Survey: Your plans for exterior paint protection

[niejelow]

I had my air dream p covered with Xpel new hydrophobic coated ppf.

 

[hmp10]

I've used Opti-Coat ceramic on three cars with very good results. It's unique among ceramic coatings in being based on silicon carbide instead of silicon dioxide, and it has a MOHS hardness rating of 8.

When we traded our 2015 Tesla Model S after six years, except for a few very minor rock chips, the paint still looked new and beaded water as if the car had been waxed. And that was an older version of Opti-Coat.

We used their newest product -- Opti-Coat Pro3 -- on our new Model S Plaid (white) and Lucid Air Dream (Zenith Red). It is a complicated application but puts down an 8-micron coat. It's hard to tell on the white Tesla, but the dark red Lucid seems impervious to swirl marks. (I wash the car by hand using the 2-bucket method and towel it dry, but I don't use foam sprays or other elaborate washing procedures.)

I considered a PPF also on the Air, but PPFs in south Florida can be challenging. The premiere local installer has quit using Stek films because, despite excellent reviews from most quarters, they were having to replace film due to yellowing. (They now use Xpel exclusively.) Also, my brother used 3M PPF on his Tesla in Atlanta but has said he would not do it again. Atlanta has a lot more potholes and road construction than we do, and his car has gotten quite a few chips. He would prefer being able to touch up the paint on the chips instead of having to debate with himself whether to have film replaced.

 

[Dortreo]

Craft Detailing in the Boston area has already done an Air and is quoting $6500 for full, $3100 for full front, rockers, and bumper, and $1700 for ceramic. This is with XPEL Plus. Needs about a week’s notice and two days for the install.

 

[noobzilla]

*died*
I am not knowledgeable about wrap and ceramic cost. I was thinking it would be around $3000 max. Looks like everyone is doing at least some kind of wrap here. Anyone thought but decided not to go with it?

 

[Maverick]

*died*
I am not knowledgeable about wrap and ceramic cost. I was thinking it would be around $3000 max. Looks like everyone is doing at least some kind of wrap here. Anyone thought but decided not to go with it?

Yeah, it was definitely a shocker on expense. I'd never even heard of it until I joined the forum. But given the price of the car (GT) and the obsessive desire I now have to keep it looking pristine, I opted to do it. Of course, it will do nothing to prevent a rock to my windshield which happened 5 miles from dropping it off at the PPF place, but that's a different curse, I mean story, altogether.

 

[hydbob]

Yeah, it was definitely a shocker on expense. I'd never even heard of it until I joined the forum. But given the price of the car (GT) and the obsessive desire I now have to keep it looking pristine, I opted to do it. Of course, it will do nothing to prevent a rock to my windshield which happened 5 miles from dropping it off at the PPF place, but that's a different curse, I mean story, altogether.

Wait so now you have a Crack in your windshield?

 

[Maverick]

I do...it's small, but noticeable. The service manager thinks I should replace it. And for those who weren't aware, replacement is the only option currently. The crack is round and smaller than a nickel. It is an interesting crack bc it appears to have gone deeper than I've experienced on my Jeep. NOTE: I'm an expert on cracked windshields given the Jeep ownership. When I take the car in, I definitely want to ask the service manager for his thoughts as I am curious (not yet concerned) about this. The rock did not seem to have impacted particularly hard, and the crack is different from what I have seen before. It is probably just more bad luck on windshields.

As an aside, I thought maybe I was going to be the first one in Scottsdale or maybe one of the first nationally to need this. Apparently, Scottsdale has already replaced "a few". I'll keep the group posted.

 

[noobzilla]

Educating myself. Interesting video I saw comparing no coating vs PPF vs Ceramic

 

[CSAF17]

Approximately how were you charged? I received the following quote in Virginia:

XPEL Paint Protection Film Full Vehicle Protection
$7,700.00

XPEL Fusion Plus Ceramic Coating Add-on to full vehicle PPF - without Paint correction
$1,200.00

XPEL Prime XR Plus Window Tint - Car
$899.00

Total: $9,799.00

Where in Virginia did you get the quote? I'm in Fredericksburg and looking for an XPEL installer.

 

[movieguy]

Where in Virginia did you get the quote? I'm in Fredericksburg and looking for an XPEL installer.

I haven't gotten my Lucid yet so I don't have a quote but I have had 3 teslas wrapped and taken care of by TLC Auto Detailing and they have been great to work with. I dont believe they use XPEL, but rather ClearGuard Nanotech. I dont know a lot about the differences between the products, but I have been happy with the service and the products installed on my cars, FWIW. They are located up by Dulles Airport, so its not quite as local as you might like.

 

[hmp10]

Educating myself. Interesting video I saw comparing no coating vs PPF vs Ceramic

He did not say what kind of ceramic coating he used. All ceramic coatings are silicon dioxide . . . except one: Opti-Coat. Opti-Coat is silicon carbide, which is both harder (MOHS scale 8) and more chemically resistant than silicon dioxide. And their newest product -- Pro3 -- is a four-step application process that leaves an 8-micron coat on the car (about four times the depth of most ceramic products, including Opti-Coat's earlier products). The downside is that it requires professional application, is expensive ($3100 for a sedan), and requires annual inspections/detailing by the installer to maintain its lifetime warranty.

I used Pro3 on my Zenith Red Dream. At almost 4,500 miles and numerous hand washings, there are no swirl marks or any other marks on the car. Opti-Coat will not protect from rock chips as well as PPF, but it does not have the risks of peeling, discoloring, or dirt buildup at the edges that film has.

 

[Mkatz]

Has anyone tried protective film on the windshield? Does it help with rock chips/cracks? Get a lot of them driving on the NJ turnpike. Given that you would need to replace the entire windshield/roof complex if there was a crack.

 

[MPawelek]

Don’t know if it is legal everywhere and running windshield wipers over it would eventually scratch it I would think. There is that brief second when you turn on the spray that the wipers would run over dry PPF. Someone else probably knows for sure…..

 

[Demosthenes]

I’m in San Diego and got a quote for Xpel ultimate plus full car wrap plus ceramic on top for 8k. 3M crystalline windows, back and sunroof for 1250$ and 950$ additional for front windshield. The wrap and ceramic seem on par with the forum but how about the tint?

 

[noobzilla]

He did not say what kind of ceramic coating he used. All ceramic coatings are silicon dioxide . . . except one: Opti-Coat. Opti-Coat is silicon carbide, which is both harder (MOHS scale 8) and more chemically resistant than silicon dioxide. And their newest product -- Pro3 -- is a four-step application process that leaves an 8-micron coat on the car (about four times the depth of most ceramic products, including Opti-Coat's earlier products). The downside is that it requires professional application, is expensive ($3100 for a sedan), and requires annual inspections/detailing by the installer to maintain its lifetime warranty.

I used Pro3 on my Zenith Red Dream. At almost 4,500 miles and numerous hand washings, there are no swirl marks or any other marks on the car. Opti-Coat will not protect from rock chips as well as PPF, but it does not have the risks of peeling, discoloring, or dirt buildup at the edges that film has.

Thanks for info! Will consider that. PPF will be too expensive for me. Will be digging up more info later though I wonder if ceramic coating decreases heat absorption from the sun? Also need to look at more before after pics. I think ceramic provides better visual upgrade on non-white cars

 

[hydbob]

I’m in San Diego and got a quote for Xpel ultimate plus full car wrap plus ceramic on top for 8k. 3M crystalline windows, back and sunroof for 1250$ and 950$ additional for front windshield. The wrap and ceramic seem on par with the forum but how about the tint?

Tinting the entire car in 3m crystalline was 1500 for me

 

[histal]

I was planning on Opti-Coat, good to hear others have used it also!

 

[Maverick]

Has anyone tried protective film on the windshield? Does it help with rock chips/cracks? Get a lot of them driving on the NJ turnpike. Given that you would need to replace the entire windshield/roof complex if there was a crack.

If anyone has thoughts on this or other things to help protect the windshield, please let us know. I remember someone posted the price of a windshield a while back. It was roughly $1500 (which was a lot, but not as bad as I thought it would be). Well, I'm here to tell you that the $1500 is the price of the glass only. The install is a day and half process including calibration and the total cost is going to be $2505 + tax. In AZ, the insurance company should be required to pay for it, but I'm guessing another one any time in the next decade will probably get me blackballed. Really hoping that Lucid gets to a point where they can repair smaller cracks.

 

[noobzilla]

Noob question. For people who opted for both PFF and ceramic, was both applied to the whole car or PFF on the front and ceramic everywhere else? I've been assuming it's ceramic coating first followed by PFF on the whole car but as I'm shopping around I see options to apply PFF only on the front area.

 

[hmp10]

I was planning on Opti-Coat, good to hear others have used it also!

I used Opti-Coat Pro3 on both our new Tesla Model S Plaid and Lucid Air. I also used an earlier version of Opti-Coat on our 2015 Model S. When I traded it six years later, the paint job still looked almost like new. There were a couple of tiny rock chips on the hood, and a quarter-sized piece of paint peeled off the driver-side outside rearview mirror (due to Tesla's notoriously poor paint processes). However, water still beaded on the car as if it had just been waxed, and there were no detectable swirl marks anywhere on it.