Dear Members,

I just bought this '64 and trying an experiment install clear Expel Stealth PPF just for the nose of the car. As you can see below the one piece cover only across the front nose part before the hood with no problem.



However as you can see the wrinkles at the corner of the fender, you can see a bunch of wrinkles due to the contour of the curve. Because it is so round then I tried stretching (including heat gun to soften the film) and no good result. I wonder has any of you have done this yourself or had the shop done where the result is just one piece to cover that corner? Thank you in advance for sharing.

 

never even tried the stuff...

What if you worked from the center out, and when you get to your 'straight edge', back with some cardboard to re-cut the straight edge, but, cut off the excess by the bumper first, that might alleviate your problems?

 

PPF doesn’t stretch and shrink like vinyl. It is much tougher and harder to stretch. In my opinion, having just covered the nose of my ‘64 coupe in colored PPF, you will need seven pieces to do the nose of a C2 in the order of installation assuming an 1/8” overlap seam (with clear PPF you can butt the seams and install the pieces in any order):

1 piece across the bottom of the valance wrapping 1/2 way up the front of the valance and around the turn signal pods. What makes this challenging: where the valance meets the turn signal pods in the front is a tight compound curve and you have to determine where to end this piece and begin the next piece on top of the valance to minimize stretching of both pieces in this area to avoid material failure.

1 piece across the top of the valance wrapping down to meet the lower piece and following the center line of the nose opening up to the headlight bucket openings on both sides. What makes this challenging: the area at and above the turn signal pods has several tight turns and compound curves.

2 pieces from the side of the nose body line down to the turn signal pods and across the top of the pods to meet the piece on the top of the valance. This is the area you are struggling with and a single piece of PPF cannot handle this much stretching and shrinking. What makes this challenging: the crease between the pods and top of the valance is the tightest compound curve on the car and very difficult to stretch into. Done correctly, the two pieces on the valance and these two pieces meet at a line where each has minimum stretch.

2 pieces for the top of the headlight buckets. Easy.

1 main piece across the top of the entire nose, meeting the side pieces at the body line and wrapping down and under the upper nose covering the area between the headlights. What makes this difficult: it is relatively easy to do the top of the nose, but beware. Once you then try to come down under the body line at the front of the nose you will encounter significant bunching and wrinkling. There are two ways to address this. The skill way: stretch the material on top of the nose so that you can heat the material under the nose allowing it to return to its normal shape and eliminate the wrinkles. The easy way: use two pieces like I described on the side pieces. One main piece on top of the nose and then a seam at the body line and a second piece underneath.

Good luck and now you know why pros charge so much!

Here are a few pics:


Top piece.

Top piece with nose seam at body line.

Side piece with seam at body line

The grill surround on 63/64 models hides the valance seam.

 

I have Expel on my C2 and some of it was damaged before I bought the car. There's a local Expel shop near here. I spoke to them and they won't touch my car. Anyway, on the front end, there's a joint just as Factoid shows.

 

Thank you Factoid for the information. They wanted $2K to install in Houston just for the nose. Agree it is a lot of work. I know some shops in Houston would charge like $20K for a paint job on the Vette. Tough decision.

 

Hi Factoid,

Do you measure all pieces first and cut them while they still have backing sheet and then peel off the backing sheet to begin sticking the PPF to the body?

 

Yes, cut them a couple inches larger than you need, remove the backing, and once you have it oriented and anchored don’t be afraid to remove sections that won’t be needed to help remove tension and eliminate wrinkles. Use Precision Line tape where you have planned cuts. It’s tough to use until you get the hang of it, but it’s the only cutting tape strong enough to cut ppf.

 

Factoid, thank you again for the information. May I ask you when you can, share pictures of where the seams of some sections overlay each other so I can have an idea to copy it. Thank you.

 

@kdnguyen Here you go, sorry for the rough drawings but you get the idea. Go in order 1-6. This way the seams always face down and are hard to see. Try to keep the seams straight and overlap 1/8”-3/16”.


Start with the lower valance #1. It is the easiest piece and will help you as you progress to the more difficult. Remember to wrap it up and around the parking light pods as shown in the next picture. You will need to stretch the material a bit.

The upper valance #2 is next. Overlap #1 and wrap it inside the nose opening all the way up to the headlight opening. #3 is next and #4 is the same piece on the other side. Where it meets pieces #1 and #2 is a difficult seam, but you will get it with a little practice.

#5 is the lower section of the upper nose and #6 is the largest, most visible piece. You installed this piece already and you could trim it to these cut lines. The direction of the seam is not as important with clear ppf. Good luck and have fun!

 

Hi Factoid,

I installed piece 5 and 6. Number 3 is the most difficult where I couldn't get the wrinkles out from the top curve. I will try number 3 again. I am not sure I want to try piece 1 and 2 from your picture. Your information not only help me to tackle the specific work but also help any future members to review before decide to do or not themselves. For future members, I bought the Expel from their website online stealth film and 2 feet by 10 feet was about $300.