Paint protection film

[fusion]

I recently painted my 280z and want to add paint protection film in key areas.  The car is lowered and has wider tires with flares.  What would be the key areas to cover?  I'm assuming behind the rear tires from the bottom of the quarter to about 8" up, the rocker panels, the area behind the front tires on the fender from the bottom up to the body line, and the front valance/air dam.  Does that sound right?  Any other areas? 

Thanks

 

 

[87mj]

If you have stripped the car to its shell and emptied the engine bay like I did, I was thinking about putting that stuff on the back of the left frame rail and along the firewall corner directly under the brake master.  I thought it might keep the brake fluid off my paint in case I spilled a little.

[grannyknot]

First 4" of the hood.

[Mark Maras]

 Fender well, below the battery.

[dutchzcarguy]

Years ago i had some brakefluid on my hood! As it was looked after and had a good layer of wax.. id didn't ruin it at all!!  So a good wax is enough?  It must have bin a few days on there. but it didn't ruin the paint!  (It was DOT4 brakefluid!)

Overhere we put a thin layer of stonechip, a sort of rubbery stuff under the colorpaint and clearlaquer.

AS i'm looking for a 370z.. i seen one which was changed in color by a wrap..  What is your opinion (everybody who reads this) about wrapping a car? Does it Chip?  I don't think so..  SO.. Maybe paint the whole car and wrap the front against stonechipping?  Good idea???

Edited September 6 by dutchzcarguy

[Jeff Berk]

I think that rubbery stuff was common on this side of the world maybe 20 or so years ago. My car was repainted in the early 1980's and that chip guard coating was used behind the rear wheels. 

My son and I have wrapped two cars. Wraps have a finite life of perhaps 3-5 years depending on the quality of the wrap and how much exposure to the sun it experiences. Wrap can chip get scratched, pealed, etc. Wrapping the headlight buckets is difficult to say the least.

Wrapping a portion of a car with clear is common and effective but It too degrades with age. My son's '05 Lotus had to have its clear protective coating pealed off in small pieces and it left marks behind. 

[dutchzcarguy]

I had my datsun sunny coupe in the early '80's resprayed in black metallic and my friend the painter then already used " anti steenslag" which is the dutch word for anti chipping, so it was already on the market then.. you put it under the main color paint. It loks like very corse sanding paper.

He did some on the lower edge of the car and behind the wheels.

[Jeff Berk]

My son's Lotus is starlight black which is also metallic like your coupe. There seems like an almost endless pallet of colors in matt to gloss, metallics, and color change in vinyl.  3M has the identical black metallic in vinyl: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CCFX5YNN/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1 I think the primary reasons for going with vinyl wrap is to try a new color, add an optical property not readily available in traditional paint, and to protect the underlying original paint. It also can be applied without a paint room You just need a relatively dust free setting and a few inexpensive tools. Lots of practice helps.

[dutchzcarguy]

19 hours ago, Jeff Berk said:

starlight black which is also metallic like your coupe

My Datsun was Datsun 1979 black metallic.. i know it had gold in it, you could i see when the car stood in the sun, very special color!  very fine, little gold spicles, millions in a square inch.