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Nora in Florida
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I'm thinking of getting PPF put on my new car before the Michigan roads chip the hell out of it. I've got one great local place that does it that does XPEL and 3M and can do damn near anything with them.

So the debate is, just how much is actually worth it? Partial hood vs full hood, A pillars? Headlights? There are many choices to be had.

There's also the cost to consider, partial hood, full front bumper, mirrors and partial fender can end up around $1,200.....thing is $1,200 is a lot of paint correction if needed!

So for those of you that have done it, how much did you have done and how much did it cost (if you don't mind sharing)? Thanks!

I'm from Michigan too and got my PPF and Ceramic Coating from Motor City Auto Spa, Royal Oak!

I went for the XPel Ultimate full front end kit + Rocker panels + A-Pillars + Headlamps + Fog lamps + Rear Cargo Loading area + Sunroof Leading edge.

Ceramic Coating was Opticoat Pro + on the entire Vehicle including the wheels.

All glass was treated with Aquapel.

The PPF is warrantied for 10 years while the Ceramic Coating (if I remember correctly) is warrantied for 5 years.

I paid $4003.00 for the entire deal and this was done last week of June 2018.

The owner of the place and the techs working there are nice enough to wash and dry my Vehicle for free every time I'm around Royal Oak (I live up north).

I am fully sold on getting Vehicles PPFd and Ceramic Coated. I have tested out the PPF through the mountains of Wyoming driving through intense sand-storm while pitted the entire front-end of my (then) brand-new V90CC. The micro-scratches healed themselves in a day or two being in direct sunlight and now, I cannot make out if the car was ever pitted by the sand. My windshield is a different story as it has millions of micro-scratches visible in direct sunlight due to the sand storm.

PPF will physically protect the Vehicle while Ceramic Coating will chemically protect it. My advice is, you own a beautiful, expensive vehicle. The snow, slush, salt and road conditions of MI won't let it stay that way in a couple of months. Invest in protecting your Vehicle the same way you have invested in the Vehicle itself. Mine looks brand new even after 45k miles on it and that alone is worth the cost!

If you decide to go the PPF/CC route, make sure you have the skills to perform the install yourself or, if not, have a well-known, genuine place, paint-correct and then professionally install everything.

 

When I get my new car, I would like to have both of these done. How would you recommend researching a well-known genuine place? Is there any certification or licensing? I definitely want more than a yelp review when choosing something so important and expensive.

Nora in Florida
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www.autopia.org

All the pro's are on there, including myself. Amazing place to find a TOP NOTCH detailer.

 

On both my wife's XC90 and my V60 I chose to get both PPF and ceramic coating done. My wife's XC90 we had done with Suntek and Opticoat Pro+. My V60 I went with Xpel and CS-II Titanium. I just wanted to try to different products my local detailers used. For PPF, on both our vehicles we had full hood, front fenders, front bumper, a-pillar, roofline, headlights, mirrors, rear luggage strip and door cups done. Ceramic coating went on top of all the paint and the wheel faces and we also did a windshield coating. Cost was approximately $4500 for the XC90 and $3800 for my V60. It's not cheap but I tend to keep my vehicles for a long time, plus the ease of cleaning is so nice. Not having to wax is a bonus as well (I just don't have the time with 2 kids).

If you can afford to PPF and ceramic coat I would do both. PPF you can't go wrong with Suntek, Xpel or 3M. There are lots of great coating products out there. Just need to find a trustworthy detailer.

 

What is the order in which these products are put on?

Now just to find a trusted detailer. I will use the link suggested.

Thank you so much!

Nora in Florida
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I'm thinking full front bumper, full front hood, mirrors, partial fenders/wheel well surround with 3M. Should run around $1,200 to $1,500 and provide good, though not perfect protection. Skipping ceramic and all that, as much as I'd love to drop 10% the purchase price of my vehicle on paint protection that's a bit much for me to stomach at the moment.

 

Sounds like a good plan. And I agree with dropping the CC and going with PPFing critical areas! Also, see if you could get your A-Pillars covered. They do take a beating.

 

Thank you!


Nora in Florida
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I have used 3M for a couple cars. It works fine but will yellow. If your car is light color it will show. Won’t be noticeable for a darker color though. I purchased a new to me car in January and put XPel film and it is much better. It has some self healing properties. I would use it again but not 3M. I wrapped the whole front of my car FYI. When my Volvo is done I will likely wrap the entire car with it.


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$800 for my 99 R. Partial hood and badly done front bumper (gaps on hard angles where they seemed to have given up) where it is has been great, where they didn't do it is all pitted. This is also a respray and the paint seems thin.

 

Quick update: used Motor City Auto Spa like Volvolic, super impressive place! Ended up doing the full package xpel meaning everything they have as pre-plotted: https://www.xpel.com/paint-protecti...EL-US--AND--Canada/Passenger-Cars--AND--Light-Trucks/2019/Volvo/S60/Inscription

* full front : full bumper, full hood, full front fenders, lights, mirrors, A pillars and upper roof back to the sunroof edge
* Full rocker panels
* B and C pillars

Then added custom

* Door cups
* Door edges
* rear bumper upper

Surprisingly Xpel didn't have a preplotted top of the rear bumper which gets scratched up putting things in the trunk so I told the shop if it's $100 or less go ahead and make a piece for that, they did and made a custom plot for the top of the rear bumper that they'll now have for the future which is nice.

All together around $2,800 and it included a full paint correction/exterior detail before hand so full wash, clay, polish. Has the 10 year Xpel warranty against all yellowing, cracking, peeling, etc.

I passed on the ceramic coating, the film is enough for me.

This place also offers an underbody detail for $175, totally doing it after each winter with all the salt around here. The volvo OEM corrosion coating is great, but a full steam clean of the underbody sounds nice.

"cars are placed on a hoist then thoroughly degreased and then steam cleaned with a 220° pressure washer.
All frame, suspension, bottom of Engine & transmission components are thoroughly cleaned."

 

Sweet! That sounds like a really good deal.

 

Here she is all done sitting next to a brand new M4. I gotta say it doesn't look out of place whatsoever next to the far more expensive BMW

 

Well, it really looks great!!

I'm not sure how many quotes I can get in my little southern town in the middle of nowhere. I'll have to do a 32508 ZIP Code search.

Nora in Florida
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I've just wrapped mine with XPEL stealth. It cost me almost $6K.
Obviously I had to do it for the whole car
I'm quite happy with the result, but it's not perfect. I was expecting a flawless installation and I'm not sure it's possible, unless it is performed in a cleanroom.

 

I don't think you'll see too many identical twins on the road, congrats!!! A great car!

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Impressive! For that $$$ I hope they removed each panel so the edges are wrapped all the way around?

 

Thanks

Here are some pics taken during the installation:

 

I had never seen an XPel Stealth install. Looks beautiful with that silky finish. Also, if I remember correctly, Stealth is a more heavy-duty PPF than Ultimate and the added microns of thickness give the Vehicle it's distinct appearance. :beer:

 

Wow it looks great! I so hope when I get my new Volvo I can find an authorized dealer near me, and get the stealth also. The pictures are really interesting. So is this something that is cut and placed on the vehicle, or is it sprayed on?

 

I’m getting full front done when the car arrives.

 

Did mine in Prague 3 days after OSD pick up. Did the full hood front bumpers and front fenders. Also a strip on the back bumper and both headlights. Total $1200

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Awesome car, and great price for the PPF need to swing by from USA to get in on this 1/2 price PPF compared to USA

 

Well, your both right. Handcut pro's do charge more, for speacial seamless look installs, it's more or less for edges and not as much seams though. As far as pricing that is VERY GOOD, ex a front end on an XC90 would run around 2200 including mirrors (keep in mind this is grade A material and all of us have MAP pricing). Pre-cut 4-5 years ago sucked now it's amazing (IF you line everything up right and prep good). I still charge more for handcut though, there are plenty of peices that have to be hand cut for a certain desired look or are just too tiny for the plotter.

Fyi - Knifeless tape sucks, so if you ever see anyone using it stay away, the cuts aren't clean at all (Atleast in my experience).

 

The film is Llumar platinum.

https://www.llumar.com/automotive-f...types-of-automotive-film/car-paint-protection-film/paint-protection-film-series

Not saying it was 100% perfect install, but it held up to some bad roads and weather for the 5000km in Europe.

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I've never been all that impressed for the cost. Most folks don't keep cars long enough to appreciate a savings. If you just want it to look as perfect as possible for as long as possible I can understand it I suppose. I'm having it put on a customers V60 next week. 3m product, though both seem to be just fine. For full front $1750, or partial front (full bumper and mirrors, partial fenders and hood) $1095. Headlights $85. Now what could be good is $15 for each door cup. Folks with nails can really scratch this area up, especially on a dark colored car. That was the prices I got quoted from the vendor and just passed on to the customer, not something we do in house. I can't justify any markup because I don't really see the value to start with! But we do have the cost of running a driver down and back twice. Oh the things you do for repeat business of friendly customers (-=

 

On my previous car I was getting chips and scratches not even a year after getting it. The area we live in will probably have even more highway construction going on for the next 5 years so if we can prevent it for that long, Ill be happy.

 

I think everyone is going to be different in terms of recognizing if it is worth it to them. For myself, I had my last car for 18 years and I like to keep my cars looking nice. Also in our climate here in Canada, we have gravel and salt in the winter so it really saves the paint from getting nicked up. However I agree that it's not for everyone.