Quote:
Originally Posted by WolfpackS2k
PPF is totally worth it! And I don't know what conditions people are driving in to get theirs torn up, because I have previously used it for years and never encountered any issues with damage. And I'm a freaking magnet for road debris (even had to get my roof repainted once from paint chips after a semi [not even in my lane!] ran over a sheet of dry wall, making it explode). My father recently had the PPF replaced on his S2000 (was roughly 15 years old and yellowing) and it had no tears/holes in it.
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The film on the front of my FRS was literally in tatters. It was not a cheap or inexpensive film but the standard 3M stuff. Rock salt thrown up by the sanders in winter, stones from the hundreds of gravel trucks around here (this region is a prime supplier of glacial gravel) and general debris from the highway all contacting the front of the car at 70+ MPH took it's toll. Anything that was big enough to chip paint would also tear to film leaving little flaps waving in the wind. Every now and then I would trim them back with a razor blade so they didn't stand out to bad. Now, I was driving about 35,000 miles a year back then so it had far more than the the average exposure.
All in all the PPF does a great job against the little stuff but anything large enough to actually chip or ding is still going to leave a mark. It isn't a reflective force field.
I drive far les now so the front of the Hakone is in much better shape but even then I have a couple of good sized chips that need touch up. This is mainly why I went with ceramic to make the paint look better and will just touch up the larger marks on the front until the point they warrant a respray. I figure that if I have to spend $500 every few years to have the worst exposed areas repainted I am still ahead of the game.
Reality is that the only way to not ever get any marks on your car is to cover it, keep it in a garage and never, ever, drive it. It is not a collector car, expensive exotic or rare classic so I fully expect and accept it is going to have some small dings and chips forever.
Hell I even left a couple untouched on the FRS as trophies!
Right front fender. Huge bolt I saw coming in what seemed like slow motion but could not avoid due to traffic. I left it untouched for 6 years just to see the body panel rust resistance. It is probably still like that since the lower panels seem to be well treated and it only ever developed slight surface rust.