BMW M4 Xpel STEALTH Paint Protection Film

BMW M4 Xpel STEALTH Paint Protection Film installation is a satin matte clear bra. On this BMW M4 it is being used to protect the frozen orange BMW paint. There are two options with the Xpel STEALTH satin matte clear bra ppf paint protection film. One is to change your existing gloss finish into a satin finish, or the second option is to use the Xpel STEALTH to protect an existing satin finish. STEK DYNOflex windshield protection was added unfortunately after a few drives and there are hundreds of little sand blasting chips on the windshield. With this said, we still went ahead and protected the windshield from further damages by installing the DYNOflex windshield film and is now at our Redmond Washington Seattle ClearBra shop. 20% Xpel PRIME XR PLUS will be added to the side and rear windshield and 55% Xpel PRIME XR PLUS will be added to the front windshield to protect the occupants and reduce as much heat as possible while also eliminate 99.9% UV rays.

Seattle ClearBra Vehicle Protection Services

The main vehicle protection services we offer at Seattle ClearBra at our Redmond Washington shop are paint protection film PPF clear bra, be it transparent gloss finish or satin matte transparent finish. Another growing choice is doing a color change with STEK clear bra films. These color clear bra installations are far more difficult than a vinyl wrap. The challenge is they don’t have the conformity of vinyl BUT they do last a great deal longer, have a self-healing surface and build in ceramic coating. Generally, we do high-quality installations of clear bra, although we do offer budget packages that are not as extensive when it comes to parts removal or wrapped edges where needed.

Other protection services we offer through our Redmond shop are, Xpel FUSION PLUS ceramic coatings, Xpel PRIME window tinting services, vinyl wraps and STEK DYNOflex windshield protection films.

Summary of the BMW M4 Xpel STEALTH Paint Protection Film install

The satin orange BMW M4 clear bra using Xpel STEALTH and windshield protection film along with upcoming Xpel window tint, Xpel FUSION PLUS ceramic coating has went well so far. Once all is done clear bra wise, we’ll be adding Xpel FUSION PLUS ceramic coating to all of the Xpel STEALTH clear bra, outside windows, rims off with calipers and interior surfaces where applicable. At this point all remaining water under the original clear bra installation has dried up and a couple air bubble have been popped. We’ll be changing a couple pieces of the clear bra soon due to very minor installation errors, in which most would never notice, but we see it and not completely satisfied with the minor imperfections present. After this is done, the Xpel ceramic coating will be applied. There are also some extra pieces of clear bra to be added. These are mainly on the exterior gloss black trim areas. The water bubbles previously mentioned took about a week to completely dry up. Sometimes the water pools together and a little air bubble forms once all water is gone. Never press of these and a quick drop by the shop and we can easily remove the air bubble. This is why we suggest after 2-3 weeks schedule a time to drop by for us to have a quick look over your vehicle as a follow up to get rid of any air bubbles or a tiny edge that may have not totally set down during the installation.

Xpel Paint Protection Film

The 4 main clear bra films through Xpel have 10-year manufacturer warranties, self-healing properties and are as follows:

Xpel ULTIMATE PLUS – This is a glossy transparent film used to protect most vehicles, be it on the body or interior pieces and interior screens.
Xpel ULTIMATE FUSION – Same as the ULTIMATE PLUS except with FUSION PLUS ceramic coating applied during the manufacturing process.
Xpel STEALTH – Satin matte transparent clear bra used to protect an existing satin finish on your vehicle, or to change from a gloss finish to a satin finish, while maintaining the original color.
Xpel ULTIMATE PLUS BLACK – A clear bra film used to change a surface to a gloss black finish.

The benefits of a full coverage clear bra installation, beyond all panels protected from scratching and rock chips, is there will never be a need to polish the paint. This is because the Xpel ULTIMATE PLUS or FUSION paint protection film has a self-healing surface, that self-heals when its warm outside, allowing the film to heal from most minor abrasions. This could be from your washing equipment, careless hand, or item rubbing on the surface, especially when it’s a black or dark colored vehicle. To not oversell and exaggerate the self-healing properties, you can still scratch the film to a point of the clear bra surface not being able to heal. This would generally be by purposely scratching the PPF with a sharp object, or if someone tries to key the vehicle in an attempt to scratch the paint as some examples. The good news here is the Xpel ULTIMATE or Xpel ULTIMATE FUSION PPF clear bra will act as a barrier and sacrificial layer, very likely saving the vehicle from needing to go to a body shop for painting, saving time and money. Further to this, if you take your vehicle off-roading the pin striping usually done when tree branches rub down the side of the vehicle in most cases, self-heal when it’s sunny out. This would again save a good deal of time generally spent polishing out those fine scratches.

When it comes time for washing your with Xpel paint protection film, the process is as one would normally wash the vehicle. This can be in a brushed drive thru wash, touchless car wash or hand washed. At Seattle ClearBra we always recommend hand washing, although not required. One cavate to this is if you have Xpel ULTIMATE FUSION clear bra, or a Xpel FUSION Plus ceramic coating applied, or any other ceramic coating for that matter, it’s always best that your vehicle should be hand washed, and never an automated wash. The reason for this statement is, harsh chemicals found in automated washes will rapidly remove the ceramic coating, thereby wasting the money or time you spent applying the ceramic coating, as it will need to be re applied much sooner. Xpel has a great companion product used to keep your ceramic coating alive called Xpel BOOST. This product is applied after washing and will help keep the hydrophobicity characteristics of your ceramic coating working.

Xpel PRIME Window Tinting

All windows will be done on the BMW M4 with Xpel PRIME XR PLUS ceramic series window tint, including the front windshield. Window tinting installations at our Redmond Washington shop can range from just a couple front side windows up to all windows on a vehicle, depending on what the client is looking for. With the Xpel PRIME XR PLUS window tint series you’ll have the highest amount of heat rejection from an Xpel window tint. You’ll feel far more comfortable driving with this level of tint, regardless of what shade you choose. In addition to the heat rejection from the window tinting you’ll also get near 100% UV rejection. Xpel PRIME XR PLUS series window tint film is the top end window tint film from Xpel, which stops the most amount of heat. Seattle ClearBra does offer a carbon series color stable window tint film called Xpel PRIME CS which is used to provide shading, while not providing much Infared heat rejection. The Xpel PRIME CS series window tint is more of a budget film, for those who simply want the tinted look and not concerned about heat rejection.

STEK DYNOflex Windshield Protection

Thankfully the STEK DYNOflex installation went along smoothly. This said, as previously mentioned there was 500 miles put on the BMW M4 before the windshield protection film was applied. This lead sadly to a great deal of sandblasting on the otherwise pristine surface. The STEK DYNOflex windshield film can cause a little bit of a wavy look when looking out the windshield that most don’t even notice unless pointed out. This said, it will protect the front windshield of the BMW M4 from rock chips, sandblasting and scratches from the wipers so it’s very much worth it. STEK DYNOflex is a sacrificial layer that will take the abuse, then can be changed once the protection film doesn’t look good anymore.

Xpel FUSION PLUS Ceramic Coating

As mentioned previously, Xpel FUSION PLUS will be added to the Xpel STEALTH clear bra ppf. Since the gloss pieces were done before Xpel ULTIMATE FUSION was available the lights and other gloss areas currently installed are Xpel ULTIMATE PLUS which doesn’t have ceramic coating. Instead of applying Xpel ceramic coating we’ll simply remove the small pieces and replace with the new ceramic coated film. As recommended with any ceramic coating application on the paint, we did a full wash, clay bar and no polishing on the BMW M4 as you cannot polish a satin finish. If it was a gloss finish, and you wanted to apply a ceramic coating you will want to do a full polish or you’d likely see a great deal of little swirl marks and minor scratches, especially on a dark colored vehicle. If taking your vehicle through drive through car washes or funds, have you focusing on the choice of clear bra or ceramic coating, we would always suggest do as much paint protection film first and foremost, then a ceramic coating. The reason for this is PPF will stop rock chips, sandblasting and other damages to your vehicle. Whereas the ceramic coating won’t stop any damages, may last 2 years or more vs the PPF lasting upwards of 10 years or more, with a full 10-year warranty through Xpel and a lifetime warranty on the installation through Seattle ClearBra.