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Jaydee_S

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Hey All,

As some of you know, I apply paint protection film to cars by trade and i finally took delivery of my JL Rubicon nearly 2 weeks ago now. Many months ago i was talking about wrapping my car in one of the early threads to provide protection to all the painted surfaces (and lights) and a few of you were interested in that as well.. I'd thought i'd show off my new pride and joy and some of the photos of the process and final result.

I ended up wrapping every painted panel on my Rubicon (So everything excluding hard top) which also includes the all the hinges. This week im going to trial some special windscreen film as well to try and prevent some of those dreaded cracked windscreens we keep hearing about.

We use templates for most installs which means we print out a pattern and apply it to the car to minimise the use of knives of cars. On my car, we did the bonnet by hand to get the best finish and for the fact i wanted to preserve the factory rubicon decals on the hood so i hand cut around those and will be applying a satin paint protection film on that to keep them looking factory.

The film i used on my personal car was STEK dynoshield and some of the features of the film are:

  • Glossy Finish - adds awesome shine to the car
  • Hydrophobic (Advanced water repelling properties)
  • Anti-Contamination (Easy to remove contaminants)
  • Stain Resistant
  • Fast Recovery Self - Healing (by heat or hot water)

The self healing will remove most light scratches and and swirl marks with a bit of heat (Be it from the sun on a hot day, heat gun, hair drier or even some warm/hot water) Its actually that good.

Now i dont know if there are any lines im crossing in these forums by posting this, Im not trying to sell anything, just showing that it would probably be a good investment for anyone out there.

In addition, I applied Gyeon Matte ceramic coating to the black roof sections, Gloss ceramic coatings to all 5 wheels to make cleaning them MUCH EASIER and Gyeon trim to all the plastic sections to give all of that a bit of protection as well.

If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask me. =)


My car out in the sun. Honestly photos just dont do this colour justice.. it looks so good in person. (everything wrapped in this photo)
2019-10-03 16.08.22.jpg

We wrapped the front end of a Ferrari F40 last week, you can see how much more glossy it looks compared to the rest of the car. The owner is now asking us to wrap the rest of the car as he loved the finish that much and that F40 has a cool price tag of about 2.4 million... But lets be honest, that jeep steals the shot =)
2019-10-01 11.43.42.jpg


Examples of the templates we use to plot out film.
2019-09-26 14.36.09.jpg
2019-09-26 19.52.40.jpg


Drivers door half done
2019-09-27 12.39.57.jpg

Pre cut out door lock and door handles.
2019-09-27 12.34.09.jpg


Front template to cover everything you see here. all the green, all the silver/grey and the lights.
2019-09-27 15.18.04.jpg

Front fender starting to be wrapped.
2019-09-27 14.59.01.jpg

The film turns matte/satin colours gloss as you can see in the "C and O" in this picture. the "B and I" have already been hand cut out. This is something i wouldnt normally do for a customer car as there is a higher risk of cutting the paint (even though we are confident in doing this) Though we would normally wrap over the sticker/decals or remove them and replace. As the film is hydrophobic, if we were to remove and replace the decals, they simply wouldnt stick to the film well. Oh and in the letter B, thats not a scratch or cut mark.. just a bit of fluff that came off the towel after wiping it (didnt realise it was in the picture until i just posted this)
2019-09-27 14.39.20.jpg

All door sills are completely wrapped. We wrap from where it touches the black plastic molding all the way under the car where the pinch seem is (We removed the rock rails to get full coverage)
2019-09-26 23.23.17.jpg


Additionally, we are one of the few installers that wraps every edge possible. on the doors for example, we will wrap the front and back of the doors as well as the top and the bottom so that A) you cant see the edge of the film apart from on the corners and B) you get maximum protection and security against the film lifting on the edges.

I hope this gives a little bit of an insight into the world of paint protection film for anyone who doesnt know about it. While it isnt the cheapest to apply, I cannot stress enough that you get what you pay for.

Retail price to do a full car like the Rubicon would typically be anywhere from 4500 to 5500. but all shops will generally work with you into what exact coverage you are after be it just the front, just the sides, just lower doors, etc.. Some shops will also quote a lot cheaper, but please be careful if anyone takes that approach as you do get what you pay for.

Some of the cheaper shops dont use kits and hence will be hand cutting every edge on your car and potentially cutting the paint. Some shops wont supply as much coverage as others and some shops have quality control issues in keeping contamination down from being stuck under the film (such as dust, hair, etc). We pride ourselves on max coverage and quality of the install.

Some of our background to show that we hopefully know what we are talking about, is that we wrapped the very first Mclaren Senna in Australia start of year, will be wrapping another full Mclaren Senna next week, currently wrapping 2x Ferrari 488 Pista's, Just finished a Lamborghini Urus and and Ferrari 458 Challenge (race car) plus have done more Porsche GT2 RS and GT3 RS wraps than we can count on our own hands. These are some of the high end cars we have done, though we obviously wrap any car that may come our way. So if anyone needs advice on getting their car wrapped (even if its by another shop, I'd be more than happy to give you some pointers to ask them about)

Cheers,
Jaydee (MINTJL)
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devaka

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Hi Jaydees,
Few questions related to painting protection for Rubicon.

1. Are you planning to apply a ceramic coating over the film?
2. How do you plan to protect the dashboard?
3. What about Wheel edges?
4. Are you doing XPEL as well?
5. Is pin or bush stripes equal to a wire brush scratch or is it harder (just to get an idea about off-road protection). I know this is a relative question. :lipssealed:
 

Rubi D

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Hey Jaydee, Congratulations on finally getting your JL. It looks great. Love the colour. Thanks also for the overview on the paint protection film. Very informative and very appealing. I wanted to protect the front end from stone chips and maybe the guards from scratches but I can see it is hard not to keep going and cover the whole car. ;)
 
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Jaydee_S

Jaydee_S

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Hi Jaydees,
Few questions related to painting protection for Rubicon.

1. Are you planning to apply a ceramic coating over the film?
2. How do you plan to protect the dashboard?
3. What about Wheel edges?
4. Are you doing XPEL as well?
5. Is pin or bush stripes equal to a wire brush scratch or is it harder (just to get an idea about off-road protection). I know this is a relative question. :lipssealed:
Hey buddy, to answer your questions:

1) I am not applying a ceramic coating as Stek has this built into the film, you can try apply a coating on top, but there is no need / It most likely wont even stay on the film.
2) Are you talking about the dash that spans the width of the interior? In most jeeps, the red dash part that surrounds the screen and air con vents? If so, i'll probably look at making my own kit for this in the near future as i plan to make a kit that covers everything including the roll cage. The reason for this is in the future I may install satin/matte paint protection film and want to cover absolutely everything.
3) Im not sure i understand what you mean by wheel edges? The wheel faces i have completely ceramic coated, I didnt do inside the rim as the finish on that wasnt great and the wheel is black anyway. The fenders around the wheels dont have wheel edges due to the plastic molding.
4) We are actually wrapping the front and sides of a Rubicon tomorrow in Xpel and we are currently the most experience Xpel installers in NSW. Over the past 2 years we have contracted to all of the shops that offer Xpel in NSW and have done the majority of everyones work including work for the Xpel Distributor themselves.
5) I guess it all depends on how hard a bush scratches the side of the car, but rubbing up against bushes that normally leave some stripes shouldnt be a issue for the self healing, though once against, this is not something anyone would warrant. We have wrapped many 4wd's in the past which have been going strong, we even wrapped the ARB Black Hilux that is their current show off truck (in Xpel). The important thing to remember is that the film is designed to take the damage instead of the paint, it provides a bit of peace of mind.

Hey Jaydee, Congratulations on finally getting your JL. It looks great. Love the colour. Thanks also for the overview on the paint protection film. Very informative and very appealing. I wanted to protect the front end from stone chips and maybe the guards from scratches but I can see it is hard not to keep going and cover the whole car. ;)
Yeah, its easy to go "i'll just wrap the front" but, then fenders, then doors, then thats nearly the whole car haha.

The good thing is that there is no front and rear bars to wrap on the Wrangler, the bad thing especially with the Rubicon and Overland is that there is so many pieces on the front grille alone which takes more time to wrap.. But hey, its all fun and games =)
 

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Hi Jaydee, This is pretty awesome. I am also planning on wrapping my Rubicon, However I am also planning on getting a fair few coloured decals/vinyls on it. Most of the sides will have a design on it. In my situation, would a non Hydrophobic wrap work better so that I can add a second layer with the design on top? Or should any decals and designs be underneath? or cut around?

Thanks,
 

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Looking good! Paint Protection Film is a critical first mod before hitting the trails or even putting a lot of highway miles on them too.

If anyone needs help locating an XPEL Authorized Installer, check out our Installer Locator Here. XPEL Locator
 

DenaliDan

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Looking good! Paint Protection Film is a critical first mod before hitting the trails or even putting a lot of highway miles on them too.

If anyone needs help locating an XPEL Authorized Installer, check out our Installer Locator Here. XPEL Locator
Is XPEL the source of the templates? In other words, would all the XPEL installers use the pre-cut templates?
 

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Is XPEL the source of the templates? In other words, would all the XPEL installers use the pre-cut templates?
XPEL installers are not required to use kits. But the high majority of XPEL installers are subscribed to the XPEL Design Access Program (DAP) Pre-Cut library and so yes, most XPEL installers will use pre-cut kits from the DAP.
 
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Jaydee_S

Jaydee_S

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Hi Jaydee, This is pretty awesome. I am also planning on wrapping my Rubicon, However I am also planning on getting a fair few coloured decals/vinyls on it. Most of the sides will have a design on it. In my situation, would a non Hydrophobic wrap work better so that I can add a second layer with the design on top? Or should any decals and designs be underneath? or cut around?

Thanks,
Hey buddy,

In your case I would probably apply the decals on the car first then wrap over it. This will allow you to protect the decals/vinyl as well. The only thing you will get is a faint air line around the decals where the PPF bridges from the decal to the paint. The air line is generally pretty tiny though.

The other option is you can get your wrangler wrapped in say Xpel and apply decals on top then coat the entire film and decals in the xpel fusion plus ceramic coating (This is Xpels answer to providing a hydrophobic layer as well as adding extra protetion for the film)

Looking good! Paint Protection Film is a critical first mod before hitting the trails or even putting a lot of highway miles on them too.

If anyone needs help locating an XPEL Authorized Installer, check out our Installer Locator Here. XPEL Locator
Cheers guys, Say hi to Alex if he remembers me =)

Is XPEL the source of the templates? In other words, would all the XPEL installers use the pre-cut templates?
I didnt use Xpel film or templates on my personal car, but the Rubicon we are wrapping right this second we are doing in Xpel with mostly templates. We have some variances from the US market so some things have to be done custom (Bonnet is one of them and the fenders our rubicons have are the same as the Sarahas over there, though for some reason the xpel sahara fender kit didnt work to well we found on our models).

I am going to look at creating some custom patterns for the wrangler to improve on a couple of things and then hopefully can offer it to anyone who would like them =)
 

jeepingib

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What is your opinion on windshield films? I'm tired of replacing my windshield.
 

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Jaydee_S

Jaydee_S

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What is your opinion on windshield films? I'm tired of replacing my windshield.
Well they have a limited life span. I hear you should be replacing them every 12 months. When they take a hit from a stone, it is pretty ugly on the film, but at least its not the glass. Im going to try put some film on tomorrow and see how it goes.
 

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Well they have a limited life span. I hear you should be replacing them every 12 months. When they take a hit from a stone, it is pretty ugly on the film, but at least its not the glass. Im going to try put some film on tomorrow and see how it goes.
I'm 50/50 on the film. The ones that I've seen cost nearly as much as the windshield, but they last as long, or possibly longer than the glass does. I think I would consider them, but there are are not many people who have done it for a daily driver that will see dirt and trees. I'm concerned that they will scratch prematurely.
 

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@Jaydee_S ,
Thanks buddy. I sent my Rubi for the XPEL wrap and hope everything is going well. Looking forward to see the difference.
Let me know when you figure out the dash wrapping as it is becoming a concern for me.
 
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Jaydee_S

Jaydee_S

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I'm 50/50 on the film. The ones that I've seen cost nearly as much as the windshield, but they last as long, or possibly longer than the glass does. I think I would consider them, but there are are not many people who have done it for a daily driver that will see dirt and trees. I'm concerned that they will scratch prematurely.
Yeah its not cheap stuff, we are installing some Stek windshield protection on my car today. I know there are a few options out there and i'll do my best to try as many as i can, though I know Stek is coming out with a new product soon.. Apparently... but im keen to see how well it holds up in both clarity and scratch resistance from the wipers.

@Jaydee_S ,
Thanks buddy. I sent my Rubi for the XPEL wrap and hope everything is going well. Looking forward to see the difference.
Let me know when you figure out the dash wrapping as it is becoming a concern for me.
Yeah nice one. I have so much more peace of mind driving around knowing my car is wrapped even though no doubt i'll get a bit of trail damage over time.. Plus the gloss that films like xpel / stek add is just insane..

As for the dash, I will look at getting around to it at some point, but it may not be until end of november / december (But i will create a kit, as i will for inner doors, tailgate and roll cage as well).. Just a matter of time as we are flat out wrapping 2 Ferrari 488 Pista's, 1 Ferrari GTC4 Lusso, 1 Merc SLS and a Mclaren Senna (these are all in the shop right now) and may need to squeeze in a Ferrari F40 before we head to SEMA start of November as well =/
 
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Jaydee_S

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So I ended up installing the windscreen film yesterday on my car, here is some of the progress shots.


First film is cut roughly to size
2019-10-11 12.04.24.jpg


Film is trimmed to windscreen size and slip solution squeegeed out (looks hazy as there is a top layer protection film you pull off as a final step)
2019-10-11 12.29.06.jpg

Looking nice and clear
2019-10-11 12.31.04.jpg

Iooks super clear from inside as well (there is some small moisture under the film still, but just like window tint / car paint protection film, this all disappears after a few days)
2019-10-11 12.40.25.jpg


I drove around in heavy rain today and the film is also hydrophobic meaning water beads right off the window while driving and i found i didnt have to use my wipers no where near as much.

Im going to test this over a month or two and if it holds up, i'll create a perfect template of the windscreen and cut them out by computer. If it works out and people are interested, I'll work out some pricing for it.

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