[evenian]

I just ordered a new 1LE yesterday and will def be applying PPF to my new car. I want a full wrap on my car but I don’t want to pay $7k..I’m gonna do my car myself. I’m going to teach myself the basics on my wife’s car..I’m also gonna take a training course next month in Virginia...there is good money to be made doing PPF.

[Scottyz]

Originally Posted by Devius83

I am having my 1LE front bumper, fenders, doors, and the hood of course in PPF clear vinyl soon. Not cheap but I am told it is worth it by far...Anyone have this done? I will be having the top product applied with a ten year warranty, the hood will be matte to match
I will post pics once complete

I did Suntek Ultra PPF over my entire vehicle minus mirrors and rear diffuser. Wow!!!
I think it’s incredible stuff. I washed the vehicle last Monday for the first time since having it applied. Took it out on the highways and backroads ripping the car all over the place.
I could hear the rocks pinging off my car especially with the GY3R tires.
Brought I back to the shop to get ceramic over the ppf and mirrors, grill, rims, calipers and rear diffuser.
I actually apologized to my ppf guy for what looked like about a pound of bugs stuck to the front of the car. I wish I had taken a picture of the front end with the bugs. It was seriously gross.
He laughed and said no problem.
He grabbed a rag and wiped them off all the ppf on the front end like the bugs were WATER!!!!
I was seriously lost for words. Not a mark, smidge, smear, NOTHING!!!
They all wiped off with the effort of wiping the rag across the front end.
I was shocked at how easy it was. Like wiping water off the car. Literally!!!

[Scottyz]

Expensive. But I must say some of the best money I have spent on a car. And I have spent LOTS of money on cars since I starting working on and building them when I was 12 years old. I’m now 44.

[Ryanbabz71]

Definitely worth it. Had my car done last year and had my new 2019 Silverado done yesterday.


Ryan B.

[FlashBang23]

Originally Posted by Devius83

@Flashbang23....curious as to how much it cost you to have it applied? Just comparing to my quote.
I am mostly interested in having the hood protected more so

My bumper alone was $600-$650 (cant remember which) and hood would've been $450 to do. I contemplated doing the xpel over the factory matte wrap on the hood but decided against it because then if I did suffer catastrophic damage to the film both would need to be replaced. Last year I smoked a deer and had my new hood wrapped - cost was only $225 for satin 3M. Since I have already suffered some pretty severe damage to the front bumper Xpel I plan on just re wrapping the hood every couple years instead.

[Devius83]

Good point regarding both needing replacement when the time came eventually, I am skipping the hood this round.
I am booked in for June 6th, Ill post pics once complete
Not many shops around Vancouver qualified either, I will be driving to Kelowna...Should be a nice drive!

[NASTY_1LE]

I regret not wrapping my car right away.. probably too late now

3,700 miles in and i already have a few noticeable chips on the front end smh

people have mentioned the rear panels getting the brunt of it but i haven’t seen any damage yet

[Scargoes]

I did my whole car with Xpel Ultimate Plus. The hood was done in their stealth to retain the satin look. I also had Ceramic Pro applied over the xpel to help me keep the car clean. I't been 1 year and I have been happy with the product so far. But I do have damage to the xpel. There are several areas where rocks have gone thru the xpel and into the paint/body, it actually went thru a layer of duct tape and blue painters tape prior to going thru the xpel.

My car is a toy, and I live in a harsh environment. I sufered the cost of the PPF in an attempt to keep the car looking as good as I can before having to respray it.

[artey34]

I got Xpel for the front end, fenders, hood, rockers and around the rear wheels. Then for track days, I cover those same areas in Track Armour. That way I am not blasting through the Xpel on the track, and then its good for daily use. I wouldnt want to have to respray hyper blue as it would be tough to match. If you can afford it, for sure do the high impact areas

[19SW1LE]

Originally Posted by evenian

I just ordered a new 1LE yesterday and will def be applying PPF to my new car. I want a full wrap on my car but I don’t want to pay $7k..I’m gonna do my car myself. I’m going to teach myself the basics on my wife’s car..I’m also gonna take a training course next month in Virginia...there is good money to be made doing PPF.

,
Yes, learning to do it yourself is going the cheapest way to go. I just did my 1LE and my previous mustang myself and saved a ton of money. I ordered pre cut kits from NorthTints on ebay, $288 shipped. It came complete to include a splitter piece.Good quality 3m scotchguard 8 mil film. Good luck.
PS, not gonna be fun at first but it'll get better.

[Ravis22]

I have a ZL1 and was looking to wrap the hood in black vinyl, similar to the 1le. Was also planning on doing ppf. Question is, is it worth doing both the vinyl and the ppf? and if so, does it make sense to put the ppf on top of or below the vinyl? I understand if you have a 1le, then you’d likely put it on top, since the vinyl wrap is already there, but if doing both at same time, what’s better?

[50MileSmile]

Have the Xpel installer use the matte-finish product on top of the very thin vinyl on the full hood - plus the splitter and mirrors. Then they’ll all be protected and the color and sheen will match. Also do the full “U” - both A pillars and the header above the windshield; make sure they wrap into the painted trough around the windshield, or you’ll just have a bug collector. I also did the rockers up to the horizontal door line and removed the crappy Chevy plastic in front of the rear wheels and replaced it with Xpel from the rocker up next to the door to the wheel and up to the body seam near the top of the wheel. In 15 months of owning the car, I only have one mark in the Xpel - passenger side roof, 4 inches back from the windshield.

From the complaints here about nicks and marks in the Xpel, it sounds like some of you may not be taking advantage of the 10-year warranty for free replacement of damaged sections. I just had the entire front end of my 2-week-old daily driver rewrapped at no charge because of a hit on the lower-right edge of the air dam that caused the Xpel to start peeling about 3/4 inch. This is the 7th car I’ve had treated with Xpel. The Xpel on the 6-year-old car I traded in still looked great, with no fading, color change or lifting along edges or seams. These people stand behind their product, and you’ll see a bonus for it at trade-in time.

[Joe Remi]

Originally Posted by s346k

it’s funny to see the lengths we go to in order to protect the lowest quality of paint to hit the automotive market in the last 40 years.

It's also funny when you consider what paint is. As a bicycle company owner friend of mine likes to say, the paint is there to protect the thing under the paint. It's going to get scratched!

[GA1LE]

Originally Posted by Joe Remi

It's also funny when you consider what paint is. As a bicycle company owner friend of mine likes to say, the paint is there to protect the thing under the paint. It's going to get scratched!

All due respect to your friend, I have to disagree. Paint is there to make sure that the mix of materials used to build a car look good. Without paint, your car would have a bunch of crazy color mixes, looking something like those guys driving around town with Bondo and unpainted body kits.

The only cars that ever look good unpainted (even primer is paint matching) are cars made entirely out of carbon fiber or a DeLorean. Even DeLoreans look bad if you look closely. The plastic (or fiberglass, not sure which it is) front bumper never matched the stainless-steel body panels.