[recycledAlva]

It would depend on your budget and what you're looking to accomplish.

As others have stated..

Protection from rock chips, scratches, etc: PPF (xpel or suntek imo, whatever your installer of choice is most comfortable with)

Ease of cleaning and improved scratch resistance: Ceramic Coating (I install Ceramic Pro so i'm a bit biased as to what coating you should get

You can wrap your front end: bumper, headlights, full hood, full fenders, mirrors, rear bumper deck for anywhere between $1400-$2000 depending on your area and the shop you choose. Then you can coat the exposed paint with Ceramic as well as the PPF. Again, I would opt for Ceramic Pro if it's available. Their PPF specific product is pretty amazing and designed to allow the PPF to maintain it's self-healing properties. The coating can run anywhere from $250 to $2400 (again, dependent on your area, the installer, and what warranty you're looking for).

Personally, i think PPF on the front end and coating the whole car is the best bet. You get protection from rock chips where you need it and the rest of the car is easy to clean and safer from swirl marks/scratches

[orangeglim]

How does PPF play with UV fading of the paint? I get not doing half the hood, but what if you do the hood and front fenders, but not the doors, over time aren't you going to get paint that looks different between the door and the fender? All paint fades over time and I've got to think that covering it with anything is going to cause those areas to fade slower than ones that aren't. Anyone have any experience with that?

[Bruce_SC]

Originally Posted by orangeglim

How does PPF play with UV fading of the paint? I get not doing half the hood, but what if you do the hood and front fenders, but not the doors, over time aren't you going to get paint that looks different between the door and the fender? All paint fades over time and I've got to think that covering it with anything is going to cause those areas to fade slower than ones that aren't. Anyone have any experience with that?

I think what you would see is that the paint under the film would look better because it is protected, and the other areas have been subjected to normal wear and tear.

Bruce

[akkando]

Originally Posted by Bruce_SC

I think what you would see is that the paint under the film would look better because it is protected, and the other areas have been subjected to normal wear and tear.

Bruce

I was told PPF doesn't protect from UV so that PPF surfaces and naked surfaces fade at the same rate.

[Who?]

are all xpel installed pre cut?

i contacted a guy to get a quote and he said their xpel front bumper kit is precut, which to me means its not seamless? is this the norm? if so will they peel on the edges over time?

[jonahk]

Originally Posted by Who?

are all xpel installed pre cut?

i contacted a guy to get a quote and he said their xpel front bumper kit is precut, which to me means its not seamless? is this the norm? if so will they peel on the edges over time?

I can't imagine how they could possibly apply PPF on the front bumper without it being pre-cut. The curves are too sharp to heat and stretch, and lining up a manual relief cut would be damn near impossible.

Mine was pre-cut, and I can't say I'm a huge fan of where the "seams" (relief cuts) wound up, but you have to be looking directly at them to notice.

Here's the plot for the M2 in case anyone is interested

[V.Smurf]

Hi Who?

Originally Posted by Who?

are all xpel installed pre cut?

i contacted a guy to get a quote and he said their xpel front bumper kit is precut, which to me means its not seamless? is this the norm? if so will they peel on the edges over time?

I've got Suntek on my bumper, and it was not pre-cut. The guy that I used (in Melbourne) went out of his way to explain why pre-cut gives poor results. I'm not an expert here, but the work that he did by cutting it himself was astounding - it absolutely flawless and nearly impossible to tell where the relief cut lines are. I think in the end he used 5 pieces.

The caution that he made about pre-cut was that the film will stretch as you install it ... and the degree of the stretch depends on many things such as the ambient temperature & humidity, temperature of the panel etc. such that it is impossible to control it, with the result being that you usually end up with gaps in certain areas.

The guy I used does mostly high-end cars (he was doing a Bugatti a month after doing my M2), so he was very skilled.

Hi jonahk,

Originally Posted by jonahk

I can't imagine how they could possibly apply PPF on the front bumper without it being pre-cut.

I think that the answer is that it can, but that it requires (great) skill. The result on mine is fantastic - I'm very happy with the fit/finish.

Originally Posted by jonahk

Mine was pre-cut, and I can't say I'm a huge fan of where the "seams" (relief cuts) wound up, but you have to be looking directly at them to notice.

I ended up with a single cut in the main piece - between the kidney grilles, along edge created where the top of the bumper rotates 90 degrees to line up with bonnet. There is a fine crease line there and it hides the cut perfectly. Even when looking at the cut, and knowing that it is there, its impossible to see.

Cheers,

[akkando]

Originally Posted by jonahk

I can't imagine how they could possibly apply PPF on the front bumper without it being pre-cut. The curves are too sharp to heat and stretch, and lining up a manual relief cut would be damn near impossible.

Mine was pre-cut, and I can't say I'm a huge fan of where the "seams" (relief cuts) wound up, but you have to be looking directly at them to notice.

Here's the plot for the M2 in case anyone is interested

Mine was custom, and they split it into pieces. Had I known this I would not have done it so after they did it I told them I was going to have it redone. They could either redo it or I would pay someone else to do it. They then redid it as a one piece custom job, which they said was very difficult and needed multiple hands. I told them based on what I think Bruce told me that a custom cut on the front bumper would be too difficult to attempt and they could use a pre cut kit, that was fine, but they insisted on doing a custom cut...

[akkando]

Originally Posted by V.Smurf

Hi Who?

I've got Suntek on my bumper, and it was not pre-cut. The guy that I used (in Melbourne) went out of his way to explain why pre-cut gives poor results. I'm not an expert here, but the work that he did by cutting it himself was astounding - it absolutely flawless and nearly impossible to tell where the relief cut lines are. I think in the end he used 5 pieces.

The caution that he made about pre-cut was that the film will stretch as you install it ... and the degree of the stretch depends on many things such as the ambient temperature & humidity, temperature of the panel etc. such that it is impossible to control it, with the result being that you usually end up with gaps in certain areas.

The guy I used does mostly high-end cars (he was doing a Bugatti a month after doing my M2), so he was very skilled.

Hi jonahk,

I think that the answer is that it can, but that it requires (great) skill. The result on mine is fantastic - I'm very happy with the fit/finish.


I ended up with a single cut in the main piece - between the kidney grilles, along edge created where the top of the bumper rotates 90 degrees to line up with bonnet. There is a fine crease line there and it hides the cut perfectly. Even when looking at the cut, and knowing that it is there, its impossible to see.

Cheers,

My custom cut was between the the grilles but not up on the edge, it was right in the middle and I didn't like it so I had it redone as one big piece..