[dragonsdreams]

Just a note to post my recent experience so far with having my protonic red (Dec 2016, 15k miles) i8 coated with full front, sills and door with paint protective film. The rest of the body had ceramic coating including the windows/mirrors (except the front windscreen) and wheels.

When I bought the car (a few months back) the paintwork looked pretty good. However in the sun you could see the swirl marks (nasty) and in cloudy conditions (that's most of time in the UK at the moment!) the paint was rather dull looking - so much so I wondered if I'd made a mistake and the protonic red was a solid paint finish not a metallic one. However on closer look I could just about see tiny metallic flakes (not larger sized ones like on my last silver Porsche).

So phoned up a London bodywork detailer that PPF'd my then new Porsche Cayman. The quote was rather more than I wanted to pay (about £4.5k). That was paint full decontamination, full front and sills PPF plus ceramic on rest of the body plus wheels and interior leather treatment etc.

I was recommended a local detailer by the BMW salesman which got great reviews. His quote was about £1k less and that included PPF on the doors. I figured that if the PPF wrapped around the door edge that would protect them a bit from clumsy passengers flinging the door open onto lamp posts etc.

The PPF is Xpel (10 year warranty) and the ceramic coating Gtechniq Crystal Serum Ultra (should last at least 6 -7 years depending on conditions).
The wheels were coated with Gtechniq C5 Wheel Armour and glass G1 Smart Vision Glass. Interior with Carpro Inside and leather with Gtechniq L1 leather guard.

We talked about what they could do. Usually they did mostly new cars so they explained how much they would need to do; to take the paintwork back to the base layer to get rid of the swirls and then build up layers of protection.

They noticed a few tiny stone chips on the bonnet (that I hadn't noticed before) which we agreed were probably better left than 'filled' in. They were more concerned about the black 'manta ray' fins on the front bumper. Apparently these are not painted (definitely assumed they were) but have a plastic gloss finish. One of these was really quite peppered with stone chips and they said PPF would not stick to the plastic finish very well and it would probably look a lot worse. We agreed just to have those ceramic coated.

During the 3 days they had the car (plus a weekend) I had a couple of video clips and photos updates sent to me by the detailer. It looked great in videos/photos (attached) under the indoor lighting. Nice and shiny!

Collected it in a a dull rainy day unfortunately however the finish still looked fantastic - like a factory new car. Gone was the dull paint to be replaced by a deep glossy and shiny look.

Glad to say it's still looking great now after a couple of weeks. Washing the car is easier though. The car wash behaves weirdly on the surfaces and slides off before you can really 'wipe' it on. Anyway, instead of wax they recommended Carpro Elixir for final detailing on all exterior surfaces. Seems to work well, giving the paintwork good beading and a nice gloss shine.

The only disappointing thing are the stone chip marks on the black bumper fins - although coated with ceramic, they show up quite a bit in the sun like rain splashes. The detailer suggested I had them painted and then PPF'd. Maybe one day - or sooner if it starts to annoy me too much!

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[Tazzie]

Looks absolutely stunning.

[dragonsdreams]

Originally Posted by Tazzie

Looks absolutely stunning.

Thanks. Yes I'm very pleased with the look now. After many downpours and grotty weather out on my driveway it's still looking great.

[SurreySid]

Wow, it looks incredible!!