Paint Protection Film (PPF) and Wrap for your Emira

[chenner]

Try to pour hot water over it… should heal it, or like a heatgun. There are videos on youtube.

Be careful using a heatgun. I tried using one on a small damaged area and it made it worse. Causing some wrinkling in the area and I had it on low heat and thought I was super careful.

 

[chenner]

While washing my car in the daylight for the first time this weekend after my 3 day road trip up from SoCal (first wash was in an underground parking garage at my old condo building and lighting was a problem), I noticed my first front end nicks. I'm assuming from a rock hit during my journey but not sure, as I didn't hear or see anything. My car is fully PPF'd with XPEL from a very reputable company in So Cal, but I have zero previous experience with PPF. My questions for those of you more knowledgeable on this than I are:
1. Does this look like the PPF protected my paint?
2. Is this repairable/healable? If so, will it "heal" itself or does heat need to be applied?
3. Should I bring it somewhere to be repaired and if so, where, considering my shop was in So Cal, and the car is now in the Seattle area? Is it somehow warrantied by XPEL and any XPEL shop could do "warranty" work on this?
4. Should I just shut up, drive the car like I stole it, and focus on more important things in my life?
(never mind that last question, as I think I already know the answer).

After having gone through this, I think those marks are too big to self repair.
According to my PPF guy, the heat from parking in the sun should be able to repair any mark that's repairable so I'd be extra careful with your attempts or you could make it worse.

 

[chenner]

After a 4k mile road trip I discovered that the PPF did a great job at protecting my car. There were some minor blemishes on the lower part of the car particularly on the black corners but that's to be expected.

My hood did managed to take an impact from something on the road. You can see the damage from the impact and below it are the "waves" that were caused when I tried applying a heat gun to it.

While hard to notice in the sun, this mark bothered me as I couldn't help but see it in the garage under my LED lighting so I had my PPF guy remove and replace the entire hood section and then re-ceramic coat it. Cost me $500 but the hood is perfect again. Happy to say that there was no damage to the paint underneath the PPF so it did it's job.

 

[grezex]

PPF is what they say a "sacrificial layer" and it's a choice to either wait until it takes more damage before replacing or cough up the $ for a re-wrap each time. Honestly from my experience (4 daily cars with PPF) most of the "self healing" is overstated... light scratches and maybe some scuff marks will come off, but harder dings like the most recent picture there's little chance to heal, the PPF has done its job.

On one car I've had, a rock hit the hood where it took off the xpel PPF and a paint chip with it (~2x2mm); must've have been just at the right angle with a sharp edge or something, can't say I've noticed at the time of impact. I ended up using Dr. Colorchip and PPF over it which hides the touch up pretty well instead of repainting the hood. I'd imagine it'll get stripped off again when replacing the PPF again.

 

[GrahamClark_60-68]

After having gone through this, I think those marks are too big to self repair.
According to my PPF guy, the heat from parking in the sun should be able to repair any mark that's repairable so I'd be extra careful with your attempts or you could make it worse.

You could be right (about being too big to self repair). If these did happen during my roadtrip, that was back in late July. The car's seen not a lot but at least some sun and heat since then, and still looks this way. Thanks for the caution on the heat gun. BTW what PPF brand did you use? Just wondering if different brands react differently to a heat gun. I may just try the hot water (maybe just warm to start!).

 

[GrahamClark_60-68]

but harder dings like the most recent picture there's little chance to heal, the PPF has done its job.

You're probably right about this, and the saving grace it that I'm still looking at Seneca Blue through those two creases rather than chipped off paint. That makes it much less noticeable. If this did happen on my roadtrip, took me a month to notice, and it's MY car so I'm naturally paying more attention. Still gonna try a little (gentle) healing though just to see what may or may not be possible.

 

[chenner]

You could be right (about being too big to self repair). If these did happen during my roadtrip, that was back in late July. The car's seen not a lot but at least some sun and heat since then, and still looks this way. Thanks for the caution on the heat gun. BTW what PPF brand did you use? Just wondering if different brands react differently to a heat gun. I may just try the hot water (maybe just warm to start!).

They used Xpel on mine. The installer recommended that I wait another year to get potentially get more "damage" in it before replacing it but it bothered me too much. Plus, I don't intend on taking it on any more road trips.