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What areas do you think PPF is essential on?

BuckeyeBOSS

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Looking to get partial PPF and then full ceramic coating. What areas of the car do you think are essential for PPF nowadays with the seemingly thin paint? My use will be street and the occasional drag strip.

For PPF I'm thinking maybe:

Clear for...
1. Hood
2. Front bumper
3. Headlights
4. A-pillars
5. 10inch partial roof
6. Rockers
7. Behind Rear Wheels

Piano Black for...
1. Lower front bumper trim pieces that are gloss black from factory

Matte black or dark gray for...
1. Under the Dark Horse headlights

Is that TOO MUCH coverage?
Do you think front fenders are needed or no?
Bother with PPF on the black mirrors or no?
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DarkHorsePremium

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Essential: Hood, fenders, bumper and front fascia. You can spend the money on the other stuff if you like.
 

DFB5.0

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The key advice I would give here would be to never do partial panels, say half the hood or quarter panel. Over time, that edge will become very obvious, and you also have the paint aging different rates.
 

goodlettjr

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I did my entire car. It was the first one where I did the whole thing. Had some buyers remorse till about a year in. Here are the areas where the PPF has protected my car. Mine is white. I do notice dirt buildup around the edges quite a bit even with regular washes weekly by me. No one else sees it. I need to work on cleaning that up.

Hood - Obviously
Front Bumper- Obviously
Mirrors - Obviously
Driver side Fender - top of wheel well edge. I think this is a parking lot incident.
Driver side door - I opened the door in the garage ant hit a ladder. 1st week after I installed it.
Driver side behind door - was driving down ahighway by myself at 55. heard a loud bag like my car got shot. Whe I pulled over it looked like something rubber hit it. slight tear in the PPF, but paint is fine.
Trunk deck lid - No idea how this one happened but a small tear in the PPF.

Most are in the common areas, but a few suprised me.
 


AZ_Ryan

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Do the whole front clip - bumper, hood, fenders, along with the side mirrors. If you have a wide tire and wheel set up get it on the rear quarters in front of the rear wheels.
 

LouG

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I did full front, and hood back to the rear edge of the vent. I didn't do lower rear guards and rockers as I thought the plastic trim will protect the paint. It has so far.
 

Cipis

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Looking to get partial PPF and then full ceramic coating. What areas of the car do you think are essential for PPF nowadays with the seemingly thin paint? My use will be street and the occasional drag strip.

For PPF I'm thinking maybe:

Clear for...
1. Hood
2. Front bumper
3. Headlights
4. A-pillars
5. 10inch partial roof
6. Rockers
7. Behind Rear Wheels

Piano Black for...
1. Lower front bumper trim pieces that are gloss black from factory

Matte black or dark gray for...
1. Under the Dark Horse headlights

Is that TOO MUCH coverage?
Do you think front fenders are needed or no?
Bother with PPF on the black mirrors or no?
Full PPF is necessary IMO
 

blkshadow

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Save up and do the whole thing - it’ll be worth it.

Otherwise, I agree - do full panels.
 

DFB5.0

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Also, just note there is some risk to PPF. If this will be a long-term vehicle, chances are you'll need to replace the PPF down the track (say 7 to 10 years). As such, there is a very real possibility that removal can take paint away with it. Not always the case, but something to be aware of. A respray to fix stripped paint will cost more than a few stone chips.
 

Dark Sprite

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Full PPF - gloss for most, satin for the matte parts and decals. I got a rock chip on my spoiler, so I was glad to only have to replace that portion of PPF.
 

AZ_Ryan

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Also, just note there is some risk to PPF. If this will be a long-term vehicle, chances are you'll need to replace the PPF down the track (say 7 to 10 years). As such, there is a very real possibility that removal can take paint away with it. Not always the case, but something to be aware of. A respray to fix stripped paint will cost more than a few stone chips.
Thats a myth. Unless the car was resprayed, or improperly installed using adhesive, there is no risk to the paint pulling up with modern PPF.
 

Cipis

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Also, just note there is some risk to PPF. If this will be a long-term vehicle, chances are you'll need to replace the PPF down the track (say 7 to 10 years). As such, there is a very real possibility that removal can take paint away with it. Not always the case, but something to be aware of. A respray to fix stripped paint will cost more than a few stone chips.
I do not agree. Stone chips are definitely more costly to repair especially if done properly. Peeling paint when removing ppf goes off from behind edges or at ages and are much more easier to fix and not on so visible large areas as stone chips. Paint won’t just peel when ppf was installed on new car. On top of that when you remove ppf you have practically brand new polish on your paint. After 7-10 years you don’t have to replace the PPF if you don’t like to, therefore the money for ppf in long term out-stands the benefit of having brand new looking car nobody without ppf can achieve, unless you start polishing and lowering the microns.
 

Junkyard Dog

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What did you pay, and what did you get?

This was shockingly expensive when I checked on it.
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