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I have some minor blemishes on the PPF over my headlight from putting a little too much elbow grease into what I thought was dirt removal (but was actually a rock chip in the film). Now it has what looks like little scratch marks, but are actually minor indentations in the PPF.
I've had success removing similar blemishes from the hood's PPF with a heat gun, but I had to get the it pretty darn hot for the PPF to even back out. I worry about using the heat gun on the headlight housing, since it's plastic and might melt, deform, or discolor.
When you wrap your headlights, there is always a risk of delamination, if you ever decide to remove them. I would be worried about heating them up too much, causing the film to shrink a bit, and create a pull effect on the coating of the lens. If it was me, I would use the heat gun with caution, hit it with some heat and back off, and keep at it. Or, leave it outside in the sun and let the sun do it’s magic. I know it’s cold here in NJ now, but I would try with the heat gun/dryer. I personally have my headlights protected with PPF too, and do it for all cars. As long as you are careful, they are fine.
Just tried it. The blemishes came out extremely quickly with far less heat than I needed for similar blemishes on the metal hood. It worked so well that I tried to hit another area of the same headlight that was scuffed somehow. 90% the scuff came out, but needed more heat... so much so that I ended up making a slight wrinkle in the PPF. But it's hardly noticeable.
Anyway, a heat gun does work on a headlight, but it must be used very gently.
++^^^^ @Bob Z. To your point, I saw a recent video of an "expert" PPF installer putting film on GT3RS headlights, and he explained that for the headlamps you should always use steam rather than air heat. The heat gun dries the film making it harder to work around the complex curves especially near the edges. I've personally installed PPF on my own 991 headlamps multiple times now, and can tell you how hard it is to get perfect using slip and a heat gun....
Well, as I mentioned above, the heat worked very well but only when used sparingly. In the past, when I used the gun on some hood scratches (i.e. metal) it took a LOT of heat to get them smoothed out and the film performed very well. No bubbles or shrinkage. When used on the headlight, the scratches went away within about 30 seconds of applying a medium amount of heat. But then, with increased confidence, I moved onto a different, deeper, scuff mark. The scuff mark improved a lot, but I also ended up putting slight wrinkle in the film. Unnoticeable from more than a foot away, but it's there...
I was told that Expel says don't use their film on 991 headlights due to delamination. My headlights were changed under warranty, but never had film on them.
I put PPF on my 991.2 headlights and it was very difficult to get even close to perfect, mostly because the curved shape of the lights stretching the film unevenly. I decided that I’d rather not have the PPF on my headlights because it didn’t look clear enough to my eyes when I looked through the headlights and difficulty with the edges. I ended up removing the PPF with a steamer and had no issue with getting it off and avoided any damage to the headlights by using the steamer. I was concerned about delamination but using the steamer made it simple. I only kept the PPF on for about a couple weeks.
I would recommend still PFF'ing headlights. Either you are going to have tons of rock chips on the headlights or you are going to possibly delaminate the headlight. But when the film is on there you will overall have a better look since you won't have chips on them since the PPF absorbs the chips better than the headlight itself. If you take off the PPF and you delaminate the headlight, I would just wetsand them and polish and then put another layer of PPF on them to protect them. Removing PPF with steam is the safest way.
11-20-2019, 11:53 PM
Can I use a heat gun on my headlight's PPF?
But it's hardly noticeable.
