Should I full ppf my new white model y?

[2101Guy]

I've owned a LOT of cars over the years. Several sold (I sell all my cars myself to other private buyers) with well over $100k miles on them.
Can honestly say none of them had massive issues associated with chips from rocks. (I park in end spaces only, far away, so door dings are literally never a thing for me). And when I sold? Still got top dollar even with the regular/expected tiny chips on front of car. And if I did have anything notable in size that bothered me a lot? I'd reduce visibility of them fairly easy with process like this which is a fraction of the price of PPF.

That said, had PPF on my front bumper. (which FYI: PPF itself also gets unacttractive little nicks in it over time) Then a bucket bounced in front of me and PPF didnt help(didnt expect it to). Result: Had to pay for replacement bumper AND lost the investment made in the PPF.

For me? back to my old way: No PPF, careful touchup when needed, and invest PPF money in stocks. Then sell the vehicle for exact same amount I'd have gotten if I had PPF on it.

 

[DoctaM3]

Having gone through the exact same questions in my head, I feel I can safely give accurate and relevant advice on this topic.

Buy as much PPF as you can afford or are willing to spend.

I paid $1600 for a full frontal suntek PPF. It was a plotted install as opposed to bulk. 60% of the edges wrap, but there are some visible edges/seams. Whatever. The install itself was done with a close attention to detail and I wasn't willing to spend $3k to have the car dismantled and every edge wrapped. It's just not worth my money.

So 4 weeks after install, I caught a rock on the highway and it hit my driver door leaving 2-3 small gash marks. OF COURSE. No PPF there.

Do I wish I had the car fully PPF'd? I don't know. A full PPF job would have easily been $3-4k. THAT IS A LOT OF MONEY. Like A LOT A LOT. I feel like I hit the sweet spot with what I paid vs what I got... and knowing that I still might catch some damage in other areas...I should just save the difference and use that savings to just do the repairs.

PLUS, like it was stated prior... this is a CAR, not a museum specimen. Go drive it. Get it dirty. Dents and dings and scratches and chips suck, but it's part of car ownership. Do your best to protect your car, but at some point spending thousands upon thousands of dollars on protection is the same as over insuring your car...and then you're just throwing away money.

So again... buy as much PPF as you can afford or are willing to spend.

That is pretty much what I was getting at in my comment. Full body PPF is not for everyone but it depends on how you view the car. PPF is a lot of money but buying a Tesla is ALOT ALOT ALOT aALOT of money too. If you are a car enthusiast and are OCD about your paint, then that peace of mind of PPF will also go a long way.

 

[Stealth.Pilot]

I have never had a rock chip on a non protected part of the car. The areas I protect are: Hood, Front and rear bumpers, Fenders, A-Pillars, rocker panels including rear haunch, door mirrors. This is considerable cheaper than doing the whole car.

 

[Stealth.Pilot]

I've owned a LOT of cars over the years. Several sold (I sell all my cars myself to other private buyers) with well over $100k miles on them.
Can honestly say none of them had massive issues associated with chips from rocks. (I park in end spaces only, far away, so door dings are literally never a thing for me). And when I sold? Still got top dollar even with the regular/expected tiny chips on front of car. And if I did have anything notable in size that bothered me a lot? I'd reduce visibility of them fairly easy with process like this which is a fraction of the price of PPF.

That said, had PPF on my front bumper. (which FYI: PPF itself also gets unacttractive little nicks in it over time) Then a bucket bounced in front of me and PPF didnt help(didnt expect it to). Result: Had to pay for replacement bumper AND lost the investment made in the PPF.

For me? back to my old way: No PPF, careful touchup when needed, and invest PPF money in stocks. Then sell the vehicle for exact same amount I'd have gotten if I had PPF on it.

My insurance covers the PPF.

 

[Stealth.Pilot]

That is pretty much what I was getting at in my comment. Full body PPF is not for everyone but it depends on how you view the car. PPF is a lot of money but buying a Tesla is ALOT ALOT ALOT aALOT of money too. If you are a car enthusiast and are OCD about your paint, then that peace of mind of PPF will also go a long way.

Tesla is not a lot of money. Most people who do full body PPF are buying cars that are over $200k. The Tesla Roadster is in that category. A model Y is a pretty inexpensive car.

 

[NCC81701]

Hoping for some input. Getting my white 2021 MY within the week. So stoked. Been trying to decide on ppf or not and full vs front only. It is white, no garage, parked outside not under trees or power lines. In San Diego so weather not huge issue. Wanting to keep car a while but not sure if they cost is worth it. Would love some input from the group. Thanks so much.

I just got the PPF and ceramic coat done on my White MY back at Ceramic Pro/5pt auto spa in San Diego. These guys offered a "performance package" which is full front, rocker (includes lower part of the door), door handles, and rear cargo lip where the door meets the bumper for a bit more than full front PPF only. I thought this was a good choice between full front and full body.

 

[ItsElectric87]

I just got the PPF and ceramic coat done on my White MY back at Ceramic Pro/5pt auto spa in San Diego. These guys offered a "performance package" which is full front, rocker (includes lower part of the door), door handles, and rear cargo lip where the door meets the bumper for a bit more than full front PPF only. I thought this was a good choice between full front and full body.

dude I literally was just there and taking my car there for my full front and they just told me about the performance version. Is the PPF on the rockers and stuff noticable? I think I might do that too and a layer of ceramic for $90. You like how it came out?

 

[cbo111]

Having gone through the exact same questions in my head, I feel I can safely give accurate and relevant advice on this topic.

Buy as much PPF as you can afford or are willing to spend.

I paid $1600 for a full frontal suntek PPF. It was a plotted install as opposed to bulk. 60% of the edges wrap, but there are some visible edges/seams. Whatever. The install itself was done with a close attention to detail and I wasn't willing to spend $3k to have the car dismantled and every edge wrapped. It's just not worth my money.

So 4 weeks after install, I caught a rock on the highway and it hit my driver door leaving 2-3 small gash marks. OF COURSE. No PPF there.

Do I wish I had the car fully PPF'd? I don't know. A full PPF job would have easily been $3-4k. THAT IS A LOT OF MONEY. Like A LOT A LOT. I feel like I hit the sweet spot with what I paid vs what I got... and knowing that I still might catch some damage in other areas...I should just save the difference and use that savings to just do the repairs.

PLUS, like it was stated prior... this is a CAR, not a museum specimen. Go drive it. Get it dirty. Dents and dings and scratches and chips suck, but it's part of car ownership. Do your best to protect your car, but at some point spending thousands upon thousands of dollars on protection is the same as over insuring your car...and then you're just throwing away money.

So again... buy as much PPF as you can afford or are willing to spend.

Why not just skip the PPF and get the car repainted when it gets all dinged up? What does a decent paint job cost, $3-4K? The original Tesla paint is admittedly not super high quality.

 

[Clark_Kent]

Full ppf is a waste of money. Don't let peer pressure force your hand. Full front ppf and rear doors near the wheels is all you need.

 

[Stealth.Pilot]

Why not just skip the PPF and get the car repainted when it gets all dinged up? What does a decent paint job cost, $3-4K? The original Tesla paint is admittedly not super high quality.

There are two reasons:
1) Are you going to repaint the hood every time you get a chip, or just when you sell it? If former, it will get expensive. If latter, then most of the time you will be living with chips. For OCD people the self-healing PPF solves this problem by keeping the car chip free.
2) Repainting a car impacts resale value. Albeit this may not be an issue for Tesla owners since the shitty factory paint shop means that if a buyer questions why your car has been painted, you can always say it was because of initial paint quality.

Partial body PPF is the way to go. For $2000 you can protect every part that can get chipped, and save a lot of money.

 

[stopcrazypp]

So 4 weeks after install, I caught a rock on the highway and it hit my driver door leaving 2-3 small gash marks. OF COURSE. No PPF there.

Do I wish I had the car fully PPF'd? I don't know. A full PPF job would have easily been $3-4k. THAT IS A LOT OF MONEY. Like A LOT A LOT. I feel like I hit the sweet spot with what I paid vs what I got... and knowing that I still might catch some damage in other areas...I should just save the difference and use that savings to just do the repairs.

Ouch. I'm planning to do a full DIY PPF from bulk on my Model 3. I bought a 5 ft x 15 ft roll of 3M Scotchgard Pro that was on sale on eBay for $330. Not 100% sure if it's genuine or not (as 3M no longer uses their logo on the backing paper), but feels thick enough to match the 8 mil spec. Did the hood already (not perfect, there are a few bubbles I may have to pop, but for most part it's not visible). That used up about 4 ft.

Finished the driver's side front door and it was actually fairly easy to do as it's mostly flat. Only thing to look out for is the area under the mirror and also adhering the front facing edge (have to open door and reach in through the hinges to do so). The two front doors use up another 4 ft. I'm probably going to do the front bumper with the left over first, and probably need another roll or two to do the rest (but waiting for it to come back in stock first).

Bought these squeegees to do it (they are the perfect hardness, not hard enough to scratch the film, but hard enough to force out the water).
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B081QZ3T26/
I followed these instructions from 3M and bought Johnson's Baby Shampoo and used filtered water for the soap solution. I used a RL Flo-Master 4 pt. Hand Sprayer (bought at Home Depot previously to water plants); a pump sprayer like this is necessary given you use a lot of the soap solution. I repurposed a window spray bottle for the alcohol solution (given less was used).
https://multimedia.3m.com/mws/media/745492O/scotchgard-ppf-2-14.pdf
Also got these Fiskars scissors off eBay (saw them being used in a PPF video and it was useful for cutting the film at odd angles).
https://www.fiskars.com/en-us/craft...eam-ripper-for-tabletop-cutting-5-199800-1001
Also bought this kit, but other than the magnet holders and the micro squeegees (useful tucking edges into trim), didn't use the rest (already had other cutters).
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07VWP91H1/

@ItsElectric87 can probably consider having the most affected (hardest to apply, like front bumper) done by a pro and then DIY the easier ones with mostly flat surfaces (like the doors, rockers, roof pillar) using bulk PPF. I decided on bulk given the pre-cut kits need stretching to apply correctly without leaving uncovered edges, while with bulk, I am free to cut where necessary.

 

[BradsY]

Picked up my MY 5 days ago, have an appt for full wrap this coming Monday. Having concoursas do it, they have a deal this month. Suntek Ultra wrap and Suntek Ceramic tint, $5300 ($47xx for the full wrap alone). Was told this will take 5-6 days to install.
I plan on keeping the car for, hopefully, 8-10 years. Given that, $5k is a small price to pay for many years of not having to deal with touch-ups/chips. Cause, you all know just how clean our roads are out here.

 

[2101Guy]

Maybe I drive differently or have just been lucky with all my cars. But with zero PPF?

There are two reasons:
1) Are you going to repaint the hood every time you get a chip, or just when you sell it? If former, it will get expensive. If latter, then most of the time you will be living with chips. For OCD people the self-healing PPF solves this problem by keeping the car chip free.
2) Repainting a car impacts resale value. Albeit this may not be an issue for Tesla owners since the shitty factory paint shop means that if a buyer questions why your car has been painted, you can always say it was because of initial paint quality.

Partial body PPF is the way to go. For $2000 you can protect every part that can get chipped, and save a lot of money.

Couple notes from experience:
- PPF isnt 100% self healing. Scripted youtube videos are different from real life. Some chips go through the PPF (its not bulletproof) and leave a mark on the PPF and if the object hits hard enough, WILL still nick the metal/paint.
- When trading in a car or selling to a private owner? 90% of the time no one checks or cares if the car has had a full respray in same color, especially if the job was done right/well. So chances are, zero impact on resale value.
- There is no resale value for PPF.
- Ive bought and sold a LOT of cars over the years. None have had any PPF at all. (like most used cars dont). And I've never had major chip damage (or even minor) that resulted in detraction of the cars value. Im talking cars with well over 100k miles

Im just not convinced that suddenly in the last couple years, rock chips have suddenly become some sort of massive epidemic in the car world.

 

[NCC81701]

dude I literally was just there and taking my car there for my full front and they just told me about the performance version. Is the PPF on the rockers and stuff noticable? I think I might do that too and a layer of ceramic for $90. You like how it came out?

the PPF and ceramic coat came out great. You wouldn’t noticed that it’s there unless you put your face up to the panel gaps and look for them. For the lower half of the door, the MY flares out from the bottom and they did the PPF to the peak of that flare so it blends in really well. Those ceramic pro guys did a great job and I’d recommend them to anyone looking for PPF and Ceramic Coats in SD area.

 

[kindofblue]

I've read on the "interwebs" that one should wait 2-4 weeks after a car is painted before applying ppf to give the paint time to cure. We're taking delivery of our red Y this next week and I've delayed getting the ppf on the front of the car for a couple weeks as it's just now been built/painted.

I've also got mudflaps coming this next week from RPM that should help protect the doors from debris.

 

[Clark_Kent]

I've read on the "interwebs" that one should wait 2-4 weeks after a car is painted before applying ppf to give the paint time to cure. We're taking delivery of our red Y this next week and I've delayed getting the ppf on the front of the car for a couple weeks as it's just now been built/painted.

I've also got mudflaps coming this next week from RPM that should help protect the doors from debris.

That's not true. There's no need to wait.

 

[kindofblue]

That's not true. There's no need to wait.

Having researched this further I agree with you. Thanks.

 

[everydaychris]

Got it thanks. I been calling around and been getting a wide range of quotes, from $4k - 7.5k for a full wrap. The cheapest was Xpel, Nexus, and Prestige being the most expensive film. What prices is everyone else getting? $7.5k is a hard pill to swallowX

Xtreme edge in garden grove. That's what I'm doing now and I'm doing a youtube video about it.

Allen is pretty legit. No hidden fees. Lowest prices around even in the Inland empire. He does one piece mirrors and bumpers custom fit. Wraps all the headlights and tail lights with xpel ultimate.
Doesn't up charge for ultimate vs stealth like other shops.

Has multiple guys to help.

Easy to communicate in English with.


Checks everything off on my list.

 

[everydaychris]

I've read on the "interwebs" that one should wait 2-4 weeks after a car is painted before applying ppf to give the paint time to cure. We're taking delivery of our red Y this next week and I've delayed getting the ppf on the front of the car for a couple weeks as it's just now been built/painted.

I've also got mudflaps coming this next week from RPM that should help protect the doors from debris.

incorrect. If anything do it the day after.

 

[everydaychris]

Maybe I drive differently or have just been lucky with all my cars. But with zero PPF?

Couple notes from experience:
- PPF isnt 100% self healing. Scripted youtube videos are different from real life. Some chips go through the PPF (its not bulletproof) and leave a mark on the PPF and if the object hits hard enough, WILL still nick the metal/paint.
- When trading in a car or selling to a private owner? 90% of the time no one checks or cares if the car has had a full respray in same color, especially if the job was done right/well. So chances are, zero impact on resale value.
- There is no resale value for PPF.
- Ive bought and sold a LOT of cars over the years. None have had any PPF at all. (like most used cars dont). And I've never had major chip damage (or even minor) that resulted in detraction of the cars value. Im talking cars with well over 100k miles

Im just not convinced that suddenly in the last couple years, rock chips have suddenly become some sort of massive epidemic in the car world.

I agree completely but it is better than bare bones.

MY RX 350 has it and for some weird reason someone spilled gravel all over the 5 freeway. It sprayed all over my bumper and hood. When I inspected it at home, there were little white marks all over the bumper and a small nick in the wrap.
It's not sooo thick it's invincible. However, beneath the paint where the nick was, the paint was fine. And the white marks disappeared within a few hours.

As far as resale value that's correct. It's more of an aesthetically pleasing type of thing to have. And I plan on having my car for at least 10 years. One car I had for 10 years was horrible with paint chips all over and it didn't matter how well you washed it, it looked like I had bugs all over the front of my bumper.

In the end, I had it before for 4 years on the front bumper and loved it so much, for my Tesla MY that I love already, I'm doing a full body xpel stealth for 4k.

FYI* with all the Tesla haters out there, it helps to have this protection as well.