For car owners
Car owner guides to PPF, tint and detailing
Twenty-four plain answers to the questions people actually ask before they book paint protection film, window tint, a wrap, a ceramic coating or a detail. Every price on these pages is a figure an installer or a film manufacturer published, with the page it came from and the date it was read. None of them is our number, because we do not do the work: Service VIN makes the software shops run on, which is exactly why we can print what the market charges without a quote at the end of it.
The short answer
What do these car owner guides cover?
Three things, in twenty-four pages: what paint protection film, window tint, wraps, coatings, detailing and paint correction cost at published installer prices; how to choose a shop and read a warranty before you book; and how to wash, cure and look after the work once it is on your car.
- Eight cost pages, each with a sourced range table rather than a single made-up number.
- Eight choosing pages: what to ask, what a warranty really covers, and when the answer is no.
- Eight care pages built from what the film and coating makers publish, not from habit.
What it costs
Eight pages, one job each. Every range is somebody else's published price with its source and date, and every page says what the range excludes.
What installers publish for a bumper, hood, fenders and mirrors package, and what changes it.
Published ranges by film type and vehicle, from dyed film up to ceramic.
Why two coating quotes on the same car can differ by a thousand dollars.
Published full wrap ranges by vehicle size, plus partial wraps and chrome delete.
What a wash, an interior detail and a full detail are published at, and what each includes.
One step, two step and multi stage correction, and why the stage sets the price.
What taking old film off costs, and the adhesive and paint risks that move the figure.
Per window and whole car removal prices, and why the rear defroster costs more.
How to choose
What to ask before you hand over the keys, what the two different warranties actually cover, and the honest case against each job as well as for it.
A printable list of what to ask, what to look at, and the answers that should worry you.
Eleven questions that separate a film brand from an installer who can fit it.
The film warranty and the installer warranty are two documents. Here is what each one covers.
The honest case for film and the honest case against it, with the published numbers behind both.
What a coating actually changes about owning the car, and what it does not.
What VLT means, what each shade looks like at night, and why the film matters more.
A finish you cannot undo without removing the film. Choose it with your eyes open.
ceramic coating vs wax vs sealant
Three products, three jobs, three very different lifespans.
How to care for it
The instructions the film and coating manufacturers publish, gathered in one place, including the two that most owners break in the first week.
The wash routine the film manufacturers publish, step by step.
can a PPF car go through a car wash
Brush tunnel, touchless and hand wash, judged against what the warranties exclude.
how long does tint take to cure
Haze, water pockets and tiny bubbles are the cure. Here is the timetable.
when can you roll windows down after tint
The one instruction most shops give and most owners forget by Tuesday.
how to maintain a ceramic coating
A coating is not a sealed car. What the makers ask you to do, and how often.
What causes it, which films are warranted against it, and how a claim works.
The five causes, which of them a warranty covers, and what to do this week.
Warranty years, real service life, and the signs it is time to replace the film.
Elsewhere on the site
Definitions of the words a shop will use on your quote live in the glossary, and the longer articles, most of them written for shop owners rather than for customers, are on the blog.