ish.

 

[Whitehawk]

PPF is way superior to touch up paint...comparing a glove to a bandaid. If you only plan to keep your car for a year or two and live in areas where roads are not treated with salt and gravel PPF may not be worth the money. However if you plan to keep the car longer or live in areas with winter road treatments PPF will be worth it, especially on dark colors. PPF also has some thickness and will protect against small dings.

 

[joebruin77]

I agree with Whitehawk. Touchup paint is helpful for relatively small scratches, but what happens if your car is hit by a bunch of gravel all at once? There are certain types of damage for which touch up paint is inadequate but PPF will still protect you. For a bunch of gravel scratches, you would need to repaint an entire panel or two. Plus, PPF prevents swirls and scratches induced by car washes and improper washing/drying techniques.

And of course, PPF's self healing properties are truly amazing. Check out this video from Engineering Explained. Fast forward to time mark 1:20 in which he uses a steel brush to purposely induce scratches into the PPF-protected paint. Once exposed to heat, either from the sun, hot water, or a heat gun, the scratches instantly disappear.

 

[XLR82XS]

There are no minor paint repairs especially with Tesla sub-par paint. Every car I own gets PPF. PPF on my Teslas is already taken a hell of a beating after ~21K miles (on the 2020). Without PPF and forward facing surface will get destroyed especially the rocker panels.

PPF worth every penny if you want to keep the paint looking new for years.

 

[ldcrsmode]

PPF Hands down. I don't think i've ever heard anyone say that they regret getting PPF for their car. Not only does it protect from rock chips, but it leaves your paint like new even if you have to redo the PPF in a few years.