Does PPF eventually crack from years of sun?

[JillX5M]

Someone told me that PPF will eventually crack from sun and the edges will start to get dirt. Does anyone have knowledge on this?

I just got my first rock chip on my 2 week old brand new X5 and was looking into PPF but now I am not too sure. We keep our cars forever.

[DocL]

I've never heard of that. The original "clear bras" did turn yellow over time, but I've had PPF on different cars over a ten year period and I've never experienced what you've been told.

[spammysammich]

It can, especially the older materials without self healing properties. I've seen it on cars that spent a lot of time in the sun without much paint maintenance and washing over their life. My nephew has an e46 330i he got on the cheap that had the clear bra all yellowed and cracked like a dry lake bed in the desert. Of course the clear coat had also been totally destroyed all over the top surfaces of the car. I had xpel done years ago on an 08 STI and wash/wax it regularly, plus it spent 12 years of its life garaged. The edges are dirty and have wax under them but no cracks, there are signs of yellowing though.

It's mostly about maintenance.

[allinon72]

PPF can be quite a quandary because installation and product choice is everything. In order to get a high quality installation with high quality PPF, it's several thousand dollars and still won't last forever. IMO the numbers start to not make sense (in my opinion) unless you're heavily daily driving.

That being said, even the cheap stuff these days will yellow and peel, but usually not crack. My car had the cheapest dealer installed PPF that was already peeling and lifting at the edges and filled with dirt only a few years after install. And it's from a very harsh Reno, NV climate. Silver lining is, I got to peel it off and underneath was perfect paint! I did not have it redone, just paint correction and ceramic coating since it's a garage queen.

[JillX5M]

That was kinda my thought. By the time you spend 2k on PPF, you could just spend that money to fix any rock chips that come your way. I keep my cars forever so I would be afraid that on year 10, even the high quality stuff would peel? I don’t know. Just talking outloud. Thoughts?

Might be a silly question. But what exactly is paint correction? Who does that? A detailer or collision shop?

[allinon72]

Originally Posted by JillX5M

That was kinda my thought. By the time you spend 2k on PPF, you could just spend that money to fix any rock chips that come your way. I keep my cars forever so I would be afraid that on year 10, even the high quality stuff would peel? I don’t know. Just talking outloud. Thoughts?

Might be a silly question. But what exactly is paint correction? Who does that? A detailer or collision shop?

Paint correction just means removing imperfections (swirls, fine scratches, any other defects) before putting something over the top, whether it be PPF or a ceramic coating. It is done by the detailer or whoever is installing the PPF or coating.

[Eljefe25]

Price for PPF is totally ridiculous. I don’t see any sense in paying 2-5k for a mass produced car that is going to lose value. A super rare garage queen type of car that is limited maybe. 2-5k in mods is probably a better investment and at least you get tangible results.If the cost was reasonable maybe.

I do think ceramic coating is worth it however. It’s easy enough to do yourself(provided you do the prep properly) and the benefits of making your car easier to keep clean fits the value propostion.

It’s also cheap enough to where if you don’t have the time/ knowledge it’s not that expensive to pay a professional to do it.


However this is my opinion and the people do that do ppf has their own opinion and the value proposition probably differs for them.

Personally I don’t think it’s worth it.