[Vid6639]

What you'll like:

• Offers the maximum protection vs any coating or traditional wax/sealant
• Self healing property means you don't have to worry about scratches when parked outside, or swirls due to incorrect washing
• Clarity of film is better than the regular 3M PPF
• The price of 3M self healing PPF is a little lesser than what other brands offer

What you won't:

• PPF is crazy expensive!!! 1.5 lakhs for a midsize car is 2x the cost of painting the car. Doesn't make sense for regular cars
• While it prevents scratches, a dent on the panel means you not only need to repaint, but also spend on the new PPF for that panel
• Method of application is manual cutting. High risk as sharp blade is very close to contact with OE paint. No advanced techniques such as the plotters used internationally
• The gloss / finish on a panel wrapped with premium self healing PPF is still not as good as a ceramic coated or waxed panel. PPF simply cannot match the mirror shine

In the last 5 years, PPF has really taken off in terms of popularity as well as technology. I had applied it on my EcoSport on certain panels such as the running board, door handles and door edges back in 2013 when it was just introduced.

After PPF, ceramic coatings began to come into the market and were the "IN" thing for detailers. While ceramic coatings are definitely better than the old wax/sealants at protection and provide the best gloss, they can never come close to a physical film over the body when it comes to protection of the paint.

Though PPF provided the protection, it had one big downside. The paint finish and gloss on a panel with film would look dull with uneven reflections of the film almost resembling a poorly painted panel with orange peel effect. Moreover, you couldn't use it on white cars as it would turn yellowish over the years. As a result, PPF's popularity was limited and ceramic coatings gained more as they provided exemplary gloss and mirror finish to the paint with better protection than traditional wax and sealants. However, Ceramic coatings, no matter what was advertised would barely survive a year in our harsh conditions. Plus, the cost of a good ceramic coat was 4-5x more than a regular detailing job with sealant. Spending upwards of 40-80K (depending on the car) for a protection that would barely survive 2 years and needs very careful maintenance was not something people wanted.

With better tech, the finish of PPF film improved and many other brands such as Expel, Llumar/Suntek, Stek, Hexis started launching PPF with self healing technology. The newer PPFs have multiple layers including a clear coat like the OE paint that helps maintain the gloss as well as prevent yellowing of the film. The film itself is a polyurethane film and each company has different ways of manufacturing.

Not wanting to be left out, 3M have launched 2 new Paint protection films in India, apart from the standard one they already had. The regular PPF is also improved and does not have as bad an orange peel as before. The next level of film is the new Venture Shield PPF with self healing, and above that is the Pro line which is a much thicker film that's close to indestructible.

While the regular film is priced at 595/sq ft, the self healing venture shield is priced @ Rs.910/sqft and the Pro Shield PPF is Rs.1,700 /sq ft. That means this venture shield film will cost an obscene Rs 1.4 lakhs for a Baleno, while a mass market sedan like the City will be 1.8 lakhs.

So, what does self-healing really mean?

The self healing films have additional layers and different compositions. When scratched with any object - be it a steel scrubber or a screwdriver - the film shape changes and is in a disturbed state. Exposing the film to mild heat causes the film to go back to its original shape and hence the scratch literally disappears. Exposing the film to direct sunlight will heat the body panel sufficiently to restore the film such that the scratches disappear. So basically, this means the film needs Zero maintenance after application as it doesn't show any scratches over time. Moreover there is an additional clear coat panel that doesn't reduce the shine once the film is applied.

Since I already had the original PPF on a few panels of my car, I tried out the new Venture shield PPF on 2 small panels. the ORVM's and the rear bumper corners. This came to around 7sqft of film and Rs.6,300:


Before applying the film, they showed me a demo of the film on a test panel with the film applied:


The panel was then scratched thoroughly using a steel wire brush:


As you can see, it now has plenty of scratches:


The panel was then heated using a heating element below the panel. In this video, the scratches started disappearing within a minute of the panel getting hot:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqlpsOQshzs

It was now time to try the film on a small rear quarter panel of my car. Below pic is before the film was applied. The panel needs to be cleaned and polished to ensure there are no scratches on the paint. Then it needs to be wiped with a degreaser to ensure the film sticks on properly:


Do observe this pic for the reflections before the film is applied:


A small piece of the film was then stuck onto the panel as can be seen:


The test film was then scratched with the same wire brush. You can see the scratches on the square piece below:


The same test piece after heating......no more scratches:


A pic from a different angle. The scratches disappear completely, not just partially:


Note this picture has the film on the left and no film on the right. Notice the reflections on either side. It's very difficult to make out, but there is very little orange peel / uneven reflections due to the film. The standard PPF won't look as good vs this self healing PPF:


After the test piece, they covered the entire bumper corner with the PPF:


The finish is almost like OE paint even with the film on it:


A look at the gloss of the PPF panel on the left and the fender which does not have any film:


Since this is the only self healing PPF I have tried for now, I can't really compare it with Expel (leader worldwide) or other other brands like Llumar, Stek, Hexis, Sensha. Will try to get a sample of Sensha, Hexis and Llumar to see what's different between them.

However I can say that the self healing really works, the film looks as good as new after a month of application with no swirls or any marks on it. Whether or not it's worth the money is a totally different story. For a sedan or SUV it can run up to 2 lakhs for wrapping the entire car. A sub 4m hatch will be Rs. 1.2-1.5L.

As a workaround you can mix and match the 2 different PPF types. The regular vs self healing. A colleague of mine got a new WR-V and decided to wrap the car. Rather than wrapping the whole car in self healing PPF, he got the bonnet and ORVM's with self healing and the doors, bumpers and quarter panels with the regular PPF. The boot lid, roof and pillars are left unprotected as they are not scratch prone. The total for bumpers, 4 doors, bonnet, ORVMs, front quarter panel and rear quarter panel came to 60K which was a mix of both PPFs. Below pics after the film was applied:





If you own a premium car, then the film is totally worth it as repainting costs of panels are prohibitive and nowhere as good as factory. Most supercar owners worldwide now get their cars wrapped in PPF as soon as they buy them. Example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncl2zqzpGbk

The film in India is still applied and then cut when installed on the car. This is the highest risk way of applying film as the pressure on the blade has to be perfect when cutting the edges. A little excess pressure and it scratches the paint. However abroad, the game has moved on and they use plotters that pre-cut the film and then apply it on the car.

For mainstream cars like Maruti, Hyundai, the regular PPF is a better option but the downside is the finish isn't as great. Moreover PPF goes to waste when you have a dent and not just a scratch. You will spend for repainting and then again PPF.

If you want to maintain the paint with minimal effort, PPF is by far the best choice. Just calculate the money spent on waxing, detailing your car over 5-7 years and it may end up close to the cost of PPF. For a person like me, the self healing PPF is a no brainer considering how often my cars are detailed and waxed.

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Accessories Section. Thanks for sharing!

Originally Posted by Vid6639

That means this venture shield film will cost an obscene Rs 1.4 lakhs for a Baleno, while a mass market sedan like the City will be 1.8 lakhs.

I could invest that money and get my car detailed twice a year, just from the interest + returns. I actually do that and all the things listed on this link (Simplified: The Idiot's Guide to keeping your car clean & shiny).

My cars look pretty good for their age, but maybe wouldn't please someone as particular as you. Newbie question = Should those owning 3 - 6 year old cars even consider PPF? Or is it best applied when the car is new?

Will PPF give a car the permanent "wet look"?

[Vid6639]

Originally Posted by GTO

[b]
I could invest that money and get my car detailed twice a year, just from the interest + returns. I actually do that and all the things listed on this link (Simplified: The Idiot's Guide to keeping your car clean & shiny).

My cars look pretty good for their age, but maybe wouldn't please someone as particular as you.

Well yes you could get it detailed and it will look good for a year but what about the deep scratches, stone chips and any other mark caused by keys, bikes, autos etc?

Also it depends a lot on the usage of the car. If it is a daily drive vs weekend / highway car. Ceramic is useless for a daily drive car as it will go away in no time. You also need to maintain it more vs PPF which is maintenance free pretty much.

Have a look at this post by V.Narayan who has both his Volvo and Lexus wrapped with the regular PPF. Such a big hit and no need to paint the panel at all.

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-...ml#post4434479

No paint job is as good as the factory paint and spending money to preserve that is worth it imo.

Newbie question = Should those owning 3 - 6 year old cars even consider PPF? Or is it best applied when the car is new?

If you have a 3+ year old car PPF makes less sense unless you maintained it in pristine condition and there are no scratches anywhere and no panel has been painted. If you have a repainted panel don't bother with PPF.

This is the reason my Corolla and Ford don't have full PPF only for trial on selected panels.

If Nikhil had PPf on his car then he wouldn't have even known his car was vandalised cause parked in sun the scratch would disappear:

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-...ml#post4362846

Will PPF give a car the permanent "wet look"?

it will keep the shine the longer but won't match the wet / mirror finish of ceramic or a good detailing. That's the compromise.

Also the price is exorbitant if you do the whole car but if you skip roof, boot, pillars, it's around 60-80K depending on the car. Basically the biggest scratch prone zone like doors, bumpers, hood, quarter panels.

[audioholic]

In my personal opinion, this is nothing but daylight robbery done using brandname and some fancy demos to impress customers in a neatly organized setup. This self healing mumbo jumbo was a property of most vinyls I have used including PPF. The material is softer which when heated melts and the minute scratches reform back to a glossy surface. Last year, I brought some 3M scotchcal PPF from a shop at 1/10th the price of this one, installed it on my ninja. While installing it, the squeeqe used was hard and it led to swirls and scratches. One run of the heatgun was enough to bring back a wet gloss and bring out a nice surface and shine. This was essential since the paint was black and any damage on the surface stands out like crazy.
I think people looking at PPF should scout in some vinyl shops and give it a try. It's far more cheaper even though you get the same 3M material if required.
Applying the film and cutting on the car? Sorry, there are more innovative solutions to this from 3M itself(not precut film) which avoids the use of knife on paint. Looks like they haven't researched their own product line properly

[Vid6639]

Originally Posted by audioholic

In my personal opinion, this is nothing but daylight robbery done using brandname and some fancy demos to impress customers in a neatly organized setup. This self healing mumbo jumbo was a property of most vinyls I have used including PPF. The material is softer which when heated melts and the minute scratches reform back to a glossy surface. Last year, I brought some 3M scotchcal PPF from a shop at 1/10th the price of this one, installed it on my ninja. While installing it, the squeeqe used was hard and it led to swirls and scratches. One run of the heatgun was enough to bring back a wet gloss and bring out a nice surface and shine. This was essential since the paint was black and any damage on the surface stands out like crazy.
I think people looking at PPF should scout in some vinyl shops and give it a try. It's far more cheaper even though you get the same 3M material if required.

I have the older PPf on my car and have seen it on other cars as well.

The venture shield is way better than the older regular PPF cause it has lesser orange feel and better clarity.

Secondly older cars with PPF already have swirls and scratches which don't go away. I've seen them. This being softer has the additional healing property.

You get many cheap ones as well like you mentioned but just like sunfilm, the cheap ones are a royal pain to peel off and incase of PPF I am not confident what they do to paint when removing.

However the 3M stuff comes out like a breeze. It was the same with their sun films. 3M film comes out leaving 0 residue.

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

You get many cheap ones as well like you mentioned but just like sunfilm, the cheap ones are a royal pain to peel off and incase of PPF I am not confident what they do to paint when removing.

However the 3M stuff comes out like a breeze. It was the same with their sun films. 3M film comes out leaving 0 residue.

The matter of glue residue is very valid for sun films due to the nature of the glue and the way it interacts with glass. The glue used with sun films is far stronger and is made for one time application only. But with any vinyl, it is meant to be removed and reapplied during installation and hence the characteristics of the gum is different. While the gum is thin and strong in a sun film, it is thick and relatively weaker in vinyl. The reason it is so is because a thicker gum layer will affect visibility and this is the same reason you can't apply PPF where visibility is a need.
Have you come across any cheap PPF which made a mess while removing? If so then please share the brand. I will avoid using the same. Until now, I have used 3M, Avery, some Chinese brand called Hi-cal, LG and none of them have shown issues, after around two years of use when they had to be renewed due to various reasons. And they didn't turn yellow either, like a few iterations of 3M did.

[ike]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

it will keep the shine the longer but won't match the wet / mirror finish of ceramic or a good detailing. That's the compromise.

But you could get a ceramic coat done on top of the PPF if you're hell bent on the wet/mirror finish? Of course it is a very expensive proposition but can be brought down by having the regular (non self healing) PPF and going for a ceramic coat on top of it.

[devilwearsprada]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

While the regular film is priced at 595/sq ft, the self healing venture shield is priced @ Rs.910/sqft and the Pro Shield PPF is Rs.1,700 /sq ft. That means this venture shield film will cost an obscene Rs 1.4 lakhs for a Baleno, while a mass market sedan like the City will be 1.8 lakhs.

That's more expensive than xPel PPF, which is one of the world's best PPF's.

Even the satin is 690/sqft for Xpel. We got the VRS done in under 2L including ceramic coat under and on top of the PPF.

3M is looting people.

[srimedico]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

What you'll like:

If you want to maintain the paint with minimal effort, PPF is by far the best choice. Just calculate the money spent on waxing, detailing your car over 5-7 years and it may end up close to the cost of PPF. For a person like me, the self healing PPF is a no brainer considering how often my cars are detailed and waxed.

+1 to this post. This post was one of my decision influencers. And I opted for whole body ppf pro series (excepting roof).

I am assuming it is safe to use Waterless car wash like proklear (with Wax) , meguiars etc., over PPF. Can someone please confirm or defer and shed some light on dont's for ppf maintenance

Thanks!

[srimedico]

Originally Posted by srimedico

+1 to this post. This post was one of my decision influencers. And I opted for whole body ppf pro series (excepting roof).


Thanks!

https://goo.gl/maps/xA46QicZhfajGZBN7 Google Maps Review Link


Update Feb 2021 : Turns out, the whopping 2 Lakh Priced PPF pro, doesn't live up to the promises made by 3M, nor live up to the cost. I am not sure if this is 3M's fraud or a failure of quality check .

Ppf pro is marketed by 3M as Scratch Protective and Self healing along with other line up of feature list. This is sold to me saying that and demonstrating that , ppf pro is far better than venture shield. Which is the reason why I went for it, despite being costly by ~ 1 Lakh rupee as compared to venture shield. I was very happy and excited that our car would be protected and looks good.

But all the excitement vanished , when I noticed swirls with in ~ 6 months. I use Jopasu car duster., 3M microfiber cloth, and periodic 3M car wash. Still,

Swirls appeared all over, predominant on bonnet, front bumper - which aren't self healed by sun heat

Micro scratches on the tail gate (because of small tree leaves) - which aren't self healed by sun heat

So took the car to 3M car care at Vijayawada, in October 2020., they tried with some heat blower to activate self healing , but of no use.

In Short, the purpose for which I have installed this ppf is lost completely
- in maintaining good looks of the car, - in protecting from swirls, etc - in self healing.


Then I contacted Mr Pradeep in November 2020, saying that you have given 3 years warranty. But this is the situation with in 6 months, I asked to refund my money against this kind of product. Seems he left 3M and suggested to email the issue.

Then I emailed to their official ID . I got automated reply of acknowledgement and that I will be contacted soon 48 hours. To my shock, no one even cared to reply. Its been nearly 3 months since I mailed them.

This is the update so far. I will share soon with further details

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by srimedico

This is the update so far. I will share soon with further details

Sorry to hear this. However, there is something I would like to share with you guys based on my research so far when I got PPF for my Innova imported and done by myself which was provided by a factory from China. The factory had shared with me various specs of the different films they manufacture. For every film they had a specification for 'Self healing capacity'. That is a percentage of the damage that the film can heal. For the cheapest films this was 90% and the best they had was 99%. I went with a variant which had 95%. They were frank enough to mention these specs including the time that the film takes to heal wrt temperature. It was really informative and they didn't hide the facts.

Now coming to this self healing property, it is never 100% and this number drops over time as the film gets exposed to sunlight and the urethane starts hardening. At least that's what I knew when I went in for the film which costed a fraction of what 3M charged. Hence I was ok with this property since for the money I saved, I could have redone PPF three times over. But looks like 3M forgot to put a * when they marketed this film aggressively by holding the heatgun against a scratched piece of PPF. This magic degrades over time and slowly the film does accumulate scratches. It is just not as obvious as a badly washed car would get and even if we have a material that gives you 99.9% self healing, that still means you will be accumulating that 0.1% over time.

Similarly my Innova has faint swirls, very faint after six months of application and careful washing. But this was expected by me. Hence, for those who opt for self healing films, do note that it's not always 100% no matter which brand you go with. Urethane is urethane and the only thing that varies is the adhesive, UV coating and the thickness of the material itself. So over time, the film will get some amount of wear which of course is a fraction of what a regular surface would get.

[srimedico]

Originally Posted by audioholic

Sorry to hear this. However, there is something I would like to share with you guys based on my research so far .

Thanks for these pointers

But 3M claims 10 years warranty

3M HSR Layout claimed 3 years warranty

For the money spent on this ppf pro, swirls all over bonnet and other portions , that too with in 6 months is outrageous . Isn't it?

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by srimedico

Thanks for these pointers

But 3M claims 10 years warranty

3M HSR Layout claimed 3 years warranty

I am not sure about the warranty duration. But the warranty is mainly for adhesive, fading or cracking I believe. They would not have mentioned anything about swirl marks which can be indirectly related to damage. But I can understand the frustration especially after looking at how much you have paid. Unfortunately I am not sure if you will get a satisfactory solution. And by the way, dont let those guys use excessive heat gun trying to make it better looking. It will just force the film to heat excessively and make it age faster. Also you can try using a wax with filler if those swirls are very annoying to you.

[srimedico]

Originally Posted by audioholic

And by the way, dont let those guys use excessive heat gun trying to make it better looking. It will just force the film to heat excessively and make it age faster. Also you can try using a wax with filler if those swirls are very annoying to you.

Noted. Thank You.


Also, I almost forgot that, adhesion is also not proper., peeling also started at about same time frame ( 6 months after ppf application)

[Kosfactor]

A small piece of PPF was applied to my vehicle's tail lamp as it had a small crack. It was one of those detailing shop, the guy said it would cost 1L+ for a few rolls of that product.

Anyhow after a few months it has become yellow and peels off, the cellophane tape I used to use earlier for the same purpose does not last thing long but much more convenient and cheap to replace.