Paint Protection Film

[tintdoctor]

Been installing paint protection on and off for around 2 years now. Xpel Ultimate is the film I use.

 

Having some trouble in certain areas.

- Cleanliness - scrub clean, clay bar

- Silvering - Use baby shampoo and about a 20% rubbing alcohol mix, maybe the gel is better suited?

- Wrapping edges

 

Anybody have any detailed videos that show maybe better methods to install PPF or maybe some words of advice?

Time is an issue as it is taking me full day to install basic package.

-bumper

-hood

-fenders

-mirrors

 

Love the product just would like to be better/more time efficient at the installation. Any tips would be appreciated.

 

Thanks

 

[RecklessReflections]

Been installing paint protection on and off for around 2 years now. Xpel Ultimate is the film I use.

 

Having some trouble in certain areas.

- Cleanliness - scrub clean, clay bar

- Silvering - Use baby shampoo and about a 20% rubbing alcohol mix, maybe the gel is better suited?

- Wrapping edges

 

Anybody have any detailed videos that show maybe better methods to install PPF or maybe some words of advice?

Time is an issue as it is taking me full day to install basic package.

-bumper

-hood

-fenders

-mirrors

 

Love the product just would like to be better/more time efficient at the installation. Any tips would be appreciated.

 

Thanks

 

 

Well I'll try to help out even though I'm still learning more and more about PPF as well.

But from my experiences heres what I've found...

 

Cleaning/Prepping.

I personally do a thorough wipe down with soapy water and a microfiber. Then again using soapy water I'll use a claybar to go over whatever you're installing your PPF on.

I'll then use a new microfiber and wipe everything down again, closely inspecting for anything left behind. Now before my final wipe using a lint free blue towel coated in alcohol I'll begin to peel my piece (if its a cut kit) and get it ready so there's not much static time that debris in the air could fall on your vehicle. 

 

My bottle solution is different for my PPF installs. I have more of a "slip" solution for window film, and it made my PPF installs much longer and difficult because the film wouldn't tack down in certain areas because it was too soapy. I've seen some even use a little alcohol in the bottle but I avoid that because I feel it's not needed. All I did was decrease my slip solution and it was much better. The film should be able to tack down whenever you set a corner to lock down so you could stretch if need be, and that's where my problem used to be was it would slip off and not lock down.

 

 

 

As for wrapping your edges I'm assuming this is because you install your pieces in bulk? 

If you're doing a full front end kit like Hood/fender/bumper...

Then I would do the hood first and after everything is squeegeed out I would then pop open the hood and set a film box on top of the engine block to let the edges drop and dry out. While you're letting the edges of the film hang over and dry out it makes the film much easier to wrap around said edges. It's like installing door edge PPF protection, it's best to do them dry since it's such a small surface area. While the film is drying out I would start installing the fenders and mirrors. 

 

It will also help to have a good quality steamer just in case some of the edges you let hang and dry create any kind of fingers that may have left that outline wen pressing them out. The steamer will essentially rehydrate the PPF to eliminate that solution or white outline from it drying out. The reason I say to use a steamer is that it will eliminate that issue without introducing an unnecessary amount of water under the film after you just let it hang and dry.

 

Hope it helped a little bit 

 

Here some photo examples I took a while back. 

 

[Clear bra indy 2.0]

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