rbrenn

I was told when applying the Xpel Ultimate film on Porsche 911 headlights, they use a large piece film that is stretched over the headlight (not the pre-cut piece) so that it properly adheres to the the curvature of the headlight. Then when trimming the stretched piece to finish the job, sometimes the edges of the headlight loses its coating (sort of a clear coat, but for the headlights). Sounds like it doesn't happen 100% of the time, but enough that they steered me away from it. They do a lot of high end cars including Porsches and know what they're doing.

I found his suggestion of using the Xpel Tracwrap an interesting way to protect the headlights when tracking the car, a concern I had. Has anyone done this?

ipse dixit

Instead of Xpel Trackwrap (which I think is mucho $$$), try Road Warrior. Easier to apply, and cheaper.

Master Deep

A side question, I have XPEL PPF on my full car and headlights along with Ceramic coating. There are bug marks and dirt on the headlight PPF and the rear fenders that I can’t for the life of me get out.

Can I clay bar these areas or will it mess up my ceramic coating?

ipse dixit

I would not use clay bar on PPF; it's too abrasive.

Try something like this.

Rxpert

Happy to report my headlights survived both PPF installation and removal! I was so stressed out over this!!!

Installer did such a terrible job the lights looked awful. Stone chips would seriously look better. The below pictures don’t do it justice, they actually look a lot better in the pics than in real life. Multiple defects from different angles that pictures couldn’t capture.




Anyways called them to remove the film, and during discussions found out they don’t even have a steamer in the shop. Said they would use hot towels to remove the film. I was extremely uncomfortable with this, so I decided to take matters into my own hands with my wife’s clothes steamer.




Hardest part was not getting scaled, I got myself twice and going SLOW. With the steam the film wanted to come off quite easily, so it was difficult staying patient and going mm by mm without rushing. Took me ~ 30min per headlight. Could I have done it in 5 minutes? Maybe, but didn’t want to take that risk lol

Below is after removal, good as new.




FYI in case anyone is interested in the details:

Lights we’re ceramic coated first with CQ.UK 3.0
Film was SunTek Reaction
Film was on the lights for 3 days only
Just used steam alone to remove.

Nice to know it can be done. Going to give it another coat of CQ.UK and taking it back to the shop next week for another attempt at PPF.

Wish me luck!

4carl

just had my lights done yesterday with some other PPF with the same film came out good. they are very hard to cover because of the shape hard to avoid stretch marks.
thanks for the pictures of the removal gives some comfort that the film can be replaced without buying a $6,000 headlight. carl