To assist you as a business owner that does ppf ill chime in.
just like
@bobofat mentioned every shop is different
To answer your first question about the mirrors
So, when paint protection film is installed, there is a certain amount of risk assessment we take as installers.
there is a point at which where is the material being stretched beyond its limit can cause failures in the installation. you end up getting things
called "fingers" it's when the adhesive on the ppf pulls back and lifts. generally associated with high amount of tension!
This is important because ppf can only contour and stretch so much. This is why 95% of the mirror installations look like this in the pictures.
**i put tape here to show you where we stop when doing the installation on this lucid we currently have at the shop**
Paint protection film is not vinyl. Vinyl is extremely thin and has more flexibility of coverage than PPF. Any area on the vehicle that is not getting ppf gets our ceramic coating.
View attachment 8372View attachment 8373
To answer your next question about black trim.
The only trim ppf installers generally do are high impact areas. So Mirror trim - black lower trim on all 4 doors. again, we supplement that with paint correction on those parts and make sure it has Ceramic coating.
PPF needs material to grab on to and the black trim is pretty narrow, so it makes it difficult for the ppf to adhere well. Im not saying it cant be done but again its comes down to risk assessment. is it worth having to replace over and over or have the customer upset because it is not staying on long term for the return on protection on it. Black trim can be very easily fixed. Actual body paint is a whole other ball game. Thats why many shops do not do certain trims. That is a conversation you have to have with your installer
For the trim on the LUCID there should be no seam. if there is then the installation was not done right and tension management was done correctly then there shouldn't be a seam there.