Installing PPF on a Caterham

Last month we were delighted to welcome a real beauty to our studio in Hampshire. We had the pleasure of installing PPF on a Caterham for the first time. So, we thought we should tell you all about it. Read on for all the details.

Installing PPF on a Caterham:

Caterham Cars are generally rare; they are either hand-built at a factory or purchased as a kit and built at home by the owners. This particular example was factory built and highly specified. It also had stunning paintwork that matched the Lamborghini colour, Verdes Ermes.

This Caterham belongs to a regular client, who we have known for fifteen years. We have detailed many cars for him at Auto Curators, but this was the first PPF install we have completed for him.

These cars aren’t cheap, so our client wanted to protect his vehicle as soon as possible. He plans to do some track days, which is always hard on cars as small stones can damage the paintwork. This is compounded by the extra sticky tyres these cars are often fitted with, contributing to the amount of debris flung at the paint.

Our service began before the car even arrived at our Auto Curators studio in Hampshire. We sent our client some Xpel Track Wrap as temporary paint protection on the journey between his home and our premises.

The Preparation:

Installing PPF on a Caterham begins much the same as any other vehicle. We started with a careful wash (although this car has a roof assembly, so it’s not exactly watertight). We then decontaminated the paint and surfaces as we usually would.

Preparation: The messy-looking film on the rear arch is the Xpel Track Wrap we sent our client as temporary paint protection.

The Installation:

It’s fair to say that this particular car did come with a couple of unique challenges.

It’s so small; we couldn’t lift it on our scissor lift. So, crawling around on the floor was the only option! The nose cone is a complex shape to work with, but the Xpel patterns allow for this brilliantly. We covered the nose cone, the whole sides, the front tips of the cycle wings (front-wheel covers) and the forward-facing parts of the rear wheel arches. We also made some custom bits to stop the roof’s edge and the doors rubbing through the paint on the edge of the bodywork.