The Art of Protecting a Luxury Car: A Step-by-Step Guide to Body Protection Film Installation

As we begin our journey into the world of luxury car detailing, it's essential to discuss one of the most critical aspects of maintaining a high-end vehicle's appearance: protecting its paint job. In this article, we'll delve into the process of installing body protection film, showcasing the meticulous care and attention that goes into each step.

The journey begins with careful examination of the car's surface, ensuring that no dust, dirt, or particles are present to interfere with the installation process. This is where a slip solution comes in – carefully applied to the surface to prevent any adhesive residue from being left behind. The film's design team has cleverly created a piece that gets around the spoiler at the rear, expertly manipulating material to achieve a seamless fit.

As we work on the front quarter panel, it becomes clear that attention to detail is paramount. The car's door, side vent, and even the rear quarter panel are meticulously cleaned and prepared for the film. A slightly raised piece along the edge of the hood requires extra care, but with the right tools and techniques, it's completed with ease.

The front of the car receives a similar treatment, with the headlights being carefully masked off to prevent any damage during the installation process. The paint protection film is then carefully applied to each panel, using specialized templates to ensure a perfect fit around curved surfaces like the door handles and mirrors.

One of the most impressive aspects of this film installation is how it can withstand even the smallest stone chips. With self-healing properties, the film will adjust and remove any damage, making it an ideal solution for car owners who want to maintain their vehicle's showroom shine. And with the rear quarter panel being finished last, it's clear that attention to detail has been applied to every aspect of this process.

Now that the body protection film is installed, let's take a closer look at how it affects the overall appearance of the car. With no visible seams or bubbles, the paint job remains crystal-clear, and reflections off the car are truly dazzling under the studio lights. The headlights now shine brightly, free from any obstructions – a testament to the careful masking process.

As we examine the car more closely, we notice that every panel is protected, including those tiny black plastic pieces around the door handles. This level of protection is essential for maintaining the car's showroom appearance and ensuring that it remains in pristine condition for years to come.

Of course, no detailing job would be complete without a final inspection. As we make our way back through the studio, we notice a slight imperfection near the door mirror – an imperceptible line where the film has been carefully masked off. But even this small issue is resolved with ease, as the detailer expertly adjusts the film to create a seamless fit.

And so, our journey comes to a close for now. As we reflect on the process of installing body protection film, it's clear that attention to detail and meticulous care are essential for achieving the desired results. With its sleek design, self-healing properties, and flawless installation, this film is set to become an indispensable tool in any car owner's arsenal – protecting their luxury vehicle's paint job from the stresses of everyday driving.

As we prepare to leave the studio, it's clear that this vehicle has undergone a truly transformative experience. From its original showroom appearance to its now-protected state, every aspect of this car has been meticulously cared for. And as we look forward to our next adventure – perhaps a trip outside into the winter weather – we can't help but feel a sense of excitement and anticipation. Will the film hold up against the elements? Only time will tell, but one thing is certain: with body protection film installed, this car is ready for whatever life throws its way.

A Special Thank You

We'd like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to Topaz for allowing us to film parts of this incredible process. Their attention to detail and commitment to excellence have truly set a new standard in the world of luxury car detailing – and we're honored to be a part of it.

As we pack up our gear and bid farewell to the studio, we can't help but feel inspired by the craftsmanship and expertise that has gone into protecting this stunning vehicle. And as we look forward to sharing more of these incredible stories in the future, one thing is clear: with body protection film installed, cars are truly ready for anything.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhi guys we're at topaz detailing London we've brought the McLaren 650s now into the paint protection film room the car has undergone a level three detail here so it's looking truly brilliant some lovely Reflections off the surface especially with all of the lighting in here topas have some fantastic facilities and this is the paint protection film room so the car is going to undergo a full body protection film wrap we're going to show you through through the process and watch it happening the reason of course you do this is to ensure that after you've detailed it it stays looking brilliant throughout time no stone chips no damage to the surfaces so let's get underway okay quickly we're joined here by Nabil Namo co-founder here at topaz please could you explain a little bit about why we're going to use paint protection film yeah sure so you have the three main benefits for paint protection film uh one being prevention of stone chips so 90% of stone chips uh don't go through the the protective layer uh number two swell marks so when you wash the car incorrectly uh or or not carefully uh you get SWR marks but with this with the film on there you don't get any SWR marks at all cuz it's got a self-healing layer um and then thirdly a Fear Factor element so when you when you park the car in a city Town Center or when you go on loads of road trips you don't get any problems about people leaning on the car that's always a good one so that that's the three main reasons okay great the guys have already started work on the 650s but I wanted to show you basically the first part part of the process so I've been watching and learning as we go the most important part though is the patterning so there is a database of all sorts of supercars but topaz have a huge amount of information more about the different cars that they worked on because you pre- cut the film using a plotter over in the corner there and obviously that means you need to have the pattern and the layout and the shape and especially if you come and look here at some of these really complex edges you can imagine one piece of material can't get all the way around here and through this so you have to use a variety of different pieces all pre-cut and shaped so if I swing around here and show you on the computer screen we've just taken a screenshot of some of the cutouts here you can see that you have this is just for the front end all of these different pieces so to highlight two in particular you have this Center piece with the park distance control sensors already cut out and this little wiggle down at the bottom that is the center obviously the number plate sits across there and then you also have these two pieces which make up the well and these two sides the carbon fiber section so if you think about what we're looking at there if I just swing back around to the car here you can see that the centerpiece is of course this and you've got that cut out to fit around the headlight section there and for the carbon fiber you have the lower front splitter you have those extra side pieces and then you have the central section so you can see you've got the four pieces for that too obviously you go around the entire car working with that if you get to something such as the side blades you can pre-cut the logo so it just goes around perfect drops down into place so when you've got that up on the computer screen and you've got all of the parts set you can set them off printing on the plotter so we're starting off with the front splitter surface has been cleaned down already now it's had a layer of slip solution sprayed on before we lay down the film here which again is has been sprayed on the back so that it can be moved around and not immediately stick so you can see it has to be worked into the exact correct position so it starts with the slip solution to make that possible so to prevent the corners from moving around too much you apply a bit of fixed solution you can line it up perfectly and that will hold that in place so when you're then moving around the other parts you know that it's going to stay exactly in place in that corner and again a little bit more at the next pinch Point make sure it holds in place there's also some slip Solution on top of the film to make sure that when you're squeeing it out which ultimately makes it stay down you don't damage the top surface at all now it's a case of continuing to work around the material ensuring it's positioned correctly with the slip on the surface squeegeeing out the solution underneath and it sticks down in place and then you have absolutely no idea that there a piece of material stuck down on there and it will of course settle and be cleaned up afterwards and dried off of course there's still a little bit of water on the surface there so while work continues on the front we're just going to take a look at this rear quarter panel so some slip solution being put on now which will then be squeegeed off just to clean up the surface and make sure there are no bits of dust or dirt or particles of polish from the uh detail beforehand or anything like that left on the car this being much larger piece we have to be very delicate about holding it down and fixing it in at this end while peeling it back over the entire piece but again there's plenty of slip solution underneath just to make sure it doesn't stick down until it's completely ready to be done and actually this is an interesting example it's got to get around the spoiler at the rear there material somehow end up and actually this might surprise you the door's done the side vent's done that piece is done this is done this is done you can't tell at all that there's material on there but obviously it's going to keep the paint with those very clean Reflections that we got out of the detail it's just funny to see that that end up perfectly flat and nonvisible eventually the bottom piece has been placed and perfected now it's time to put in the next piece same process again just for that side there we've also got a slightly raised piece just along here and then this side as well it's all starting to take shape nicely at the front let's head back towards the rear and you can see here this panel is gone down very cleanly on the front edge even the headlights get a bit of film what happens now is you leave it in this room overnight it's warm in here so that the the film will sort of settle a little bit and it move around slightly so then tomorrow quality check can be done on the car and just make any last minute refinements that are needed the cool thing is we've been joined by that Pacific Blue P1 that's also had a full body protection here full coverage and looks spectacular but we'll be back in the morning for those final touchups the final stages of the detailing have been complete so now we can take a look around the car and of course at the paint protection film really and truly you have no idea that the car is covered in film absolutely everywhere headlights the carbon the paint workor even the different sort of black plastic pieces around the car from the detail we did before you can see the reflections off the car with all the lighting we got in this room just look brilliant and those are going to be protected because you know let's just say a Stone comes up and hits here on the Bonnet what it does if it's a really small Stone the self-healing properties of the film will actually adjust and basically remove it and if they don't you can heat a heat it up a little bit and just bring the surface back to life worst case you just refilm over one panel wherever the damage is so it's basically a lifesaver especially if you want to keep really good quality paint looking really good thereafter like I said absolutely everything you can see is covered even if you come around in here the inside of this is covered these little pieces are covered everything here is covered the whole car is protected so hopefully it's going to keep looking good for a very long time and I'm sure that will be the case we'll report back in the future of course but it seems like a bit of a no-brainer to me if you have such a nice car in a color you really like you need to be looking after it too much stress dealing with stone chips and the like but of course a big thanks to Topaz for allowing me to come in and film parts of this process we haven't shown it all obviously but the main core elements that go into protecting the car but it's just phenomenal this is going to give you a little heads up there is a line in the film around the door mirror but good luck ever seeing it it's just not there because obviously the film can't bend around that entire shape you have to to use templates to make it fit it's just awesome anyway like I said off on the adventures this year hopefully going to keep looking amazing it's exactly how I want it I can't wait to get it outside although with winter weather it's not going to be long until it doesn't look so good so I might be back here soon to give it a clean up and a touch up but thank you again to everyone involved getting on with the making it look so unbelievable that's it for now I'll catch up with you very soon cheers ready and sorted out here and then we're going to go inside for that one the Mantis front splitter finished in the carbon fiber that pack also gets ushi guys we're at topaz detailing London we've brought the McLaren 650s now into the paint protection film room the car has undergone a level three detail here so it's looking truly brilliant some lovely Reflections off the surface especially with all of the lighting in here topas have some fantastic facilities and this is the paint protection film room so the car is going to undergo a full body protection film wrap we're going to show you through through the process and watch it happening the reason of course you do this is to ensure that after you've detailed it it stays looking brilliant throughout time no stone chips no damage to the surfaces so let's get underway okay quickly we're joined here by Nabil Namo co-founder here at topaz please could you explain a little bit about why we're going to use paint protection film yeah sure so you have the three main benefits for paint protection film uh one being prevention of stone chips so 90% of stone chips uh don't go through the the protective layer uh number two swell marks so when you wash the car incorrectly uh or or not carefully uh you get SWR marks but with this with the film on there you don't get any SWR marks at all cuz it's got a self-healing layer um and then thirdly a Fear Factor element so when you when you park the car in a city Town Center or when you go on loads of road trips you don't get any problems about people leaning on the car that's always a good one so that that's the three main reasons okay great the guys have already started work on the 650s but I wanted to show you basically the first part part of the process so I've been watching and learning as we go the most important part though is the patterning so there is a database of all sorts of supercars but topaz have a huge amount of information more about the different cars that they worked on because you pre- cut the film using a plotter over in the corner there and obviously that means you need to have the pattern and the layout and the shape and especially if you come and look here at some of these really complex edges you can imagine one piece of material can't get all the way around here and through this so you have to use a variety of different pieces all pre-cut and shaped so if I swing around here and show you on the computer screen we've just taken a screenshot of some of the cutouts here you can see that you have this is just for the front end all of these different pieces so to highlight two in particular you have this Center piece with the park distance control sensors already cut out and this little wiggle down at the bottom that is the center obviously the number plate sits across there and then you also have these two pieces which make up the well and these two sides the carbon fiber section so if you think about what we're looking at there if I just swing back around to the car here you can see that the centerpiece is of course this and you've got that cut out to fit around the headlight section there and for the carbon fiber you have the lower front splitter you have those extra side pieces and then you have the central section so you can see you've got the four pieces for that too obviously you go around the entire car working with that if you get to something such as the side blades you can pre-cut the logo so it just goes around perfect drops down into place so when you've got that up on the computer screen and you've got all of the parts set you can set them off printing on the plotter so we're starting off with the front splitter surface has been cleaned down already now it's had a layer of slip solution sprayed on before we lay down the film here which again is has been sprayed on the back so that it can be moved around and not immediately stick so you can see it has to be worked into the exact correct position so it starts with the slip solution to make that possible so to prevent the corners from moving around too much you apply a bit of fixed solution you can line it up perfectly and that will hold that in place so when you're then moving around the other parts you know that it's going to stay exactly in place in that corner and again a little bit more at the next pinch Point make sure it holds in place there's also some slip Solution on top of the film to make sure that when you're squeeing it out which ultimately makes it stay down you don't damage the top surface at all now it's a case of continuing to work around the material ensuring it's positioned correctly with the slip on the surface squeegeeing out the solution underneath and it sticks down in place and then you have absolutely no idea that there a piece of material stuck down on there and it will of course settle and be cleaned up afterwards and dried off of course there's still a little bit of water on the surface there so while work continues on the front we're just going to take a look at this rear quarter panel so some slip solution being put on now which will then be squeegeed off just to clean up the surface and make sure there are no bits of dust or dirt or particles of polish from the uh detail beforehand or anything like that left on the car this being much larger piece we have to be very delicate about holding it down and fixing it in at this end while peeling it back over the entire piece but again there's plenty of slip solution underneath just to make sure it doesn't stick down until it's completely ready to be done and actually this is an interesting example it's got to get around the spoiler at the rear there material somehow end up and actually this might surprise you the door's done the side vent's done that piece is done this is done this is done you can't tell at all that there's material on there but obviously it's going to keep the paint with those very clean Reflections that we got out of the detail it's just funny to see that that end up perfectly flat and nonvisible eventually the bottom piece has been placed and perfected now it's time to put in the next piece same process again just for that side there we've also got a slightly raised piece just along here and then this side as well it's all starting to take shape nicely at the front let's head back towards the rear and you can see here this panel is gone down very cleanly on the front edge even the headlights get a bit of film what happens now is you leave it in this room overnight it's warm in here so that the the film will sort of settle a little bit and it move around slightly so then tomorrow quality check can be done on the car and just make any last minute refinements that are needed the cool thing is we've been joined by that Pacific Blue P1 that's also had a full body protection here full coverage and looks spectacular but we'll be back in the morning for those final touchups the final stages of the detailing have been complete so now we can take a look around the car and of course at the paint protection film really and truly you have no idea that the car is covered in film absolutely everywhere headlights the carbon the paint workor even the different sort of black plastic pieces around the car from the detail we did before you can see the reflections off the car with all the lighting we got in this room just look brilliant and those are going to be protected because you know let's just say a Stone comes up and hits here on the Bonnet what it does if it's a really small Stone the self-healing properties of the film will actually adjust and basically remove it and if they don't you can heat a heat it up a little bit and just bring the surface back to life worst case you just refilm over one panel wherever the damage is so it's basically a lifesaver especially if you want to keep really good quality paint looking really good thereafter like I said absolutely everything you can see is covered even if you come around in here the inside of this is covered these little pieces are covered everything here is covered the whole car is protected so hopefully it's going to keep looking good for a very long time and I'm sure that will be the case we'll report back in the future of course but it seems like a bit of a no-brainer to me if you have such a nice car in a color you really like you need to be looking after it too much stress dealing with stone chips and the like but of course a big thanks to Topaz for allowing me to come in and film parts of this process we haven't shown it all obviously but the main core elements that go into protecting the car but it's just phenomenal this is going to give you a little heads up there is a line in the film around the door mirror but good luck ever seeing it it's just not there because obviously the film can't bend around that entire shape you have to to use templates to make it fit it's just awesome anyway like I said off on the adventures this year hopefully going to keep looking amazing it's exactly how I want it I can't wait to get it outside although with winter weather it's not going to be long until it doesn't look so good so I might be back here soon to give it a clean up and a touch up but thank you again to everyone involved getting on with the making it look so unbelievable that's it for now I'll catch up with you very soon cheers ready and sorted out here and then we're going to go inside for that one the Mantis front splitter finished in the carbon fiber that pack also gets us\n"