To PPF or not PPF?
Discussion
I'm awaiting delivery of my A110GT in Abyss Blue. It's going to have to live on the street for a while, and I don't have a driveway on which to wash it so I may end up having to use jet washes (gently) or valet cleaning services (there's a mobile one I've used who seems to rub relatively little grit into the paint...).
With on-street parking and outdoor living, I assumed PPF to be a good idea, and I'm currently booked for XPEL with a good provider. My reasoning was peace of mind knowing that it should provide some protection against general street wear and tear, or the odd gentle parking kiss, particularly since I won't be trying to buff the car to a shine every week.
My question is, is this worth it in the experience of those of you who have done it, or have actively chosen not to do it? I can afford the PPF, just don't want to create a load of grief down the line.
With on-street parking and outdoor living, I assumed PPF to be a good idea, and I'm currently booked for XPEL with a good provider. My reasoning was peace of mind knowing that it should provide some protection against general street wear and tear, or the odd gentle parking kiss, particularly since I won't be trying to buff the car to a shine every week.
My question is, is this worth it in the experience of those of you who have done it, or have actively chosen not to do it? I can afford the PPF, just don't want to create a load of grief down the line.
As a cautious new owner (I've never spent this much on a car before!) I had PPF on the front bumper and mirror pods; but now there's a dink in the PPF, picked up after being strafed by a gritting lorry. So instead of paintwork anxiety, I have PPF anxiety...
I have applied a Meguiars ceramic polish, and this seems to slough off dirt and water: so although PPF gives me (some) peace of mind, the polish is working well for everyday rainfall, etc., and that seems more important for the day-to-day.
I suppose what I mean is that PPF will protect the paint from stone chips, but it will get stone chipped itself. Ultimately it depends what you want from the car: cosmetic perfection, or an involving, exciting drive, regardless of minor blemishes to the paintwork?
I have applied a Meguiars ceramic polish, and this seems to slough off dirt and water: so although PPF gives me (some) peace of mind, the polish is working well for everyday rainfall, etc., and that seems more important for the day-to-day.
I suppose what I mean is that PPF will protect the paint from stone chips, but it will get stone chipped itself. Ultimately it depends what you want from the car: cosmetic perfection, or an involving, exciting drive, regardless of minor blemishes to the paintwork?
Edited by LE62NDE on Wednesday 11th January 20:08
Yes it's worth it, cover as much as you feel happy shelling out for. Sills are worth it, I think rear bumper too.
Having picked up a paint chip or two on uncovered areas I'm way more bothered about those. Can't fix them by peeling off and reapplying!
(General feeling - any paint repair is a massive faff and carries considerable risk of being not ok)
Having picked up a paint chip or two on uncovered areas I'm way more bothered about those. Can't fix them by peeling off and reapplying!
(General feeling - any paint repair is a massive faff and carries considerable risk of being not ok)
Thank you. Sills are a must for me, my wife drags her heels when she gets in and out of the car, her 150k miles VW was bare polished metal along the driver's sill long before she'd finished with it. I have had WORDS about whether this will make me happy when she borrows my new car...
We had PPF done on both our Alpines and we think it was a waste of money.
It limits you to where you can get the car washed, you either need to do it yourself or a professional valet or detailer.
On both of our cars the film has popped off from the grooves (we used XPEL).
The bugs seem to stick really badly to the PPF and it doesn't quite clean up as well as the paint finish.
I'd only get PPF again if I was mega rich with the money to not only PPF but get a detailer to come after using the car each time.
It would've been much better had I just put some money aside to get a respray in 5-10 years time.
It limits you to where you can get the car washed, you either need to do it yourself or a professional valet or detailer.
On both of our cars the film has popped off from the grooves (we used XPEL).
The bugs seem to stick really badly to the PPF and it doesn't quite clean up as well as the paint finish.
I'd only get PPF again if I was mega rich with the money to not only PPF but get a detailer to come after using the car each time.
It would've been much better had I just put some money aside to get a respray in 5-10 years time.
I had XPEL ppf installed on the front of mine 4 1/2 years ago and it has got a few marks in it but nothing major.
The worst areas are the sills just in front of the rear wheels, that area gets a lot of abuse and is well worth doing.
If the car is a very long term keeper like mine is, I would have it done otherwise I don't think I would as the odd stone chip is to be expected and won't affect its value enough to justify the cost off ppf.
The worst areas are the sills just in front of the rear wheels, that area gets a lot of abuse and is well worth doing.
If the car is a very long term keeper like mine is, I would have it done otherwise I don't think I would as the odd stone chip is to be expected and won't affect its value enough to justify the cost off ppf.
I wouldn't bother with PPF. If the car is a keeper then budget for a front end respray after ~5 years which is about as long as PPF lasts. Costs would be similar. This is what I did with my 911, using Lloyds Autobody just by Manchester airport. Cost of the respray as about £2.4k and I had similar prices for a decent front end PPF.
Should be getting my GT in April/May and don't plan on using PPF.
Should be getting my GT in April/May and don't plan on using PPF.
AlexNJ89 said:
We had PPF done on both our Alpines and we think it was a waste of money.
It limits you to where you can get the car washed, you either need to do it yourself or a professional valet or detailer.
On both of our cars the film has popped off from the grooves (we used XPEL).
The bugs seem to stick really badly to the PPF and it doesn't quite clean up as well as the paint finish.
I'd only get PPF again if I was mega rich with the money to not only PPF but get a detailer to come after using the car each time.
It would've been much better had I just put some money aside to get a respray in 5-10 years time.
Must be a cowboy job as that ain't right !It limits you to where you can get the car washed, you either need to do it yourself or a professional valet or detailer.
On both of our cars the film has popped off from the grooves (we used XPEL).
The bugs seem to stick really badly to the PPF and it doesn't quite clean up as well as the paint finish.
I'd only get PPF again if I was mega rich with the money to not only PPF but get a detailer to come after using the car each time.
It would've been much better had I just put some money aside to get a respray in 5-10 years time.
Xpel has a 7 year warranty so why not go back and have it rectified although if they didn't know what they were doing the first time round ....
It serves a purpose and can be treated like the paint itself. Yes it will damage if a rock hits it but much easier to replace that particular sheet than get a respray.
I insist on it on all my new cars to protect the frontal impact areas. You can also double up the high impact zones like the sills or wheel arches. I have a very reliable and very experienced and friendly installer so yes , I am a fan.
It's a bit like a new kitchen , you can buy a really expensive one but if the fitter is rubbish, you get a rubbish job.
Far Cough said:
Must be a cowboy job as that ain't right !
Xpel has a 7 year warranty so why not go back and have it rectified although if they didn't know what they were doing the first time round ....
It serves a purpose and can be treated like the paint itself. Yes it will damage if a rock hits it but much easier to replace that particular sheet than get a respray.
I insist on it on all my new cars to protect the frontal impact areas. You can also double up the high impact zones like the sills or wheel arches. I have a very reliable and very experienced and friendly installer so yes , I am a fan.
It's a bit like a new kitchen , you can buy a really expensive one but if the fitter is rubbish, you get a rubbish job.
Ok sure, I will go back and see what they say.Xpel has a 7 year warranty so why not go back and have it rectified although if they didn't know what they were doing the first time round ....
It serves a purpose and can be treated like the paint itself. Yes it will damage if a rock hits it but much easier to replace that particular sheet than get a respray.
I insist on it on all my new cars to protect the frontal impact areas. You can also double up the high impact zones like the sills or wheel arches. I have a very reliable and very experienced and friendly installer so yes , I am a fan.
It's a bit like a new kitchen , you can buy a really expensive one but if the fitter is rubbish, you get a rubbish job.
I like PPF. I have "100% coverage" on my A110. This, perhaps, equates to 99% coverage, as they can't cover every last square millimeter.
I sold a 10 year old McLaren to fund the Alpine purchase. The McLaren had 100% coverage from new & the paint looked like new when I came to sell it, aside from the few small areas that weren't covered, like the leading edges of the fins behind the doors & small strips down the sides of the roof - these were covered in microchips that made the paint look dull, but you needed to really be looking to see this. The car had well over 50,000 miles on it.
I advise getting the car trailered from the dealer straight to your PPF guys, before you drive it. & get them to ceramic coat it as well. If you use somewhere that's even half way towards being any good, they will take the badges off for you & stick them back on if you like. I'm only mentioning this because a coupe of guys on here have shown pictures of PPF that has been cut to fit around the badges, & I don't need to tell you, but I will: this looks like a complete dog's dinner. Anyway, I think you should tell them to leave the badges off. The car looks much better without them, especially at the back, IMO, although I know most people disagree with me.
I agree, PPF limits your options if you like someone else to clean it for you. In my case, I'm happy to leave it dirty then see it looking magnificent every once in a while, when I find time to clean it myself.
I sold a 10 year old McLaren to fund the Alpine purchase. The McLaren had 100% coverage from new & the paint looked like new when I came to sell it, aside from the few small areas that weren't covered, like the leading edges of the fins behind the doors & small strips down the sides of the roof - these were covered in microchips that made the paint look dull, but you needed to really be looking to see this. The car had well over 50,000 miles on it.
I advise getting the car trailered from the dealer straight to your PPF guys, before you drive it. & get them to ceramic coat it as well. If you use somewhere that's even half way towards being any good, they will take the badges off for you & stick them back on if you like. I'm only mentioning this because a coupe of guys on here have shown pictures of PPF that has been cut to fit around the badges, & I don't need to tell you, but I will: this looks like a complete dog's dinner. Anyway, I think you should tell them to leave the badges off. The car looks much better without them, especially at the back, IMO, although I know most people disagree with me.
I agree, PPF limits your options if you like someone else to clean it for you. In my case, I'm happy to leave it dirty then see it looking magnificent every once in a while, when I find time to clean it myself.
Had PPF (Xpel ultimate) applied to full front of mine incl. bonnet wings, sills, mirror caps and a localised area behind rear wheels this is the first time i have ever used it, I decided against having any ceramic coating applied and don,t find any problems washing the car just use Autoglym shampoo/conditioner and a large drying towel, only downside is stone chips will still show (blister) when a stone chip hits it have picked up a two/three to bumper area but would prefer that to a respray and you can always have smaller areas re-applied if it bothers you, I would be very sceptical about a resprayed area on any future purchase.
HokumPokum said:
if the car sees track use, I'd advise it. get the high impact areas looked after (track wrap) then ceramic coat for easy washing. should cost about 2k all in
This is what our new Tesla got.First the detailed wash, then the full paint correction, only had 49 miles on the clock !
Got the half wrap, and all sensitive areas, cills, leading edges of rear wheel arches, then ceramic coated, Gtechniq, Crystal Serum everything else.
7 years on the wrap, 5 on the coating.
They are directly opposite my wifes workplace, so they see her car every day
£1900
The car is a long term purchase, so it was collected on the Saturday, and in the wrappers on the Monday
https://www.apmcustoms.co.uk/
Deeside North Wales.
AlexNJ89 said:
Couple of snaps of our PPF, not good pics as these were only meant to be sent on whatsapp to someone, but you can see at the top of the side air intake it has come way.
I think that might go back in place with heat and pressure, so worth taking back to the company that applied it. As ever, if you don't ask, you don't get...swanseaboydan said:
I wouldn’t have it again - all that happened on my black car with full ppf was that the ppf picked up loads of little
Scratches and swirls that you then couldn’t polish out - I prefer to just wash and wax the car myself and not deal
With special ppf products
That's just rubbish PPF. If you get scratches in something decent like XPEL they will come out with a little heat - either leave it in the sun or a quick heatgun/hairdryer sessionScratches and swirls that you then couldn’t polish out - I prefer to just wash and wax the car myself and not deal
With special ppf products
https://youtu.be/3lKtKJvmttw
Yes I agree but I always found that the tiniest scratches show on a ppf that wouldn’t show on paint. The car always cleaned up well with the gtechniq products but I would rather have detailed it myself.
A clear coating on black paintwork just seemed to highlight any tiny scratches or swirls - just my opinion - I’ve now for 3 silver cars as they show no marks at all !
A clear coating on black paintwork just seemed to highlight any tiny scratches or swirls - just my opinion - I’ve now for 3 silver cars as they show no marks at all !
Thanks everyone for your input. I'm going to go with full PPF on mine, it will spend much of its time on the street and I don't have anywhere to lovingly polish it, so it would look a bit grubby whether I did PPF or not. It'll be going straight from the dealer to the detailers, who offer a lower price if it's not been covered in cr*p already.
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