Rock Chips and PPF

[Need4SpeedMotors]

Hello Folks,
My car is a year old and I have a ceramic coating on it. Noticed I have multiple stone chips on my front end and even on the sides. I was going to get PPF and ceramic coat the whole car but the installer recommended fixing the Chips first. Any recommendations on fixing the rock chips? I am assuming I need to take it to a reputable body shop. Kind of blown away by the amount of rock chips, this is my daily must be all the damn construction by my house

PFF does a great job at hiding small imperfections in the paint, I had some small rock chips on my front bumper. I filled them with some touch up paint and with the ppf you couldn't tell they were there! I didn't see a point in repainting the whole bumper for a couple of rock chips

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[JetGray_Mach1]

Thanks alot for feedback. Since I only have a few and my car is basically still brand new I will touch them up and have it PPFed

 

[Charlemagne]

PFF does a great job at hiding small imperfections in the paint, I had some small rock chips on my front bumper. I filled them with some touch up paint and with the ppf you couldn't tell they were there!

Then again you can see every speck of dust trapped under neath it. It's about the colour matching, same colour fixed chips will be lot harder to see than something more contrasty. I wouldn't put clear coat on those pen touch-ups, just paint. Applying with needle proved useful on previous car.

 

[Mojo9691]

Mine has been a chip magnet since day two. But at little less than a year old he has them everywhere. But the smiles per miles are still worth it.

 

[Mustangpursuit]

Just did a PPF project for my car, with a 10 year PPF warranty. Also included in the install was decontamination and paint correction. It was the OCD part of the car (the Decklid panel) they corrected as much as 90% of all the micro swirls and scratches on the decklid then had a template already from Xpel applied. Have to go in shortly for my follow up so they can try to get out the rest of the bubbles etc.

 

[Whipple Bullitt]

I’m running a 305/315 set up on Shelby rims with the proper off set, and am running the Mach 1 handling package front flares. My rear quarters are salt and peppered noticeably. Pretty sure I’m looking at a repaint if I want perfection. Either way am interested if self healing PPF or getting ceramic coating reapplied every year would be better. It’s on a shadow black 19 Bullitt.

 

[Lubner]

I had a 2016 Race Red and after a year front bumper and hood were cover in chips. When I got my 2022 Eruption Green I had it PPF first day and it is still perfect! Well worth it.

 

[Ironpeddler]

Like any other rock chip, touch up paint, either the OEM paint pens or something like Dr. Colorchip.

If i already had a bunch of chips i'd not bother with PPF.

I have ‘21 in Antimatter Blue and I have rock chops along each side of the windshield, nose, and leading edge of the front fenders. I just received the Dr. Colorchip kit since the dealership couldn’t get the pen any time soon. I’m still hesitant to do it because every time I’ve done it in the past, it looks ‘touched up’. The paint chips so easily.

 

[GrabberBargeCaptain]

I have ‘21 in Antimatter Blue and I have rock chops along each side of the windshield, nose, and leading edge of the front fenders. I just received the Dr. Colorchip kit since the dealership couldn’t get the pen any time soon. I’m still hesitant to do it because every time I’ve done it in the past, it looks ‘touched up’. The paint chips so easily.

Yeah same here. Dr. Colorchip is never as easy as it looks in their videos. I think it has to be an extremely shallow chip for it to look seamless.

 

[Charlemagne]

Either way am interested if self healing PPF or getting ceramic coating reapplied every year would be better.

Ceramics is pretty useless against rock chips. Cost of re-applying ceramics every 2-3 years (or the expensive 5y ones) and PPF with 10y warranty and longevity hopefully 15+ years (with my usage and car cover), make them pretty equal price-wise in my calculations in the long run.

 

[Lubner]

Ceramics are useless against rock chips.

 

[Ironpeddler]

Yeah same here. Dr. Colorchip is never as easy as it looks in their videos. I think it has to be an extremely shallow chip for it to look seamless.

I’m so back & forth on using it. But I guess it beats seeing the now white chip from showing.

 

[MattMPA]

I had my former '18 SHO done with PPF on the front 1/3rd. I had impact on the turnpike of a retread from a tractor trailer. The only damage was to the PPF. A few pieces replaced and the car was good as new.

When my '22 GT arrived, I had the same forward 1/3rd done. The mirrors, headlights, even the most of the grill. I'm fortunate to have a very local (I can walk there) PPF guy.

 

[Lorne34]

I’m so back & forth on using it. But I guess it beats seeing the now white chip from showing.

You have to temper your expectations on rock chip touchup. It's never going to be the same as a professional repaint or blend. I think the Dr Color Chip is easier to use than the factory touch up pens because you don't have to worry about getting the paint exactly into the chip. You actually apply it outside the chip, swipe it into the hole and then remove the excess. You can't hurt anything because it can be completely removed, even days after.
I may sound crazy, but I ppf''d my first two mustangs, but not my shelby.
I didn't like how the ppf puckered and created sharp edges when rock chips hit. Plus it never looks completely hidden over factory stripes. I just decided to ceramic coat to make cleaning easier and then just deal with the rock chips for now. As the car ages I will eventually get it repainted THE RIGHT WAY. I agree with other posts.. the paint from Ford or any other car manufacturer is thin garbage. Back in the "old days" they applied more coats and it seemed the durability was greater. There was a guy from CA a couple of years ago on the forum who had a Ruby Red GT with tons of rock chips. He took it in and had it professionally painted with a good base primer, several coats of paint and a high quality clear coat and didn't have nearly the issues with chips after that.
All that said, I'm not knocking PPF, it's a great product, but I just don't like having that over the paint.

 

[Evolvd]

Had the entire front clip, roof, and mirrors PPFd on my Shelby, and happy I did. My 2016 GT was dinged up in the rear quarters pretty bad from the front tires and I’m not starting to see some small dings at 20K on the Shelby. Seriously considering ppf’ing the rest of the car now.

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