[Alexk]

How much did you pay for ceramic coating?

[6spdhyperblue]

I have a set of SS wheels that tucks the tires into the fenders for normal driving. Should save the paint.

Just fyi, SS runflats ride pretty rough on the 1le suspension set in Tour. Definitely stiffer than the sc3 tires

[cdb95z28]

Originally Posted by Alexk

How much did you pay for ceramic coating?

$1700. XPEL Fusion, included wheels/barrels, calipers
Blackout Tinting, Latrobe, PA

[s346k]

Originally Posted by Bwaahhh

Do NOT make the same mistake I did and forego getting the front/rear quarters/lower doors PPFd or with some form of protection. I regret not doing it when I bought the car. Now, after many track days, the rear quarters have little pits in the them along with the lower section of the doors. The front wheels poke a little bit and the sticky super car 3s fling everything.

this. the lower quarters on my car are destroyed. ceramic coating didn't do anything at all to protect it. i coated the car @ 6500 miles (early 19), sitting at 33k now. need about 5 layers of clear ppf covering the entire front half of the panel from the gas cap down.

on a side note the wheels & brake calipers look great. refreshed the ceramic coat a couple times on the car, only did the wheels/brakes once.


also had the hood wrap replaced with 3m satin black. the factory one began peeling and just looked bad about 2 years into ownership.

[Geese1]

Originally Posted by cdb95z28

$1700. XPEL Fusion, included wheels/barrels, calipers
Blackout Tinting, Latrobe, PA

Did you get the entire car covered then? And does that price include ceramic coating as well, or just the film? That price isn't too bad, and their shops in either Pittsburgh or Latrobe are close enough to me that it wouldn't be inconvenient since I was going to bring the car to Pittsburgh to have the windows tinted anyway (had a previous car's windows done at Tint World in Pittsburgh and I liked the work they did).

Was just planning on putting on a ceramic coating myself, but if I can get a decent price for the full workup (window tinting, ceramic coating, and paint protection film), I might just go that route instead.

[cdb95z28]

Originally Posted by Geese1

Did you get the entire car covered then? And does that price include ceramic coating as well, or just the film? That price isn't too bad, and their shops in either Pittsburgh or Latrobe are close enough to me that it wouldn't be inconvenient since I was going to bring the car to Pittsburgh to have the windows tinted anyway (had a previous car's windows done at Tint World in Pittsburgh and I liked the work they did).

Was just planning on putting on a ceramic coating myself, but if I can get a decent price for the full workup (window tinting, ceramic coating, and paint protection film), I might just go that route instead.

I did not get the entire covered. IMO, I think it would be overkill for me. That price was just the ceramic.

In addition to the ceramic coat I got 20% ceramic window tint on just the side windows. PPF on the nose, headlights, door edges and handle pockets, the rockers and an additional area in front of the rear wheels above the rockers, the area behind the rear wheels. I also got the side mirrors and splitter in XPEL's Stealth clear satin film. I choose to not do the hood as I felt the vinyl wrap can be the sacrificial film as apposed to the PPF being sacrificial. If and when it gets to the point of showing to much abuse, I can get it rewrapped. I had PPF on my '14 1LE and other vehicles and over time the PPF is the thing that takes the abuse, so one must look at the PPF as something that will not stay perfect. Prior to trading my '14 in I removed some of the PPF and the paint was excellent underneath.

I also had the windshield done in ClearPlex film. Total for everything, ceramic coat, tint, PPF, windshield plus PA 6% tax was $4100

[Geese1]

Originally Posted by cdb95z28

I did not get the entire covered. IMO, I think it would be overkill for me. That price was just the ceramic.

In addition to the ceramic coat I got 20% ceramic window tint on just the side windows. PPF on the nose, headlights, door edges and handle pockets, the rockers and an additional area in front of the rear wheels above the rockers, the area behind the rear wheels. I also got the side mirrors and splitter in XPEL's Stealth clear satin film. I choose to not do the hood as I felt the vinyl wrap can be the sacrificial film as apposed to the PPF being sacrificial. If and when it gets to the point of showing to much abuse, I can get it rewrapped. I had PPF on my '14 1LE and other vehicles and over time the PPF is the thing that takes the abuse, so one must look at the PPF as something that will not stay perfect. Prior to trading my '14 in I removed some of the PPF and the paint was excellent underneath.

I also had the windshield done in ClearPlex film. Total for everything, ceramic coat, tint, PPF, windshield plus PA 6% tax was $4100

Thanks for the detailed info. At that price I'm a little hesitant, as I've never really liked the idea of applying a PPF in the first place. My sports cars aren't daily drivers, I keep them detailed pretty religiously (as I said, I've already bought a ceramic coating to apply on the car myself), and I have ACS rock guards and side skirts sitting in my garage ready to put on the car as soon as I get her home. Not to mention I've had bad luck with protection films on something as mundane as cell phones; I either take them off (if pre-installed) or don't put them on in the first place, and my screens still look brand new even after years of use.

I'll have to give it some thought if I want to drop that kind of money on the Camaro, or if I can get by with my original plan.

[Newcastle]

Ya that's too steep for me. I am thinking ACS skirts and rock guards should keep most of the side safe. Ceramic and PPF front bumper only is what I am thinking. Back quarter panel as well and done. If that's 4000 I will just do ceramic and ACS skirts and guards.

[LeonardS]

Do they make pre-cut kits of PPF for self application? I’m getting a ZLE, so I’m guessing they know where the chips happen.

[s346k]

i decided that id source a quality repaint before i spent much on ppf. a friend of mine spent $11k completely clear wrapping his 17 ss (sedan) with ppf. very labor intensive as, prior to installation, we removed every part of the car that wasn't welded on. all of that to protect the worst, cheapest, thinnest and weakest paint that gm ever offered.

95% of my car still looks great, sans the lower quarters. i didn't buy it to park at car shows, it gets driven quite a bit. not much sunday driving, though.

[cdb95z28]

I ordered my '14 1LE, had it for 7 years. 45,000 miles at trade in. Street driven and I ran it 39 times on track. The track time is the most abusive. The areas that I did not protect, the windshield, rockers, headlights took a beating. I decided that if I was going to get another new one, and track it, that I would raise the bar on the protection. I hate waxing my cars so the ceramic is wonderful. I bought a small electric pressure washer and it makes washing the car so quick and easy.

Yes, you can buy the pre-cut PPF. But I have installed it on my other vehicles, the nose and other areas on my Sierra and '14 1LE. It is not easy. I spent 8 miserable hours on my '14's nose alone. Smaller, less complicated areas are much easier but an area like a nose with compound curves are difficult.

[ZPirate]

Originally Posted by Newcastle

Ya that's too steep for me. I am thinking ACS skirts and rock guards should keep most of the side safe. Ceramic and PPF front bumper only is what I am thinking. Back quarter panel as well and done. If that's 4000 I will just do ceramic and ACS skirts and guards.

That's what I did. ACS rock guards and side skirts. PPF on the front and the mirrors. I didn't do the back quarter panel though. So far so good. And I can sometimes hear small rocks hitting the side skirts and rock guards, especially with the windows down, when I am driving down the road so I know they are helping.

Plus the side skirts and rock guards look great on the 1LE.

[arpad_m]

Originally Posted by s346k

i decided that id source a quality repaint before i spent much on ppf. a friend of mine spent $11k completely clear wrapping his 17 ss (sedan) with ppf. very labor intensive as, prior to installation, we removed every part of the car that wasn't welded on. all of that to protect the worst, cheapest, thinnest and weakest paint that gm ever offered.

95% of my car still looks great, sans the lower quarters. i didn't buy it to park at car shows, it gets driven quite a bit. not much sunday driving, though.

That's where I am currently, too. I did have PPF installed on the front that gets battered the worst to extend the life of this paint a bit, but doing it on the whole car and especially for $11k is just not worth it, this is repaint price territory.

[Chutzpah]

I did unpainted ACS splash guards (look perfectly fine) bought some bulk PPF film and fabricated the rockers, lower door panels and everything in front and just above of the rear wheel wells. Also, just bought precut PPF for leading edge roof, A pillars, front bumper, leading edge hood, front wheel wells, headlights and mirrors. Hopefully, that’s it for PPF.

Everything above for about $900