Yup, that's exactly what I used....blue painter's tape FTW!

 

I covered mine. The installer knew about the delamination issue, so was very careful with installing the film and it turned out great. If and when I remove it then if there is a problem I will have the lights polished and refinished.

In the 18 mths I owned my 991 the headlights got peppered with chips (and I stored it over winter!).
I live in New England so crap on the road is a matter of fact.

 

Getting mine done tomorrow and this is the route I am taking. Full front wrap and painters tape for the lights when tracking.

 

The problem is when the coating starts to peal off it doesnt all come off. You end up with patches. Its very thin less than 1mil.

Im not sure you could polish off the remaining film without burning the lens and ruining the light .

As i said in my first post i priced a new light and it was $6,000 each for the PDLS+. When i polished it all i did was to feather the edge of the area that was starting to peal from removing the XPEL. carl

 

Just to let everyone know. Don't keep the blue painters tape on for months. It will cause delamination also

 

Its strictly a one day deal. You also can get it in different adhesive strengths . carl

 

I agree that you can't repair the UV coat. It is potentially replaceable, but it's not as easy as it sounds.

I believe if some coating comes of you're typically looking at wet sanding (and then polishing) to get all of the damaged coating off. You need to get back to the bare polycarbonate base layer and start again, applying a new UV coating. This is where headlights fundamentally differ from most taillights. Acrylic taillights hold up to UV attack well, and are easy to polish when scratched, however they couldn't withstand the impact from stones that are experienced on the front of a car and that's why polycarbonate is used. The downside with polycarbonate though is that it's not inherently UV resistant, hence the specialist coatings that are applied.

The rub there is trying to find an aftermarket UV coating that is 'pro grade' enough to be able to restore the headlight to something close to OEM look and functionality. You can walk into a parts store and get replacement clearcoat for your paint easily, but not so for headlights.

There are plenty of topical UV coatings (basically glorified polishes with mild UV inhibitors) that come with headlight restoration kits, but IMO they're not up to the job and not a real replacement. You have clear headlights for weeks or maybe months and then you're back to faded & yellowed headlights because this is simply not a substitute for the UV clearcoat that the OEM sprays on in the manufacturing process.

The only thing I've seen on the market that is potentially 'the real deal' is a spay coat sold by Glass Mechanix. I have purchased this but haven't used it, and I don't go recommending products that I haven't used, however promising they may seem.

If anyone has a late model Porsche headlight that is trashed/doesn't function and being replaced I would happily pay shipping for it and potentially even buy it just to play around more with the Glass Mechanix product. I am that nerdy.

 

Maximum that the blue painters tape will be on is about 30-36 hours (go on Saturday morning before session 1 and come off Sunday afternoon after the last session).

 

If someone was more motivated than me they would come up with a clear cover that they could be put over the light to protect it. Have a clear bra ring around the outside perimeter of the light then use molding tape to adhere the cover.

 

That's exactly what I've been looking for, some sort of pre-shaped thick vinyl that could be taped down to the body. It wouldn't be pretty, but probably not worse than painter's tape covering the entire headlamp assembly, and as long as it stayed on, I'd be fine with it. I looked into buying just a roll of thick vinyl, but I don't think it would follow the contours of the headlamp precisely enough.

 

I will give you $100k you do all the leg work and then pay me a 50% royalty

 

Going this route also (although I usually use 2 layers of painters tape at the track - also FYI Home Depot has several different colors of Painters tape
)- mine goes on this Friday.

 

After getting my car done today I saw just how easy it is to remove the front headlight. It takes the most of 2 minutes to remove both headlights. To bad no one makes a dummy light to fit in its place. I decide to go with the blue tape on track days and not cover my lights. BTW anyone in NE FL who wants a a PPF should give Cool Conceptz a call to install Xpell. This guy knows his sh-- tucks all the edges uses carbon blades to trim and does a jam up job!!

 

Looking good Ocho!

 

Which one did you get? The blue one? or the green one?