Thank you for the idea. Looking into this now. Did you do it yourself or take it to a shop?
I installed it myself. I run an automotive detailing and graphics shop and took a Saturday to template and design some pre-cut pieces.
If you’re a confident diy’er you can do it in a morning.
You want to have two solutions handy, a few micro fiber towels and a soft pliable squeegee. One solution mixture of baby shampoo + water and another at a ratio of 3:1 water + isopropyl alcohol.
Once the area is throughly cleaned (free of any wax, grease, silicone, bugs, etc) you mist the surface of the car with the soapy water solution, then your finger tips so you don’t leave any dna between the film and your car, then proceed to peel the pre-fit piece off of the backing liner and misting the adhesive with the soapy water; this process allows you to float the piece into place before nailing it down. Once you the have the piece positioned you rinse out some of the soapy water solution in one of the corners so you can lock it in place and proceed to stretch and lock the rest of the piece into place (the mirrors).
I would say the mirror pieces were one of the trickiest with how many different directions the surface curves; took a lot of stretching and close attention of where the edges were going to end up once locked down.
The Door cups were the simplest and lay in place; it’s just a little tricky squeegeeing the solution out with the handle there.
A-pillars are pretty straight forward, wrap the corner to the windshield + into the door frame slightly and go from the front fender up to were the roof rack starts.
Finally the headlights; set the front corner near the grille and stretch it towards the fender and it stretches to fit nicely.
You may not get all of the edges down right away due to residual solution being there. Simply leave it for an hour or two and you can go back and squeegee the edges down.
Don’t apply any carnauba based wax to the film; waxes use things like naphtha to get the carnauba into liquid form and the naphtha will slowly degrade the polyurethane. If you want to use anything look for a silicone/synthetic based polish/sealant.
Most of the films on the market are pretty comparable at this point and feature “self-healing” properties (within reason); SunTek, LLumar, VentureShield, Xpel, 3M Scotchgard & 3M Scotchgard Pro.
If the process is a little much for some, a local signage/graphics/detailing or window tinting shop should be able to help out.
