Paint Protection Film - Worth it?

[pkinneb]

...Okay, now @UGADawg96 - I need a good meme from you; either how dumb I am or how poor I am now. We both waited too long for our trucks, so I hope yours is looking and running nicely. You too @pkinneb . . .

While I'm sure @UGADawg96 is searching for the perfect meme I would never tell someone how to spend there money...well except my clients but they pay me for the advice before ignoring it

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[UGADawg96]

Was on the fence like @houstongoose. My build is a MY21 F-150 SCREW Limited 4x2 3.5 Hybrid. AMB.

Here’s what I found in the Houston area, some as others have mentioned . . .

XPEL cost / price is going to vary by location. There are “corporate” XPEL pstores and there are private installers that have been licensed and trained by XPEL to apply their product. I contacted the XPEL store in north Houston and they were pricier than other stores as they are one of the corporate owned stores (there are other XPEL private stores and other PPF brand installers, namely 3M in the Houston area). I toured their shop. It was almost clean-room clean in the work bays. They did a demo for me on a swatch of XPEL film - took sandpaper to it, made grooves, and then applied heat, wipes with a cloth, and the streaks from the sandpaper scratches had disappeared. This store did all of the PPF for the Porsche store in north Houston, the Lamborghini store, and did a bunch of corvettes. When I was there picking my truck up mid-week, there were 5-8 Porsche’s, 4-5 vettes, and 2 Lambos. It was cool seeing cars I have no chance of ever owning. I give this background to help you all understand the difference in price that an PPF installer can (and does) charge.

I had the full front XPEL back to the front fenders (full hood and front fenders), the A-pillars, the front roof back to moonroof, the B-pillars and front door jam seam. @houstongoose has noted there is a ton of construction in Houston and specially in the west Houston area where I live. Going half way to save a few dollars ultimately didn’t make sense to me. There is a 10 Year warranty on the PPF.

I had the XPEL tint done on all of the windows and the full sunroof as well. It is supposed to cut around 85% of the heat transfer coming through the windows. Lifetime warranty.

I have been pleased with the results so far.

The PPF and the tint described above was right at $2,800. Hope this helps others place their own value on both the XPEL product and the installers who do it.

Okay, now @UGADawg96 - I need a good meme from you; either how dumb I am or how poor I am now. We both waited too long for our trucks, so I hope yours is looking and running nicely. You too @pkinneb . . .

While I'm sure @UGADawg96 is searching for the perfect meme I would never tell someone how to spend there money...well except my clients but they pay me for the advice before ignoring it

To be honest, it is really hard to say either way in that each person's case is different. I just spent this past week in Lincoln and Omaha for work and I've never seen so many rusted vehicles in my life. It seemed that a quarter of the cars on the road were rusted to some extent or hard physical damage or just covered in road salt. It gave me some perspective on the rear diff rust issue in the other threads. I can tell you that living in FL for the last 15 years, in GA for 10 years before that, and VA for a couple decades before that, cars don't get that kind of abuse and are kept pretty clean. My two other current cars that are over 10 years old are in pretty good shape compared to what I saw in Nebraska. Then again, they are garage kept and we don't salt the roads here. Do they have a few rock chips that I've filled in with touch up paint, yeah. But they also have a couple other small marks here or there on doors or rear quarter panels. Some things you can't avoid on a daily driver. The Subaru has a cracked fog light housing that took impact from a retread that flopped on the highway I couldn't avoid that I keep together with a zip tie. All that is to say that there is no way I can keep a vehicle myself 100% show room good for it's lifetime. So to me, I would rather put $2000 towards the 8/100 ESP versus PPF. Could I drop another 2k on the PFF financially, yes. So I won't give anyone a hard time for doing PPF. In fact, some day in the future I may. I think everyone has to make the best decision for them. I hope the gif above expresses my sentiments that "it depends"

 

[UGADawg96]

P.S. While I am driving myself crazy washing my two week old truck every time I see a bug on it, I'm sure at some point I'm just going to say F it, it can stay dirty for another week or so before I wash it. While it's new, it's my baby and she needs pampering. But when she grows up, she'll look good with some dirt on her too. LOL

 

[euchre_u]

@UGADawg96 - thanks for the meme. Just took mine to the car wash for the first time after PPF this weekend. Second time total being washed.

Also installed my Bedrug and my bed tonneau. Now I need to find a manual car wash to test how waterproof my work Is.

 

[Daddonap]

Did you do the full hood or the first 12?

Full Front End - Hood and fenders

 

[houstongoose]

Was on the fence like @houstongoose. My build is a MY21 F-150 SCREW Limited 4x2 3.5 Hybrid. AMB.

Here’s what I found in the Houston area, some as others have mentioned . . .

XPEL cost / price is going to vary by location. There are “corporate” XPEL pstores and there are private installers that have been licensed and trained by XPEL to apply their product. I contacted the XPEL store in north Houston and they were pricier than other stores as they are one of the corporate owned stores (there are other XPEL private stores and other PPF brand installers, namely 3M in the Houston area). I toured their shop. It was almost clean-room clean in the work bays. They did a demo for me on a swatch of XPEL film - took sandpaper to it, made grooves, and then applied heat, wipes with a cloth, and the streaks from the sandpaper scratches had disappeared. This store did all of the PPF for the Porsche store in north Houston, the Lamborghini store, and did a bunch of corvettes. When I was there picking my truck up mid-week, there were 5-8 Porsche’s, 4-5 vettes, and 2 Lambos. It was cool seeing cars I have no chance of ever owning. I give this background to help you all understand the difference in price that an PPF installer can (and does) charge.

I had the full front XPEL back to the front fenders (full hood and front fenders), the A-pillars, the front roof back to moonroof, the B-pillars and front door jam seam. @houstongoose has noted there is a ton of construction in Houston and specially in the west Houston area where I live. Going half way to save a few dollars ultimately didn’t make sense to me. There is a 10 Year warranty on the PPF.

I had the XPEL tint done on all of the windows and the full sunroof as well. It is supposed to cut around 85% of the heat transfer coming through the windows. Lifetime warranty.

I have been pleased with the results so far.

The PPF and the tint described above was right at $2,800. Hope this helps others place their own value on both the XPEL product and the installers who do it.

Okay, now @UGADawg96 - I need a good meme from you; either how dumb I am or how poor I am now. We both waited too long for our trucks, so I hope yours is looking and running nicely. You too @pkinneb . . .

I appreciate the in-depth write up @euchre_u ...I went to a place in midtown called AFS. Think they did an OK job. I think if I were to do it over again, I would get the full hood. I already have a chip on the upper portion where there's no PPF from my trip to Kerville last weekend...

 

[guppydriver]

Sorry for the thread revival …

It seems everyone does XPEL, and I have no doubt it is a superior product, but has anyone done 3M ppf?

I was looking at maybe getting some installed at Line-X when I eventually get my bed liner. The price is noticeably cheaper and I assume it provides a pretty decent proportion of the protection that XPEL does.

If it’s garbage and will look terrible, it’s not worth paying anything to me, but if I can get substantial protection and save a bit of money (I already have to buy ESP, tonneau, bed liner, floor liners, and maybe even ship from Granger), I might give it a shot.

Any opinions with those with 3M experience?

Of course this is contingent on my Lariat not being “de”contented with a required Hood and bumper delete package that credits $175 dollars.

(Also this assumes I get a truck.. just today my build was pushed back to June from May…ordered 12/24)

 

[houstongoose]

Sorry for the thread revival …

It seems everyone does XPEL, and I have no doubt it is a superior product, but has anyone done 3M ppf?

I was looking at maybe getting some installed at Line-X when I eventually get my bed liner. The price is noticeably cheaper and I assume it provides a pretty decent proportion of the protection that XPEL does.

If it’s garbage and will look terrible, it’s not worth paying anything to me, but if I can get substantial protection and save a bit of money (I already have to buy ESP, tonneau, bed liner, floor liners, and maybe even ship from Granger), I might give it a shot.

Any opinions with those with 3M experience?

Of course this is contingent on my Lariat not being “de”contented with a required Hood and bumper delete package that credits $175 dollars.

(Also this assumes I get a truck.. just today my build was pushed back to June from May…ordered 12/24)

I personally do not have experience with 3M, however my Dad has had it applied to one of his vehicles and really thought it was great. I think 3M has been in the PPF game longer than Xpel, as this was quite a few years ago, long before I heard about Xpel as a brand

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