First time doing Paint Protection Film.

Fivestarcardetaling · April 9, 2018

This was my first time doing ppf. I came across some issues. The issues were water bubble,dust, peeling & what I think is adhesives of the film. Can any one help me to fighter out how to prevent this from happening in the future. I also experienced a lot of issues wrapping the edges of the hood. I got fingers across every edge that I had trouble putting down. It took a lot of time and some of them ended up as dry marks. Is there a process to putting fingers down? I'm using SunTek Ultra as my film.

Polishworks · April 9, 2018

This was my first time doing ppf. I came across some issues. The issues were water bubble,dust, peeling & what I think is adhesives of the film. Can any one help me to fighter out how to prevent this from happening in the future. I also experienced a lot of issues wrapping the edges of the hood. I got fingers across every edge that I had trouble putting down. It took a lot of time and some of them ended up as dry marks. Is there a process to putting fingers down? I'm using SunTek Ultra as my film.

Suntek ultra out of most of the films is one of the easier to install - were you using baby shampoo as your slip? To wrap an edge - you must let the film dry - and then Wrap —

Fivestarcardetaling · April 9, 2018

Yes i was using baby shampoo as slip. Also when I dried out the fingers on the edge they went down as dry marks. Am I doing something wrong?

Polishworks · April 9, 2018

Yes i was using baby shampoo as slip. Also when I dried out the fingers on the edge they went down as dry marks. Am I doing something wrong?

Did you use a “tack” solution at all? An alcohol solution?

highplains · April 9, 2018

Looks to me like you didn't get enough stretch into the material before you started squeegeeing it out. Were you working with a center tack or a coast-to-coast approach?

Fivestarcardetaling · April 9, 2018

I used a center tack approach. Once I get to the edges I get a lot of fingers which give me a lot of trouble to put down. Also any idea how to prevent dust and water bubbles or is it normal to have those?

XPEL Jeff · April 9, 2018

That is not the easiest hood, but the questions that you are asking are all topics that are addressed in a proper training class. We'll all help you in any way we can on this particular job, but save yourself some grief and sign up for training, it's much cheaper than the wasted film and labor of trying to learn on your own.

If that's a partial hood, you'll want to stretch that kit from front to back some, to help minimize the fingers on the side. If you can get them to where they are closer to an equilateral triangle, rather than a point, they will lay down like butter. If it is a full hood kit, then you need to spread the fingers out. It looks like you may have squeegeed all of the easy flat stuff in the back, trapping all of the excess film in the front half of the hood, without much real estate to disperse it in.

Also, if you're doing center-out, you'll want to finish the area around the center hood scoop before moving to the outer edges.

Midtown Houston · April 10, 2018

Yuuup...not a easy hood....plotting that hood is the wrong way to go about it...bulk it ONLY

PRatx · April 10, 2018

except the mid scoop , similar hood , and no fingers , or minimum.

stretch the material and tack the film before you squeegee .

if you work a partial kit , than bulk it , so you are not limited to options....

7 is a light pull and squeegee that area.

Edited April 10, 2018 by PRatx

Polishworks · April 10, 2018

except the mid scoop , similar hood , and no fingers , or minimum.
stretch the material and tack the film before you squeegee .
if you work a partial kit , than bulk it , so you are not limited to options....

Nice - I have done the Xpel training as mentioned above - and they didn’t teach us anything regarding bulk installing - and, there are instances where you NEED it for a clean, and less stressful install. I left the training program feeling overwhelmed and afraid to install anything because I knew I would never ever be confident enough to install it perfectly because they were so hard on us.. so it was good that they gave us that Mindset, but ultimately it resulted in me looking for other options in film, finding different install methods and solutions and moving forward .. the amount of film used in the training program was nice yes but it was all while using the GEL which was an absolute nightmare. I will never use the gel ever again after to switching to baby shampoo. Good luck and stick with it - don’t lose momentum!