Quote:
pic911s said:
If this is going to be a chronic problem and I'm throwing this out as an inexperienced newbie so don't jump on me , Is it possible to Stone guard the lights. Do you think that there will be too much heat generated to make it work or perhaps distort the light beam of the xenon/halogens? Just a thought!
3M makes a clear plastic film called body armor that you can apply to your lights and any painted surface of the car. I swear by the stuff. On my Stradale I Have the nose, the bottom 1/3 of the sides, mirrors, behind each wheel and lights done... On my Porsche I have the nose and behind the wheels. The stuffs great. The most important thing about this film is to locate somone that has A LOT of experience doing it. It's kinda like tinting windows. There's some guys that are so good it looks factory and I've also seen some real butchered jobs. It clear and if I didn't tell you it was on the car you wouldn't notice it. The guy I use puts the car up on a lift and shines floresent bulbs directly onto the car and works his magic in what looks like an operating room. Here in NY it is not uncommon to get a small stone or pebble hitting your nose. It can leave chips or even small dents. This body armor prevents all but the largest stones from leaving a mark. It's great to have it installed directly behind the wheels because even if you doont live in a place where this happens everyday road dirt will mark up the paint. You may not even realize it but if you take a very close look it's probably there. To have it done right isn't cheap but it's an excellent investment to protect your ride. If possible get it done eary. When my Ferrari was delivered I didn't even bring it home. I drove the car from the dealership directly to the guy that does this work. He usually likes to take 2 full days, depending on how much of the car you want to cover. Regarding the headlights it doesn't dim them at all. And the best part besides being hard to detect, you can have it removed easily. It also doesn't yellow over time. I have a shot of the front of my Stradale in my gallery and you can't see it's on the car. It's the very best thing you can do to protect the paint.
To give you an idea of what it looks like. Porsche has it installed now factory on all 997's. It's the plastic film on the side behind the door and in front of the rear wheels. I don't know which brand they're using but it's the same type product. Because it's an open area you can dettect it there but when it's wrapped around the nose it gets tucked in between panals. On my Ferrari I have it installed on the bottom 1/3 of the hood. Next time I can on a sunny day I will get a better picture of it. I'm just not sure if you'll be able to see it from a pic.............. 75% of the Ferrari's that leave from my dealer have the film put on now at the dealer. When I went for a test drive of a GranSport 2 weeks ago that car had it all over including the leading edge of the door.
Anyone knowing how to do this service will help in prventing chips in your paint but somones that very experienced and has a lot of pride in their work will also make it almsot Dissapear! For anyone in NY Metro - Call Detailing Dynamics (Mineola). Ask for Matt or Eddie. Tell them "their most anal retentive customer sent you". If that doesn't work tell them- your most anal retentive Stradale customer sent you." They'll know. I'm very, very skeptical when it comes to things like this so after the Porsche was done (And I stood hovering over him for hours) I felt very confident about letting them do the work on the Ferrari instead of a dealer. I'm sure the dealers work is fine I just think using someone who specializes in this work would be better to go to....Just realized not eveyone will be able to find a shop that does this specifically so I would just make sure you can see some examples of their work ..If you already have a number of paint chips I wouldn't recommend doing it unless you would be willing to have the nose repainted first and then protected. The reason for this is the installed film doesn't look as good when it's laying on top of existing paint chips.....I saw a Stradale at a car show last year that covered the entire front(the entire hood) of his car including his windshield. Over the top if you ask me but it would definately help in preventing a chipped winshield.
btw: Kinda Interesting - This film was originanlly designed to protect the blades leading edge of Military helicopters. The amount of sand etc. can really do havoc on these expensive rotors I guess.
