most places charge 4-5k for the newest suntek/xpel/llumar film

 

Yes. The price sound right. A little light but right. Now this is very important. Does this include if your car will need paint correction before putting it on. If they just recommend putting it on with no prep work you will not like the results. Especially if it’s a dark color. Every chip or imperfection will be magnified. Ensure you ask if your car needs a paint correction prior and have them give you an honest expectation of what to expect. Also. I recommend spending a little extra to the full frontal. It looks cleaner. Hopes this helps.

 

It is true that certain films are easier/harder to work with, but this shouldn't be any of your concern. The installer needs to use what will produce the best end result for you, the car owner.

Secondly, you should be looking to install film on the entire front end of the car, not a half front end (also called a partial front end). Fully wrapping the entire front end is the best way to not only protect against chips and hard impacts, but also allows you to cover each panel in its entirety, leaving no visible seams that look unsightly.

Thirdly, you need to find a different installer. There are several points which show that he/she has room for improvement:

• 3M and Clear Shield are some of the cheapest films available, and in our testing, have been on the lower end of the spectrum of what is available. The higher quality films are Stek, Xpel, and Suntek.
  • We test and evaluate film from every manufacturer, and right now, Stek film is the highest quality film available. See this link to see how we are able to evaluate film with the tools we have at our disposal. This is the objective and factual way that installers should be measuring the quality of the film they install.
• All paint protection film for passenger cars is 8 mils thick, and provides the exact same level of utility in protecting your car's paint. After that, we start evaluating film based on its clarity and end results. This is where Stek is currently the best available.

Full paint protection film wraps on entire cars can range from around $5,000 to $10,000. It all depends on the quality of the installation (which is a HUGE range), the quality of the film, and complexity of the car (i.e. a base 911 is easier to wrap than a 918 Spyder). We recently wrapped a 918 Spyder and a Carrera GT, and they each cost $10,000 to fully wrap.

 

I got most of my car done with expel wrapped edges for 2600. Agree on doing entire front clip also would do doors rocker panels and an enlarged piece in front of back wheels. They can enlarge the templates and the rocker panels take a lot of hits. 5 to 10k is a crazy price but might be normal for manhattan or something. Took about 10 hours so you do the hourly math. This needs to be redone every 8 to 10 years depending on condition and milage. I would not remove any badges or letters and for me i did not wanna chance the headlights. I washed and used a cleaner wax prior and they clay bared before and it looks perfect. My car is plat silver.

 

I think the best film available right now is Suntek. Clarity, lack of orange peel and a company that stands by its network of installers unlike XPel. 3M has a new matte film that looks very good. Time will tell if it’s stands the heat and UV.

 

Yes suntek ultra is the best currently. Or llumar platinum which is same film different brand

 

Suntek just bought Llumar.

 

didnt know that! interesting

 

I am a big fan of Suntek, it has stood the test of time on my 5 year old M3 and I have put them on 3-4 other cars now and have had no issues.

If you have it done right, the installer will take apart the car to minimize the seams and gaps of the film, the labor and expertise and time is really what you are paying for, not the film. I guess it depends on your level of OCD and the size of your wallet. I would have spent more actually with other shops that do a even better job, with even less seams, but yeah, there's sticker shock at the level of wraps these days.

 

Objectively speaking, right now the best film from a clarity perspective is Stek. It ranks the best when looking at Distinctness of Image, Specular Reflectance, Orange Peel (or lack of), Reflectance Haze, and Gloss.

We test all of these metrics on a regular basis, and Stek has won every comparison test we've done since we received samples of it around 18 months ago.

For completeness, Xpel is 2nd, ClearGuard Nano is 3rd, and SunTek is 4th.

 

Does Stek has a 12 mills film?

 

I agree with all of the above. Curious where you rank Prestige ClearGuard Nano? I've seen it compared to Xpel and it is visually more clear without orange texture.

 

Just saw this. I've actually looked at both Xpel and ClearGuard Nano and Xpel has the orange peel texture and ClearGuard does not. I think Xpel is thicker though.

 

From our testing up to this point, Stek has been the best, Xpel is 2nd, ClearGuard Nano is 3rd, and SunTek is 4th.

To add more to this conversation, film manufacturers are constantly trying to improve their products on all fronts: protection, impact resistance, stain resistance, puncture resistance, self-healing capabilities, clarity, UV protection, etc. The paint protection film market is growing, so competition is growing, producing better products for both car owners and installers. This means that while Stek may be the best right now, another company may move in with something better 6 months from now/1 year from now/5 years from now. Continuous testing and evaluation is the only way to make sure that what we (or your particular installer) are using the best possible film for your cherished car.

Referencing the objective testing from above, from a clarity/texture/orange peel/gloss perspective, Stek has been the best, Xpel is 2nd, ClearGuard Nano is 3rd, and SunTek is 4th. All of the films available to you are 8 mils thick; no difference between Xpel and any other film.

At the moment, Stek does not have 12 mil film available. With that being said, 12 mil film is really not usable on any kind of car where aesthetics matter. It is designed for excellent utility from really hard impacts (RVs, buses, trucks, large equipment, etc), with the clarity of the film being a low priority. If you are looking for a thicker solution, we frequently layer film on top of itself to have somewhat of a "tearaway" situation. We do it a lot on cars meant for track applications, putting down a base layer of film that is meant to last several years, with a top layer of film applied to serve as something that gets replaced every track season or every other track season.

 

I would never argue with a professional installer; however, I have Suntek on my Miami Blue Targa GTS and my installer showed me examples of other cars with different films, in person, and I felt Suntek looks the best. He did not have an example of Stek although I cannot tell there is film on the car and it looks perfect so that is all that matters to me, therefore I recommend Suntek (and my installer was very happy with the end result as well).