strong recommendation for Xpel (plus OptiCoat Pro)
Hi,
I wound up:
1. Buying Tesla Paint Armor
2. Not liking its coverage. Also found bubbles, installation didn't look great.
3. Had Tesla Paint Armor peeled off.
4. Paint correction + Opticoat. Also Opticoat on the glass. On every surface of the vehicle.
5. Installed Xpel from the nosecone all the way back to the edges of the rear doors.
Made sure all door edges were wrapped, too.
Did NOT get Xpel on the rear body panels or roof. More on that later.
Details here:
Bought Tesla Paint Armor, but now want to apply Opti Coat
Opti Coat Installer in Boston area?
So what value Xpel? Well, most would point to the flying pebble / paint chip scenario. But I've also recently found that Xpel has bailed my ass out of a serious scrape situation. Over the winter, I nosed my car into a snowbank harder than I realized. I later discovered that there was a major scrape on my right front panel, plus a deep scratch on the nosecone. The nosecone scratch was too deep -- went through the Xpel covering the nosecone -- and I wound up replacing the nosecone ($450). But the scrape on the front panel, that originally looked horrendous, now looks like it will just peel off with the Xpel. I've had the local, authorized Tesla body shop as well as my local Xpel installers look it over, and everyone concurs that I'm going to get lucky. The last body work I did on my Tesla -- right rear, no Xpel, scraped against a post -- cost $1700 and four days. So I think I've just saved another (at least) $1700 and four days.
I'm going to get lucky yet again because a thin scratch on the right rear panel (not covered by Xpel yet) looks like it's going to *buff* out.
So despite originally only Xpel'ing the wind-facing elements of the car, plus the doors, now the car is going in later this week to (a) remove and replace the right front panel's Xpel and (b) finish coating the rear and roof of the car in Xpel. Xpel won't protect you from significant impacts but there sure are a lot of small ones that it could help you with.
So: keep in mind that body work on your new, wonderful, shiny *aluminum* Tesla is way, way expensive.
Good luck!
Alan
P.S. Alternately, just be a much better driver than I am.