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F430 shall I use Paint Protection Film? - Opinions please.

Siy said:
another vote here for Ceramic coating and paint protection... About to get this done to my California.... hoping the ceramic coating is as good as they say!!! Anyone have views on doing this?
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I'll know more in 2 weeks as my wife's car is being ceramic coated on 12th January:thumbsup:, I'm using a local company Immaculate Detailing, they carried out a presentation at a recent FOC night, where they talked about a product called Fireball, www.fireballuk.net.

I believe that the normal charge is £750, but they had special offer, not sure if that's still current.

They machine polish the car before applying the ceramic and then the car is kept warm overnight in a heated environment to cure the coating, they need the car for 1 1/2 days.

They are keen to hold an open morning for some Ferrari's, so watch this space as I'm happy to organise something if we can gaurantee 10 people to attend, it would be on a weekend morning.
 
F355GTS said:
My experiences

I've used Paintshield I think 3 times (599, 355 and California), Ventureshield once (California), Topaz once (458) and Chipguard 3 times (599, M135i and FF).

Paintshield - 355 they said they'd fit it round the shields but took the shields off and left them off the car, California had to go back because they said at first they had a bad batch of film but when I arrived they then tried to blame me and/ or dealer for the fact the film was peeling off of about 6 of the edges, they did sort it but a) it required a long distance return trip and b) I don't like being blamed for something that was purely down to poor installation. I did try to use them for the 458 but although I'd confirmed the date when I checked shortly before going they'd booked somebody else instead!.

Topaz - did the 458 at short notice due to Paintshield letting me down which was great but a few areas where the film lifted, also they'd removed the pininfarina badges and forgotten to refit, fortunately the boss there spotted it before I drove away. I tried to use them for the 2nd 599 (for both paint and film) but despite chasing them they failed to even quote.

Venturshield - Definitely cheap and you get what you pay for, stretch marks aplenty and dog hairs under the film :shocked: but the film was thick and protected well

Chipguard - Both times the job was completed ahead of the planned time, the 599 was seen by somebody who has worked for/ with Topaz and Maranello and in his own words was the best film installation he'd ever seen. FF has a huge bonnet and requires a couple of short joins which you can barely see. Instant communication and as posted they're also significantly lower cost than the others

CG Performance - tried these for the 458 and 599 on the recommendation of another member here but unfortunately just couldn't get them to respond to mails/ phone calls to get a quote
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isn't ventureshield the product? i've got ventureshield on my M4,who did the fitting?

i had a bad pre-sales experience with paintshield, they publicly accused me of lying about the price i'd be quoted by a competitor (for ventureshield at the time) - the threads are still on PH. I went to a PH Sunday Service, there was an F12 with a full paintshield applied cover.. it wasn't great IMO which made the quote of also double what i payed even more unreasonable
 
Update

After a lot of research I have decided to go ahead with having the PPF installed.

I have just bought an F430 from Stratstone's in Wilmslow, so far so good, but it has not been delivered yet. As I live in Kent and they are 275 miles away. I was concerned that if there were any issues with the PPF installation then it was a long way to take it back. Which is why I asked if anyone knew of any quality installers closer to me, which lots of you did. I also emailed The Ferrari Centre in Maidstone and Simon Furlonger in Ashford asking them if you could recommend anyone. I received an immediate response from Roger Collingwood at TFC but nothing from Simon Furlonger.

Last Tuesday, a week ago, I sent emails to five PPF installers asking for prices, information etc.

Paintshield - No response
Race by design - No response
Paintguard - No response

It never ceases to amaze me why companies pay for advertising then can't take the time to respond to an enquiry from a customer who is trying to give them money. Either they have so much money that they don't need mine or their systems are so bad that they can't differentiate between a genuine enquiry and spam.

I also emailed Wombat wrapping and Mint condition, who answered all of my questions.

I asked Stratsone to tell me exactly who they use and they put me in touch with Steve Walsh at Invisifilm in Cheadle. I emailed Steve and got an almost immediate response detailing exactly what they do, even sending me a line drawing of the cut outs. He answered every question that I had and so I have asked Stratsone to book the car in to Invisifilm to have the work done there.

I will post updates, and pictures when the car is delivered.
 
As readers of this thread will be aware. After a two year search, way back in December 2016 I put down a deposit on a beautiful, low mileage F430 Spider in Rosso Scuderia from Stratstone's in Wilmslow.

Knowing that I wanted to keep the car as perfect as possible. The salesman, Adrian, mentioned PPF (Paint Protection Film). As I had never heard of this product before I asked the good folks of Club Scuderia for your input and opinions came in thick and fast.

Adrian suggested that I contact Steve Walsh at Invisifilm in Cheadle so I emailed my inquiry to Steve and he responded very quickly. He answered every question that I had and was extremely knowledgeable and helpful.

After much consideration I decided to have the PPF applied and chose Steve at Invisifilm of Cheadle to apply the film. The job that Steve and his guys did is fabulous and I say this as a totally obsessive perfectionist. (I am the guy who asked Adrian whether they had a template to fit the number plates to the car or whether they 'did it by eye?’ His response was "we do it by eye but our guy is very good". That prompted me to request that they either deliver the car without number plates at all or at least to fit them as lightly as possible so I could refit them myself. I have in the past, quite happily, spent 6 hours fitting a set of number plates with Vernier callipers so that they are absolutely straight!

Steve applied film to the whole front end including the front bumper & bumper inserts (using stealth PPF film in the inserts), front wings, bonnet and windscreen surround. Lower section of both doors, door sills and rear wing air scoops. The trailing edges of the front & rear wheel arches were double skinned (so that they can be re-filmed if necessary without removing the film from the whole bumper) the door mirrors and mirror stalks were also done. In fact all forward facing surfaces are protected. There are no joins anywhere on the entire installation. Even the front 'clam shell' which covers the two front wings and the thin panel above the bumper but below the bonnet was installed in one piece. Lots of installers do the front in two halves with a join below the Ferrari badge.

I am extremely pleased with the result. There are no stretch marks, no bubbles, no tears, no lumps, no bumps and no scratches. You have to be millimetres away from the car to tell that there has been anything applied. I have no connection with Steve or Invisifilm other than as a highly satisfied customer so I have no axe to grind nor a dollar to make. But I cannot recommend Steve and Invisifilm any more highly. If you are considering PPF call him he deserves your business.

The attached photographs were taken the day that the car was delivered and the PPF film has settled down so that it looks even better now.
 
PPF final decision / Invisifilm review

Sorry I clicked before attaching the photographs - Now attached.
 

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Nice write up Garry thanks for sharing.

Now that you have PPF on the car, are you having to do anything different in your usual washing routine? Do you still need to apply the same wax/sealants that one would on a normal paint finish?
 
Thank you. I am obviously very new to PPF so don't have any long term knowledge but the installers have told me that I can treat it as normal paint with a few exceptions.

I can wax and seal it as normal but I mustn't use tar or bug remover as they may 'yellow' the film. Steve at Invisifilm has coated the film with C2 Liquid Crystal from Gtechniq which can safely been used on both painted and filmed surfaces and even glass.

The C2 Liquid Crystal has been highly recommended by a few detailers to me, I have bought some but I haven't used it yet. I will let everyone know when I do.
 
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