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Curious to hear rennlist's opinion on pros and cons of the following PPF options! For all, I'll be going with XPEL, have loved it so far on my Boxster. Located in Northern California so costs for PPF installations from quality shops is relatively pricey (based off of what I've read and heard).
A) Front only - $3,500
* Bumper, fenders, hood, windshield frame, mirrors
B) Front and rockers - $4,000
* Everything from A, plus around side air intakes
C) Full - $8,000
* Everything from A and B, plus roof, bottom of rockers, doors, rear fenders, rear bumper, trunk
Just do full. The 2nd day after I did full PPF, I had a stone chip the middle of the door. Sure, some areas are more prone to getting hit, but in reality it can happen any where.
I do not recommend covering the entire vehicle. It's simply not necessary. Focus on the high impact areas. The full front clip (front bumper, front fenders, hood, headlights, a-pillar including leading edge of roof, back of mirrors) and rocker panels. You may also want to look into a custom piece behind the rear wheel. That's it.
I have a black car. So, I have the entire car (other than the headlights) covered including the windshield. Otherwise, I would've gone insane. I also intend to keep the car forever.
Full for the win. Never worry about swirl marks as you wipe the car down or wash & dry it. I've had stones hit the roof, doors, everywhere. And don't get me started on bird poop!
I also did headlights, windshield, and even the door sill area that says GTS 4.0.
The amount of money spent fades quickly, but a quality film job lasts.
I'm doing full but my local installer which is a local PCA sponsor is charging about $6k.
My 981 Spyder got two rock chips on the rear deck from what I assume was a bouncing rock.
That's a steal!
@Reedy and others, regarding the rockers, how low does the PPF come? Does it wrap all the way down under so that it's horizontal and covering the entire painted area or does it stop short?
I'm going to do front plus rockers, side air intakes and leading edge of rear wheel arches. Basically this, but not the headlights, on a GT4. Having owned a 2003 Boxster S for 19 years, my experience has been that these are the areas most likely to be chipped. Thanks to someone else on this forum who posted this picture in another thread on this topic!
@Reedy and others, regarding the rockers, how low does the PPF come? Does it wrap all the way down under so that it's horizontal and covering the entire painted area or does it stop short?
That will depends on the installer you use but mine wraps underneath for about 1cm past the bottom edge of the panel. Mine is done with Xpel so I am assuming my installer used their templates.
I haven't cleaned mine since my last track day but here's how it looks.
One thing I've never agreed with is applying ceramic coating on top of self-healing PPF that is already touted as having the hydrophobic properties of a ceramic coating. Two of these are Suntek Reaction and XPel Ultimate Fusion.
Those PPFs are self healing while ceramic is not. So any fine scratches that occur on the PPF can heal and disappear but the scratch in the ceramic will not. The addition of ceramic in that case is an extra cost for what I perceive as a negative benefit.
On my car I went with a modified track pack with Suntek Reaction, adding the doors, the wing, lower rear bumper behind the wheels, and increasing the roof part to cover the whole roof (largely so I wouldn't have a seam mid-roof). The GT4 scoop was standard in the track pack. This made the installation much easier and the labor cheaper since then the wing, rear logo, and taillights etc didn't have to be removed/reinstalled for edge wrapping and reduction of seams.
Then the non-PPF'ed rear-facing areas got ceramic. It still saved me a couple of thousand dollars... good for a fresh set of tires!
@Reedy and others, regarding the rockers, how low does the PPF come? Does it wrap all the way down under so that it's horizontal and covering the entire painted area or does it stop short?
Just wanted to make sure I was not crazy and that I remembered correctly:
08-31-2022, 02:00 AM
PPF Options: Front vs. Full
