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To PPF or not to PPF?

Paint Protection?


  • Total voters
    113
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I know this has been discussed, but not recently enough for me!
I'm looking at spending $1500 on PPF for entire front, around doors and tail gate and it includes a center console wrap. Sounds like a great deal but $1500 is more than I've ever spent on car paint care. That said my last car's paint looked terrible after just 3 years here in So Cal.

If you have PPF, do you still recommend it and if not how is your paint looking?
 
I vote PPF. I let it ride on Model 3 in Illinois... I don't know that PPF would have stopped all the small dings, but I imagine PPF would have saved my paint from most of these rock/gravel pits on the front bumper and hood near logo.

Then again, we're in it for the long run, hoping to get at least 10 years out of the vehicle, so I'm sure some expensive paint correction will be in order halfway through the stint. Or maybe just wrap the car, pits and all? Point being, save yourself the headache and get it wrapped while the paint is new and undamaged.
 
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$1500 is a good price for all of those panels assuming the do a good job. I've had PPF on 3 cars including the new MY. If is a daily driver and you want to keep it perfect then do PPF. If you are leasing, have good road conditions, don't drive behind trucks on the freeway, don't have kids, etc then your car probably won't take much abuse. If you don't check those boxes then you should consider getting it. This simply comes down to "is protecting the paint worth it to you?"
 
I did full front ppf, plus rocker and mud guard areas. This is my car after almost 2 years. There's a couple spots on the bumper where rocks ate through the clearbra but its not enough to damage the paint and not enough to replace the ppf. After I had the ppf installed, they all started to come out with even thicker ppf for the lower areas, I'd def look into that if you're getting wrapped now.

You can DIY ceramic coat. I did mine for $65, got cquartz off amazon and applied it after cleaning the car. Still beads water like its freshly waxed.

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I'm on the side of keeping the paint as is, and spending money to detail and repair.

People shell out thousands for pff, and then still need to repair it when it gets damaged.

I could have my hood and front bumper professionally repainted for less than the cost of some ppf installs.

There's some logic in that, but:

1. You're riding around with a ton of holes in your front bumper for years

2. Your repair is going to be non-oem and still subject to damage.

I have ppf wrapped my last 6 or so cars, all were basically like new by the time I sold them. No need to mess with repainting or a moon crater in the front.

Especially a problem with this car with the low hood and bumper.
 
I know this has been discussed, but not recently enough for me!
I'm looking at spending $1500 on PPF for entire front, around doors and tail gate and it includes a center console wrap. Sounds like a great deal but $1500 is more than I've ever spent on car paint care. That said my last car's paint looked terrible after just 3 years here in So Cal.

If you have PPF, do you still recommend it and if not how is your paint looking?

Picked up the car on Saturday and went straight to the shop from the SC for PPF (Xpel Stealth/matte) and 30% ceramic tint all the way around. Just picked the car up this afternoon.

So far, so good. Obviously, wish it was something that could have been done for a lot less.
 

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Picked up the car on Saturday and went straight to the shop from the SC for PPF (Xpel Stealth/matte) and 30% ceramic tint all the way around. Just picked the car up this afternoon.

So far, so good. Obviously, wish it was something that could have been done for a lot less.
You Y looks great! If you don’t mind, ball-park, how much was the wrap and tint? I picked my MY Thursday and I’m looking to get PPF and tint done.
 
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You Y looks great! If you don’t mind, ball-park, how much was the wrap and tint? I picked my MY Thursday and I’m looking to get PPF and tint done.

Right around Bay Area average, just under 6k out the door, which I still think is about 2k above what it should be. I had full body Xpel Stealth/satin PPF and 30% tint on everything but the front windshield.

I called, emailed and Yelp messaged a lot of places from SF down to Santa Clara.

Most prices are pretty similar and competitive in price. So, it just comes down to personal preference of the shop.
 
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I did full front ppf, plus rocker and mud guard areas. This is my car after almost 2 years. There's a couple spots on the bumper where rocks ate through the clearbra but its not enough to damage the paint and not enough to replace the ppf. After I had the ppf installed, they all started to come out with even thicker ppf for the lower areas, I'd def look into that if you're getting wrapped now.

You can DIY ceramic coat. I did mine for $65, got cquartz off amazon and applied it after cleaning the car. Still beads water like its freshly waxed.

View attachment 623039


May I ask which PPF you went with? I wanted to do full body but wayyyy to pricey - considering just some areas as you mentioned you had done. Full front includes what exactly? Bumper and Hood?
 
May I ask which PPF you went with? I wanted to do full body but wayyyy to pricey - considering just some areas as you mentioned you had done. Full front includes what exactly? Bumper and Hood?

from my (brief) research, full-front includes front bumper, whole hood, rear view mirrors, front fenders and A-pillars.

I think that is what I’m going to do, a long with ceramic coat.
 
You can't really compare PPF to ceramic coating can you. Both surely protect the paint, but PPF is a physical film that is a barrier (many now have hydrophobic properties). Ceramic coating is also hydrophobic but there is not a physical barrier. It won't stop rock chips etc like PPF. Rocks and road debris pose a much greater risk to your paint that most other things.

I have always PPF and ceramic coat my cars in the last few works. Best of both worlds.
 
May I ask which PPF you went with? I wanted to do full body but wayyyy to pricey - considering just some areas as you mentioned you had done. Full front includes what exactly? Bumper and Hood?

The installer typically has patterns they cut out and apply. Patterns are generally linked to the material, so one ppf company might have better patterns that work better than another ppf brand (fitment mostly). The cost depends on material + their time, so you can mix and match to get whatever you want covered.

First step is picking a ppf. Generally they're similar, go with the one with 10 year warranty if you can. Aside from cost and warranty, they now make them in thicker variants, you should consider thicker film for the front bumper since its low and takes the large direct hits.

Second step is how they do the install. Theres 3 basic ways to wrap your car, first one is old school, slap the ppf on the car and cut it out right on the vehicle. They do this for vehicles without patterns but also to get a wrap that covers everything and doesn't leave visible lines (because the ppf ends in an area you can see). Second way is a pattern they cut out and print. This is the cheapest route. The third way is between the two, where they take a premade pattern and extend some of the edges, so they can wrap the film around the bumper so there aren't lines. For example, the fender ppf can be longer on all edges except for corners, and wrap into the under hood area, or behind the headlight. The hood would wrap underneath it. So if you wanted a better install, you could ask to see if they extend the patterns to wrap the edges.

Last step is picking what to wrap. This is what I had done on mine:

1. full hood. The half hood sucks and this car the hood is super low.

2. front fenders

3. headlights including fogs

4. A pillar

5. side view mirrors

6. rocker panels

7. mud guard areas (before installing mud guards) because the mudguards will shift and shake and can get dirt behind them.

8. entire front bumper.

If you wanted the cheapest route, full hood and front bumper.


I would recommend removing the Tesla badge off the hood and installing a new one on top of the ppf. Or you can just leave the logo off (like I did) if you want clean. I don't think I'd want them reusing the old badge.


You could also buy a pre-cut ppf and install yourself, but that's a pain if you don't know what you're doing. If we're talking about the cybertruck, that might be super easy since all the surfaces are flat. But I'm not sure there is much point to wrapping steel.
 
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