Quote:
Originally Posted by h_bakken
I would say the answer to this is that it is significantly cheaper to PPF only the at-risk parts than it is to do the whole car.
My understanding is that you can do the front facing stuff for around 2k (welcome any corrections here) where the whole car is more like 6K. And unless you are careless about washing, I can't see how PPF over stuff that is not at risk for stone chips etc is really needed.
So if you are going for matte look, may be a wash in terms of price between forward facing PPF over Frozen, vs whole car PPF over gloss, but you are PPF'ing stuff that maybe doesn't need to be protected.
So I have a Frozen Dark Grey Metallic M4 GTS which had XPEL Stealth over the forward facing stuff (hood front quarters, mirror housings) as well as XPEL gloss over the CF bits (roof, splitter, high wing). This was done by the previous owner.
The lower rocker panels are not protected and of course they are pretty dinged up due to road stones getting tossed up by the Michelin Cup 2 and the fact that there is no deflector at the back of the wheel well. But PPF would not really help here unless you had it done every other week IMO. But you can't see them unless you lie on the ground a look up...
Having the PPF panels and uncovered Frozen panels right next to each other there is a slight difference with the PPF having more of a satin look, the naked Frozen paint is just ever so slightly less reflective and slightly more aggressive looking, but really, you have to be looking very closely under indirect light to notice the difference, even when looking at an unprotected panel right next to the PPF.
I am glad to have the PPF, I can see several stone dings which would have been in the paint if the PPF wasn't there. When it gets too chewed up I will have it re-done, but really it will just be stuff that is damaged, so will be cheaper than the original job by quite a bit. Looking at the PPF you realize why its so expensive, each piece is cut exactly to fit and there are a lot of complex shapes and curves on the F8x front end to be sure. There is even a round piece on the tow hook cover, and little gloss pieces at the bottom of the side view mirror housings where the painted part meets the glossy black plastic bits.
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In the same boat over here. I am speaking to a professional locally and he is claiming that his 3m Pro Series Matte Gen 5.0 product is superior to stealth (which he doesn't carry) has the matte texture underneath the top coat which means if you do any partial installations the panels still look the same.
Not sure if I believe it or not, my initial guess is stealth is the same however I may be wrong.
What I do know is my friend just took delivery of a frozen grey C63S coupe and when I first saw it I couldn't tell it had stealth on it at all, pretty matte to me. I had to check on the corners eyes wide open where the wrap ends to confirm, otherwise I wouldn't of guessed.