cyran

Never loved the look of the stone guards and with them starting to get a little hazy, when I take my car in to get paint corrected, ceramic'd, etc. I was going to have them pull the stone guards and just replace with normal, clear PPF. I assume the technology has gotten a lot better since these cars were manufactured, but are stone guards absolutely necessary for a widebody? It's a drivers car, already has a fair number of stone chips on the front and whatnot, I just don't want the hips to get eaten alive.

skiracer

I had mine replaced on my '06 cab and they were cut higher and to cover more of the vehicle. No issues, go for it!

Patrick84

Dealing with the same issue currently. I decided to take them off and replace with PPF. If anything, it will look a lot better.

BucketList

I would ensure the material is thick enough to prevent small preventable dents. They are not there just to protect the paint. The OEM guards are pretty thick material. Vinyl I think. I replaced mine with the black style and I like the look, but I have a meteor gray car.

Ironman88

BucketList is right I think. PPF material is relatively thin as compared with the original OEM stone guards. PPF will become much more easily damaged by small rocks / stones that will be kicked up in that location and will end up looking ratty pretty quickly.

PPF is often touted as being "self healing" - but my experience with it is inconsistent with that.

Darkhorse

The local Xpel guy did mine for $100 a couple of years ago. Help up well, no problem. But, next time I'm doing a larger area.

laphan

I replaced mine with Xpel and I put magnetic stone guard from magnagrafik on top.
The Xpel is thick enough to protect it. But now I have a choice whether to have body colored/clear stone guard or flat black (magnagrafik magnetic stone guard).

Sean

I had this done on my 05 a couple of weeks ago. The Xpel PPF looks much better.

Downsides of owning a black car... you may need to take my word on it.

Darkhorse

[QUOTE=cyran;18840752]Never loved the look of the stone guards and with them starting to get a little hazy, when I take my car in to get paint corrected, ceramic'd, etc. I was going to have them pull the stone guards and just replace with normal, clear PPF. I assume the technology has gotten a lot better since these cars were manufactured, but are stone guards absolutely necessary for a widebody? It's a drivers car, already has a fair number of stone chips on the front and whatnot, I just don't want the hips to

I have a C4S and think they're necessary. The new Xpel Ultimate film does a great job and won't yellow for ten years.

saintv90

Had mine replaced with regular 3m. Looks so much better than the hazy original stone guards. And was cheap, considering how much effort the detailer needed to use to remove the old glue!

Liste-Renn

I replaced my guards with XPel Ultimate almost 6 years ago. More coverage vice the OEM.

No issues after 20+K miles and many trips on every type of road and climate.
BBM car, so OEM clear was largely invisible, as is PPF. Have to take a knee in excellent light to see the pitting- but nothing penetrated to the paint as far as I can tell.

The coverage area takes all kinds of hits from gravel, sand and debris coming off the fronts. My 245 on 9” wheels are slightly proud and exacerbate that issue.

Maketrax

I like the look of the black stone guards but they are very thin. Anyone know if you can apply PPF over those for added protection?

Idoktr

I just replaced my yellowed clear guards with new black. Looks great on silver car..............

JAAM

get magnetic ones

Maketrax

This is still an option. I see yours has pulled away a bit in the front. Is that normal? I think that would drive me crazy if they didn't stay flat.