What's the actual cost of PPF Film? Bulk? Pre-cut?

[John777]

The following is just my opinion. To each their own. No wrong or right answer. PPF or Not.

So I've been wondering WTF, why is PPF so expensive?
Did a little quick Google Research.
Alibaba Xpel PPF different types goes for <$100 to $500 for a roll (1.52m x 15.2m or 60" x 50') $500 was for a colour changing type. There are many different sizes and manufacturers out there some cheaper some a little bit more.
I found a Canadian website that has pre-cut rolls for most types of vehicles. Most expensive was $1000 Canadian for full car ppf precut.
It takes a trained experienced professional to get the best job done obviously. I don't know how I would know locally who actually is good unless I guess I've seen some of their work beforehand.
Anyways it appears that most of the cost is labor. I would say $300 to $1250 from one extreme to the other for just a good quality film. So when I see quotes on this forum ranging wildly its most likely due to the labor the shop charges for their expertise and time. Let's assume material costs are max $1000 then the rest is labor. So some of these ridiculous quotes I've seen mentioned like $9k to $11k USD is just a rip off.. don't care how good they are. lol .. my opinion only. People will pay what they feel is reasonable to them. I have better things to spend $10k on.. I think $5k would be more palatable for me.

 

[driv300mph]

A full car wrap will take 40-50 hours, and shops are wanting to get about $80-$100/hr in labor similar to most mechanic shops. Add the film cost and that's where the $6,000-$9,000 quotes come in. The $9,000 shops are likely larger with more overhead and are looking for $120+ per hour.

That said, you can find one-man shops out there that will do it for $45/hr or so.

 

[kitkat]

It's always been a high labor and high skill job. You're also forgetting the labor to correct any paint issues and polish the car, because wtf is the point in PPFing your car if you're going to lock in a bunch of scratches, swirls, fisheyes etc.

You're also forgetting that we're seeing PPF quotes from all over North America, some places have far higher cost of living than other places and so labor changes accordingly.

 

[K_Squared]

A full car wrap will take 40-50 hours, and shops are wanting to get about $80-$100/hr in labor similar to most mechanic shops. Add the film cost and that's where the $6,000-$9,000 quotes come in. The $9,000 shops are likely larger with more overhead and are looking for $120+ per hour.

That said, you can find one-man shops out there that will do it for $45/hr or so.

I've been told a full wrap of the Emira can be done in 8 hours including paint correction. Is that nonsense?

 

[driv300mph]

I've been told a full wrap of the Emira can be done in 8 hours including paint correction. Is that nonsense?

Definitely nonsense, at least if you want a proper job. Maybe if you had 2-3 guys working on it at the same time it's possible, but not just one guy

 

[kitkat]

I've been told a full wrap of the Emira can be done in 8 hours including paint correction. Is that nonsense?

If the paint is in decent condition and minimal work -- even that will take 4 hours to decontaminate and polish at a minimum.

Ain't no way you can PPF a car in 4 hours even if precut.

 

[John777]

A full car wrap will take 40-50 hours, and shops are wanting to get about $80-$100/hr in labor similar to most mechanic shops. Add the film cost and that's where the $6,000-$9,000 quotes come in. The $9,000 shops are likely larger with more overhead and are looking for $120+ per hour.

That said, you can find one-man shops out there that will do it for $45/hr or so.

Quick Google comes up with varying amounts of time. I saw on average 8hrs for full PPF. And a couple hrs for paint correction.
40-50hrs seems extreme from what I found.
Site#1 This site says 2 to 4hrs for full PPF.

Site #2
How long does it take to apply paint protection film?
Usually, a PPF wrap takes 1 full day. In most cases, you can drop your car off in the morning and pick it up in the late afternoon. Occasionally, our technician may require 2 days.

Site #3
How long does it take?Collapse
PPF install times will vary largely on the amount of the car looking to be covered. Starting from 2 hours for the average hood and fender coverage, to a few days for a full vehicle wrap. Most notably, we like to keep any complex items, like bumpers, overnight to aid initial curing.

Pretty much all over the place.

 

[seriously]

The same thing holds true for ceramic coating. The actual product is not very expensive. However, it is very labor intensive and results highly dependent on skill, carefulness. Proper paint correction takes a long time (less on new cars with good paint) and is necessary on ceramic coat or PPF.

 

[Maffu313]

Keep in mind that the Emira has a TON of curves where the film will need to be stretched, this will add a lot of time to application if it is to be done properly and done well. As well, the amount of time to apply PPF will vary largely depending on if you wrap edges or not.

Things like: Are you doing cutouts for badges, or are you removing the badges, polishing off the residue, putting the PPF and then reinstalling the badges over the PPF for a seamless/clean look. Are you removing panels/bumpers/plastic trim to completely wrap the edges. Are you doing single piece or multi-piece with relief cuts for the extra curvy/rounded panels. (Single piece may look better but there is a lot of tension in the film due to stretching, so it might not hold up as well). These are all factors that will determine impact how long the install job will take and affect the quote for a full-car install.

 

[cyanmauve]

(1) The customer base has a lot of discretionary income to spend on an unnecessary luxury good for what is basically a toy car.
(2) Installers that have a good reputation charge what they want as long as the market is willing to bear it. Looks like a lot of us are willing to spend $5,000-10,000ish on plastic film.

 

[cyanmauve]

The mechanical watch market is even more "interesting".

 

[Callabrator]

For what it's worth, I DIYed the PPF on my Supra, and have probably 1/3 coverage (front bumper, headlights, front fenders, rocker panels, rear spats). My hood was already done from the factory with a bikini cut. I purchased precut Xpel with wrapped edges from a company out of Canada (who now only seems to cater to EVs for some reason 🤷‍♂️), and spent about $1000 on all the kit pieces I used. I'm a pretty handy person, so I figured "how hard can it be?"

And the answer is, eh, kinda hard, but mostly just tedious. Armed with a couple hours of YouTube knowledge and about $30 worth of supplies it took me about 8 hours to complete. Any complex shape with a lot of cutouts, like the Supra's front bumper, are quite tricky, as the film is intentionally undersized in areas and needs to be stretched into place. Also, wrapping the edges is more difficult than simply keeping the film only on the surface. Thankfully I started on simpler areas to get the technique down and then did the bumper last.

In terms mistakes and end result, I only wrote off one piece that I needed to get a replacement on (front fender for $100), as I didn't pull the backing paper off appropriately, and it stuck together on itself. And over time some of the wrapped edges have pulled away a little in some hard to see spots, but I'm the only one that notices. Overall, as someone who has an eye for detail, and likes my car to look good, but isn't obsessed with it (it gets abused on the track after all), I'm very pleased with the results and consider it a success. My car guy friends say it looks professionally done, so I'll take it.

Related: before PPF, I did do my own detail with a Harbor Freight dual action polisher and some chemical guys VSS, which I'm also pretty new at. I'd say I got rid of 90% of swirls, halos, etc. After PPF I applied Crystal Serum Light ceramic over the whole car.

All said and done, I probably saved myself $3-5k in labor for 15 hours of effort and swears.

 

[Nova]

How long PPF takes is a tricky question. The good shops can get through paint correction, cutting, and applying PPF in 1-2 days, but they need the car to stay with them for a couple more days to make sure the edges adhere well. I would be very suspicious of any PPF job that doesn't take 2-3 days at a minimum.

 

[cyanmauve]

It's good to know that it can be done with patience. My dad bought 350z new in 2003. We tried and failed to put some sort of PPF on the front bumper. That was my last experience with any kind of protective film.

 

[tnbuilder]

I just had this done at a shop in Tennessee. My car was had tons of swirls form the dealer, color is DV. In their defense they were going to fix that, but I just wanted the local shop to fix it and apply the PPF. So...the paint correction was $1,000. it took them 2 days.

The paint on these cars is not great at all. It is extremely soft, you literally can barley wipe it and not see that it does something to the paint. It chips very very easily. Anyway the good thing is that soft paint cleans up very well. It looks awesome! They also PPF'ed basically the whole car, but the rear bumper. I just figured I would not get chips behind the car. I may have this added later, but for now the rest of the car is done.

They charge by the square footage. Good ones will work with the patterns to help you out. That is what mine did. My bill was a little over 6K before taxes. So the car was a little over 5K for the PPF, also took 2 days. Keep in mind you can PPF just what you see in places like the bottom rockers. I just did the top surfaces that you can see from standing. The PPF patterns will also wrap around the bottoms, but I cannot see that, so I do not care. That is a way to save money.

In my case I feel with it, especially for this car. The other thing is it will get chips and debris on the back fender, underneath the side vents. Might be the shape of the car, but it gets pelted quite a bit.

Integrity detail in Cookeville, TN did mine. I am sure there are good shops in Nashville too. Chris said he trained a lot of the people in Nashville. So Emira owners that are not too far away, I would highly recommend Integrity. He has also worked on a couple other vehicles for me in the past.

 

[T6061]

It's always been a high labor and high skill job. You're also forgetting the labor to correct any paint issues and polish the car, because wtf is the point in PPFing your car if you're going to lock in a bunch of scratches, swirls, fisheyes etc.

You're also forgetting that we're seeing PPF quotes from all over North America, some places have far higher cost of living than other places and so labor changes accordingly.

Exactly. Orange County, CA is up there for cost of living.

 

[Honcho]

I tried some precut "German" PPF from a supplier in UK and the quality or type was not good. I tried a skirt and the results were terrible. I orded some of HOHO film from China on ebay and it was night and day difference, both in terms of ease of fitmet, final finish and self healing properties. It was about $200 for 10ftx5ft sheet. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/154377571127

I would never pay any more than £1500 for a full PPF. I am a complete novice and i'd say i could do an ok job in 2 days excluding preparation. If you're a profession I don't see why it would take more than 2 days total. I would worry about the fitters abilities if it took them longer than that.

 

[Nova]

Interesting recent video about PPFing an Emira, is the owner of this car on the forum?

 

[K_Squared]

Interesting recent video about PPFing an Emira, is the owner of this car on the forum?

Not to my knowledge. I spoke to the shop today that did this as it's only a few miles from my house in Raleigh.

 

[Shyatic]

For what it's worth, I DIYed the PPF on my Supra, and have probably 1/3 coverage (front bumper, headlights, front fenders, rocker panels, rear spats). My hood was already done from the factory with a bikini cut. I purchased precut Xpel with wrapped edges from a company out of Canada (who now only seems to cater to EVs for some reason 🤷‍♂️), and spent about $1000 on all the kit pieces I used. I'm a pretty handy person, so I figured "how hard can it be?"

And the answer is, eh, kinda hard, but mostly just tedious. Armed with a couple hours of YouTube knowledge and about $30 worth of supplies it took me about 8 hours to complete. Any complex shape with a lot of cutouts, like the Supra's front bumper, are quite tricky, as the film is intentionally undersized in areas and needs to be stretched into place. Also, wrapping the edges is more difficult than simply keeping the film only on the surface. Thankfully I started on simpler areas to get the technique down and then did the bumper last.

In terms mistakes and end result, I only wrote off one piece that I needed to get a replacement on (front fender for $100), as I didn't pull the backing paper off appropriately, and it stuck together on itself. And over time some of the wrapped edges have pulled away a little in some hard to see spots, but I'm the only one that notices. Overall, as someone who has an eye for detail, and likes my car to look good, but isn't obsessed with it (it gets abused on the track after all), I'm very pleased with the results and consider it a success. My car guy friends say it looks professionally done, so I'll take it.

Related: before PPF, I did do my own detail with a Harbor Freight dual action polisher and some chemical guys VSS, which I'm also pretty new at. I'd say I got rid of 90% of swirls, halos, etc. After PPF I applied Crystal Serum Light ceramic over the whole car.

All said and done, I probably saved myself $3-5k in labor for 15 hours of effort and swears.

I did the same on a test car and figured at the end, it was too difficult to do a complex car like the Emira. That said, don't use Crystal Serum Light on top of PPF -- it affects the healing qualities of the PPF.

Use GTechniq's Halo product, which is made for PPF. No topper needed either, and that's straight from the Gtechniq folks since I actually emailed to ask