Vintage72

My order is JBM with Platinum wheels, Platinum stitching/leather and GR seat belts. I will have the wing supports stripped and powder coated to match the Platinum wheels. Suncoast red door pulls will be installed along with clear LED side markers. Also, I will tint the windows CLEAR, including the windshield, and I will have only the front clip and hood Xpelled. I do not like black wheels on a dark car or dark tinted windows on a dark car.

To each his own and I am in no way and criticizing others' taste as all the "murdered" GT4s look good; just not my deal. I am just expressing my style as I want the GT4 "aggressive" with an understated contrast. Plus, I want to show off LWBs with red seat belts!!!

Mr. F1 Fan

Please share how things go with powder coating to match the wheels. I had considered doing the same, but wasn't going to go to the trouble. Depending on how much of a pain it is for you and what the cost is to powder coat, I may or may not do it. I look forward to seeing all your mods competed..... seems like a good look.

Vintage72

Roger, I will document and post pics.

ajw45

The tint is Suntek CXP and looks lighter than the pics in person. For a black car with a black interior and that big hatchback rear window, I think having some tint is huge for helping reduce the heat in the car. I prefer no tint since the tint can scratch (dog), I wear sunglasses when I drive anyway, and I like the clarity of bare glass but after a summer in my last black hatchback, the difference in comfort with a good light tint is totally worth it to me so I think of tint as a functional mod first, an aesthetic mod second.

I also think the wrap is practically a necessity for black cars! The self-healing aspect of the film sounded like bs but the wrap really does tend to hold less swirls than bare paint and I worry less about washing the car more often. One thing that I noticed on my last car is that the wrapped panels do seem to get dirtier slightly faster than bare panels so while the wrapped panels are practically identical when clean, there is a subtle difference over time as they get dirty between washes. This is especially noticeable on a black car, hence the decision to wrap the whole car. Most of the wrap focus is usually on the front and rear surfaces but I think the side skirts are also a critical area to wrap not only because of the debris kicked up from the front tires but also because the lwbs aren't the easiest seats to get out of and its easy to brush up against the side skirts. After installing the extended sport side skirts on my last car, I noticed some significant wear in the paint from my jeans brushing past the same spot everytime I got out of the car. The door handles, gas cap area, tops of the doors, and trunk were also high wear (more swirls!) areas so at that point, it was a no brainer to just wrap the entire car.

I do like the look and feel of paint more than the wrap but honestly the material technology has come so far and with a good custom installation I can't tell the difference. Plus, my car will go to the grocery store, home depot, get parked on the street, eat cones at the autocross, get pelted with rocks and rubber at the track, etc, so I think of the wrap as a protective wear item. The fact that a good installer can make it nearly invisible is a bonus!

Vintage72

There is nothing wrong with "dark" tint but clear tints are now available and awesome. I have them on my 991S and BMW i3. They kill the Sun's UV but maintain the look I like for the cars.

mcdavis

The point of clear tint is purely protective of the glass?

Vintage72

No, not just for the "glass," it filters out the UV/heat without being dark.

mcdavis

Does anyone know what amount of UV and heating infrared that standard Porsche glass filters out?

Mr. F1 Fan

Awesome, thank you!

Fab_vr6

seems like your shop is doing really nice work. The shop I am planning to use doesn't even remove the headlight nor the front emblem when they do the wrap work. They also don't do any paint correction before applying the film. Makes me wonder if I should look for another shop...

PistolPete

The headlights are so easy to remove and will make a big difference in tucking the seams in IF they print the template with the extra material to cover those areas. My understanding is that with Xpel, the software can extend some edges if needed.

A photo of my car before my installation:

DSC_2588 by Peter Moy, on Flickr

Mr. F1 Fan

Did they wrap in the tow hook plug?
Can the badge be removed and replaced over the wrap?

PistolPete

Tow hook plug and area around it was wrapped. I didn't get the photo with everything removed, I was already cringing at seeing this since the car was only about 1-hr old at this point.

The badge was re-installled over the Xpel material so there isn't a seam around it.

ajw45

The standard glass probably has a small filtering effect but UV really contributes very little to the heat inside the car though the extra filtering might be good for the interior. Practically all the tints offer near 100% UV protection, the best way to compare tints from a heat perspective is to look at the tser rating (total solar energy rejection). Clear tints can address UV and IR but a high tser requires some amount of darkening tint/reflectivity to address the visible light spectrum as well.

XPEL

Looks great, thanks for the pictures, can't wait for more!