Anyone have experience with Xpel Stealth PPF? I'm about to the pull the trigger on an AMG C43 with Magno - is it worth it to do the full body coverage or just full front end? Car will be garaged and not a daily driver, but want the paint to be protected as long as possible without having to go through the painfully expensive path of having to repaint entire panels, etc. Thanks in advance!

 

Love the product. I have had it put on 4 cars now that have all been daily drivers.

For my C43, I have the hood, front bumper, front quarter panels, side skirts, roof just beyond the windshield, and rear bumper covered. It was just under half of what covering the entire car would have cost. I'm not saying don't cover the entire car as I am eyeing a new Corvette in the next couple of years and am leaning towards wrapping the entire car if that happens. Most of the high end cars I see in the shop go with a complete wrap.

Of that, I have had a quarter panel and the roof piece replaces under warranty. The roof piece for bubbling and the quarter panel for a rock or door gashing through the piece.

I probably won't own another car that I won't put XPel on with my obsessiveness with rock chips. This stuff is great!

 

Did you choose the Steatlh Xpel?

 

I have a Magno c43. I put stealth on my all the high impact areas (entire front end including lights, mirrors, door sills, and rear bumper). I have the roof wrapped black. I wish I'd just wrapped the entire car. Of course I somehow got a scratch on my passenger door (I suspect a parking lot) which goes unnoticed by others but bothers me everytime I look at it.

 

Do it asap or you will regret it like me. Probably going to get it done this summer even though i got a million chips :/

 

I think wrapping the front end of a car is an absolute must. Especially if you are putting down the money for a Benz. I'm not familiar with Stealth Xpel..and after looking at their prices I doubt i'll ever be. It honestly sounds very gimmicky, kind of like all of those extremely high priced detail wax sprays.

I think what I have on my car right now is 3M. It protects everything in the front, the lights, the star emblem, side panels, everything back to the doors. Everything except the black vinyl grill stuff. This is what i'd recommend. Another thing i'd recommend is that top piece of black glass right above the windshield. I wish I did that..it gets beat up and it's black so stuff shows easily. If you have the extra cash wrap the whole thing I guess. If I had a black car there's a good chance i'd do it. I'm just not sure i'd pay those kinds of prices for Stealth Xpel. I'm seeing it's like 5-6K here in CA...faak that.
You should be able to get your front end all the way to the doors wrapped for under 2K. In theory, the rest of your car should be cheaper because it is isn't as detailed as the front, I just don't think it's worth the money. I like to wax my car too.

Another recommendation: go to a shop that will do a custom wrap job. If they tell you they use pre cut tell them no. I didn't think about this when I bought my C43 and had the dealer contract the tint and bra out before I drove it off the lot. The company that did the bra used cut outs and it doesn't wrap around the panel and go inside. See the pic:


Notice the wrap doesn't wrap the entire panel and go on the inside. That is a cheaper way of doing it, costed me about $1K.

I was wondering why it was cheaper after the fact but that's why, they used pre cut pieces for the entire front end. Does it do the job? Yes and very well. Actually if you look around the car the parts where it isn't wrapped there are no dings or scratches. Am I happy with it? Mostly. No one is going to notice it unless they look really close. So I saved a little money there and got the protection I needed. However, if/when I have to replace this it's going to have to be cleaned and clay barred very well around the edges there before new wrap can go on.

Honestly this is the first "mod" you should get done to your car. Chipped up hoods and front ends look like crap. Bugs also come off the vinyl easier as well. It's been on my 2018 for a year now and it still looks brand new and better than some 2020's I've seen.

 

Stealth is necessary if the car has Magno paint in order to maintain the matte appearance

 

^^+1...Xpel Stealth is the same film as Xpel Ultimate, except it has a matte finish to preserve the matte appearance of the Magno paint. Xpel is a more expensive film than 3M. As opposed to 3M, it's a self-healing film, so minor scratches heal themselves simply by applying heat as in leaving the car parked in the sun. I had 3M on my previous car and it developed fine scratches in some areas just from hand washing it. I now have Xpel Ultimate on the full front, mirrors, door edges, door handle cups and rear bumper on my C63S and so far no scratches on the film after 12k miles. There's definitely a noticeable difference in the film quality between Xpel and 3M.

As for the original question, the consensus is pretty much that with Magno paint you want to wrap the whole car, because Magno paint can't be polished and is very difficult to match if you have paint damage. Essentially the entire car needs to be repainted or there will be a noticable difference between the original paint and any attempt to repaint just damaged areas or individual panels. Bird droppings and other contaminants can also easily damage the matte clear coat and the damage can be quite noticeable. I ended up deciding against Magno paint. If I really wanted the matte effect, I could just wrap the car with Xpel Stealth. It turns gloss finish into matte finish. I just found it difficult to justify the extra cost of the Magno paint and then spending $5k on wrapping the entire car on top of that. The Magno paints are the same paints as the corresponding gloss paint. They just have a different clear coat that gives it the matte appearance, so essentially what Xpel Stealth does as well. In my case it was also specifically because I did European Delivery and drove the car for 8 weeks and 6500 miles in Europe w/o any protection. I didn't wanna risk that with Magno paint.

 

I’ve had many cars with cut our films like yours and each time I told myself on hindsight not to bother unless you wrap the edges completely. After many years, you get chips at all the edges and when it comes time to pull the wrap, you end up having to repaint the entire panel anyway, so no savings at the end of the day. What I learnt the hard way is either wrap the the whole thing and conceal the edges or don’t even bother and paint panels when you need to.

 

As soon as it hits my dealer it goes to to Xpel!

 

The Stealth Xpel is specifically for matte/magno paint, so it is def more expensive. Has no gloss sheen, so it keeps your matte finish. Will neve have to wax it either, which is a huge plus. For shiny paint a cheaper version is great, but I do not want to add any sort of ppf that adds gloss.

 

As soon as it rolls off the truck it's going in for PPF!

 

Did not know that the Xpel was specifically for matte paint, makes sense. I would probably pay up if I had that type of paint job.

 

Thanks so much for the advice!

 

Agreed! Thanks!