Front bar and bonnet leading edge
The cheapest meaningful protection. Covers where ninety per cent of stone chips actually land.
Paint protection film · Marrickville
The stone chips never reach the paint.
Self-healing urethane film fitted over the panels that take the damage. Cut to your vehicle, wrapped into the edges, and effectively invisible once it is on. Fitted at the Marrickville workshop over paint we have prepared properly first.
What PPF actually is
A clear urethane film, roughly the thickness of a business card, laid over the factory paint. It absorbs stone chips, road rash, scratches and bug etching, and the better films close their own light scratches back up with heat.
It is not a coating and it is not a wax. It is a physical barrier, and it is the only thing that genuinely stops a highway stone from reaching your paint. On a car you intend to keep or resell, the front bar alone usually justifies it.
Coverage
How much of the car to cover
Most people start at the front and extend later. The film can be added to in stages.
Full front
Full bonnet, front guards, front bar and mirrors. No visible cut line across the bonnet, which is the detail people notice.
Full body
Every painted panel. For prestige, performance and low-kilometre cars where the paint is a large part of the value.
High-impact areas
Door edges, sills, door cups behind the handles, boot lip and the A-pillars. Cheap, and it stops the damage that annoys you daily.
Headlights
Film over the lens stops sandblasting and the yellowing that follows it.
Paint correction first
Film locks in whatever is underneath it, so paint is corrected and decontaminated before anything goes on.
Paint correctionPPF or ceramic?
Film and coating do different jobs
They are not alternatives so much as layers. Plenty of cars here get film on the front and a coating over everything.
| Paint protection film | Ceramic coating | |
|---|---|---|
| Stops stone chips | Yes, this is its whole purpose | No |
| Resists scratches | Yes, and light marks self-heal | Light marring only |
| Gloss and water beading | Some | Yes, this is its strength |
| Easier washing | Somewhat | Significantly |
| Typical lifespan | Several years | Shorter, and renewable |
| Cost | Higher | Lower |
How the film goes on
Fitting
Assess
We look at the paint under lights and agree the coverage. Existing chips and swirls are noted, because film will preserve them exactly as they are.
Prepare
Decontamination and paint correction where needed, then a full panel clean. Film over dirty or defective paint is a waste of money.
Fit
Film cut to the vehicle's pattern, laid, and wrapped into the panel edges wherever the panel allows so there is no visible line.
Cure
The film needs a short settling period before the car gets wet. We tell you exactly how long and what to avoid.
Good to know
Paint protection film questions
Not in normal use. Edges are wrapped around the panel where the shape allows, and where a cut line is unavoidable it is placed along a natural break in the body. On a clean fit, most people cannot find it without being shown.
Quality film on a car that is washed sensibly lasts several years. Sydney sun and highway use are the limiting factors. It can be removed and replaced without harming the paint underneath.
Not when it is removed properly. That is one of the reasons film is popular on leased and resale vehicles: the paint underneath comes out in the condition it went under.
Film if your concern is stone chips and physical damage. A coating if your concern is gloss, water beading and easier washing. Many cars get both: film on the front, coating everywhere.
It can, but it will hold them there permanently. If the paint is chipped or swirled we would correct or repair it first, otherwise you are preserving the damage.
Front-end coverage is usually a day or two. Full body is longer, and paint correction beforehand adds to it. You get a firm date with the quote.
Free, no-obligation quote
Protect it before the first chip.
Tell us the car and how you use it, and we will recommend coverage that makes sense rather than the biggest package on the list.