[David G Doshay]

Hello all,
Now that my 4CT is finally here and while it is all new and clean and shiny, itiis time to think about the different wraps available.

What have others found out and done to their cars?

The 3M IR filtering film seems like a good choice for the glass top. The Porsche dealer has an option to do the front of the car in XPEL, which I feel sure that they subcontract out to a local shop.

 

[Professor B]

I had my local XPEL dealer install it at a substantial lower price. Still not cheap, but worth every penny. I did not do anything to top. The glass top is Very effective in filtering out heat and I live in Houston Texas. It is not any hotter than a regular top.

 

[NoRPM22]

I have been considering XPEL or 3M. Any thoughts on pros/cons and costs for each? Is it better to do front areas only or whole car?

 

[David G Doshay]

since my posting the question I have seen a bunch of YouTube videos. The ones I thought were most useful are:

which compares new films of several brands against each other for a number of attributes and I thought that the 3M came out best

and:

which compares many brands after a year outdoors in Texas. I thought that they all seemed to loose their ‘self healing’ attribute almost completely, and they all discolored slightly in slightly different ways.

But you should watch and choose for yourself.

I hope that a few more people with wraps installed will comment.

Thanks for the input about the thermal/noise resistant top.

 

[David G Doshay]

since my posting the question I have seen a bunch of YouTube videos. The ones I thought were most useful are:

which compares new films of several brands against each other for a number of attributes and I thought that the 3M came out best

and:

which compares many brands after a year outdoors in Texas. I thought that they all seemed to loose their ‘self healing’ attribute almost completely, and they all discolored slightly in slightly different ways.

But you should watch and choose for yourself.

I hope that a few more people with wraps installed will comment.

Thanks for the input about the thermal/noise resistant top.

And this morning I found the 1 year 5 month update:

and some very obvious differences are popping out. Also, this is nice short video.

 

[PassGas]

I've always used Xpel with good results.

 

[David G Doshay]

I have been considering XPEL or 3M. Any thoughts on pros/cons and costs for each? Is it better to do front areas only or whole car?

I am also hoping that folks here will jump in on the 2nd question. Full car will protect against a quick key-attack. Does it make caring for the car much easier? Of course it costs more …

From web surfing on the film issue one thing I’ve seen that stands out as important to me is to make sure the shop wraps the film around the edges. Many shops use patterns which leave a small unwrapped gap all around each panel, and that makes no sense to me. 1) many paint chips happen right on the edges, especially on the doors; 2) at the edge of the film dirt builds up, and the line shows … several YouTube videos about that. The double line where panels meet and each has the film end just short of the edge become very visible. Some shops modify the stock cutting patterns to have the film reach around. It does get tricky at sharp curves of some inlets, and our Taycans clearly have some narrow inlets.

 

[PassGas]

Doing the whole car is very nice but very expensive.

 

[Lightning Bolt]

Hello all,
Now that my 4CT is finally here and while it is all new and clean and shiny, itiis time to think about the different wraps available.

What have others found out and done to their cars?

The 3M IR filtering film seems like a good choice for the glass top. The Porsche dealer has an option to do the front of the car in XPEL, which I feel sure that they subcontract out to a local shop.

I went with just a front wrap, on the bonnet, from the dealer. They were able to put it on before I took delivery, so that was the easiest way for me to have it done. While I could have probably researched it and found someone less expensive, by having the dealer do it if there are any problems or fading then they get to deal with it.
The front is low and will definitely get it's share of fine gravel thrown up on it, and here in the Midwest we have to deal with very large bugs that can do a number on the paint as well. I didn't go with a full body wrap as I didn't want to push my luck on how it would turn out, and if you ever need to have any body work done it is hard for them to match the paint to the rest of the car that has the wrap.
As others have said, make sure whomever you go with wraps the edges.