To PPF or not to PPF
- Thread starter robbymcg89
- Start date
Mine is a PPF and not wrap.
ULTRAFIT, Paint Protection Film, Car paint, Paint protection, Windshield Protection, Film to protect windshield, Auto glass windshield, Windscreen protection, Window Tint, Car detailing service
ULTRAFIT, Paint Protection Film, Car paint, Paint protection, Windshield Protection, Film to protect windshield, Auto glass windshield, Windscreen protection, Window Tint, Car detailing service
www.ultrafitprotection.com
- Thread starter
- #23
Why do you say “No automatic car washes!”? We have a membership at our local car wash and haven’t had any issues with my wife’s Grand Cherokee or my previous Yukon. But I may be missing something.
I guess it depends on how closely you look at or how much you care about your vehicle's finish. I would never run a vehicle that I care about through a car wash with any brushes or cloth things that touch my paint. And I've yet to see any touchless car wash that gets a car even close to being truly clean, so they are a waste of time and money imho. The last consideration is this is a thread about PPF and some believe that indiscriminate high pressure blasting of your car (like a touchless car was) can lift the corners / edges of your PPF and lead to a mess.
The brushes on those gas station automatic drive-through car washes are notorious for beating the hell out of your vehicle's paint. The brushes need to be hard and durable enough to last long enough to be economical, and even worse, they are full of dirt and grit from the last vehicles that went through the wash. You end up with micro-scratches and swirls all over your vehicle. You'll get your paint thinned on creases and sharp edges.
I had my GX professionally ceramic coated and I use a drive-through touch-free car wash. The pressure washing isn't too high-pressure where it's lifting my front-end PPF. It does a good enough job of spraying off the Arizona dust and then I hand-dry with a microfiber towel. Sometimes I'll drive through twice. For $7-8 it's not a big deal. If I really want a deep clean then out comes the hose & bucket and hand-sponges.
I had my GX professionally ceramic coated and I use a drive-through touch-free car wash. The pressure washing isn't too high-pressure where it's lifting my front-end PPF. It does a good enough job of spraying off the Arizona dust and then I hand-dry with a microfiber towel. Sometimes I'll drive through twice. For $7-8 it's not a big deal. If I really want a deep clean then out comes the hose & bucket and hand-sponges.
Congrats on your OT+. I opted for no PFF on my OT+.
Keep in mind, not all PFF installers are created equal and I've had more than one do some real damage with the razor blade even though they are using precut stuff. Do your due diligence on the installer before committing.
My 2016 LC had Gulf States Toyota installed PFF until I got into an accident early last year. The PFF held up perfectly but vehicle had rock chips everywhere else in the front fender and hood edge.
Gig'em!
Keep in mind, not all PFF installers are created equal and I've had more than one do some real damage with the razor blade even though they are using precut stuff. Do your due diligence on the installer before committing.
My 2016 LC had Gulf States Toyota installed PFF until I got into an accident early last year. The PFF held up perfectly but vehicle had rock chips everywhere else in the front fender and hood edge.
Gig'em!
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I always PPF due to the crazy amount of highway driving. I have a 10yr old BMW that still has SunTek PPF on it and it looks AMAZING. No chips anywhere, it was money well spent! I took the GX to the shop with 60 miles on it do front PPF, door cups, pillars, and black roof. Xpel now offers black gloss PPF that looks like paint and matches perfectly with the rear spoiler.
Every installer is different and each uses different brand materials. You get what you pay for, plain and simple. If installers are still using blades, it should only be limited to bulk wrap sections where corners are tucked and hidden away. Everything else can be made in a pre-cut pattern and extended to wrap around edges.
Taillights were removed to get the rear bumper edges all hidden. Headliner was dropped to remove roof rails in order to do the black top with no seams or white paint showing through.
Every installer is different and each uses different brand materials. You get what you pay for, plain and simple. If installers are still using blades, it should only be limited to bulk wrap sections where corners are tucked and hidden away. Everything else can be made in a pre-cut pattern and extended to wrap around edges.
Taillights were removed to get the rear bumper edges all hidden. Headliner was dropped to remove roof rails in order to do the black top with no seams or white paint showing through.
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If you go the route I did there are no visible seams any where but on the head light lens edges. Just picked it up today from a shop in CT call Straight Jacket. They did a great job.
I went through the local car wash yesterday with my 2 young boys. As we were waiting in line and then pulling into the car wash I'm lecturing them on the dirty dirty brushes and why we never let them touch our new truck. Then to our horror the brushes spin up after the initial rinse and soap and we proceed to get assaulted by spinning brushes with 3 full passes back & forth over and around the truck. We all started screaming and it became a joke of who could fake the most terror and sorrow and we were laughing our butts off. But I was actually pretty pissed off because I very deliberately selected TOUCH FREE on the STANDARD setting which just give you a second soap soak and rinse compared to the BASIC setting. The car wash obviously wasn't working correctly and it gave us the full scrub. I pulled around to tell a guy waiting in line in a white Tesla SUV that, FYI, touch free isn't working and he said, "Oh I don't care about this thing. Is that an Overtrail model? I have one on order in Florida. I'd be mad as hell if I were you...I wouldn't let these brushes touch my brand new truck." I pulled over in the lot next door to dry it and of course no damage but I'll bet a hundred bucks worth of ceramic coating just got rubbed off.
I could imagine the horror inside with the kiddo's screaming for the sake of screaming with you. That's how memories are made....enjoy.
Dang...the whole truck except the roof? What did that cost you?
Yes, costs a boat load but will hopefully ward off the rust and scratches. Total was about 8k. Would have been a bit less without trim removal and extending film but at that point the extra is well worth the protection in the North East. The film has a 10 yr warranty as well. After doing my own rust repair on our 80 series LC, and buying a used upper tail gate for swapping to keep it "hole" free, the cost of preventative rust protection starts to make sense if you plan to keep your ride for 20 yrs like we often do. These GX's are limited so finding bone yard panels will not be easy or cheap once out of warranty. After seeing the dirt and grim on the fenders and door bottoms behind the plastic with good cleaning effort, I would expect rust in these areas to go unnoticed until it's likely to late. Hope this helps other owners with some insight.
Same here. I can’t add much insight or value to all the good responses here.
I took my OT Incognito to a dealer in Grand Junction CO. Was a full day job over the holiday week.
I had the entire front end, full hood, full fenders section, the A-pillars, glossy portion of mirrors, the leading edge of the roof to the sunroof and door cups all PPF’d with a lifetime warranty.
And then the rest of the vehicle had a ceramic coat put on it, also with a lifetime warranty.
Part of my reasoning was that the Incognito is a non- metallic color which maybe will not hide scratches as well over time compared to, say, the white or atomic silver.
Also our ‘17 GLE43 (very dark blue, 49k miles) has just the front portion PPF on it, and it’s provided very good protection from highway debris.
I took my OT Incognito to a dealer in Grand Junction CO. Was a full day job over the holiday week.
I had the entire front end, full hood, full fenders section, the A-pillars, glossy portion of mirrors, the leading edge of the roof to the sunroof and door cups all PPF’d with a lifetime warranty.
And then the rest of the vehicle had a ceramic coat put on it, also with a lifetime warranty.
Part of my reasoning was that the Incognito is a non- metallic color which maybe will not hide scratches as well over time compared to, say, the white or atomic silver.
Also our ‘17 GLE43 (very dark blue, 49k miles) has just the front portion PPF on it, and it’s provided very good protection from highway debris.
This sounds similar to what I'd do. Did you have any PPF applied around the rocker panels or the front of the rear wheel arches to protect them from crud thrown up by the front tires?
No we didn’t. The PPF covers the entire front fender all the way back to the leading edge of the doors, and around the wheel arch and down to the black plastic rock guard that runs along bottom edge. Nothing on the back yet…. I am willing to accept some imperfections over time.
Right now I’m not seeing much make its way to the rear wheel arch area. But I haven’t driven on any rough and loose rock roads yet;, only some decent packed county roads.
I have the Slee Offroad StepSliders on the way. I’ve asked them to install some mudflaps at the same time. Hopefully that will work well with the stock tires until I go one size larger.
I caved a few days ago and dropped my vehicle off today for PPF. I only went with the full front up to the A-Pillar, including the mirrors as well. All in, it will be $2,600 + tax.
I have a truck brush with horsehair bristles for washing about 14" wide on a handle is a BIG help in hand washing. I think the newer ones are microfiber bristles. My PPF was put on at the dealer's independent installer and it is not too great,,I did better than them myself on an earlier vehicle. too far away from dealer to stay there on that issue my bad decision there but no dealer around here. I think ceramic works great for sheeting all of the gunk off just have to use the softest of toweling materials when drying. I agree the water is hidden behind the trim areas and I have not tried to eliminate that yet. My previous vehicle was 7 years when sold and it looked great and also brought top dollar. thanks for all of the good input on the forum---best to all of you.
For those that have done the PPF, what did the installer do around all the openings in the painted part under the grill? The potential installer I was going to go with said they wouldn't be able to wrap the film into the holes, but it would be flush on the surface, so I guess in theory a rock could make it way into them and damage some of the paint in there.
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