Help With PPF & Ceramic Coating

I really need some help and advice from the people here who have “been there, done that.” I have a new 2025 4R Trailhunter, color underground, bronze wheels.

I have been reading info for days trying to find the best products as well as the most cost effective approach. The approach, decisions, opinions, and recommendations are limitless: brand of PPF, how many mm’s thick, which ceramic coating? In the attached video this shop in TX provides a 7 yr warranty (I don’t live in TX), but I have been reading a ceramic coat only lasts a couple years. Confusing to say the least.

Due to the cost I’m thinking I should limit the PPF to the front of the vehicle, then a ceramic coat over the entire car. I am uncertain about applying a ceramic coat over the PPF. I’m also unsure what I should do with the bronze wheels. I’m picturing the bronze looking like a piece of cheap gold plated jewelry that has silver showing on the edges after a few years - very noticeable and ugly. I don’t know. I can’t find good info on the bronze.

What has been your experience? Thanks for your help, opinions and advice in advance.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rosxPgctWEg

 

MY daughter's 2021 4R came with PPF, she bought it used in 2023 and this was a dealer installed option. She's in Utah and is off the grid at least twice a month and has appreciated the PPF. It covers only the front end and the hood. So far so good she says. Conversely I went with "Chemical Guys" ceramic coating and did that myself (last year) and I echo her thoughts in "so far so good." Time will tell (for both of us) but which is better? I don't know in the long run...
As for your wheels, I'm no expert there and I'm sure someone knowledgable will chime in with good advise...Good luck and ENJOY your 4R!

 

Thank you! I appreciate the information.

 

PPF is my take.

 

At 35 miles I took mine in for Xpel plus PPF on the front clip and entire roof, due to carrying surfboards and snowboards. Then the entire vehicle ceramic coated, again, with Xpel, over PPF too, 10 yr warranty. I do go over the entire vehicle with Reload 2.0, which has both ceramic and silica for its hydrophobic properties, every 3-4 car washes. The Reload 2.0 gives the paint that “wet look”. Finally, I had all the windows, including the sunroof and windshield tinted with Xpel, one step above limo tint. I did all this out of the gate to protect a vehicle I plan on keeping for a very long time and in light of the 4Runner being the most expensive vehicle I have ever owned.

 

I had Xpel done at a professional installer here in NC. I opted for the full-front coverage, and also had them do the full roof since I was going to be installing a roof rack. I had them ceramic coat over the entire vehicle on top of the PPF too. It wasn't cheap, but looks very good and the PPF has saved me from a few rock chips. Theres a spot on my front bumper that a rock tore through. Luckily the PPF did it's job and the paint underneath is good, but I'll have to see if they can fix the gash in the PPF.

Also, the shop ceramic coated my wheels too; they did it without extra charge since I already spent so much on all the above. I don't know if ceramic really does much on the wheels. From what I know, Ceramic is good for protection from sun, dirt/dust, bird feces etc. However it does nothing to protect against impact from rock chips, branches rubbing the side of your car, etc.

Basically PPF and Ceramic are two different forms of protection from different things.

 

This is only my personal opinion, not expert advice to others.

• In my experience the dealer installed PPF started becoming very light yellowish after 5 years on my white Venza. Also the borders/edges had a darker border with dirt accumulating. So I do not wish to have PPF for my other vehicles.

• The GMC Yukon that was given to me to use when we came to this country, no car; had door edge guards installed by dealer. With age those have become baked in, the door edges looked bad. So I will not have door edge guards in my vehicles. Now if I get a small damage I use Toyota touch up paint pen.Even though it doesn't match 100% with factory paint I feel safe than gluing a door edge guard.

 

Xpel is some of the best PPF on the market! The company is selective when it comes to authorized installers because they want their product installed correctly.

I did the exact same thing you with the full front and side fenders including my A pillars.

You are exactly right that PPF and ceramic are two different things. If people want it the right way they will get it paint corrected first and then PPF followed up by ceramic coating.

PPF - protects from physical damage
Ceramic coating - protects against UV rays

 

In the video I posted the prep work before applying PPF (I don’t know how thick the PPF was) and the ceramic coat appeared to be more complex and time consuming than the actual product application. I realize this video is specific to “Ceramic Pro” products and to boost his sales so it’s “buyer beware”. Most shops (located throughout the US) want to give an estimate online for the FULL ARMOR PACKAGE, but I found a couple who posted $3,999 as a price. The warranty for the package ranged from 1yr to a lifetime. That seems like a buyer beware.

Naturally the car was washed first, followed by a product designed to remove iron particles and chemicals from the paint. A clay bar was then used to remove any residual chemicals left behind and smooth the paint. The final step was a soft brush to clean the crevices.

The PPF was precisely cut with CAD software and a laser. He carefully tucked the edges of the PPF under the hood and/or crevices so the PPF wouldn’t peel over time. I don’t know if this process is typical. I do know if I don’t prep a surface very well before painting the paint job looks awful.

He applied the products to a new, white Lexus. As an artist I know any imperfections on the surface of dark colors stand out much more. Dark colors tend to be unforgiving. Finding an experienced shop that uses good materials isn’t easy if I don’t know what materials I should use or what kind of prep I should be looking for. I certainly don’t want to get overcharged, or waste a lot of money on an inferior product and application.

How did you folks decide on the shop you used?I don’t know anyone who has spent a lot of money protecting a perfectly nice paint job on a new car. I wish I knew a local that has the experience you folks do, but I don’t.

 

I am going to look for a shop using Xpel as the ceramic coat. For the PPF, I’m not sure if I should look for a brand, or thickness??

 

Sorry I didn’t respond to everyone. Thanks so much for everyone’s input. I’ve been juggling a few balls today. I did receive one estimate/bid from a shop listed on the Xpel website. Please tell me what you’re thinking when you read it. Thanks again!

 

I've had PPF and/ or ceramic coatings on 3 of our vehicles. The one that seemed to stay cleaner (and looked better after washing) was the one with the PPF and ceramic coating (they coat on top of the PPF where it was applied).

Each vehicle had the "full front". So this is bumper, hood, fenders, mirrors and door handle cups.

My 4Runner has only PPF (full front). If I had the money, I'd do the whole thing. Would save the paint from pin striping while on the trail. I have couple rock chips on the roof (yup) that makes me regret not doing the roof.

That being said.... My wife's Crosstrek and my 4Runner both have chips in the PPF from rocks. On the positive side, it saved the paint (probably... I didn't peel the PPF back to check). On they negative side, the dirt collects in those tears. Not a huge issue, but you can't repair those as far as I know. With a chip in paint, you could touch it up.

Also, with ceramic coating, it's said that it needs to be "rejuvenated" once a year or so. To me, that means your "5 year" ceramic coating is not a 5 year ceramic coating. I've heard the term "clogged" as the reason it's necessary to need to treat it yearly. Not sure it's that or the coating is wearing off. A local detailer/ ceramic coating guy I've spoken with says that's why he doesn't recommend the longer coverage options. He says get the cheaper 3 year since they all need to be treated anyway.

No matter your ceramic choice, be sure they do at least a Stage 1 polish/ correction.

Lastly, it's expensive. We used one shop that printed custom shaped pieces (you can see where it lines up against the edges). And another that wrapped everything around the edges and it looks much better. Both places were around $2500 for the PPF. The additional ceramic coating was about $1000 (it was a while ago so I may not have that quite right).

Lastly (2)- if I run across a briefcase of money, I'll ceramic coat the 4Runner (and more PPF depending on how large the briefcase is).

 

I have had a dozen vehicles done or so, very good friends with the shop owner who does high end paint correction and ceramic coating as well as another shop owner who does PPF.

Ceramic coating "was" the best thing for a long time, now the PPF (clear film) is about the best thing if you understand its limits and drawbacks.

Ceramic coating is a hard layer applied over the clear coat, almost like a turtle shell it coats the paint/clear and creates a hard barrier that helps keep swirls away and helps dirt and water roll off easier, plus it protects the clear from acid etching from water spots. With any good ceramic coating the applicator is going to want to do a heavy paint correction, wet sanding, buffing, getting swirls and scratches out. After the clear is smooth, they coat it with the ceramic coating that hardens and protects the paint / clear. This coating helps protect from swirls and can keep your clear shiny like new for a very long time depending on how abusive you are to it. Lots of gravel roads, road grime covered vehicle, and drive thru car washes will eventually result in swirls in a year or two.
One thing i do, is wash the car, before i wash the car. This has led the wife to also do the same. We live on a gravel road, understand that road grime has sandy debris in it and if you go ham on a car with a mitt or drive thru bubble brush wash covered in road grime you are swirling tiny sand and grime all over the paint. We pressure wash the vehicle top to bottom at a car wash, or at home BEFORE actually washing the vehicle. The idea is to start from top and work your way down and get all the road grime off the vehicle. Then we run it thru the drive thru car wash directly after IF the weather is warm and we are not into hand washing. If the weather is nice we pressure wash top to bottom, and then double team and hand wash and clean everything. Doing this method will net you about 2 years before you start to see the first sign of swirl marks. There are products you can use afterwards that help "boost" the water repelling and coating of the ceramic coat but we have not really seen the best results with them, some of them are truly snake oil. We really like one or two but the amount of time and prep and polishing it takes is tough.

PPF (Paint Protection Film)
As it was said above the OEM Toyota film is thin and cheap and darkens around the edges in about two years and starts to yellow in about the third year. One of the smartest things you can do is get rid of the OEM film and replace it with a thicker higher grade stuff before it yellows and gets rock chips in it.
The good thing about the aftermarket paint protection film is that it too will protect the paint from swirls, BUT there are some things to understand. If you have had a vehicle ceramic coated, most of the PPF wont stick to it well if at all. They would have to strip the ceramic coating before putting the PPF on. Also if you get a rock chip (you will) and that rock chip makes a hole in the film (it can) you will end up with a tiny little hole that collects rain water and road grime. That tiny chip hole will grow as road grime seemingly pressure washes itself into that tiny hole, and eventually that hole will grow larger and larger as the road grime and water seemingly lift the film as they get thru that tiny spec. Also, cheaper PPF jobs are done with installers using a plotter to cut the film into pieces that fit on your panels but do not wrap around the edges, the higher priced PPF jobs are normally done by hand and the installers wrap the film around corners and into creases. The cut film jobs leave a seam right at the edge of the panels and leave a tiny fraction of the edge of each panel unprotected, but this is honestly the better way to go. Wrapping the film around edges, over corners of hood and bumpers, and around the edges of doors increase the likelihood that the film will lift and get road grime under it. You would be surprised at how quickly it can do it too, corners around window edges, door handles, any place that the film CAN lift, it will lift. The tighter the radius, the harder the bend, the more likely that the film can lift and when it does, road grime/water always finds a way to get in there and as the water and road grime find their way in, the film releases more and more and lets more road grime and water in. This eventually becomes unsightly and likely hurting the paint as the road grime between the film and paint is no doubt getting "buffeted" as the air moves over the film likely causing rubbing of the road grime against the clear coat.

With that being said, we always get our vehicles ceramic coated as soon as we get them. I normally do a once yearly paint correction on them with touch up, wet sanding, and clear to fix rock chips on the vehicles we really care about. I have my wifes daily ceramic coated and have PPF on the nose of the hood rear fender flare, and bottom of the doors because the nose of the hood, and middle of the front two doors gets rock chips the worst. My daily driver is just ceramic coated. My "other" daily driver is just ceramic coated. My wifes past 5 vehicles have been ceramic coated back to 2012 when my friend first started doing it. The BEST job we have ever had was when he did 2 coats about two weeks apart. That vehicle was the BOMB for 3 years before we got rid of it. Traded it in with no swirls, not a single swirl on the whole vehicle in 2+ years of car washes and daily life (wrecked, deer ran out in the road and body shop did a shoddy job so the wife traded it the same day she got it back).

The PPF on her new 4R is Xpel, its not terribly old but we got it knowing we were likely going to rip it off in 2 years and re-do it. The front of the hood, front of the rear flare, and bottom of both doors was cheap and worthwhile to hopefully prevent rock chips in those high traffic areas.

 

Thank you so much for the very good information. I’m sorry I didn’t reply sooner but I was briefly out of state.

Because the cost of PPF and Ceramic Coat is considerable I wondered how much a new paint job would cost. Surprisingly it is probably a little less. AAA: “Mid-grade paint jobs: Averaging $1,000 to $4,500, this option offers better prep work, higher-quality paint, and multiple coats.”

it would seem just painting the car may be better than trying to protect it. I don’t know.

 

As in repaint it in a few years to repair damage or repaint it right now?

Id be very very hesitant about having my 4Runner repainted for only $4500. Not that I want to spend more money, but I can’t imagine the quality would be that good. I’ve had a couple older cars that were repainted, and their paint started peeling off pretty bad. Granted I bought them used and I don’t know what kind of paint job they got, but seeing the peeling opened my eyes to how bad poorly done paint jobs can get.

Im definitely out of my lane here, and someone more knowledgeable can correct me. But I’d be very weary of a place that said they could repaint my whole 4Runner for $4500.

Edit to add: with PPF/ceramic if the prep work is shitty, you have to deal with the pain of having it redone. But the paint underneath is still there. With a shitty paint job, getting it fixed is much more invasive.

 

You cant get the hood sanded, blocked, prepped, and painted by itself for $1000
If you are trying to cover up rock chips down the road, the easiest way is get a GOOD matching paint and touch up, and wet sand, and buff with good stuff. This isnt expensive, its cheap actually, but it takes time to do it and make it look good.
If you are trying to cover up swirls, just have a good shop buff it every year or two, a good polish like Wizards shine master with a white pad and medium speed does an absolute wonder at polishing paint and getting rid of swirls.
If you are trying to prevent rock chips, PPF is the smarter solution
If you are trying to prevent swirls, ceramic coat seems to be the best solution
If you are trying to prevent rock chips AND swirls, just get PPF.

We did the bottom of the door below the roll in the bottom of the door and you cant really see or tell its done unless you look for it.
We did the nose of the hood, and from a distance you cant see it. Up close from certain angles, and in certain light, you cant see it. Sure it will likley have to be redone after rock chips put knicks in it but just doing the nose of the hood is no real big deal and cheap enough you can rip it off every 2 years.
We did the front of the rear fender flare because the flares get quite a few knicks in them, again its small enough that we can rip it off every 2 years and have it redone.
The Xpel PPF done on the hood, bottom of doors, and fender flare at a professional shop with warranty card good at any Xpel dealer for 10 years was $330. The last time i did a full body paint correction on her 4R wet sanding, touch up, wet sanding, touch up, wet sanding, clear, wet sanding, clear, wet sanding, polish, took about 14 days. It took about 45 mins to touch up all the spots, let sit for 24 hours and about 2-3 hours to wet sand all of them, let dry 24 hours and reapply touch up. I think its 3 coats of touch up to get the rock chips perfectly level and then a thin coat of clear, wet sand/block and let sit 24 hours and reapply clear, let sit 24 hours and then wet sand/block again ect. This process took a long time, hours and hours across two weeks. The vehicle sat in the shop not moving just getting corrective work. I normally do rock chip correction about once a year and after this past round of 40+ rock chips i decided to do the PPF in the critical areas to try to prevent rock chips.

To add, a current "market price" on painting a 4runner is about $6500 on the low end, and $10,000 on the high end. This is assuming you have one with lots of rock chips and needs sanding down and sealing, priming, blocking, prepping, painting and clearing. There are certainly going to be shops that will do it cheaper but as stated above, you are going to be buying a crappy job from someone that doesnt even scuff the original paint and in a few years the new paint starts blowing off with a pressure washer. YOU HAVE to sand the rock chips out and level them or they will show on the new paint. YOU HAVE to sand the old paint off if its lifting or having problems. YOU HAVE to sand/scuff the paint for new paint to stick. YOU HAVE to prep good, sand around corners, around trimmed edges, remove glass and weather stripping. Anywhere you have a paint edge on something that is not scuffed and prepped properly the paint is going to shrink and lift in a few years and this will cause it to flake off and blow off with a pressure washer. There is a lot of prep work into getting a vehicle ready to paint, and a lot of work in painting it correctly. $6500 is a low estimate for a "good" job.

 

As you can see the quote is from an Xpel shop. I will keep looking though. Thanks for the information. Very much appreciated!

 

Yes, it looks really good if you clean, sand, prime, paint and top coat the touchup. Paint on the car does fade over time but it really isn’t that noticeable.

Buffing compound works wonders on a car too, but not on deeper chips. That $4,000 quote, wow! Just to keep it shiny… Touchup paint and buffing compound sounds okay in comparison lol. Nice but it may be a little out of my budget - or should I say lower on my priority list. A week in Maine at a nice hotel eating lobster and leaf peeping…. That’s what I’d rather do with $4,000. Honestly I’ve been fixing up (giving her a face lift) my 20 year old Toyota Sienna (I neglected her paint/exterior) and she’s looking darn good with touchup paint, restoration compound for rubber/plastic, and buffing compound. I’ve always taken care of the inside - leather conditioner, etc so she doesn’t look 20 now.

 

Doing the whole front end is a whole lot of material. The material is expensive. Doing a whole hood is not only expensive for the film but time consuming. This is one of the major reasons I just did the strip across the front brow of the hood. It’s only about 5” wide and isn’t going to be a monumental task to remove when the time comes.

 

PPF and ceramic coating are a big investment, so ask yourself what are the reasons for wanting it before committing.

Most people get stuck on a brand of PPF and end up at a shop that is not good at installing it. The most critical advice that I can give you is to shop the installer. A great installer can make any PPF look good and a crappy installer can make the best PPF look terrible. Use a shop that bulk installs the PPF. Also, some PPF materials have a hydrophobic layer built in, that will act like its own ceramic coating.

Before installing any PPF or ceramic coating, fill all rock chips and deep scratches, then do a 2 stage paint correction. Any shop that does the paint correction should do a full decontamination wash before the paint correction. It will make the world of difference. Same advice here, shop the detailer or do it yourself.

 

I was on the 6G forum and saw the

$130 Husky Liners Aeroskin II Hood Protector | Fits 2024-2025 Toyota Tacoma; 2025 Toyota 4Runner | Low Profile Deflector/Bug Shield - 1 pc., Textured Black | 2830279

Husky hood protector a member installed - pic below. A hood protector and PPF on the front bumper is much less expensive and longer lasting. I think that may be a more cost effective solution for my wallet.

 

Sounds like a sound alternative after reading through this thread.

 

Love your profile photo. How are things in The Trailer Park?