Paint Protection Film - my experience

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IanD
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Paint Protection Film - my experience

Post by IanD » Thu Oct 18, 2012 2:11 pm

Thought I would post up my recent experience with paint protection film. I'm not fanatical about stone chips on the car and with the current car i wouldn't be considering the professional jobs due to the cost but as the lower front clam was resprayed recently and is (was!) perfect i thought I would spend a bit of time and money. I see a couple of people are also talking about newly painted clams. 

I got one of the genuine Lotus protection kits for the front in a previous Lotus sale (paid £20, retailing and still available for around £120). It is a 12 piece kit so none of the pieces are huge making it a bit less daunting to fit. Fitted that using soapy spray on both film,  car and fingers to allow the film to be easy moved about while applying (used old kitchen spray bottle with a few squeezes of baby shampoo in it). Also bought 70% strength isopropyl alcohol made up into a solution with water (50ml or so with 1 litre of water) which was used on tricky edges or curves where it was struggling to fit and this definitely help stick the film where i had moved it about a lot. Film wasnt too difficult to apply but did leave some bubbles underneath which you move to the edge and out with a squeegee (I used a credit card). Didn't try or feel the need to use any heat anytime. Found it quite difficult to move the bubbles more than 15cm. It got progressively harder having to apply more pressure to move the bubbles to an edge on the bigger pieces and eventually a couple turned into 2-3cm creases in the film which you can do nothing about once the film creases. With Lotus film there was also some cloudiness/milkyness appeared under the film usually after it had been worked for 10mins or so. I thought maybe the previous contents of the spray bottle were messing things up so emptied and cleaned the water bottle again and put less soap in it (5 or 6 drops this time) and similar happened while applying but not quite as bad.  Almost all disappeared after a day, there is a couple of traces from the 1st bits i applied so suspect maybe a bit too much soap in the 1st mix. 

After fitting there is a few areas of the front the Lotus film doesnt cover (primarily a triangular area about 30 cm long and between 15cm to 30cm high on each side)  - no idea why the genuine kit has a piece of film which provides a lovely sweeping curve from the sticking out ears on the bottom cutting across the outer clam corner to half way up the wheel arch missing out all the lowest bit, does seem a bit stupid. 

I inspected the front clam after Achmelvich weekend and noticing quite a few chips in both corners I decided to purchase an extra piece to cover the corners. Purchased via eBay seller Film4paint which is an offshoot of Premier Paint Guard selling offcut pieces cheaper than the main website DIY prices. I bought enough for £12 which included a fine micro fibre cloth, a small bottle of solution and a plastic card wrapped in micro fibre cloth to be used as a squeegee. There is a lot of other ebay providers doing film, some being really cheap but they cant be genuine - even some that sell 3M film are offering film that is 3M but it isnt suitable as paint protection film. I presume you could buy cheaper than film4paint/eBay if you could be sure it was genuine.

Used some grease proof paper to make the template and cut the pieces to fit. Did a bit of checking and refining before removing backing and sticking new film on by same method as before - loads of soapy spray means you can move it about as much as you need until you are happy.  The 3M film was easier to apply and it was much easier to remove bubbles all the way to the edge without causing creases - satisfying when you work a fluid bubble to the edge and it squirts out under pressure !! This film didn't seem to have issues with milking underneath either.  The Lotus film had both a backing paper and clear front extra layer which was peeled off and included an extended border but it was harder to see the final finish until the top sheet was removed and I didn't find any issue with the 3M film not having an border as long as the film and your fingers were wet therefore not putting fingerprints onto the inner side of the film. After applying the 3M film, it is definitely thicker the edges are a bit more noticeable than the Lotus film due to the thickness catching the light -  will just need to see if one survives better than the other. 

There are lots of debates as the film will damage over time and is the cuts and roughness on the film better compared to chips which are more visible but at least the car body can be washed back to a cleaner finish and the chips could be filled and polished ?

My opinion is for the £30 i spent it is worth a try. The Lotus kit was a lucky deal but if doing it again (which I would) i would just buy a piece of 3M film and make my own templates creating a few seperate pieces and much less pieces than the Lotus kit, so less edges to collect dirt and better overall coverage. I'm sure if you purchased via ebay the film could be bought for around £70 or less. My 2004 Elise has armourfed along the sills presumably the same stuff from new and it is quite scored but still acceptable especially compared to the chipped bodywork edges without film next to it so will be interesting to see how the film on the front looks over time. Hopefully if i do decide to remove it, the paint will remain on the car rather than attached to the film otherwise it will be staying on until I hit someone or someone hits me !!
On Storm Titanium the film doesnt show at all in day light so at least for the moment there isnt any difference with or without film.  I did notice this wasn't the case with a white Elise sitting at Murray's where the film looked a very obvious yellow from quite a distance so the film doesnt seem to work for all colours.

Of course after this in the hope of keeping the clam looking good, I went the Pistonheads run up the A814 near Garelochhead the other weekend and managed to scrape the front chin grounding after one of the many humps causing a small crack where it had just been repaired in August. This is after the front being damaged 18months ago and living with tank tape on it since then until August, i've managed 3weeks before damaging it again albeit not nearly as bad as before so guess after all this you can't and shouldn't be too precious and need to remember the main thing is to enjoy the cars and the driving. 

As I'm a numpty mechanically at least I can post some info about this that may be useful to others both my experience and information.
White Porsche man
1993 968 ClubSport - see it @https://youtu.be/8PnI0VE1B54
2010 Boxster Spyder

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duggiesmith
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Re: Paint Protection Film - my experience

Post by duggiesmith » Mon Nov 05, 2012 9:03 pm

Nice write up Ian.
It looks like there's a lot of money to be saved going down the diy route.
I just got our car back from the bodyshop. Whilst it was in I got the Defendall replaced on the front clam and it was considerably more expensive than the prices you're quoting. I guess I'm paying for knowledge and time - they did a great job.
Nice to have other options though.
Duggie

There are 3 types of people in the world. Those that can add up and those that can't.

Aubergine Elise S

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