Brand new vehicle questions!

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pilotpip

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Hey geeks! Long time no see.

I'm picking up a brand new Lightning Blue F-150 this afternoon. At 37 years old I'm finally buying a brand new vehicle for the first time! The body shop has to fix a couple small scratches from shipping and sitting in the lot so I'm going to wait until that's done to do the exterior, but how long should I wait to do anything to the interior? I have some PBL leather and vinyl sealant that I've used with good results on my other fords, but I've heard it may be a good idea to let everything inside sit and gas off a bit to get rid of any nasty stuff from production. I don't know if that's a thing. What say you?

Additionally, what's everyone's opinion of clear bra products? Any specific brands you would go with? This is something I would pay for vs doing myself like the detail.

Thanks in advance.
 
First off congrats on the new truck! Now as a background I used to work for someone who did tinting and clear bra installations. Here’s my opinion on them.
Protection wise they’re are the best thing for your paint! The thickness of the clearbra offers superior protection against rock chips. Just like detailing you want a very reputable installer to do it. DONT GO THROUGH THE DEALER! They are 99% of the time outsourcing someone and all you’re doing is paying more money! Do your research and find the right guy for the job.
Being a detailer the one thing that always annoyed me about clear was edges. No matter what dirt will build up in the edges over time and it gets very annoying when your car is perfectly clean except for that thin dirt line running across your hood. Quality wise we used to use suntek and that film offered a 10 year warranty if I remember correctly . An easy way to save some money and get some experience in this is to order your door cups film online and do them your self! They are pretty easy and that’s where I started! If you need anymore help or advice feel free to pm me.


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Great news on the new F150 and loved that color. I agree with Breese147 on the PPF film suggestions. I have a 2018 F150 with the painted bumpers so that was my reason to do the PPF on the front end. Find a local dealer to do the PPF and I have used Suntek on my truck and same on other auto. Xpel is another product that has a good product and warranty. Visit the installer and see what steps they perform to install the PPF. They should do a clay on the surface prior to install. Even a new truck needs that service.

For the interior protection, start now. It will continue to release chemicals even treated. Read the many post here and you will do a great job protecting your investment.

Kirby
 
Breese147 said:
First off congrats on the new truck! Now as a background I used to work for someone who did tinting and clear bra installations. Here’s my opinion on them.
Protection wise they’re are the best thing for your paint! The thickness of the clearbra offers superior protection against rock chips. Just like detailing you want a very reputable installer to do it. DONT GO THROUGH THE DEALER! They are 99% of the time outsourcing someone and all you’re doing is paying more money! Do your research and find the right guy for the job.
Being a detailer the one thing that always annoyed me about clear was edges. No matter what dirt will build up in the edges over time and it gets very annoying when your car is perfectly clean except for that thin dirt line running across your hood. Quality wise we used to use suntek and that film offered a 10 year warranty if I remember correctly . An easy way to save some money and get some experience in this is to order your door cups film online and do them your self! They are pretty easy and that’s where I started! If you need anymore help or advice feel free to pm me.


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Click to expand...

If you do a full wrap on the hood, you wouldn't have any edges to collect dirt.
 
Thanks guys. I have every intent of giving it a thorough decontamination, correction and protection when the weather improves and they fix the lot rash. I don't know what was used on it, but it has some protection as there were a couple swirl marks on the trim and the water that was left on there was beading quite nicely. I do know there are some bulk brand products used by the dealerships. Aside from the couple scratches, the paint looks in good shape without a ton of swirls or orange peel.

There are several Xpel and 3M dealers in the area. I'll be researching their websites and looking into their quality. For now:
 
Congrats on the new truck. Love the color! In terms of clear bra, look into Premium Shield Elite too. 7 layer design with a lifetime warranty. I've used their products on many of my previous cars and loved it. Find a good installer who doesn't use templates too. Templates leave lines and edges and too much room for off-setting errors. Custom cuts and rolled edges to hide it perfectly is the way to go. Won't be cheap for sure but well worth it. Costs for the full hood may give you pause and may not be needed given the height of the truck and the shape too. Bikini cut say 18-24" up will work well and the line can be nearly invisible when cut correctly. I did a bikini on my S4 and it wasn't noticeable at all. Do the leading edge of the roof between the sunroof and windshield and of course the A pillars too. If your B Pillars are gloss, correct them then do those too as they scratch easier. Just my insight on them.
 
+1 on the templates we used a machine that cut out the template exactly to vehicle year,spec,and model and it’s good for amateurs but I knew someone who did his own cuts and his installs came out pretty nice they just took a lot longer. But also yes the prep work is important too. I hated how we never washed the vehicles prior to applying the ppf when we would do dealership vehicles. We also used baby shampoo with water as clay lube but hey it wasn’t my business so I never said anything. I remember the first time he had me prep a car for clear bra I started filling up wash buckets and he looked at me like I was crazy. Needless to say this guy did great tint jobs but the clear bra thing was kind of out of his league/ knowlede


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RE: PPF

•For best results (IMO):
-Get the XPel Ultimate Plus
-“Bikini Cuts” are not an option;
(opt for the Full Hood coverage only).


Bob
 
Congrats on the new truck! Neighbor has the twin to yours, that blue is incredible on that vehicle.

As for clear bras you've already got lots of good advice. I will add it's a must-do for any new vehicles I've purchased. The local shop here allowed me to do a quick wash of my vehicle before they started, they also allowed me to watch. He is an artist with clear bra work and it was a fantastic experience. As for brands, there's a lot of anecdotal evidence out there but I've yet to see a true controlled scientific experiment which shows conclusively A is better than B is better than C. That said, the shop here uses Xpel Ultimate Plus.
 
Thanks all. I found a local shop that has most of the brands mentioned here. I'll stop by there Monday to discuss my options and pricing.
 
Got the prices, a little more than I was expecting, but not out of line and less than dealing with a chipped up bumper later. I'll probably do 17" of the hood/quarter panels because this will take care of most of the frontal area of the truck.

Next question as the guy giving the quote didn't give much advice one way or the other (probably because they do coatings and he was trying to upsell me)

Paint has some orange peel and a few swirls. Since I'm starting fresh I think I may go the coating route, but I haven't decided that yet. Do I do the correction on the truck, get the whole truck looking good, then do the PPF? Get some sort of protection down, then take the truck for the PPF? This is a new world for me. It's "only" a daily driver truck. I can't even imagine obsessing over an exotic like some of the pros here regularly work on. Actually, if I had that kind of money one of you would be taking care of this! :buffing:
 
Do a light polish or leave alone. Make sure paint surface has no bonded (stuck on ) stuff on it prior to PPF. Do the PPF and later put the coating on the PPF. All vehicles have that orange peel, it is intentional to give depth.
Enjoy it and drive it.
 
Thomkirby said:
All vehicles have that orange peel, it is intentional to give depth.
Click to expand...

I’ve always thought that orange peel is caused by the position of the body panels when they’re being painted by the machine at the factory, which is why it’s more likely to occur on the vertical panels i.e. doors as opposed to the hood.

Orange peel is intentional and gives depth? I’ve never heard that before.
 
e5cf0a73512ede6cc20d4b054ab47d7f.jpg


From dr Beasley. First thing to pop up when googled


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Thomkirby said:
Do a light polish or leave alone. Make sure paint surface has no bonded (stuck on ) stuff on it prior to PPF. Do the PPF and later put the coating on the PPF. All vehicles have that orange peel, it is intentional to give depth.
Enjoy it and drive it.
Click to expand...

At least everyone is reading, love this group. Sadly most new cars exhibit the 'orange peel' at some point in their new fancy metallic paints. And everyone can agree that the clear coat that gives us that great shine also gives the illusion of depth. Like Coatingsarecrack found the link to what is Orange Peel effect, I have read that our modern factories are burden with keeping their workers safe and same for the air in those plants. New paints are low VOC and often applied at low pressure to minimize wasting product, it gets deeper the more I read about this. Back to creating depth, when we all know that it is an illusion of clear coat. Our eyes are fooled with the metallic filaments giving us the sparkle of many hues of our paint. Bounce that light back the clear coat and you have depth. Now allow that to happen in a very minor layer that is not perfectly flat and you add more light reflection.

I do not like the 'orange peel' effect as I think of it as not perfect but am learning quickly that wet sanding the clear coat to get that flat over an color coat with orange peel is still being not perfect. If they could get the cars painted by the robots and dry perfectly flat then we would be compounding to remove old age clear coat and polishing it back to original shine. For example, inspect some of the new cars like I do everyday in my office parking garage. Jeep Grand Cherokee has a ruby red metallic that looks to have twice the amount of clear coat as most other vehicles. Toyota on the basic silver looks shiny all the time but look closely and it does not look at thick as the Jeep.

Back to the original question was to applying PPF and need to remove paint imperfections such as orange peel. I say step back about 3-feet admire that beautiful Lightning Blue F150 and put down a PPF to protect it. Add your favorite wax, sealant, or a coating and just drive it.
 
Not all paints are metallic... Besides, don’t they sand and buff the base coat before spraying the clear? I could be wrong, but I believe they do.

Thomkirby said:
If they could get the cars painted by the robots and dry perfectly flat
Click to expand...

GM recently opened up their new billion dollar factory where they paint the new Corvettes 100% defect free no orange peel from the factory. I assume Cadillacs are painted there as well.
 
Eldorado2k said:
Besides, don’t they sand and buff the base coat
before spraying the clear?
Click to expand...
At the OEM assembly plants’ paint kitchens?
No.

Eldorado2k said:
GM recently opened up their new billion
dollar factory where they paint the new
Corvettes 100% defect free no orange
peel from the factory.
Click to expand...
It’s been greatly improved, but there is still some
orange peel in the new Corvettes’ paint finish.

Eldorado2k said:
I assume Cadillacs are painted there as well.
Click to expand...
IMO, that’d be a strange Business Model for GM
to paint Cadillacs’ body panels at Bowling Green...
and then ship them to their model-designated
assembly plants in Michigan; Kansas; Texas;
Tennessee; Canada; China; and Russia.


Bob
 
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