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Self-install of XPEL pre-cut kits

SVTinAR

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I recently installed about $950 in XPEL precut kits to my GT350 with what I think are very good results. I know it's at least as good and I think better than the dealer installed work on my wife's Highlander. I covered the bumpers, the lights, the mirrors, the front hood and fenders (called the bikini cut) and the rear fender flares. Someone asked if this is something that is practical to do yourself and I think within some limits, it is. I would not try to wrap an entire car in protection film or install film from bulk material. But the pre-cut kits are do-able.

Here are the Shelby pre-cut kits EXPEL has available:

http://www.xpel.com/paint-protection-kits/XPEL_US_and_Canada/Passenger_Cars_and_Light_Trucks/2017/Ford/Mustang/Fastback/Shelby_GT350

Here are the XPEL instructions I finally found that seemed complete and detailed.
http://www.tintzoom.com/Paint-Protection-Installation-Info-s/1778.htm

Lessons learned:

- They instructions noted to use Johnson Baby Shampoo instead of dish soap in the application spray. I found a little more was better than too little. Just be sure it's enough so the solution doesn't bead up on the car finish when applied to it. I used too little shampoo in the solution when doing the bumper and had some air bubbles as a result. The shampoo film allows the film to be slid around and positioned and it also squeegees well.

- You also need a spray bottle of water and isotropic alcohol in an approximately 3:1 to 4:1 mix. The water/alcohol mix activates the adhesive and you will use it around edges, corners, and odd details where you need to pin down the film, shrink the film, pull it a little or get fast adhesion around some difficult area.


- My car has stripes and XPEL has kits with the stripes pre-cut. You still get the material so you could still apply the material over the stripes if you want to. If you try to apply the material in one piece over the stripes you will probably end up with a visible line due to some air trapped in the small off set with the paint. Whether that will work it's way out over time I don't know. I bought the kits with the stripes cut out because I ended up with smaller pieces to work with and I didn't intend to cover my stripes anyhow. The kits with the stripes cut out are a bit more cost.

- XPEL does a good job with the pre-cut kits. The center pieces between the stripes had to be carefully measured for width to be sure they fit flush between the stripes. I had to trim a couple areas before I applied them, with a straightedge and X-acto knife. The most significant trim area was where it runs up and over the air dam at the hood vent. My stripes narrowed together a little there. Otherwise the pieces fit pretty well. The only place they were off somewhat was on the sides of the hood. If I snugged the pieces up against the hood stripes I was left with about 1/4 inch of unprotected hood. An experienced installer might be able to stretch it enough to make up most of that but I didn't want to try stretching the entire length. Some of the bumper wrap under areas do not cover all the way to the grill or trim - probably due to being difficult to conform the material to a major wrap-under and get it smooth. In short if you are wanting film applied that extends all the way to the edges of the hood and fenders and bumpers and wraps around the edges - the kits won't get you there. You will have to get a professional with bulk material - but you run the risk of knife cuts in your paint then. I did not have to trim any of the pieces except for the strips between the racing stripes.

- About the only other tools are some plastic or stiff rubber squeegees, an X-acto knife with some blades, a tack cloth, detailing clay, good lighting, a garage, a couple rolls of those blue paper shop towels and a small bent pick with a slightly blunted end (not prickly sharp).

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- It's a good idea to put the car up on ramps, jack stands or a lift while doing the bumper as you have quite a bit of tedious work down low.

- I had a number of white squeegees from XPEL rocker and door sill kits and I used them along with a plastic body filler spreader. I found that what worked best for squeegeeing out the slip spray was to wet a shop towel and fold it double over the edge of the squeegee and use that to work the
plastic. The paper towel material stays wet and soft and helps prevent scratches in the surface of the plastic film.

- I clayed the surfaces to start with to get them as clean and slick as possible. I got down close to look for any tar spots, bug residue, etc to be sure I got it all off. I then washed and toweled them down good and then when dry - I used a tack cloth lightly to pick up any lint or dust. If you have any paint chip touch ups it's a good idea to try to flatten them as best as possible as the film seems to almost accentuate them.

- Per their instructions I carefully used an X-acto knife to cut each piece out separately as the pre-cut patterns all come laid out on one big roll of slip paper backing. I thoroughly sprayed down the surface of the car I was next working on and made sure my hands were very clean and free of skin oils. I sprayed my hands with the water/shampoo mix to keep them wet and peeled an edge of the film away from the backing paper and sprayed the back side with the water/shampoo and continues to pull it back a little at a time and spray the adhesive back before pulling it some more. I tried to not use any more finger pressure than I had to as you don't want to transfer finger prints/marks to the adhesive since it will stay there. As long as you keep your fingers clean & wet and the film wet this should not be a problem.

- The instructions give a lot of good tips on how to position the film and where to start on squeegeeing it out. Each piece is going to require something a little different. It's not practical to start in the center of a piece and squeegee it out from the center in all directions as you don't know where the edges will end up. So you have to pick your hard point out that must line up (the edge of my stripes was quite often one for me) and then work it out from there. Other hard points were the edge of hood, edge of fender, etc.

- Once the major portion of the piece is aligned at the hard points and generally aligned with the rest of the panel then just start squeegeeing away from the hard points outward. It may make sense to squeegee it tight down a rough center to allow yourself to then squeegee from that center line to the sides 90 degrees. This is where good overhead light comes in valuable as you want to watch closely for any water or air bubbles that you are missing as your work it down. Squeegeeing out in a cross-hatch pattern works well to move the excess water out to the edges.

- If something isn't laying down right or you have a wrinkle or big bubble that you didn't get out, just pull the edge of the sheet back over itself again and liberally spray it with water/shampoo again and lay it back and try it again. The adhesive will not wash off of the film.

- Water bubbles appear as the color of your paint and look like a blister in it. Air bubbles will look clear. Some degree of bubbles will be present when you are through no matter how careful you work. But you want small, shallow water bubbles primarily as water will evaporate through the film fairly quickly and disappear, rapidly ( say 24 - 48 hours for most). A clear air bubble will also eventually disappear but they take longer. I still have a few on my bumper pieces after 2 weeks. But they are gradually getting smaller and going away - just much slower. It seemed that increasing the shampoo in the water a little to ensure I didn't get any beading worked best to prevent air bubbles. In general - after applying and working the film down I always would find a few bubbles when I would walk around and look at it from different angles. Sometimes if close to an edge I would use the wet edge of the plastic body filler spreader to lift the edge of the film and then peel it back towards the bubble until I could squeegee it out - and then sprayed water/shampoo back under it and squeegeed it down tight. Others I just left to take care of themselves. Because of the few water bubbles here and there the surface usually looks pretty sub-par at first. But by the next morning most of the bubbles would be gone and the surface would be looking a lot better - actually good. Here's a fender corner I did yesterday that still has a few small bubbles that are working their way out.

IMG_4506_zpstm4rieam.png


Yesterday these were paint color and larger. Apparently the moisture is working it's way out but the air from the shampoo suds takes longer to leave and they have temporarily gotten lighter.

- Watch closely for a piece of lint or spec of dirt getting under the film. If spotted as you go, the film can be pulled back, the lint picked off the paint or film carefully, the area flooded with water/shampoo and then laid back down and smoothed.

- Irregular surfaces. Just as the film can be stretched a little, it can also be shrunk. I first tried a heat gun as headlight kits I've installed in the past generally suggested a heat gun on low setting to heat the thicker film to allow it to be stretched and shrunk around curves and bends. I tried this on the paint protection film and found that doesn't seem to work at all. The film is to thin and even a little bit of heat makes it so limp that it's hard to do anything with it. Some of the areas that take the most manipulation are the bumper faces. The wrap arounds of the front valance panel below the turn signals and above the splitter corners is an example.

IMG_4513_zps48rfo5vc.png


I had to stretch the film slightly to fit the front face of the valance corner area which left a lot of material to fold down and under and it would tend to accordion and fold up when trying to smooth it down. This is where the alcohol/water spray comes in handy. It activates the adhesive and allows it to adhere faster and stay. I primarily used my wet hands to start at the face and start smoothing the material down - stopping as soon as it felt like it was wanting to fold or crease - then reposition and work it some more - repositioning each time it felt like it was wanting to fold or crease and gradually working it down and under. If it seemed that too much film was bunching up, I would pull the film up a bit in the center, re-wet it, grab the edge with my fingers while pulling it down to stretch it a little and following up with the palm of my other hand to smooth it down. Little by little this would work to shrink the film up until I reached the edge. At the edge I might have a few little tents develop that were difficult to get to lay down and hold. At this point it was best to pull off of it for awhile and go on to the next piece while it dried up some. Once the excess water had evaporated it would usually lay down when pressed down and held for a bit with my fingers. Some places I even waited a couple of hours and then smoothed it down and applied a strip of masking tape over the edge to hold it firmly in place over night. A lot of this shrinking work is necessary on the mirror pieces so I would save them until last.

IMG_4509_zpsqjqfsbjp.png


- A lot of time when I was having difficulty shrinking a piece up around a corner and there just seemed to be too much material to every smooth down - I actually pulled the center area up and stretched it a little while smoothing it down with my palm. It would seem like pulling on it would make for more excess material and make things worse but I found just the opposite was true as generally it would lay down and smooth out then.

- I've read that if it ends up with a bubble that just won't go completely away, a hypodermic needle is the best solution as it can pierce the bubble and then the air/fluid suctioned out so that it lays down flat. I've read this is superior to a needle and trying to squeeze the water/air out. I haven't had to try this yet and right now I don't think I'm going to need to. My car hasn't been out in the sun for more than a couple hours since I did most of the installation - we had cloudy, rainy weather last week. I'll try to give the last ones a month or so and hope for some sun and see if I have any left.

- I still have a couple very small "tents" down at the front splitter that I need to work on. This is where I'm finding the dull pick handy as I can use it and a little water/shampoo to lift the plastic up and back and too the side a little until I can spray it with water/alcohol and work it back down smooth with finger pressure. This is possible to do even a week later if you miss a place or have some air under an edge that you missed. Just use the alcohol/water solution to reactivate the adhesive.

Hope this is of help. Maybe some other members have some more tips to share.

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stanglife

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Great job - cant see the edges at all!
 
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SVTinAR

SVTinAR

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Thanks - It may be due to the color in part but the edges are dang near invisible. Sometimes even looking for the edges I have difficulty finding them. I think as long as I keep them clean and don't let wax build up along them they will stay pretty much that way.
 

Tomster

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Excellent thread!
 

Demonic

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Awesome, appreciate the work you put into the write-up.
 

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Epiphany

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I like to disassemble things.
Nice job.
 

UnhandledException

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This is great but do you pay those retail prices there or are there discounts?

For example the part of the car I am planning on doing (roof, trunk, rear bumper, rear fenders) cost over $3300 just for film yet I got a quote for $2600 including install. Something doesnt add up.

Maybe those films are inflated on xpel’s site and installers buy film much cheaper?
 

oldbmwfan

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Same reaction I had. I went with Suntek and paid an installer, but I paid ~$2500 installed for what shows up as ~$1900 worth of film on the Xpel site. I am sure installers get a wholesale price, but I'm pretty happy to only be out $600 for the labor, effectively.

Love the write-up, though. Nice to know if I need to replace one part due to damage or something, I can come here to do it vs. going back to the pros.
 

snaproll

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PM Derand. He’s on here.

Also, the xpel gel worked well for me. SvtinAR has some serious patience as evidenced by his excellent post. Gettting the film down without any flaws is an art form.
 

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icormba

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This is great but do you pay those retail prices there or are there discounts?

For example the part of the car I am planning on doing (roof, trunk, rear bumper, rear fenders) cost over $3300 just for film yet I got a quote for $2600 including install. Something doesnt add up.

Maybe those films are inflated on xpel’s site and installers buy film much cheaper?
Most installers already have large rolls of film, be it Xpel or Suntek. Then they use the Xpel software to cut the film. They pay for the rights to use the Xpel software and they get discounts if they use the Xpel film. They don't get the Xpel software discounts if they use other film like Suntek. The software usage is expensive, but cheaper than buying the pre-cut film.
 
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SVTinAR

SVTinAR

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Thanks for the comments. I bought directly from XPEL at their catalog prices. I did shop around a little but it doesn't look like they market their products to many (if any) outlets except their licensed/registered installers. The exception are the small rolls of door sill and door edge kits that can be found at some outlets. It's possible someone out there does carry the pre-cut kits discounted - not completely sure. I know I did not want to work with bulk material - that's beyond my skill set.

The website I posted where I found the XPEL installation instructions appeared to carry a lot of PPF products and it's possible they are worth checking with on prices. I had already placed an order when I found their site.

As I noted - the only area I really found the pre-cut kits that I used to be a bit off, was the sides of the hood. If a full width piece was purchased that wasn't cut for the stripes then it would probably be pretty easy to measure your hood and transfer it to their piece and cut it to fit a bit tighter. Then the long, narrow piece to go between the stripes would have to be cut out also. Some stretching might have been an option but I didn't want to risk stretch marks in a highly visible area.

They send the cut out pieces to go over the stripes but I haven't installed them. I figure the stripes sort of serve the same purpose as the PPF (??). I also thought the covered and uncovered pieces might be contrasting in gloss - not sure.

Has anyone had their standard gloss stripes covered and if so what do you think?
 
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derand

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PM Derand. He’s on here.

Also, the xpel gel worked well for me. SvtinAR has some serious patience as evidenced by his excellent post. Gettting the film down without any flaws is an art form.
How did your car turn out?
 

derand

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You all can buy pre cut kits from a Canadian dealer and pay about 30% less in Canadian dollars and get it overnight plus shipping.
 

snaproll

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How did your car turn out?
Great! I’m not telling you anything you don’t know, but it’s a lot of work and takes patience to get it right. That said, it was a rewarding project. Thank you again for the high quality product!
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