› Forums › SGVR Member Forum › PPF – the good and the bad
John Ramirez.
John RamirezI am relatively new to this entire PPF thing. When I purchased my car….I had PPF put on before I took delivery. After high insight this probably wasn’t the best decision. If I had to do that step over again…I would have take the car to a paint correction shop and had the car gone through before putting the PPF but thats another story.
So to start this off… I have a love hate relationship with PPF. The love part is easy. It projects the paint from chips, scratches, swirls and stains. The bad part….the hate side PPF itself can tear, scratch, swirl and get stains. So I look at it as a temporary shield that protects me more like an insurance policy. If and when I get PPF damage …. the cost to repair that will be a lot less than the cost of repainting, replacing a windshield or headlight.
For those of you who know me I am super ridiculous when it comes to maintaining my car. It gets oil changes every 3000 miles…you get the idea. If there is something I can do to keep the car working great, and looking great…I will probably do it. So…thats how the PPF thing got started.
Recently…on the way to one of our events….the front of my car was blasted by rocks falling out of a truck. Luckily the PPF did the job…it saved the hood but the windshield not so much. It would have been fine had I had PPF on it….so that will be something I replace in the near future. The headlights lens took some hits but not too bad…so had those cleaned up and PPF put on those now. Now PPF on headlights is a personal option that determines where your level of pain is. IF the PPF on the lens gets damaged….and you want to get it replaced…it’s going to be very costly to be done right…the lends has to be polished and sealed then PPF applied. So why do PPF sounds like its the same process of a rock hits it anyway. The answer to that is yes..it’s the same process BUT…..the depth the rock damage does to the lens will not be as deep so less sanding and less likely hood of causing major damage to the lens. The down side… in 10 years or so…if nothing has hit the lens you are going to probably want to replace the PPF and you will be faced with reconditioning the lenses at that time. So to me…it’s 50/50 sort of thing. Some say it will void your warranty…but so does a rock strike so not sure where to go with that one.
One important note….many cars, including mine have a plastic parts…many of which may get covered in PPF. When you get an object/rock strike on PPF that is covering plastic…the plastic will get a dent. Maybe not a scratch or a chip but a tiny dent. Better than a deep gouge and going through the paint…but nonetheless a scar may be noticeable.
PPF – self healing…. well…. so far….swirls self heal…minor scratches will self heal, but thats seems to be about it. With a good ceramic coating it’s even better. The car is super easy to clean and always looks great. But here is the downside…you have to keep it clean. More specifically you have to keep the edges of your PPF clean. Dirt can build up along edges and seams. This build up is like PPF cancer…once it starts and gets under the PPF…you have to either trim it off or have it cleaned and new adhesive applied to get it to stick…(this doesnt work well) so trimming or replacing the panel has always been the better option. So cleaning a car…in general is easier with PPF….the detailing of the PPF edges takes extra time and care.
So would I suggest PPF…Yes… especially if you are fanatical about your cars surfaces.
I would love to hear your PPF adventures. Drop and line.
John RamirezAfter a year of my first car covered in PPF….would I still do it again. The answer is maybe. Here are my thoughts:
I think there are different types of car owners, with different levels of passion, different budgets for fixing things and of course different levels of OCD when it comes to their cars. My dream car is a 246 Dino Ferrari…the cost of which is so high that I could not bring myself to buy one. But if I did, would I cover it in PPF? I would want to for the obvious reasons but would I do it to original paint on that car? Well…that car would not be out on the canyons that often or following Tuan’s GT4 with Cup 2s that broke my windshield last week or at least would be 8 cars back from him at all times. I think this car would be treated differently…definitely not aggressively. Then there are the Ferrari owners many of us saw at the Concours a few months back when all the tops were down in the rain, letting water pile up on the leather seats. I think it was then I realized I am glad I am a Porsche owner. Every Porsche owner I know is truly passionate about their cars. Regardless of model, it’s their pride and joy and respect it. They would never leave it out in the rain with the windows down (at least on purpose), much less keep the roof off the car during the rain when it could be easily raised. Perhaps I am just not rich enough to own a Ferrari and have the ability to not care if damage occurs. But I think its more than the money…I think its an attitude of ownership…Porsche people just care about their cars more than most….and I think I fall into this group. For that reason…I am sticking with PPF on my Porsche..it’s my insurance policy and a layer of peach of mind if there is any. I am not sure if I would do it to another car.
So…it’s been a year and I have had a few incidents. From a cement mixer dumping golf ball sized rocks that hit the car like a machine gun to canyon drives with small rocks that peppered the car from nose to tail. I have just replaced the hood, bumper and lower rocker sides. With all the damage…the PPF replacement costs about $3K vs all new paint and carbon fiber repair. I can testify the PPF works. The PPF is far cheaper than remaining any part of your Porsche.
So ya…thats my update. I will be replacing PPF regularly I am sure as there is a limit to the amount of PPF damage I can tolerate before I think next rock will hit the same spot and get to the paint. It’s an expensive proposition…but the alternative is worse. So ya…I am sticking with PPF.
