[Kstein]

Hey All - thought I'd do a post talking through my experience with Frozen paint and Paint Protection Film, since there seems to be some misconceptions (at least with the latter).

TL;DR: XPEL Stealth PPF looks great on Frozen PB - even for a partial installation.

I bought my car with Frozen Portimao Blue paint and received in back in November. The paint looks amazing - I love it and get a ton of compliments. Unfortunately, I didn't get PPF immediately because there were posts that said you had the PPF the whole car or it would look horrible and, at over $10K, I thought the cost of the whole car was too high. My local shop also reiterated this (which ended up being quite false).

After some research in another post, one of the users noted they got XPEL stealth on the front only and the photos looked great. Eventually, I got nervous about maintaining the paint and ended up getting a small rock chip on the front. I got a quote for just the front clip which was about a third of the cost of the whole car and asked them to do a test patch with XPEL Stealth. It looked nearly indistinguishable.

While these guys charged a bit of a premium over other quotes I got, when I saw the results I could tell why. Unlike other installers, they take off any parts before they wrap and ensure the edges cannot be seen. As you can see from the photos, it's basically impossible to tell where there's PPF (see photo of the front door - the door does not have PPF, everything in front of it does).

Lastly, I've seen some questions over why anyone would get Frozen, instead of just a Stealth XPEL wrap. I'm in the Chicago-area, and getting my car fully wrapped costs about twice what getting Frozen paint + front clip wrapped (with high enough quality to not be able to tell it's wrapped). I'll also add that I take my car to a $7 no-touch wash with no waxes and the paint has held up great so far.

Hope this helps - happy to answer any questions.

[GolfR17]

Originally Posted by Kstein

Hey All - thought I'd do a post talking through my experience with Frozen paint and Paint Protection Film, since there seems to be some misconceptions (at least with the latter).

TL;DR: XPEL Stealth PPF looks great on Frozen PB - even for a partial installation.

I bought my car with Frozen Portimao Blue paint and received in back in November. The paint looks amazing - I love it and get a ton of compliments. Unfortunately, I didn't get PPF immediately because there were posts that said you had the PPF the whole car or it would look horrible and, at over $10K, I thought the cost of the whole car was too high. My local shop also reiterated this (which ended up being quite false).

After some research in another post, one of the users noted they got XPEL stealth on the front only and the photos looked great. Eventually, I got nervous about maintaining the paint and ended up getting a small rock chip on the front. I got a quote for just the front clip which was about a third of the cost of the whole car and asked them to do a test patch with XPEL Stealth. It looked nearly indistinguishable.

While these guys charged a bit of a premium over other quotes I got, when I saw the results I could tell why. Unlike other installers, they take off any parts before they wrap and ensure the edges cannot be seen. As you can see from the photos, it's basically impossible to tell where there's PPF (see photo of the front door - the door does not have PPF, everything in front of it does).

Lastly, I've seen some questions over why anyone would get Frozen, instead of just a Stealth XPEL wrap. I'm in the Chicago-area, and getting my car fully wrapped costs about twice what getting Frozen paint + front clip wrapped (with high enough quality to not be able to tell it's wrapped). I'll also add that I take my car to a $7 no-touch wash with no waxes and the paint has held up great so far.

Hope this helps - happy to answer any questions.

That's great to know. Thank you for sharing. Car looks awesome!

[psylovibe]

That job looks incredible from the pictures! As a frozen owner myself. It's well worth the investment, and now you can drive it the way it's meant without the headache if your paint is getting any rock chips, etc.!

[bozman42]

Thanks for posting this! I have a Frozen PB on the way and I've just been so confused with the different opinions on how the XPEL Stealth will look. Like you, I'm not really interested in doing the entire car because of cost, and I only hand wash my cars anyway so the care/maintenance is not as big of a deal to me.

[mike@x-ph.com]

Looks great!

[Turbodu07]

Hard time deciding between doing this and black stealth ppf.

The car looks amazing!

[Blindside_137]

Thanks for sharing. Thinking of doing frozen black and full stealth PPF. I'm just worried about it yellowing over time as I don't have covered parking at work.

[J_Supplanter]

I also live in Chicago. Purchased my frozen PB M3 this week and having it wrapped in Stealth next week. What car wash do you use that doesn't use wax?

[Kstein]

Originally Posted by J_Supplanter

I also live in Chicago. Purchased my frozen PB M3 this week and having it wrapped in Stealth next week. What car wash do you use that doesn't use wax?

Sorry, just saw this. I actually use a touch-free car was in Glenview. Ironically, the cheapest option ($6), but it does not have wax, is super convenient, and does a reasonably good job. A few others have noted self-wash and there are a couple hand-wash places that can be trusted. That being said, good enough for $6 a wash can't be beat!

[J_Supplanter]

Originally Posted by Kstein

Sorry, just saw this. I actually use a touch-free car was in Glenview. Ironically, the cheapest option ($6), but it does not have wax, is super convenient, and does a reasonably good job. A few others have noted self-wash and there are a couple hand-wash places that can be trusted. That being said, good enough for $6 a wash can't be beat!

Thanks, man. But I live in River North, so Glenview is a bit of a walk. I've been going to Logan Square Hand Car Wash & Detailing. Under body flush, soap n rinse (no wax), detailed interior wipe down and vacuum, detailed exterior drying: $18 & 20 mins. Also like Car Wash Quiroga's Detail near Wrigleyville, but they don't have an underbody flush option. These are the best downtown options I'm aware of so far for frozen/satin/matte and/or PPFed paint outside of personally hand washing.