I've booked mine in (when it arrives) to have the hood, front wings, bumper, sills and rear arches covered.

but i've just noticed that the rear arch is continuous up over the windows to the A pillar.

is it normal for the wrap to go all the way up over this as well (to avoid cut lines) ?

what about the rear bumper ? would this be normal to get done as it starts at 3/4 of the rear arch

 

If you are not covering the entire car, the rear fenders are not usually covered. Just the rockers, sills and the trailing panel just behind the rear wheel. I have plenty of rash on those covered pieces, but absolutely no strikes to the exposed rear fenders. Make certain you get a protective coating (such as cQuartz) applied to the unwrapped surfaces to prevent any swirling.

 

many thanks but .......

excuse my ignorance in americanisms (and general US motoring terms)

what are
rear fenders ?
rockers ?
trailing panel

 

See bold above.

 

Direct from the Xpel website, this is the pattern for the left side rear quarter panel. This area of the F-Type is rarely filmed unless you are wrapping the entire vehicle...



This is Xpel's pattern for the side Rockers, Sills below the Rockers, and the susceptible rear Fender area behind the rear wheel.



In addition to the typical Front Hood, Front Bumper, and Side View Mirror Covers, I have the Rockers, Sills, and partial Rear Fender done per the above pattern. There is an exposed film edge that cuts across the rear fender, but it does so in a manner that is barely visible unless you go out of your way to look for it.

As Unhingd stated, highly recommend this level of coverage at a minimum. Will prevent an abundance of road rash. I would however recommend you find an installer that cuts his own patterns from the roll, rather than order pre-cut patterns from Xpel, this is the trick for getting the edges wrapped wherever possible.

 

On the F-Type, I used the term trailing panel to include the entirety of the rear bumper skin.

 

After a year and a half of nearly all sunny day driving, this is where most of my rash and chips are.




My dealer didn't wrap the full side rocker and it just gets shredded right in front of the rear wheel.

I've also caught a few rocks above the rear tire, in the beautiful curves of the rear haunches.

Lastly I got some big chips from a big stone above the passenger door. That is probably pretty rare as mine was caused by a blown fire hydrant that was spitting out concrete chunks.

Ok lastly lastly, the last group drive I was on, the roads had a lot of fine gravel and the car got showered. This time though I received a bunch of nicks in the panoroof. The car is pretty low so doesn't take much to get rocks up there and it is just glass. If I had to do it again, I would wrap the roof.

 

Since I am looking into doing this in a couple of weeks its looking to do this in a couple of weeks, is the consensus to just wrap the whole car? I want to do the cQuatz as well. Whats best, before or after the Xpel?

 

I would do the entire front and hood and mirrors. Then full along the side sills and rocker panels. The rear fender is a plus since you will get some road rash just above the seam in front of the rear tire. But to cover that you would need to do the whole rear panel piece unless you want an edge where the Xpel stops. That is probably an expensive extra. I don't see any need to do the rear, I have no nicks or signs of rash there. Some people recommend the wing.

I personally would put a piece covering the roof. Shouldn't cost much since it is flat with no tricky angles.

If you are doing CQuartz stuff, I believe it is recommended to do it on top of the Xpel. The clear wrap bonds to clean paint much better than if there is something covering it. I think it is overkill though.

 

..fire hydrant was spitting out concrete chunks

Sounds like a science fiction movie. Short of covering the entire vehicle - which I've never heard of here on the Forum - I've done what many here have; full hood, both front fenders, rocker panels (lower part of both doors), rear-view mirrors, headlamps, full nose. And while I've had several chips on the windshield - simply unavoidable - I've never had one on the roof.

 

+1. I steer clear of chunk spewing hydrants.

 

The fire hydrant was my first chip too. I was 3 lanes over, as far away as I could get and had no where else to go but forward. Water was raining down onto lane 1 so figured it was nothing to worry about. Drove by and then "THUNK". Nice big 3 spotted chip right above the passenger door.

The roof chips came courtesy of a GT40. Damn things tires were so sticky. As soon as I heard the tinkling of rocks I backed way off but the damage had been done.

I will say that everywhere I have the suntek wrap still looks like new. Clear bra works as advertised.

 

I also highly recommend staying well clear of people mowing their lawns in downtown Rockland ME.

 

WE heard your scream of anguish.

 

Not sure what the heck happened in Rockland, but I'm always aware and on look out for any piece of lawn equipment - or street sweeper, etc. - which might cause hurling chunks of who-knows-what. It's a mine field out there...

 

Funny how your perspective changes when you "switch seats."

My property frontage is about 300 yards on fairly quiet small state road (speed limit 45mph), but our house is set on the "back 40," and there are about 6 acres of corn planted in front. However, between the road and corn is a nice 20' x 300 yd. strip of grass/weeds that I mow at least once a week during the summer.

I have a compact diesel tractor w/ a 72" deck, and every week I spray all kinds of debris into the road on a typical Saturday morning. I'm always amazed at the stupidity of those who don't move over, thinking "your loss." Moreover, I watch like a hawk and am ready to dive off the tractor at any moment.

 

Don't think you need to wrap the entire car. Full Hood, bumper, rockers, mirror covers are the norm.

Before you invest in cQuartz, I suggest you research and compare MegaTrend by Nanoskin. A lot of people finding MegaTrend to be a superior product for shedding water, deepening the depth and gloss level of the factory paint, and providing longer lasting protection against staining, bug guts, and bird droppings.

Some controversy about whether you film before of after the coating. My detailer has done lots of both, and now steers clear of coating over the film when he can avoid it. Coating over the film defeats the self healing properties in a top rated film like Xpel Ultimate, and also voids the warranty of the film. Of course you loose the protective qualities the coating adds when you apply it before the film, but it will deepen the depth and gloss of the paint when the coating is applied first, but not so much when coated over the film.

 

We went past a guy on a riding mower some way from the street. I heard the ching of a small pebble hitting the car, but didn't find any evidence. Marko received a chip for his troubles, I think.

We'll be talking to the Lobster Run insurance carrier.

 

Not just a chip, but it spidered on the way to Cape Cod and the whole windshield had to be replaced. Upside was the new windshield was installed in a perfect bed of adhesive as opposed to the factory seal which had a rather substantial air gap that was discovered when they removed the old one.

Now if we could expel the windshield........hmmm

 

I have the whole car wrapped, including the glass roof. I love it, no more swirls on the paint.

I would like to note that the Protective film close to the exhaust doesn't stand up too well with the heat. If you look closely around the exhaust tips you can see bubbling of the film. However this is only on the black portion of the lower bumper.