Paint Protection Film Installation

First, the paint is wiped down with a mix of water and isopropyl alcohol to remove any wax and residue. The guys take multiple passes to make sure the surface is clean because once the product goes down it’s stuck.

Here’s what the paint protection film looks like after being cut from the plotter. When transporting the film from the plotter template to the vehicle liberal soapy water is sprayed on the product to keep it from sticking to itself.

The Phoenix freeways are brutal for slinging rocks and our G37 project has lived relatively blemish free with the factory templated paint protection film it had applied. This is the sort of protection offered at a dealership between $500-700 and covers the front ⅓ of the hood and fenders and the full bumper. Unfortunately though the factory template leaves the corners and edges exposed and the occasional nick and chip has surfaced on the un-covered edges. This time around we wanted something more comprehensive.

Protecting the Hood and Bumper

For the hood OzBraz like using bulk product meaning this piece isn’t cut from a template out of the plotter. It’s a raw piece of material custom cut for the specific application. On their website, Ozbraz says they can wrap aftermarket hoods with non-stock vents and louvers. For the hood and painted bumper areas that will take the most abuse we’re using a SunTek product called Ultra Defense that’s 11.5 mills thick.

We found a local Paint Protection Film installation company OzBraz who offer a wide range of protection films, window tinting, vinyl wrapping, powder coating and ceramic coating. The name ‘Braz’ is a humorous trip down memory lane when protection was leather ‘Bras’ in the ’80s-’90s. OzBraz have a great website as a strong initial impression with a lot of high end gallery cars but it also shows they aren’t afraid to handle custom installs.

Spraying the soapy lubricant to prevent scratching of the plastic film

We’re performing a full front protection installation which includes the full hood, front fenders and painted areas of the bumpers, mirrors and covers the headlights/fog lights. Further breaking down the products starts with a material called Ultra Defense from SunTek. We’re protecting the hood and bumper with this product for its added impact protection. This product is up to twice as thick (11.5 mills) as standard protection films. We’re protecting the area most likely to get hit by a rock; more expensive cars (at a higher rate of speed) will certainly benefit from a full wrap of Ultra Defense.

Talking to Andrew the owner, a lot of shops in this business set the protection film once and stretch it leaving a distortion line in the adhesive.

2 comments

Ross says:

April 1, 2021 at 11:55 am

Psshhh, a year of training. I did this with no training! Did I mention, after I finished, I peeled it off and paid someone to install it correctly? Love this product, but would never attempt it on something I wanted to look good myself.

1. Aaron LaBeau says:
  
  April 1, 2021 at 12:12 pm
  
  Completely understood. A buddy of mine tried it himself when he saw the price. Bought $500 worth of material to cover his entire Tacoma for a color change and protection against Arizona pin stripes. I think the comment was ‘haha, yeah…there was a lot of trial and error.’ It was a full day in their shop for this install just to do the front 1/3rd with mostly two guys and up to five that knew what they were doing.
  
  I tried tinting my garage windows once and out of eight windows I think 2 of them looked decent.

Paint Protection Film Installation – Project Tacoma Introduction