To PPF or not?

[matt21]

Having just taken delivery of a new Cayman GTS 4.0, I’m in a new of world of whether I should go with PPF. Current favourite if I go ahead would be to put PPF on the bumper, bonnet, A pillar, wheel arches and side air vents. With a ceramic coating to the rest it will cost £2700.

I’m torn as to whether it is worth it, but obviously need to decide soon as I’m using the car already, albeit lightly.

I’ve read loads about the benefits of PPF but what are the downsides.

Are there insurance or warranty implications? Seems hard to believe but I’ve heard some say there could be?
If you get a big chip what do you do as you can’t touch up?
Will the PPF start looking scruffy in a few years?
Will it be a pain to wash?

So what is the general thoughts on PPF. Worth it or just drive the car and forget about it, maybe with a ceramic coating? Car will do 4K Pa, few euro road trips but mainly weekend trips out.

Thanks!

[CharlieAlphaMike]

PPF the front bumper and rear thresholds just behind the front doors/lower sills (think Porsche 911 as an example). Cleaning is no problem but be careful with a jetwash and avoid any abrasive (2 bucket method is good and no abrasive polishing).

[alscar]

It’s a tricky decision especially as some swear by it and cover the entire car and others don’t bother at all !
I had the exposed sills and rear carbon areas of my GT8 done along with the lower front splitters and left it there.
The rest of the car was waxed polished.
I guess this one does around 1000 miles pa.
On my R8 I went for full ceramic coating alone -this will do 4k.
On a previous GT3 I had the dealer treatment which looked still looked good after 9 years but the car was used very sparingly and looked after immaculately anyway.
Problem post incident is that if the ppf needs redoing etc then may not be covered by insurance unless you have specified it.
Can’t comment on chips but obviously if this has occurred then presumably whole area needs replacing post the repair and again insurance may not cover.
There’s probably a Sod’s law that the chip will occur 1 cm away from the ppf anyway.
Just about to take delivery of my wife’s daily and am leading towards just ceramic I think.

[Draxindustries1]

PPF in the sun will always show differently to the paint.
It's probably a good protection but I just go with ceramic coating . Mothers CMX Ceramic (silicon dioxide &titanium dioxide) is a good one. Apply evenly one coat one panel at a time with an applicator, leave 2-5 minutes and wipe off with a microfibre. It's all the 'professsionals' do and is very much cheaper d.i.y.
You need to have absolutely perfect paint though before application for the best effect. My Cayman although 15years old has never seen a wet road and was molycoddled before my ownership so all I had to do was a very light mop before applying the ceramic.
Yours is new so the paint will be to that standard.

[Bobton125]

I’ve ppf’d the front bumper, side skirts and rear quarter sections in front of the rear wheels on my Aston.
Would be nice to have the bonnet done too but I’d leave it at that tbh and just drive it.

How often does your A pillar take a stone chip??

Also could be an idea to have a go yourself if you’re handsy, it’s no dark art. I’ve never applied Ppf before and applied mine all by myself. Only need two spray bottles (one with Johnson’s baby shampoo and the other with alcohol) and a £3 squeegee. Takes a lot of patience mind but looks almost as good as a pro and saves a bit of ££

Edited by Bobton125 on Saturday 29th October 17:20

Edited by Bobton125 on Saturday 29th October 17:21

[Retro.74]

Draxindustries1 said:

PPF in the sun will always show differently to the paint.
It's probably a good protection but I just go with ceramic coating . Mothers CMX Ceramic (silicon dioxide &titanium dioxide) is a good one. Apply evenly one coat one panel at a time with an applicator, leave 2-5 minutes and wipe off with a microfibre. It's all the 'professsionals' do and is very much cheaper d.i.y.
You need to have absolutely perfect paint though before application for the best effect. My Cayman although 15years old has never seen a wet road and was molycoddled before my ownership so all I had to do was a very light mop before applying the ceramic.
Yours is new so the paint will be to that standard.

Hi Drax, excuse my ignorance but does ceramic coating give any sort of protection from stone chips?
In a similar situation to OP with an Exige.

Edited by Retro.74 on Saturday 29th October 18:21

[akadk]

PPF FTW 100% all day every day

[matt21]

Thanks everyone, unsurprisingly a mixed response. Anyone experienced insurance or warranty issues?

[somouk]

Ceramic makes it easy to clean and may keep it clean for longer between washes but offers next to no protection from mechanical damage.

For a GT4 I would PPF all of the key areas where you may see damage, partly because you will likely get the value of the PPF back in residual if the car is well maintained. Plus PPF is a doddle to have changed in comparison to trying to fix road rash or stone chips.

[davek_964]

A few years ago, McLaren kindly offered to pay for my car to have a full respray. I'd bought it (used) 6 months earlier and had picked up a couple of nasty stone chips in that time. Obviously that wasn't the reason for the respray - but since I was about to get an as-new car back I decided to have full PPF done.

I was actually very reluctant - but did it thinking that it would at least protect the paint.

I had absolutely no regrets. It protected the paint perfectly for the next ~15k miles / 2 years. I got very very lazy washing it - the car lived outside, and would often just get wiped down after it rained. PPF was self healing, so never left scratches.
In my experience, it added lots of benefits with no negatives - even though it was something that I really wasn't sure I wanted. If I bought another nice car, it's the first thing I'd do.

Made no difference to any warranty claim I made, and made no difference to my insurance claim either (can't see how it would).

[SimSer]

I'm one of the PPF supporters, full car wrapping if the car is fancy: the way it protects the paint removes a lot of headaches.

See it as an investment, not an expense.

[neverlifted]

Hmnn over time you end up with random patches, bubbles and blemishes...it ain't perfect no matter what mysterious fancy stuff you maintain it with. Still probably just about worth it at £4k+, but it is marginal for me anyway.