PPF / Ceramic

[prime]

I’ve PPF and ceramic coated my last 2 vehicles. It does not make financial sense, but it does give a sense of relief from things banging into the front end whether it’s rocks or random debris on the highway. With that said after a couple years the PPF can start to look not great where edges are, any strong curves that require multiple pieces will collect dirt and show up as darker lines. Worse on lighter colors.

I’m leaning towards ceramic coating only this time for the Macan, I have been keeping my vehicles a couple years at a time right now. If it was a decade maybe it would make sense. Ceramic coating is helpful for me because I usually hand wash and it makes it easier. If I wasn’t doing that I probably would skip the ceramic and do an annual detail.. would prob take 5-6 years of details to recoup the ceramic coating cost.

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[Fly4ever]

Just picked up the car from the detailer, after one week. It's after full Stek brand PPF. The detailer said Stek has good hydrophobic properties, so doesn't need ceramic coating on top.
Cost £3k.

Hey @Awaz,are the off-road parts (front spoiler lip,side skirts and the diffuser at the back) also PPF covered? I just had a conversation with a shop and the guy told me he's uncertain if the diffuser can be properly covered.Do your shop had any kind of difficulty in covering these parts of your car?

 

[Great_Cookie]

I also have the off-road package and can confirm that my installer (Xpel) did have the painted parts that you mentioned covered. Parts were also templated and pre-cut for fitment.

Hey @Awaz,are the off-road parts (front spoiler lip,side skirts and the diffuser at the back) also PPF covered? I just had a conversation with a shop and the guy told me he's uncertain if the diffuser can be properly covered.Do your shop had any kind of difficulty in covering these parts of your car?

 

[Fun TC Driving]

I do not drive backwards much also never have PPF installed on the back hatch or rear fascia. Even on lease cars, I will however have the complete “first 1/3” done including headlights, DRL’s (if separate), the front of the door mirrors, the “A” pillars and depending on the vehicle the forward-mosrt 18’ of the roof. For the Macan and most vehicles which have stick out wheel arches, I will do the front, bottom 18” height edge of the protruding wheel arches .

Our is a CPO and interestingly while driven by a Porsche Atlanta headquarters corporate employee, it was done before it first went int service (knowing it was going to be turned back later for customer initail official first sale and titling,) They PPF’d a lot of what I do with the following exceptions: Our CPO Porsche only had the first 1/3 of the front fenders and the first 18” of frunk hood done.

I will have my installer, a) remove those partial section pieces, give it their always special two step cleaning, then put XPEL on the entire total frunk and front fenders (replacement for the partial pieces), and then ceramic coat the entire vehicle.

Cost versus protection is always the question, especially for those of us who are leasing it. But just as our iX M60 which went back as an early lease return last week was returned looking nearly showroom new (our goal for every vehicle we take car of during our tiem of possession (will treat it the same on our currently leased Macan).

 

[Fly4ever]

Thank you @Great_Cookie for the info!
Most likely the installer I spoke to wasn't aware there are templates to pre-cut the covering material.Probably I'll have to look elsewhere,a shop with far grater experience will surely know how to do it the proper way.The guy I talk to, told me that especially for the diffuser at the back of the car seems like it's gonna give him some troubles because is completely attached to the bumper not leaving any sort of gap to properly tuck the material behind it.

 

[Fly4ever]

I do not drive backwards much also never have PPF installed on the back hatch or rear fascia. Even on lease cars, I will however have the complete “first 1/3” done including headlights, DRL’s (if separate), the front of the door mirrors, the “A” pillars and depending on the vehicle the forward-mosrt 18’ of the roof. For the Macan and most vehicles which have stick out wheel arches, I will do the front, bottom 18” height edge of the protruding wheel arches .

Our is a CPO and interestingly while driven by a Porsche Atlanta headquarters corporate employee, it was done before it first went int service (knowing it was going to be turned back later for customer initail official first sale and titling,) They PPF’d a lot of what I do with the following exceptions: Our CPO Porsche only had the first 1/3 of the front fenders and the first 18” of frunk hood done.

I will have my installer, a) remove those partial section pieces, give it their always special two step cleaning, then put XPEL on the entire total frunk and front fenders (replacement for the partial pieces), and then ceramic coat the entire vehicle.

Cost versus protection is always the question, especially for those of us who are leasing it. But just as our iX M60 which went back as an early lease return last week was returned looking nearly showroom new (our goal for every vehicle we take car of during our tiem of possession (will treat it the same on our currently leased Macan).

John,me neither (do not drive backwards much ) and I'm not interested in covering every bit of my car only just to add protection.My problem is I want to change my default color to these specific parts from FrozenBlue to GulfOrange.In the photo is clearly visible how the car will look like after the covering will be completed:

 

[Awaz]

@Fly4ever
Hi, sorry for the delay in replying. I couldn't remember what was done, so I had messaged the detailer and was waiting for his reply.
He said, on plastic parts it's rather impossible to do PPF as on plastic the PPF doesn't stick. So it wasn't done.

 

[Fly4ever]

@Fly4ever
Hi, sorry for the delay in replying. I couldn't remember what was done, so I had messaged the detailer and was waiting for his reply.
He said, on plastic parts it's rather impossible to do PPF as on plastic the PPF doesn't stick. So it wasn't done.

Thank you for your help @Awaz,I really appreciate you took the time and ask the shop what I was asking!!Really thanks!
I just hope the Vinyl wrap material behaves differently and stick without issues to plastics,in fact yesterday I spoke with a couple of installers and they all told me there will be no issues concerning this matter - as far as the Vinyl wrap materials concerns - the only possible issue could be some difficulty to install it on the diffuser at the back of the car because it's very tightly attached to the rest of the bumper, leaving absolutely no gap to securely tuck the material behind it.

 

[Fly4ever]

...Wait...just now I thought something weird concerning what the installer told you @Awaz ... If PPF doesn't stick to plastics then how it sticks without issues to bumpers,external mirror covers as well as to all other plastic car parts?I mean a great percentage of a car's exterior nowadays is made of plastic so are all these parts impossible to PPF'd?Strange indeed...!! Maybe he was referring to the unpainted plastics or the ones without a smooth (like metal) surface.I was indeed asked by both installers yesterday during our conversation weather or not the plastic parts I want to wrap have a smooth surface because if they are rough we then would have a problem.

 

[Awaz]

I think his words were “very difficult/rather impossible”.
So, he may have done PPF on some parts where it was possible. I don't know.

 

[someTimesJoe]

On my Taycan, I have PPF on the gloss black pieces of the off road package. Almost identical to where you have the Gulf Orange in your pictures. If they’re plastic and textured like the rear bumper, it’ll probably have a harder time to stick and last.

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