Esoteric_Detail

Good morning @redcab

​​​​​​PPF provides not only protection for the paint but also enhances one’s peace of mind, allowing you to enjoy the car as intended with far less worry! Who amongst us hasn’t heard a rock strike the paint while driving and wondered if it left a mark…pulling over at the first opportunity, hoping against hope that we won’t find a chip in the otherwise beautifully maintained surface? Or perhaps experienced the despair that comes with discovering a light swirl mark in your paint at some point? PPF not only protects against impacts from road debris but also has true self-healing abilities that can resolve light swirls on the surface. Tangible paint protection coupled with peace of mind equals a greater overall ownership experience!

Add to that the lasting good looks, enhanced protection, ease of maintenance & self-cleaning characteristics of Ceramic Coatings and you’ll be spending far more time driving and admiring your car than you will cleaning and maintaining it!

Continued excellence in PPF installation comes in knowing not just what to do but perhaps more importantly, knowing what *not* to do. While there are plenty of areas where it would appear that aggressive heating, stretching and wrapping would result in the ‘aesthetically optimal’ final product, overdoing those methods can lead to various distortions in the film, edges that release over time and rubbing where panel edges meet; your PPF should remain just as secure in the coming years as it is the day you leave the installer!

The ability to evolve and customize patterns as improvements are identified lead to a more complete and secure installation. For our installations, sections are either modified and cut on our plotter from bulk rolls or in the case of larger panels wider than 64”, custom cut from a bulk piece, then fitted to the panel and excess trimmed accordingly; trimming that does NOT occur on the paint surface itself.




The experience gained over numerous installs can lend the proper critical eye to the practice of ‘strategic disassembly’. Knowing which panels can be removed for a more complete installation without unnecessarily altering factory fit and finish is vital to the overall integrity of your vehicle; your car is only factory fresh one time and we’d prefer not to disturb that originality unless it provides distinct and lasting installation benefits. Just because you 'can' remove something doesn't mean you 'should'.

As for self healing, while PPF is pretty 'tough' it is still only an 8 or 10 mil film and cannot 'heal' breaches to the film or deep gouges. The benefit is generally in lighter scratches or the type of marring that occurs from improper washing and/or drying. In that respect, the self-healing is indeed 'real' and comes in handy for those particular situations.

As mentioned above, the installer is the key to PPF satisfaction; not just with the install but also in the setting of expectations prior to the project and, perhaps most importantly, the support provided after the installation is complete. The best PPF results are a collaboration between the installer and client; take the time to visit the shop and get a feel for their overall operation and your level of comfort with the interaction you experience. Ask questions, whatever comes to your mind is fair game given the expense of a complete PPF project. In the end it should be an enjoyable experience and not a struggle!

​​​​​​For a few pics of the process, you can check out this project which involved not only PPF installation, but also the removal of previously installed PPF: Black 718 Porsche GT4 – Custom graphics, Akrapovic exhaust and more…

Hope this helps a bit with your project...enjoy!

Shambler

Peace of mind is huge. I would not have wrapped my car, but it was CPO and already on it. When I first noticed the nicks, while I was disappointed, I just said to myself "no big deal, I'll just get another piece of plastic at some point."

I have wondered how much protection this also gives from door dings. It has to better than zero.