[fanofbmwe46]

I live in Ohio and will only be driving my new G87 2-3k miles a year max and only in nice weather. I don’t plan to commute in it at all, just weekend drives where I have no problem distancing myself from other cars as much as possible.

With that said, I do want to keep this car long term and keep it in amazing condition. Also, I will be putting 12mm spacers on and possibly mud flaps.

Given my situation, would you recommend any sort of PPF? Definitely can’t spend many thousands on full top of the line wrap but might be able to spend $1k or so on this if you all think it’s for sure needed due to the aero design of this car. What is the absolute highest impact zone?

Thanks!

[Ronin76]

With that amount of driving I don’t think I would spend the money. I plan on daily driving my car so I plan on getting it and for some reason, don’t know if it’s legit or not, but I think it would be smarter to get PPF if you have a darker colored car because I just feel rock chips will show more than a lighter colored car.

[BroDoze]

In order of importance:
1. Absolute must-dos for me are the headlights. This plastic is soft and when there’s even a few pits, it looks like hell and can diminish light output. Not to mention the UV protection will keep them looking crystal-clear 10 years later. Non-negotiable.
2. Hood / fenders strip or full hood/fenders (I don’t mind “the line” as much as others and usually at least do an 18-24” strip on the hood. On my M2 I’ll be doing full hood and fenders as the line with frozen paint and matte PPF probably won’t fly. These are more important than the front bumper as they are metal and rocks will chip off the paint and rust / primer spots etc will be a nightmare.
3. Front bumper and mirrors. This thing gets nailed hard. Some paint hides it better than others, but rest assured, it’ll look and feel like hell in short order, unprotected. This has more to do with the areas you’re driving, whether they throw down sand and gravel in the winter etc. CO is about the worst state there is for this. Sand and gravel on the roads year-round.
4. A-pillers, and rear fender flares. The rear fenders will get nailed, no doubt.
5. Running trim. Scuffs from shoes getting in n out. Rocks chips underneath.
6. Everywhere else. This is where they get you on cost. Seems the front end is the biggest bang for the buck, but as soon as you say roof, doors, rear bumper, rear fenders and trunk, they just dial up the cost big time. It’s a lot of material, but so is the whole front. I think if they have to scrap any material it’s big pieces they’re scrapping.

I’m personally undecided if I’m doing whole car, but because of the frozen paint I’m leaning heavily towards it + ceramic myself. The thought of how easy car washes would be is attractive. Super expensive though. Could buy new wheels for the additional cost of full-car.

[fanofbmwe46]

Originally Posted by BroDoze

In order of importance:
1. Absolute must-dos for me are the headlights. This plastic is soft and when there’s even a few pits, it looks like hell and can diminish light output. Not to mention the UV protection will keep them looking crystal-clear 10 years later. Non-negotiable.
2. Hood / fenders strip or full hood/fenders (I don’t mind “the line” as much as others and usually at least do an 18-24” strip on the hood. On my M2 I’ll be doing full hood and fenders as the line with frozen paint and matte PPF probably won’t fly. These are more important than the front bumper as they are metal and rocks will chip off the paint and rust / primer spots etc will be a nightmare.
3. Front bumper and mirrors. This thing gets nailed hard. Some paint hides it better than others, but rest assured, it’ll look and feel like hell in short order, unprotected. This has more to do with the areas you’re driving, whether they throw down sand and gravel in the winter etc. CO is about the worst state there is for this. Sand and gravel on the roads year-round.
4. A-pillers, and rear fender flares. The rear fenders will get nailed, no doubt.
5. Running trim. Scuffs from shoes getting in n out. Rocks chips underneath.
6. Everywhere else. This is where they get you on cost. Seems the front end is the biggest bang for the buck, but as soon as you say roof, doors, rear bumper, rear fenders and trunk, they just dial up the cost big time. It’s a lot of material, but so is the whole front. I think if they have to scrap any material it’s big pieces they’re scrapping.

I’m personally undecided if I’m [...]

Yea seems once you start it’s hard to decide where to draw the line. I think I’m ok without the doors and rear bumper as I’m careful where and how I park and again since it’s not a daily, I’ll never be a tight situations for potential taps or door dings.

What do you think about just these and maybe leave the front alone since I can distance myself from cars and trucks throwing up debris


https://innovativepaintprotectionsol...2&_ss=e&_v=1.0
*anyone else have this in particular?

https://innovativepaintprotectionsol...e&_ss=e&_v=1.0

https://innovativepaintprotectionsol...t-g42-g43-g87?

[Carefree]

If you plan to use as posted, have it ceramic coated by a reputable shop.

IMO, PPF is overkill.

[MineralGreyMetallic]

I'm just using your own words, but if you want to keep the car in "amazing condition" then you're going to need to PPF the entire car.

If you don't want to spend that money, get what is commonly called a "track package" which covers high impact areas. BroDoze covered those areas in his post.

Your doors absolutely will get chipped up from road debris. After a few years, if you PPF the front of the car, you will look at the doors and kick yourself for not wrapping them as well.

Really, it just comes down to how much you care about blemishes like this. It's a personality thing. Are you very orderly, neat, and hate messy things? If so, PPF as much of the car as you can afford. If a few rock chips here and there don't bother you, it's not worth the money.

[fanofbmwe46]

Originally Posted by MineralGreyMetallic

I'm just using your own words, but if you want to keep the car in "amazing condition" then you're going to need to PPF the entire car.

If you don't want to spend that money, get what is commonly called a "track package" which covers high impact areas. BroDoze covered those areas in his post.

Your doors absolutely will get chipped up from road debris. After a few years, if you PPF the front of the car, you will look at the doors and kick yourself for not wrapping them as well.

Really, it just comes down to how much you care about blemishes like this. It's a personality thing. Are you very orderly, neat, and hate messy things? If so, PPF as much of the car as you can afford. If a few rock chips here and there don't bother you, it's not worth the money.

Why would doors get chipped up? They seem pretty flat and inset from the wheel arches.

[MineralGreyMetallic]

Originally Posted by fanofbmwe46

Why would doors get chipped up? They seem pretty flat and inset from the wheel arches.

They are not immune to road debris. It's a lower-impact area, but after a few years the blemishes start to accumulate.

[DrJLag420]

I didn’t get PPF on my ‘23 M2 as it’s not really my daily. Just ceramic coated it myself. I am thinking of getting all the piano black parts up front done as these parts swirl just looking at them. But then I would prolly convince myself to get more PPF. I plan on trading this M2 for a ‘26, but that’s a different story all together. But if I’m not keeping it long term, I don’t think it’s worth the PPF entry price.

But I did get the full front, mirrors, rockers, lower doors up to the line on door (didn’t actually want this done but my detailers apparently thinks this includes the rockers and I didn’t even notice it until weeks later detailing the car), and the rear bumper on my ‘22 M240. Full ceramic was applied.

It’s almost been 3 years and the car looks great. I drive a lot of highway for work(75 miles a day) lots of 18-wheelers and construction kicking up all sorts of debris and leaving stuff on the road. Front is easy to clean and all the bug juice build up on thefront comes right off with no worries about scratching the clean coat. And the PPF really prevents chips etc. Same with the rear bumper. Even a quick spray detail, no worries and easy to do.

My ‘22 VW Golf R, I got the works. Full PPF, Full ceramic, Ceramic on the windows, wheels, calipers. This was eye-watering expensive but I wanted to give it a go. About double the cost of work done for my M240. My R looks brand new even if I don’t wash it for weeks. The wheels got the brake dust issue that comes with the performance brakes on these vehicles nowadays. When I do wash her, it’s simple and rewarding. Everything just comes off and if any swirls are put in the PPF, they go away just sitting in the sun or with warm water (self-healing PPF is truly amazing). And I do believe there is pre-ceramic’d PPF now (Xpel Ultimate Fusion?). In fact, I had some bird dropping on the surface for a couples days and when I got to it I noticed a mark was left after cleaning. The next day it was gone. Just sitting in the sun for a day. Amazing!

So I would say based on your original post, go with the full front (track pack). If you have extra cash, add rockers and rear bumper. I would definitely ceramic the whole car. But if you don’t want to spend more than $1K, prolly hard to get the track pack for that (quality installers typically charge $1K just for full ceramic), but perhaps you can. I did ceramic one of my cars myself: $80 or so for the ceramic coating (I used Gyeon Q2 Mohs Evo and 2 to 3 days of work. I already had all the appropriate detail equipment).

Happy Motoring (And Detailing&#128521!

[fanofbmwe46]

I have a good friend and professional detailer who will ceramic coat it for about $800 including wheels off. But yea I was thinking I’d be ok spending another $800-1000 on as much PPF as I can get but I don’t know if that will get me the high impact areas (front, hood, fenders, side skirts/rockers above/ front of rear wheel arches)

[Carefree]

Originally Posted by fanofbmwe46

I have a good friend and professional detailer who will ceramic coat it for about $800 including wheels off. But yea I was thinking I’d be ok spending another $800-1000 on as much PPF as I can get but I don’t know if that will get me the high impact areas (front, hood, fenders, side skirts/rockers above/ front of rear wheel arches)

Ceramic coating without proper paint correction is a no no.

IMO

[BroDoze]

That’s why it’s best to do this straight off of the truck. Honestly, with some YouTube and good product choices, you can do the ceramic yourself. PPF, most folks will be a non-starter there.

I’ll reiterate, it depends on where you live. The more sand and gravel on the roads, the quicker your car and windshield will get trashed. FL isn’t the same as CO. They don’t even send out the street cleaners anymore here in CO. They just leave the sand and gravel on the roads year-round. It sucks. It really sucks. For folks in CO, PPF isn’t even really challenged, it’s just understood here. Most new cars come with a dealer pkg of at least a front hood n fender 18 or 24 strip. Most dealers here have a direct PPF dealer contract going (not recommended in most cases). My CO BMW dealer pretty much has a PPF installer onsite full-time. Because CO people know their new cars will look 5 years old in about a month. This dealer-offered full-front pkg is actually reasonable. I’ve never had to do this as I have a hookup here I always send my cars to.

[fanofbmwe46]

I had the dealer remove the plastic and hose off the car. Told them not to buff or touch the paint otherwise. The guy who will do my ceramic who is very legit (doing it for 10yrs) will also do a 1 step paint correction before hand as necessary. I have full trust in him as he has done several other Porsche and BMWs of mine. Big question for me is if I do PPF underneath in any capacity

[Carefree]

Originally Posted by fanofbmwe46

I had the dealer remove the plastic and hose off the car. Told them not to buff or touch the paint otherwise. The guy who will do my ceramic who is very legit (doing it for 10yrs) will also do a 1 step paint correction before hand as necessary. I have full trust in him as he has done several other Porsche and BMWs of mine. Big question for me is if I do PPF underneath in any capacity

Paint correction is a great decision.

Virtually every factory paint job will have minor inconsistencies.

[DrewNewM2]

Do Mudflaps immediately after spacer install because you will kick up more debris with the spacers.

As far as PPF goes, I just don’t see why people spend up to 10% of the cars value to protect against damage that may or may not happen and if it does, repair or depreciation would be well less than that 10%. I hate rock chips too and my cars all have a few and they can probably be repaired for $200. I can also trade or sell my car if I want and not automatically lose $6k+

If I had money to throw away, I would consider just front and hood, but you’re looking at more like $2k for that.

[fanofbmwe46]

Originally Posted by DrewNewM2

Do Mudflaps immediately after spacer install because you will kick up more debris with the spacers.

As far as PPF goes, I just don’t see why people spend up to 10% of the cars value to protect against damage that may or may not happen and if it does, repair or depreciation would be well less than that 10%. I hate rock chips too and my cars all have a few and they can probably be repaired for $200. I can also trade or sell my car if I want and not automatically lose $6k+

If I had money to throw away, I would consider just front and hood, but you’re looking at more like $2k for that.

Which mudflaps are most folks going with? I don’t care if they are CF or plastic. Just want to keep the debris off. I’m only doing 12mm spacers not more aggressive

[reallymarkedup]

Originally Posted by DrewNewM2

As far as PPF goes, I just don’t see why people spend up to 10% of the cars value to protect against damage that may or may not happen and if it does, repair or depreciation would be well less than that 10%. I hate rock chips too and my cars all have a few and they can probably be repaired for $200. I can also trade or sell my car if I want and not automatically lose $6k+

Everybody will see it differently. I'm not doing it for the next guy, or because I have some illusion that I'm protecting an investment. I've already thrown away 80k on the car, what's another 3?

I'm doing it for me because I want to keep the car in the best condition I can during the time I own it. I'm doing it because I live in an area where people own trucks that you can stand in front of and not even see over the hood and the owner, who has never driven it anywhere except to Kroger, has MTs on it with giant treads that will consistently toss large rocks at everyone behind it.

I'm also only spending 3.7% of the cars total value on a track pack PPF package, nowhere near 10. Tint and stage 1 paint correction with ceramic bring the total up to 5.25% of the cars value and every bit it's worth it for me.

[reallymarkedup]

Originally Posted by fanofbmwe46

Which mudflaps are most folks going with? I don’t care if they are CF or plastic. Just want to keep the debris off. I’m only doing 12mm spacers not more aggressive

These are the ones I am looking at: https://megachipusa.com/products/bmw...-splash-guards

[svenska80]

Originally Posted by fanofbmwe46

Which mudflaps are most folks going with? I don’t care if they are CF or plastic. Just want to keep the debris off. I’m only doing 12mm spacers not more aggressive

TLG splash guards are what I bought. They have decent reviews from other enthusiasts and the price isn’t too terrible.
I keep going back and forth on PPF too. I won’t be driving the car all the time because I have twp other vehicles to rotate throughout the year. The prior owner of my 22 year old VW daily work car - clearly tailgated. The hood is pretty speckled and chipped. The rest of the paint is still beautiful for its age. However, I have yet to add too the front end damage, other than knocking out an air damn vent when I pummeled a rabbit. It clipped right back in! I really do not have a lot of traffic where I live and most days my 20 minute commute into work, I never meet another car. I am on a budget like everyone else, but, I want to make a good effort to keep the M2 nice! So I’m still going to contemplate the PPF haha.
Congratulations again on taking delivery- it’s a really nice looking color and wheel scheme! Well chosen!

[MineralGreyMetallic]

Originally Posted by DrewNewM2

Do Mudflaps immediately after spacer install because you will kick up more debris with the spacers.

Mud flaps on this car just hurt to look at, in my opinion. It's not an STI.

Originally Posted by DrewNewM2

As far as PPF goes, I just don’t see why people spend up to 10% of the cars value to protect against damage that may or may not happen and if it does, repair or depreciation would be well less than that 10%. I hate rock chips too and my cars all have a few and they can probably be repaired for $200. I can also trade or sell my car if I want and not automatically lose $6k+

If I had money to throw away, I would consider just front and hood, but you’re looking at more like $2k for that.

If you're spending $70k+ on a car and then another $5-10k to PPF I'd say it's unlikely that you're doing it to avoid the cost of minor body work, which as you pointed out is relatively inexpensive.

I think most of us do it because we just don't like looking at the damn rock chips every time we get in the car. We also don't really care for the inconvenience of having to do body work every few years. It's not about the money, it's about my time and patience.

These PPF threads always turn into philosophical debates because, as I mentioned earlier in the thread, the value you get from PPF is largely based on your personality.

Some personality types will never understand the cost/benefit even though we've explained it ad nauseam across the forum.

It sounds corny but "know thyself", and you will know if you need PPF. There is no objectively correct answer.

[fanofbmwe46]

Originally Posted by MineralGreyMetallic

If you're spending $70k+ on a car and then another $5-10k to PPF I'd say it's unlikely that you're doing it to avoid the cost of minor body work, which as you pointed out is relatively inexpensive.

I think most of us do it because we just don't like looking at the damn rock chips every time we get in the car. We also don't really care for the inconvenience of having to do body work every few years. It's not about the money, it's about my time and patience.

These PPF threads always turn into philosophical debates because, as I mentioned earlier in the thread, the value you get from PPF is largely based on your personality.

Some personality types will never understand the cost/benefit even though we've explained it ad nauseam across the forum.

It sounds corny but "know thyself", and you will know if you need PPF. There is no objectively correct answer.

Ok here’s possibly a more objective question. Is post new car delivery paint correction needed before laying down PPF? Should I have my ceramic coating guy prep the car with the 1 step correction before other vendor PPFs then bring it back for the actual ceramic coat layers?

[MineralGreyMetallic]

Originally Posted by fanofbmwe46

Ok here’s possibly a more objective question. Is post new car delivery paint correction needed before laying down PPF? Should I have my ceramic coating guy prep the car with the 1 step correction before other vendor PPFs then bring it back for the actual ceramic coat layers?

100% necessary.

After your car is painted it sits at a factory, port, boat, port, dealership where it's handled by various people. Of the many cars I've owned only one has been pre-owned. Every single new car I've purchased, the paint has been a complete mess upon pick up.

I'm not sure what you mean by "1 step" but paint correction needs to consist of at least clay bar and polish.

PPF manufacturers are starting to create film that is ceramic coated so you don't have to do that as an extra step. If you can't find that film, then yes,

- paint correction
- PPF
- ceramic coatin