markoware

The door handles are a good idea, especially if you mean inside the cups behind the handles. I hadn't thought of that. I find no matter how careful I am other people scratch up that area and it's a pain to paint correct.

With the bird poop I am a little annoyed I got some etching in the PPF on my current car from a bird bomb. I have a feeling when I PPF the new GTS I'll want to replace it more often than necessary due to small imperfections that annoy me. If I find I'm peeling it off after two years I'll probably leave it off and spend the money on resprays.

#1SomeGuy

Yup, inside the cups where your fingers/rings end up scratching stuff up. My installer charged all of an extra $100 to do them.

pcar_ny

Hi Lou,

Are you in a place where you have to parallel park? I live in NYC and even though my car is garaged, when I go out I still have to park on the street and there are cars in front and back parked. Not to mention traffic driving by pretty close along with bikes too. Also have a lot of pigeons around... I ended up getting an Xpel PPF full body and Xpel Fusion ceramic coating full body. The PPF is to protect the paint and the ceramic coating was for ease of maintenance in terms of washing. There is a 4yr warranty on the Xpel fusion but keep in mind you need to go back to your installer for annual inspection and top off for approx $75-125 to meet the warranty requirements. I think most ceramic coatings need the annual.

Another reason why I got the full PPF and Ceramic Coating is because I wanted the Stealth on my Volcano Grey.

Just curious, have you considered Xpel Fusion?

I only got it because I thought it must be better on Xpel PPF since it’s the same manufacturer and I suspect they know the chemical make ups better and have more access to Xpel materials to test. Also they said Fusion will not add unwanted gloss to the satin finish but rather deepen the look. I got Ceramic Pro Rain on glass because Fusion doesn’t seem to be used for glass.

Lou DeFino

I decided to go with full xpel, and with Ceramic pro, as that is what they are certified in. I read all the reviews and everyone has seemed very satisfied, and they are doing full paint correction, expel pretty much everywhere, and they will coat the whole wheels, even going to protect the top. While it isn't cheap, 4k is definitely on the lower end of the pricing scale I saw. Some were double the price.

pcar_ny

Yeah, I think you got a good deal. If it makes you feel any better, I got mine for 5k and minimal paint correction so you can still see some chips. But I’m still happy with it as I’m sure you will too. Just keep in mind for the ceramic coating to fully cure it takes 2-3 weeks.

Lou DeFino

Thanks for the heads up. One of the cool things they do is to tell you not to wash for 3 weeks during cure, and they make an appointment to bring it in and do a hand wash together to teach you the 2 bucket system and to avoid damaging the skin. I hadn't seen that with other companies

pcar_ny

That’s awesome. I’ve spent a lot of time researching after care products and proper washing so that should save you time. I settled down on the Garry Dean method, basically no reuse of towels and one bucket method. For rinseless wash ONR blue and Carpro Reload for ceramic boost are the go to products. I’m going to try the Xpel line and compare them.

Max718-19

I weighed Ppf and ceramic. I went with track PPF frunk, rockers, a pillars, door edges, door pulls, front bumper. $2500. Ceramic on wheels is the bang for my buck. Used wheel wax but needs redone every 3 months. Ceramic 1 yr and doing well. I daily my 718 Boxster S on back roads in Carolina w chip and seal. She has a few high speed bug hits, but no rock damage yet.

markoware

Good call on the wheel ceramic. It seems like it doesn't get talked about as much as ceramic on the body. I find putting anything on the wheels frequently is a pain, so the longevity of ceramic is a big win on wheels. After using it on my last couple of cars it put me over the top on being okay with skipping PCCBs on my incoming car. I have found the wheels so much easier to keep clean with ceramic.

markoware

I used to use a variation of this where I would do a normal wash but use one bucket and a bunch of wash mitts. It was the same concept where I would only use each wash mitt once, but I felt more comfortable doing it on a dirty car since I was using mitts and not towels. I can't remember why I quit washing this way and went to a multi-bucket wash method, because I think it worked well. I still have a huge pile of wash mitts in my detailing cabinets from when I used to use that method. I should try it again.

pcar_ny

Let us know if you rediscover why you went back to the two bucket method. I’m new to this so might not be aware of the cons of one bucket method. There were some minor factors that weighed in as well:

1) I live in an apartment building and have a tight garage space so one bucket is easier

2) Another factor was that I could have a full load to wash instead of just a couple of items

3) I’m a bit lazy to work the towel on the grit guard.

markoware

I think my approach would work well for you. I could see the method with a ton of towels working okay for a car that isn't too dirty or if access to water was difficult, but it seems like full blown microfiber wash mitts/sponges would be less likely to scratch than microfiber towels for washing. The reasons I started using the multi mitt method were your #3 and it seemed like using each mitt once was less likely to cause scratches. I had picked up the idea on a detailing forum somewhere. Even now with the multi bucket method I still use more than one wash mitt depending on how dirty the car is. But normally I don't use more than two.

I think I stopped using the multi-mitt method when I moved from a garden hose to a pressure washer because the scrubbing became an exercise of removing the remaining film from the car vs scrubbing off all the dirt/grit.

pcar_ny

thx, that makes sense. Let me get some mitts for the winter. Multi mitts will definitely be good for snow and salt in NYC.

ritchieg

I purchased my 718 in July 2016. I drove it from the dealer to the detailer. I had expel put on the whole front and other parts that protrude. The Boxster sits very low and is a rock magnet so you really need expel on the front. I then had the whole car covered with Tsunami a nano coating 9 times harder than clear coat. With the nano coating you never have to wax or polish the car. If not extremely dirty I just wash it with a high pressure washer and then dry. I had the nano coating put on my 2020 Macan but no expel. If you have a nano coating put on any car all defects must be corrected because the coating will magnify any defects. With Tsunami, only a dealer will put it on. On the Boxster it was $800 and the expel was around $1800. I had the nano coating put on my first Macan after 2 years and because of the cost of prepping the car which had quite few defects the cost was $1200.