Text and photos by Steve Temple

While Xpel has thousands of pre-cut patterns for later-model production cars, what about applying protective film to project cars, both replicas and custom builds? After all, the paint on these projects usually represents a significant financial investment, and needs to be protected.        

For those vehicles that don’t have pre-cut pattern, Xpel’s Ultimate film can be hand cut and applied by a skilled professional. The extremely rugged, self-healing Xpel Ultimate offers greater stretch than most paint protection films on the market today, making it ideal for uniquely shaped vehicles. 

Note that the paint on specialty vehicles is often in greater danger of being inadvertently scratched or nicked than paint on a daily driver. That’s because they are often displayed at car shows, which can require transporting them either in a single open trailer or shipping via a specialty carrier that’s moving multiple vehicles.  Plus, once the vehicle arrives at the event, damage can occur as multitudes of onlookers are leaning over it and brushing against it when admiring the vehicle’s beauty.  The entire experience exposes rare vehicles to numerous opportunities for scratches, chips or dings to occur.

What’s more, many valuable specialty vehicles have undergone extensive and expensive buildup time and effort,. Enthusiasts who invest to that extent in a vehicle will likely want to consider the final step in protection: applying paint protection film.

Xpel offers several types of paint protection films, ranging from headlight and door edge protection films to Stealth protection film for matte finishes. For specialty cars, however, Xpel’s Ultimate is ideal. A virtually invisible urethane film, Ultimate features a clear coat and special elastomeric polymers that “heal” over time, so swirl marks and fine scratches are naturally eliminated. Also, it’s warrantied for 10 years, so this gives specialty cars owners reassurance that their vehicles will retain their gloss and clarity for many years.