996.2 GT3 Protection - Page 1 - 911/Carrera GT - PistonHeads UK

I just added some info to another thread in Porsche General but thought it probably deserves its own thread in here. My car has just had a full respray so I wanted to make sure that the new paintwork was protected as much as possible. Last year a trip to the West Coast of Scotland saw the car come back with rather a lot of frontal stone chips from running in close formation with other cars at speed. I didn't want a repeat of that with my new paintwork. So I did some research and spoke to some people and decided to use PaintShield and their new second generation self-healing film. I actually collected it on Tuesday this week. I have to say the installation is absolutely amazing. You can't see it at all from anything further than 6" away, and only then you can see on the one or two edges where the film isn't wrapped over an edge. But in fairness almost every edge is wrapped. I actually prefer the look of the surfaces with the PaintShield on than the just painted areas. I wish I had had the whole car done now. After a 190 mile drive home the front was covered in bug splatter. I just used a damp microfibre and they wiped off with zero issue and the surface looked new again. And you can't argue with the guarnatee they offer either. Plus they don't cut the film on the car. Ever. They showed me an Aston Martin they had in that had another fitters film on previously and you can see cut marks in the paintwork in places. Frightening! Some pics after the install: Everything up to the A-Pillar is covered. And the sills. Just look at the clarity of the reflections. No ripples, no edges, no lines. Just a perfectly uniform finish. Even looks inky black. The panel to the left is the front wing and is covered in PaintShield. The panel on the right is the door panel and is not. The fit and finish in and around the complex front bumper is immaculate. Impossible to spot an edge to the film. Jack

That's excellent. I was aware that this is one of the best wraps based on the advantages you highlight. My issue has been one of cost....not cheap. Something like 1.5k+ just for the front. As an aside, one of my cars was detailed and then had a GTechniq coating applied. This bakes a hard coating over the car which protects the finish underneath and allows dirt to just wash/glide off. The cost something like low hundreds. I expect the paintshield wrap will however be much more robust at protecting against stone chips.

A friend pointed out that a front end respray is cheaper. My argument was that you are guaranteed to get a stone chip the first time you drive it after a respray. With the PaintShield they guarantee that you won't. I think of you are doing road trips with other cars in the likes of North Wales and Scotland where the roads tend to be very gritty, or you drive the car through the winter months, it's a sound investment of you want to keep the paint work looking mint.

I had my GT3 done exactly the same as yours, Jack. 2 weeks after a front-end respray about 3 years ago. The Paintshield film has held up very well to about 60 trackdays since it was done. There are a few small tears here & there where track debris has hit it but overall it's still doing its job. I had my new carbon bonnet done by Amourfend earlier this year using their self-healing film & so far that's looking like it does an even better job. I found the rubber scuffs difficult to remove completely on the old (non-healing) film, but this new film is much easier to clean. Edited by nxi20 on Friday 23 May 10:14

LaSource said: Something like 1.5k+ just for the front. Just to correct myself, that was not for all the car front, but just front bumper and front 1/3rd of bonnet...hence the perceived high cost. Notwithstanding the above, it does sound like a great product, especially on freshly painted fronts...

nxi20 said: I had my GT3 done exactly the same as yours, Jack. 2 weeks after a front-end respray about 3 years ago. The Paintshield film has held up very well to about 60 trackdays since it was done. There are a few small tears here & there where track debris has hit it but overall it's still doing its job. I had my new carbon bonnet done by Amourfend earlier this year using their self-healing film & so far that's looking like it does an even better job. I found the rubber scuffs difficult to remove completely on the old (non-healing) film, but this new film is much easier to clean. Edited by nxi20 on Friday 23 May 10:14 The new Paintshield stuff is supposedly the latest 2nd gen self-healing material that they've been installing on customer cars for 4 months or so, so I suspect it will be better than what you had on the before the Armourfend. Paintshield don't specify exactly what the film they use is anymore. I asked, but they refused to comment saying they were fed up of doing the tests, providing the guarantee (it's their guarantee, not the manufacturers) and basically promoting and validating the film manufacturers product for them. When the manufacturers don't advertise and promote the product themselves. It also means they can swap to the latest product as it becomes available. La Source, it was 1400+vat for the full front, with full wrapped edges, full bonnet, full wings, full bumper and wing mirrors.

Ah!...the price has reduced ;-) Thanks for the update.

Jack - forgive my ignorance but how do you go about ''finishing' the car after cleaning - ie do you wax, have to use special wax or cannot use wax at all? Looks awesome fella - good to see it back on the road!

Thanks! Yes, it looks absolutely stunning in the flesh, even if I do say so myself You can finish it in any way you like. You can seal it or use a carnauba wax. You can even machine polish it, though the new stuff doesn't need it as any swirl marks or scratches "flow" out and the surface returns to new. But basically you can treat it like a painted surface. The only thing I was told to do was to not apply anything for 8-10 days to let the film cure and to allow all the trapped moisture out of the film. After that I can do whatever I like to it. The difference is that the film will self heal itself if anything gets on it. They have tested this new stuff with paint stripper, fresh paint, brake fluid, bird droppings etc. Depending on how bad the defect is will dictate how long it takes to heal, but generally within 1-2 days in normal conditions. The process can be sped up with the application of warm water to the surface. Looking forward to testing it out fully in a couple of weeks on a blast up in north Wales with 8-9 other cars for a long weekend

jackwood said: Thanks! Yes, it looks absolutely stunning in the flesh, even if I do say so myself You can finish it in any way you like. You can seal it or use a carnauba wax. You can even machine polish it, though the new stuff doesn't need it as any swirl marks or scratches "flow" out and the surface returns to new. But basically you can treat it like a painted surface. The only thing I was told to do was to not apply anything for 8-10 days to let the film cure and to allow all the trapped moisture out of the film. After that I can do whatever I like to it. The difference is that the film will self heal itself if anything gets on it. They have tested this new stuff with paint stripper, fresh paint, brake fluid, bird droppings etc. Depending on how bad the defect is will dictate how long it takes to heal, but generally within 1-2 days in normal conditions. The process can be sped up with the application of warm water to the surface. Looking forward to testing it out fully in a couple of weeks on a blast up in north Wales with 8-9 other cars for a long weekend That's impressive. Given it is so robust, what is you want to take it off again (for whatever reason - body repair, film repair, etc), can they take it off without damaging the paint underneath?

Had mine done over exactly the same areas, in my case with 3M Film by CG Performance in Tring. Scuderia was protected by Paintshield film previously. A 900 mile high speed blast through Wales in convoy with some pals was a huge test for it and there's some marking certainly , especially low on the front splitter but its a no-brainer. To those who point out a respray is cheaper, if your car does Hoons and Trackdays regularly you'll find it suffers from chips and road rash almost immediately and just looks "used" most of the time. The Film looks great and genuinely keeps iy looking good This is the front with film on, Splitter now replaced too (A complete other conversation about splitters!! )

jackwood said: Thanks! Yes, it looks absolutely stunning in the flesh, even if I do say so myself You can finish it in any way you like. You can seal it or use a carnauba wax. You can even machine polish it, though the new stuff doesn't need it as any swirl marks or scratches "flow" out and the surface returns to new. But basically you can treat it like a painted surface. The only thing I was told to do was to not apply anything for 8-10 days to let the film cure and to allow all the trapped moisture out of the film. After that I can do whatever I like to it. The difference is that the film will self heal itself if anything gets on it. They have tested this new stuff with paint stripper, fresh paint, brake fluid, bird droppings etc. Depending on how bad the defect is will dictate how long it takes to heal, but generally within 1-2 days in normal conditions. The process can be sped up with the application of warm water to the surface. Looking forward to testing it out fully in a couple of weeks on a blast up in north Wales with 8-9 other cars for a long weekend That's impressive. Given it is so robust, what if you want to take it off again (for whatever reason - body repair, film repair, etc), can they take it off without damaging the paint underneath? Edited by LaSource on Saturday 24th May 12:40

LaSource said: That's impressive. Given it is so robust, what if you want to take it off again (for whatever reason - body repair, film repair, etc), can they take it off without damaging the paint underneath? Edited by LaSource on Saturday 24th May 12:40 Absolutely. The only stipulation is that any new paintwork should be left to cure for a minimum of 8 days before the film is applied. I haven't asked exactly what the process for removal is for this particular new film, but I know with the older film you just had to heat it with a hot air gun as you lifted it. dblue, that looks fantastic. I had been worried before the install as I had seen a few comments saying that film can look bad on black paint. I think that must have older film, or a bad install, because I honestly prefer the inky, liquid look of the film over how the new paint finish looks.

Looks pretty amazing to my eyes ... Clever technology. My philosphy is slightly different though. Rag till your hearts content never once considering your paint and then simply do a full repaint at specialised every 10 years or so for 8k

jackal said: Looks pretty amazing to my eyes ... Clever technology. My philosphy is slightly different though. Rag till your hearts content never once considering your paint and then simply do a full repaint at specialised every 10 years or so for 8k That is exactly what I did. But now, with prices going the way they are, and more than likely not going to keep it for ten years, I thought I'd try something a bit different this time round and try and look after it. Anyone that knows me knows that historically I've never given the external appearance of my cars more than a seconds thought. Mechanically I like then to be the very best they can be and have spent 10's of thousands keeping this car in perfect mechanical condition. Looking after the outside is something entirely new to me

Thanks Jack Certainly food for thought and maybe one for the future - sounds incredibly impressive - keep up the feedback on its self healing properties will you? Mine needs a bumper/bonnet re-spray at some point so maybe after that. However just had new brakes and refreshed the suspension so it will have to wait - can relate the '000s spent story but they're worth it (IMO)

I've never been too hung up on a few stone chips but after I painted the car last spring and spent a season of hoons, track days etc the car up close was sand blasted. No amount of correction would get that looking OK. The degradation of the paint is instant and constant and , especially on a black car, always obvious. Re-painting it every year is an option but IMHO the latest films are the only answer. Its amazing stuff, completely clear and really its almost impossible to tell which panels are covered unless you're right up close. It feels different when you clean and polish it, less smooth to the touch but you treat it just as you would the paint.

Just a quick update: Covered 230 miles of road and track on Friday (before one of my coolant hoses let go, but that's another story). Got the car recovered home and gave it a check over yesterday. After wiping off the bug splatter the front end looks absolutely immaculate. Not a single blemish on it. I know it's not in any way a definitive test, but so far so good. The other upside was that all the people I showed it to 1) couldn't tell which panels had PaintShield on and 2) even when I told them which panels were covered couldn't find an edge or lip until they were pointed out. Very happy with that. Post run and trackday: