Rustler

In a few weeks I'm having some paint correction done and ceramic applied to my '17 Carrera S. The prior owner or perhaps the selling dealer swirled the $h!? out of the paint (in my experience dealers often have a team of totally untrained newbs throwing a thick layer of wax on a poorly prepped car which looks juicy until you remove the wax...). The prior owner also never applied PPF. The front bumper and hood has some moderate "peppering" as well and some significant chips.

My question: Based on pics below and the collective wisdom here, should I bother with the PPF? Will it accentuate the chips and imperfections with bubbles? This second part is really the heart of my question. Although the front is already dinged up, I see benefit in protecting from further damage, however, I don't want to bother if it's going to look like garbage over an imperfect surface.

Detail shop has said that I will definitely see the chips and imperfections where the PPF won't lie properly, but he's a bit vague on just what that will look like, and I think he's hesitant to give a subjective opinion and to steer me too hard in either direction.

What say you all?

Jim991

I would respray now and then put the PPF on or wait and respray later and PPF. Waste of money to PPF now to protect an already damaged surface. Consider Dr. Colorchip as an interim fix.

polobai

I would wait and repaint/ppf-imo the bigger chips that are covered up won’t be as bad but the peppered surface will be a bit more noticeable.

Speed2k

I debated this as well. My hood has a pretty bad rock chip that the previous owner tried to "fix". He did a bad job. Anyhow, I decided to drive my car as is for now, I may end up putting some stripes on the hood to cover the chip, so it is less noticeable; but yeah, I don't think it's worth putting PPF over a chipped hood/bumper/fender/etc... When I get more chips, then I'll do a full respray and have PPF installed.

My friend had his chips touched up and PPF installed afterwards, to me they are still quite noticeable.

vanlieremead

I had the same concerns. Back in January, I purchased a 2019 C2S with 7k miles. It had no front PPF protection and had a few clips, one sort of large in the hood. After discussions with the dealer as well as the PPF applicator, I opted to do it to stop additional chips from occurring. The PPF neither improves or worsens an existing chip. My car looked pretty good so I wanted to maintain it. In addition, I have heard that repaints actually reduce the car’s value.

It’s a hard call but I think the answer lays in what makes the car look nicer. One other comment, as owners, we are much more critical of any imperfection then many others.

I’ve added about 5k miles since I bought it. Here are two pictures. I circled the chip in red that the PPF covered. However, you can’t really see it from a distance. The color is black metallic.

Top of PPF aligns to top of the lights. Zoom in if you can see the chip.

Circled, close and from an angle is the chip.

Rustler

Thanks for the input. Helpful.

I don't want to respray now, and I suspect it would literally be months until I could get an appointment at one of the few quality local body shops anyway. I had to make the appointment with the only good detail shop in town 10 weeks out, and that's now coming up. (which is a bizarre but practical reality of the state of affairs of consumer products and services in America right now, amplified in my small but growing town)

​​​​​I think I'm going to correct the swirls and cover with ceramic now. Maybe when the ceramic needs a redo I'll consider comprehensively addressing the front chips.

It's a valid point that a subsequent buyer might be turned off by a respray, but (if done well) that's a ridiculous and unnecessary standard for a regularly driven higher mileage car. People watch shows and auctions and hear all about "original paint", and then think it's one of the criteria for a good car. For a museum or preservation class concours, yes. Or maybe when a car is a time capsule and you enjoy that aspect, but a car that's meant to be driven, has 30k+ miles, and other changes? It drives me nuts when I see that question asked on BaT or similar. The appropriate question should be "awesome, fresh paint! Was it matched well?"

Bud Taylor

Then ppf. Make sure you ok sprayout on color.

jh225

PPF will highlight any issues. especially on dark paint. If you can see it with the naked eye, you will see it when PPF is installed, likely see it worse. Anyone who tells you different does not have a detail oriented eye. My front end is peppered from lack of PPF. In about a month I am going to do a respray, take it off the road for the winter, then apply PPF first thing in the spring. Do NOT apply PPF until the paint cures for a minimum of 60 days, as it needs to cure/off gas first.

mymac

Re-spray front end and hood then PPF.

MoeMistry

+1…chips will be enhanced with ppf due to the air pocket

we have a project coming in with exact situation, and will show you the process if you’d like

vanlieremead

Before respray, doesn’t the paint need removal? Then priming, paint and clear? Sounds like a lot for a chip.