The Ugly Truth About Paint Protection Film (PPF) After Just 6 Months & 3,500 Miles

Coleton looks at a paint-protected Mercedes he recently did a full correction, detail, and coatings on to discuss paint protection film, or PPF, and how it holds up in the real world. Hear his opinions on PPF in general and when it makes sense to go with it as an option.

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0:00 Welcome
0:47 My Background with PPF
3:03 What Bugs Do To PPF
6:54 My Take On PPF Value
8:28 Rock Chips
10:06 Installer Issues
14:46 Wrap-Up

#ppf #detailing #paintprotectionfilm

[mynameismyname]

Isn’t the whole point of PPF that it is a sacrificial layer so instead of the bug stains permanently damaging your paint it damages the PPF? So essentially you don’t have to repaint your car and as result reducing the resale value of your car, you just take off the PPF and now have a more desirable car to sell or trade in and with perfect (original) paint, which ultimately means higher price for the seller.

[ericsawatzky]

As someone who is in the PPF/Ceramic industry I can appreciate this video. In my opinion, the only way to sell PPF is as a sacrificial layer of protection (like you mentioned) to protect your paint. PPF is a tangible product that will always be there and protect the paint from the majority of scratches, chips and dings regardless of how someone takes care of their vehicle.

There is a big education curve that needs to take place between the installer and the consumer and lots of that education you touched on well in this video.

[chrissimmons]

I drive quite a bit up to 28k miles a year. My commute to work is almost all expressway and with my last car I just couldn’t keep up with massive amounts of rock chips I was getting. When I bought my Type R the first thing I did was take it in for professionally installed PPF and ceramic coating. PPF may not be for everyone, but I am quite happy with how it has protected the leading edges of my car up to this point.

[slimdaddyy]

I believe PPF is good for people who don’t like scratches, point blank. It’s not about making things perfect. When parking in parking lots or driving long periods. It’s helpful to know you have that extra layer of protection instead of getting your car re painted.

[IronCan]

I have xpel ppf and it makes me happy knowing my paint is protected, and when i wash my car i know uts going to look like new and shiny. Because i have OCD and any imperfection just gets in my nerves, so ppf is easily worth it for me.

If you dont care about rock chip and are mainly focused on value then dont use ppf.
You wont get your money back when you sell your car, but while you own the car, you will be happy ppf helped keep it looking beautiful 😍

[j.taveras]

The whole half of the video of you talking around the car before zooming in, it looks perfectly fine to me. Seems like the ppf did it's job.

[sa.t.]

Model Y user with full PPF on the entire car. The PPF is by far the best investment I’ve made on my Tesla. This far it has saved me from getting damaged doors from other people hitting it when parking way too close to my car. Also it has saved my front from getting damage from all the stone chips from the road when behind a semi.

But foremost the car is so much easier to clean, it’s like your car has a constant coat of wax on it where it just washes off so much easier.

Also one of the biggest advantages is that when I wash my car I really don’t think about if my sponge is clean from dirt and whatnot so that I wont scratch the paint, I just wash and use pretty much anything I find. No harm done ever.

That said, is it perfect? No, not every corner is perfectly made and not every edge is clean. But I have a white car so every little thing shows up.

It’s all about who installed it at the end of the day.

[bartekkozie]

I’am the owner of PPF studio in Australia and wanted to thank you for the video. I have to agree that PPF is not for everyone, I always mention to my customers this wont solve all your problems. In my opinion PPF is worth the money as long as you use best brands like Suntek or XPEL. Installation process is a key - edge wrapped, do not overstretch and use patterns. A lot of people don’t understand PPF installation is basically a handcraft and many of detailers expend their services without thinking how difficult it is to make it right and that’s what destroying our industry.

I found educating people about the whole idea make them coming back with other vehicles.

In addition detailers sell ceramic coating as a paint protection which everyone knows it does not, expect UV.

[jimbuono]

A year ago I bought a 4 year old Mercedes SL450 with full PPF over the entire car. The car was just off lease and had spent it's life in Florida, bug capital of the US.
The paint was flawless. Not a swirl, not a stain, no blems except for a couple of chips on a mirror.
What creates flaws in the paint is driving 70 mph on the highway or perhaps a windy day around town. Dust, fine particles of dirt and the like create micro abrasions in the paint. This is where you benefit from ppf. The ppf protects from these types of abrasions and they don't seem to damage the ppf at all.
After my owning the car for another year, the paint looks like it just came out of the factory.
Yes, it's expensive, but unless you drag out the buffing wheel once a year, and I don't, the ppf will, in most cases, keep your paint looking factory fresh.

[shnerp]

Thanks for the video. As a person who had a bad PPf experience, I thought Id comment. If you are going to get PPF, make sure you get it installed by a professional and insist on seeing some of thier work in person before giving them any of your money. My first experience was through a shop with 5 star ratings, but i never had a chance to see any of thier PPF work. The end result was an install with all the flaws Coleton shows, along with knife cuts into the paint! PPF was removed by another shop and most, but not all of the knife cuts could be polished out. Not a good start for a brand new vehicle. In the future, only paint correction and ceramic coatings for me.

[anangelshero]

Think about this, if a rock chip would've damaged the PPF as described in this video, can you imagine how badly it would've damaged the clearcoat AND paint!?

[visualaxingofficial]

I’d rather have bug stains that can only be seen when 6 inches away from it than rock chip I can see from 6 feet away. PPF for the win and for me.

[whereisthedollar]

Thank You, for someone in the industry finally stating the whole truth about PPF. I've seen some pretty bad work out there where you can tell by just seeing the edges. On some it would have been better too just have an new paint job. Also, PPF doesn't last forever.

[ChillyWillyJr]

I've had PPF (and ceramic) on my Audi S5 SB for years. It still looks beautiful and turns heads. If the PPF layer is an example of what the permanent damage could have been to the paint, it's money well spent. In my opinion, this is a nit picking video. The average person that gets PPF could care less about about a few things. Gas prices. Bug smudges that they have to literally dig into just to find and complain about. And the price of getting a good detail. The PPF prevented 99.9% of potential permanent damage. And you're complaining about the 0.1%?

Nit picking PPF bug smudges and critiquing someone else's work? Not educational in my opinion.

[aussie]

I had PPF put on my CX5 gloss black plastic door pillars. The plastic is ridiculously soft so it needed some way of helping stop scratching. The PPF does help prevent lots of micro scratches but PPF is itself prone to scratching that won’t self heal. It’s only the micro scratches that self heal.

[lahzx]

I have had 3M PPF installed and my commute is mainly HWY and over the years I have not in counter the issues that you mentioned, maybe is the quality of ppf that a dealer uses because the 3M film has done a great job on my car and if there are a few dings from rocks they have never penetrated the film and I have not had any issues with bug stain they always come off without leaving a mark, Its absolutely worth it to me.

[Nate_The_Greattt]

My xpel ppf self heals with bug stains. Just wipe them off, let it sit in the sun, and it’s good as new. I’d recommend using xpel (template based, and self healing) and having a quality xpel certified shop install.

[alexstealth]

Great video. Answered so many of my questions. Great content!! So happy I can make an informed decision now and not regret it down the road by not having had someone explain everything to me as you have.

[thrillhax]

What are your thoughts on ceramic on top of PPF? My Detailer did that for my install and my PPF still looks like it’s brand new from a year ago. Granted we don’t have as many bugs and I hand wash every weekend.

[timmietz]

Yeah, I don’t think so. Very strange viewpoint in my humble opinion. I own about 40 cars and almost all of them have some PPF and I probably have about 10 cars that I have full PF on them. The proper way to protect a new car is Pain correction, then, PPF, then ceramic coating over the PPF. In the last seven or so years, I’ve used three different shops. One of them does amazing work every time, the other two, it depends on who did the job as far as the technician himself. That new EXPEL thicker film is awesome. Also, the matte film is terrific in my opinion. My matte paint cars I don’t even drive at all until they are PPFed. As far as staining, yes, I have had one year old PPF redone twice. Both times it had to do with the fact that the car sat in the sun with sapp stains on the PPF. And, regardless of what it is, older, film, seven years plus old, will need to be replaced if you drive the car at all. I am a big fan of ceramic coating, but only if it goes on top of the PPF. Lastly, the worstPPF that I have seen both from the application technique perspective as well as the quality of the film itself, is Factory PPF on the newer Porsches.