What is paint protection film? | A Simple Guide

If you just got a brand-new car or had a multi-stage paint correction done, you should put something on it to protect it from dirt, road grime, bugs, and birds. There are a lot of waxes, paint sealants, and ceramic coatings on the market today, so that’s pretty easy to do. If you drive your car every day, it will get worn down over time. When you drive on the highway for a long time or take a lot of road trips, rocks and other road debris will hit the front end a lot.

• Even the best ceramic coatings a professional puts on can’t protect your paint from physical damage. You need a film to protect the paint! The paint on the body panels is shielded by a thick, transparent coating of urethane called paint protection film.
• Urethane is a polymer used in almost every industry, including the auto industry. Urethane is used in modern automobile bumpers, insulation, seals, and interior components.
• The substance is durable, adaptable, chemically stable, and resistant to UV deterioration. When you place it on top of your automobile, it functions as a second skin for the body panels, shielding the paint from UV and chemical damage, scratches, dings, and paint chips.
• During the Vietnam War, people came up with paint protection film to protect the rotor blades of helicopters from flying shrapnel, debris, and dust. It worked well, and people still use it now.
• In the 1980s, race teams noticed and figured out that a thin, clear film could help protect race cars from flying rocks, debris, and rubber and from bumps that happen when drivers are close together.
• Today, the paint protection film is a $250 million industry that protects hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of cars from dirt.

How does the film work to protect the paint?

Paint protection film comes on rolls of material that are ready to use and does the film work to protect the paint. It has many different layers, each of which does something different. When PPF is used, the urethane layer will bend when hit, taking some force and spreading the rest over a much larger area to protect the paint. Lastly, modern PPF products have a thin layer of clear coat, about 0.5 mils (0.013mm) thick, that seals and protects the urethane layer from dirt.

The top coat can withstand UV light, oxidation, and many airborne chemicals and pollutants.

Self-Healing

• The film will get scratches, scuffs, and scrapes, but they won’t stay for long. Paint protection films can fix themselves when they get scratched.
• Urethane works like honey, which is a very thick liquid. If you push on it, it will buckle and change shape, pushing the material away without ripping or cutting it.
• Urethane is a thermoplastic polymer, which means it softens up when it gets warm and becomes easier to shape.
• Scratches and scuffs disappear in seconds when you use a heat gun to blast the film.
• Still, about paint protection film, you need to be realistic. Although it appears to be an unbreakable substance, it does have its limits. If you run a knife through the film, it will tear and cut into the paint, instantly rendering the entire panel useless.
• Larger impacts have the potential to indent the body panel as well. If they do not rip through the film, the paint should be fine; nevertheless, you must take the vehicle to a body shop to repair it.

Clear Bra vs Paint Protection Film

One of the first paint protection films made for everyday use was called “Clear Bra.” The name comes from the “Car Bra,” a black vinyl cover that protected cars from stone chips and other damage in the 1960s.

Vinyl wrap vs paint protection film

Both PPF and vinyl are polymer films that cover the car’s panels. The installation process is mostly the same, but the materials differ.

• Polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, is used to make the vinyl wrap. It is used to change how your car looks in a way that doesn’t hurt it. Most people choose wraps because they are the cheapest way to change their car’s colour and finish. But if you have the money, you can do much more with them.
• A graphic designer can create a one-of-a-kind livery for your vehicle, which will be printed on sheets of vinyl and trimmed to conform to the contours of the panels precisely. This is how racing teams to design and put their cars’ paint jobs on.
• Vinyl wrap, on the other hand, doesn’t do much to protect against scratches, rock chips, and scrapes. It’s thinner and more fragile and doesn’t have much shear strength.
• Polyurethane is stronger, more flexible, and harder to cut. It is much thicker, between 6 and 10 mils, which gives it the body to absorb the impact and protect the paint underneath.
• On the other hand, vinyl wraps are only 2–6 mils thick, which is much less than PPF and makes them about 35% lighter when covering the same area.
• Vinyl and PPF can both be taken off without hurting the paint underneath. So, you have this option if your wrap gets damaged.
• You can anticipate paying roughly the same amount because installation is the service’s most complex and expensive component. At the top end, a full paint protection film or vinyl wrap can cost $10,000 or more.
• One big difference is that you can only do a full vinyl wrap and not just a part of it.

Cost Vs. Value

Paint protection films are the only products in the automotive industry that can compare to how well they protect your car’s paint.

But their price can be out of reach for people with cheaper cars and smaller budgets. The paint protection film is something you can only put on your own; you need a professional to do it.

Several things affect how much it will cost to wrap your car:

• Installer fees: Who wraps the gift? Every installer is different, and neither is the work they do.
• Surface complexity: Are there a lot of edges, folds, or louvres? Wrapping panels that are straight or have a gentle curve will be easier and faster.
• When we talk about surface area? How much material and labour are needed to finish the job depends on the size of the surface.
• It costs between $5,000 and $10,000 to wrap the whole car. It costs a lot.
• Many drivers choose to wrap only the bumper, hood, and fenders in the front, as well as the side mirrors, rocker panels, and rear fenders on cars with wide body kits.
• Over time, these parts get the most damage and wear because they are in contact with the airflow.
• Paint protection film will protect your paint from most scratches, stone chips, flying debris, scuffs, and even some damage that can happen in the parking lot.
• There is also extra protection from organic acids like bug guts, bird poop, and tree sap, as well as UV rays and pollution, as long as you buy one of the better products on the market.
• When a high-quality product is combined with a competent and experienced installer, the film will be undetectable from any normal viewing distance. It will only be visible when the viewer looks closer and knows what to look for.
• Paint protection films can last over five years and protect your car for a long time.
• Applying a paint protection film makes perfect sense if you want to buy a supercar or other high-end luxury vehicle whose paint job costs more than $10,000. It will greatly affect how much the car is worth and how much you can get for it when you sell it.

Paint protection film has some drawbacks.

• It was the most expensive. The paint protection film is much more expensive than ceramic coatings, sealants, and waxes used to take care of cars. Both don’t protect your car in any way, but only some drivers can pay too many dollars.
• Protection films only assist if you frequently purchase and sell cars and want to obtain more money for them when you do.
• If you take care of paint with a ceramic coating, it will last at least two to three years before you can see it worsening. Any flaws and stone chips built up can be fixed by touching the paint on the worst panels.
• Even if the paint looks great, dealers won’t give you a better trade-in price. They don’t mind a few flaws and usually glance over the paint without giving it a close look.
• Certainly, if you’re leasing the car, most leasing companies will let you off with a fair amount of stone chips, small scratches, and scuffs.
• You might think you’re fooling the market if you go for the cheapest stuff, but the film may break down sooner than you think, turning yellow from pollution or leaving ugly edges that peel off and bubble.

Pre cut ppf templates

The pre-cut and hand-cut paint protection film templates, with an emphasis on what sets us apart in terms of providing the highest quality to each and every one of our clients. It is the knowledge that we possess and the ability to provide in-house custom pre-cut PPF patterns for the purpose of ensuring maximum coverage and protection for any vehicle.

In most cases, experienced PPF installers would look through PPF pattern databases to determine whether or not a certain design can be installed. The vast majority of them use the patterns exactly as they are found in the database, but some of them have the skills to modify or restyle the design in order to make it more suitable for the vehicle.

It takes time and work to draw the template in the vector editor, but it speeds up the cutting process if there are a lot of vehicles that need custom patterns. Another way to get the digital template could be to scan the film that needs to be cut and then use special software to draw the shape of the film over the scanned edges (like AutoCad, CorelDraw, Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop etc.

In contrast to them, Armobileskin has hardworking team members who take pride in going the extra mile to ensure that each and every one of our customers is completely satisfied. The design of the custom pre-cut ppf templates that we generate are digitized through the application of cutting-edge technologies and know-how, which ensures that each of the cut panels is a perfect fit to specific components of the vehicle.

Methods for Installing Paint Protection Film

How is paint protective film installed?

It has a significant thickness and is dense. Compared to PPF, a sheet of paper is only about three miles thick. It takes expertise, experience, thorough preparation, and a spotless environment to get it to respond precisely to challenging surfaces like the bumper. But if you’re willing to fail repeatedly, this is not a weekend DIY project nor a driveway job.

Nonetheless, you should at least comprehend the wrapping procedure to make more informed judgments regarding who will install your paint protection film and whether the amount you are paying is reasonable.

Cleanse and Decontaminate

Before applying any product, the preparation process begins with basic cleaning and paint correction. The vehicle is meticulously cleaned using auto soap, iron removers, and sometimes tar and grease removers. Wrapping the corners of the body panels is particularly vital, as the wrap will be tucked inside. If you do not clean the back of the film, it will not adhere to the surface and peel shortly after installation.

Paint Correction

Then, a single-stage paint correction will remove any faults, pitting, scratches, swirl marks, and other flaws from the clear coat. If wrapping a used vehicle for the first time, you must repair stone chips and other damage before applying the film.

Depending on the product, if you’re wrapping the entire car and it’s in excellent condition. Nevertheless, higher-quality films are more transparent and allow you to view the finish of the clear coat underneath, including all the scratches and dings you failed to remove. If you are paying this much, investing a few hundred dollars in paint correction would be prudent.