Just a small PSA to the Model 3 community.
I had Suntek Ultra PPF installed on my Model 3 (24" hood, matching fenders, front bumper, lights, etc) and one of the things that they advertised was that the film has self healing characteristics so that small scratches or impact marks on the film will heal themselves.
I then did paint correction on the non PPF parts of the car (a timing issue prevented my doing the paint correction before PPF) and applied two coats of Kamikaze Miyami ceramic coating.
The car looks great and I don't regret doing ceramic, other than what I've since found out.
My car got hit by a small rock (very common on Colorado roads) when we took a trip to the mountains a few weeks ago. The impact actually cracked the ceramic coating and put a small hole in the film. It's not clear without removing the film if the paint was affected.
Self healing properties of film will not work if the car is ceramic coated. The ceramic is basically pottery glaze and if something hits it hard enough it will fracture and since it's pretty hard it will prevent the PPF from "healing" itself.
So now to get this fixed (will probably wait till the end of peak rock season) I am going to have to have the shop pull off the damaged PPF, buff out the ceramic boundary, and re-apply PPF, that's probably going to run at least $200. Then I'm going to have to get more Miyami coating and re-coat that panel (probably about $40-$50). Plus of course the time and labor involved.
If you are in a part of the country where you get a lot of rock strikes on the front of your car you just might want to skip the ceramic coating and use a traditional sealant instead.
I had Suntek Ultra PPF installed on my Model 3 (24" hood, matching fenders, front bumper, lights, etc) and one of the things that they advertised was that the film has self healing characteristics so that small scratches or impact marks on the film will heal themselves.
I then did paint correction on the non PPF parts of the car (a timing issue prevented my doing the paint correction before PPF) and applied two coats of Kamikaze Miyami ceramic coating.
The car looks great and I don't regret doing ceramic, other than what I've since found out.
My car got hit by a small rock (very common on Colorado roads) when we took a trip to the mountains a few weeks ago. The impact actually cracked the ceramic coating and put a small hole in the film. It's not clear without removing the film if the paint was affected.
Self healing properties of film will not work if the car is ceramic coated. The ceramic is basically pottery glaze and if something hits it hard enough it will fracture and since it's pretty hard it will prevent the PPF from "healing" itself.
So now to get this fixed (will probably wait till the end of peak rock season) I am going to have to have the shop pull off the damaged PPF, buff out the ceramic boundary, and re-apply PPF, that's probably going to run at least $200. Then I'm going to have to get more Miyami coating and re-coat that panel (probably about $40-$50). Plus of course the time and labor involved.
If you are in a part of the country where you get a lot of rock strikes on the front of your car you just might want to skip the ceramic coating and use a traditional sealant instead.