stealthpilot

Not if you do it properly. Impossible to tell. You would have to lift the hood and feel the other side for the seam because the panels are wrapped round the edges.

905doc

sounds good, thanks!

sdg1871

Do not let a dealer wrap your car. This is a catastrophic mistake. Wraps have to be done by expert installers and typically dealers to do it screw up the wrap in the car and you'll see cut lines everywhere.

As far as wrap material the choice is between Sunrek and XPel. Suntek is thinner and easier to install correctly but I go with XPel because it's much thicker. My turbo S is fully wrapped in it and it's fantastic. I've had several low-speed parking lot incidents where all I had to do was replace the XPel piece because it protected the paint from getting damaged.

Where do you live? I know some good installers in a few places.

My friend Ryan Who owns Protective Film Solutions in California, probably the best XPel shop in that part of the country, has famously said when it comes to XPel it's either cheap or good but not both.

ace37

This one is pretty neat 😉


For clearbra my dealer in Salt Lake City Utah did a great job for me. Obviously they don't have a Porsche tech do the wrap - they have an installer or shop and they get a cut. I checked a few cars their installer had done and was impressed. Mine turned out great.

As always if you just take it in blindly you might get great results and you might not. With BMW/Mini locally vinyl wrapping, the first job was very good and the second one was decent but not as good as the first. The Porsche clearbra was excellent compared to either - a better guy did the work.

The end result is heavily driven by the skill of the guy or gal who is actually touching your car.

905doc

I live in Ohio (Beavercreek). I already went ahead and got the front wrapped from the dealer since I had to do it on short notice for my 7hr commute from Toronto to Ohio. I'm still interested in getting the remainder of the car wrapped if you could recommend someone in the area that would be great.

Fabspeed Motorsport

A clear wrap is a great way to protect your car from unwanted dings and chips; all of our shop cars here at Fabspeed have a clear wrap on them because we believe so strongly in it! Matt Clark from MC Designs is our in-house vinyl wizard and loves to complete personalized designs and setups at our facility. He prefers SunTek but can work with any material as he has been in the business for many, many years. Wrapping your car is a great way to preserve your investment and keep your paint nice and fresh!

ProtectiveFilmSolutions

Hi there. We saw the recommendation. Really appreciate that.

One point I'd like to clear up. SunTek just recently released a new PPF film with a 10 year warranty to match that of Xpel. We've been using it and it's GREAT.

Not only that but we are also coating most of our clear film wraps with Ceramic Pro PPF & Vinyl. This for improved longevity and slickness.

Don't want to go too much into details as to not hijack the thread, but the point is that we now offer both Xpel and SunTek and we are happy with both.

-Danny

Randyc151

I wrap all of my sports cars with Xpel, at least the front end, A pillars, and the leading edge of the roof. At some point, treating the Xpel with Ceramic Pro or other boutique sealants starts to get into serious overkill territory. Do whatever you like, but there is a limit to the cost/benefit at some point.

Detailed Designs

905doc,

I made this piece specifically for Porsche 911's to show off some popular types of coverage and some other new car protection technologies that are available. Fire away if you have any questions.

https://rennlist.com/forums/991/9718...-and-tint.html

Randyc151

I'd remove the headlights from this drawing. Xpel did harm mine on my 2014 991.1. Otherwise, it's just about right.

Detailed Designs

It is an option we leave up to the owner. We review the concerns with film over headlights with every client. Some do it, some don't.

stealthpilot

I have a couple of questions:

1) If you remove the film and then replace the film, then would the film be the equivalent of a clear coat or would the headlights end up looking worse than factory?
2) What if you put a ceramic coating for glass like CarPro Forte over the headlights to protect the clearcoat before applying the film or after removing it?

Detailed Designs

If there is failure, it must be addressed with at least sanding and polishing before proceeding with anything going back over the lenses.

Applying a coating over the lenses prior to wrapping is a recipe to have lifting. That is not a guarantee but there is a decent measure of stretching to get film to lay on 991 headlights due to the dome-like shape. Less ability to stick means more possibility to lift.

PPF is formulated to stick to clear coat less-so than clear coat to the base coat. This allows it to stick without releasing a well-done factory paint job. In my opinion, the headlight clear coat(UV coating) does not bond as well to the plastic lens as clear coat does to base coat. So we have a weak link and in some cases, the bond of the PPF is stronger than the bond of the clear to the lenses and it releases. Weaken the bond of the film will lessen the chance of lifting the clear over the lenses but it also increases the chances of it not sticking properly.

Deckard

I had a Xpel wrap applied to just the front end and side mirrors of the car. The only way I can tell that the back half isn't wrapped is when the car starts to get dirty/dusty--for whatever reason, the Xpel half tends to look shinier.

ProtectiveFilmSolutions

I get that. The one issue is that no matter what, paint protection film is more porous than paint. Wrap vinyl even more so. PPF protects the car's paint from chips, scratches and staining, because it's a self-healing layer above the paint, but the film itself is susceptible holding on to dirt more than paint would. Doing the layer of Ceramic Pro over it solves that, in more or less the same way it would over paint. Like waxing, but permanent.