The Complete Guide to Paint Protection Film Maintenance for Your Car

Did you know that the first car was invented as early as 1886?

Since then, people have been finding ways to protect their cars and ensure they look as fresh and sleek as possible. People used some pretty iffy methods to accomplish this in the past, such as slathering animal fat on their cars to protect the paint. 

Today, we have far more effective methods—for example, using a paint protection film (PPF). But what many people don't know is that paint protection film maintenance is required if you want your PPF to live up to its full potential. After all, while PPFs can protect your paint, the PPFs themselves need a bit of protection and maintenance.

Keep reading to learn more about what kind of PPF maintenance tools you need to protect your car.

Clean Your Paint Protection Film the Right Way

Directly after installing paint protection films, you should avoid interacting with them as much as possible. You should not touch the film or wash it right away. The film is still quite sensitive and takes a while to settle onto the car's surface. 

This is known as the curing process. However, this does not mean that you should never clean your PPF.

After a few days or even a week, it should be safe to wash your car without ruining your paint protection film. But remember, you should not wash your car as you usually would now that it has a PPF.

Instead, you will need to go about washing your car with an extra touch of care.

Pressure washing PPFs is only a good idea in certain circumstances and if you know how to handle a power washer. For example, if you plan on using a power washer to clean off your PPF, you will want to keep the jet of water away from the edges of the film. 

Otherwise, the edges of the film could end up peeling up and ruining your PPF completely.

Taking Care of Your PPF

If you want to be extra careful with your film, you will want to avoid running your car through an automatic car wash. The power of the water and the other aspects of the car wash could do more harm than good and might even create scratches on the paint protection film. 

You will want to wash the film by hand for the best results.

Rinse your car with a hose and use a microfiber rag to apply as much soap as possible. These rags are exceptionally soft and will not scratch your film no matter how hard you try.

If your film has stubborn spots, let the soap sit for a few minutes to soften them. Then, you should easily be able to scrub the marks away with your rag.

Don't be tempted to use harsh cleaners or tools such as steel wool or baking soda to remove difficult spots, as this will only end up scratching the film and perhaps even your car's paint.