Protective Wrap

[Rich Herr]

I just finished restoring my GT500.  I was thinking about putting a protective wrap on my car since I will be driving it a lot.  Has anyone used these protective wraps?  Pros and Cons. 
Thanks
Rich

[tesgt350]

CON:
After a Few Years......
 
It WILL Yellow.
It WILL Crack all over.
It WILL get MOLDY.
It WILL make you wish you didn't do it. 

Just check out the Cars around you, you will start to notice it yourself.

[Jim Herrud]

I have Xpel on my 2019 GT350. It was applied shortly after I bought the car in 2019. We covered everything from the windshield forward. Behind that, we covered the A-pillars and applied film (5-7" wide) low along the doors, rear fenders and around the rear wheel wells. $3500. Installation took 4 days.

The only quality issue is 4 small places in the (busy) grill where the film has lifted. These are deep and tightly-shaped areas where it was apparently hard to get the film to stretch down into the curves. I notice them only when I wash the car.

There is a small air gap under the film where it is applied over the edges of the body-length stripe decals. The installer warned me about this during the quote. To describe the effect, I would say it looks like a thin, clear pin-stripe applied along the edge of the body stripes. I never notice it unless I look for it.

The car is used as a light-use daily driver, for long-distance road trips (Route 66, SAAC_43, High-Line Highway), Autocross and HPDE (1300 track miles so far).

I have one noticeable ding in the film on the hood from something heavy that a truck kicked-up in front of me. I'm unsure if the damage penetrated the film, so the paint might be OK. Interestingly, this film ding gets better and less-noticeable as time goes on. I've heard that Xpel film is somewhat self-healing with heat - like when sitting in the hot sun, so maybe I should take a heat-gun to it.

A review of my selected coverage areas (vs "Full" coverage quoted @ $5500):

* I have a few rock dings in the unprotected paint above the windshield. If I redid the application, I would apply a 4" strip of Xpel on the roof behind the glass.

* There are no dings on the unprotected upper doors, rear fenders, roof (except as stated above) or trunk lid.

* I think the areas that were covered gave me the best bang for the buck.

I agree with tesgt350 that there are many vehicles showing film aging symptoms. After nearly 6 years, I am fortunate to not be seeing any of that yet. I chose Xpel because my research showed it had the best reputation at the time.

I will not be surprised if my film eventually starts getting long in the tooth. If/When that happens, I'll probably have it removed and reapplied. I suspect I'd also need new stripe decals as the Xpel removal might shred them. That process would still be less expensive than a new paint job. In the meantime, it's been great to use this car as it was intended and still have few battle scars to show for it.

Overall, I'm very happy with it.

[Rich Herr]

Thanks for the information.  I will for go this process and let it ride!!!