Werkshop's Paint Protection Film Keeps Track Cars Sparkling
Oil, rubber, dirt, and miscellaneous debris can quickly wear down your car’s coat, and not everyone is thrilled with the patina of a well-used track missile.
Track Car Tarnish
Nate bought his S2000 in showroom condition, then promptly pockmarked his bumper through a couple years of autocrossing. When he tried to scrub the conerash off, his cloth started taking paint along with it. That scared him from attempting any real fix.
He held off on solving the issue until a year later, when the front bumper was now sandblasted from running in close confines with messy cars at Speed SF track events.
After respraying his bumper, he realized he wanted to keep the car looking as fresh as possible, so he consulted with Wyman at Werkshop.
Wyman uses SunTek® PPF Ultra to keep his customer’s cars clean. A durable, nearly invisible, self-healing top coat smoothens out blemishes with heat from the vehicle or the sun. The coated portion remains soft and smooth to the touch—in fact, its finish is noticeably slicker than that of most factory paints.
After ten events, the car remains immaculate.
“I’m comfy parking this up someone’s behind on track and I don’t worry about the paint at all,” Nate noted. The little stuff which sticks after the end of a session is now easily wiped off.
Exotics Too
There’s real dollar value in preserving paint—especially with an exotic. After the owner of a McLaren 600LT put two years of track miles on his car, the once brilliant, glossy black had been rendered nearly matte by debris and damage from the elements.
Paint correction was the first step in revitalizing this supercar. The second was bringing it to Werkshop to get a layer of paint protection film applied over the angular front.
For this style of vehicle, Wyman starts with a computer-cut film designed to adhere to the specific contours of the McLarens angular face.
Werkshop’s PPF gave the scissor-doored supercar a new lease on life.
While this shape is provided to him by the film manufacturer, Wyman takes the original pattern file and makes slight improvements using Core software—improvements he’s learned from decades of wrapping experience. “I try to enhance the shape slightly to hide the seams and improve overall coverage,” he added.
The McLaren’s job was performed in the pre-cut fashion due to the complicated shape of the car’s angular face. For broader, flatter, simpler shapes—as well as entire bodies—Wyman tends to use the hand-cut method. This is, as you might imagine, a more simplistic approach which involves a large roll of the material cut specifically to adhere to a large-faced shape.
Smaller jobs and simpler shapes take less time. For a basic frontal covering, expect it to take two days. For a full-sized car or truck, as much as two weeks is needed.
In the event of a big job, Wyman includes a free inspection two weeks following the fitting of the film. After a wash, the film is assessed and any imperfections are fixed.
Setting the car up for a long protected life is evident much later. The remainder of the McLaren’s body wasn’t protected. Over the following year, the car was regularly tracked and the result was predictable. While the covered nose remained pristine and had weathered the elements well, the rest of the car’s exterior had taken a noticeable beating by the sun, pollution, and the occasional flying rock.
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