Wrap / Coating / ?

[XerxesS]

Getting my black MYLR on Monday, and debating whether to coat, wrap, or just let it alone. I'm extremely lazy in terms of maintenance - basically just get it machine washed whenever it starts looking grimy. I suppose I could be a little less lazy, but I'd basically love to have a fairly low-maintenance way to protect against scratches and chips, oftentimes incurred by children running near car.

Any thoughts on differences between the various options, and estimated prices? If there's a breakdown I missed on this elsewhere, happy to just look at that, but couldn't find it. Thanks!

 

[Pianewman]

PPF Installers in MD/DC/VA

I'm looking for PPF installers in MD/DC/VA area for Model Y. Do we need to do ceramic coating as well after PPF? Please let me know if it is cost effective to order the PPF from drive protected and just pay the labor cost to installers ? If yes, any recommendations who just do install? TIA

teslamotorsclub.com

Hope this helps.

 

[dagug]

Getting my black MYLR on Monday, and debating whether to coat, wrap, or just let it alone. I'm extremely lazy in terms of maintenance - basically just get it machine washed whenever it starts looking grimy. I suppose I could be a little less lazy, but I'd basically love to have a fairly low-maintenance way to protect against scratches and chips, oftentimes incurred by children running near car.

Any thoughts on differences between the various options, and estimated prices? If there's a breakdown I missed on this elsewhere, happy to just look at that, but couldn't find it. Thanks!

If you're lazy, get it wrapped with PPF and ceramic coated. PPF is marginally self healing and can mitigate very minor scratches (aka kids) and ceramic coating makes washes significantly quicker. Since you are happy to do machine washes, the PPF/ceramic will somewhat help to protect against dirt/grime in the brushes from the carwash itself (reducing swirl marks in your paint) and it'll also allow bird poop and bugs to slide off easier. That said, your ceramic might not hold up if you're regularly going to a gas station car wash so it might end up being a bit of wasted money in that regard. Highly recommend at least PPF though for your circumstances.

It's a relatively expensive option though. Will likely run you 7-10k to get both done depending on local prices. I've got a black Y wrapped in XPEL stealth and I get comments and looks all the time. And it's about a zillion times easier to maintain than the bare stock black paint. I also have kids who just LOVE to run their hands all over the car as they wander through the garage... PPF/ceramic has saved my paint many times over.

 

[XerxesS]

Thanks for the responses guys.

One quick thought: if I eventually want to shift from the stock color to a matte, do I need to wrap it now, or can I wait until later? In other words, let's say I keep it as is now and get some minor scratches - would I be worse off for not having wrapped it?

 

[dagug]

If you get some scratches and wrap it after the fact, you'll be basically encasing those scratches. The matte film will somewhat muddy it up so it's less noticeable but it'll still be there and you'll probably still be able to see it. I'm assuming if you go with the regular film (glossy) it will serve to magnify the scratches/imperfections.

That said, most film application companies will offer paint correction. But if it's a full on scratch in the paint, they might charge you for it. Either way, it's probably better to have the film done sooner rather than later.

If instead of PPF you went with a vinyl wrap (like a full solid color wrap) that will cover up the existing paint. The scratch of course is still there but everything gets covered up. But, this is different than PPF... PPF has protective qualities and is purpose built to protect against minor road damage. As such it is a bit more robust. A vinyl color wrap is only for changing the color without having a full paint job. It is much more susceptible to rock chips/damage than PPF, is not self healing, and will do very little to protect your paint outside of surface scratches.