Driving new car from Dealer to Detailer - blue tape or scraps of Xpel for temporary paint protection?

[MFT]

Hello all! Just looking for some insights into two options I'm contemplating to protect my new car (Alfa Giulia QV) when driving it 3 hours from the dealer to the detailer where I'm getting PPF installed:

1. Buy several rolls of blue 3M masking tape and cover all the high impact areas as best as I can.

2. Use various scraps of Xpel that I have leftover from various DIY PPF projects I've done.

I've used option 1 several times in the past with previous new cars, but I was just thinking I have a ton of PPF pieces left over and maybe that would be more effective (and faster?) that taping up the front bumper, leading edges, rockers, etc. The PPF option would obviously be a very quick and dirty job by me at the dealership, so would really just be applying a bunch of pieces (likely overlapping) to get decent coverage and then removing at my destination.

Tape is easy to take off, but I would assume that Xpel that has only been on the car for a few hours would also come off without too much trouble or remaining residue?

Anyone have any experience, thoughts?

[WillSports3]

So be careful with either way because you could get moisture trapped underneath the tape or whatever since the surface will be unprepped. I would use tape not xpel, xpel sticks a lot more, and whatever dirt on the surface will just do more damage. Tape is easier, quicker, and really, if it's going to a detailer to be all dressed up, it's much easier to do. Other thing is, taking off PPF can be a pain. Can be. I suggest tape, but at the same time, whatever is quickest and easiest, I suspect at this point since it's gonna get prepped it doesn't matter much.

[Mike Phillips]

Just by coincidence, I shared a picture of just this exact thing on my FB and IG pages THIS week.

It's for a BMW I detailed for a client that lived on the West Coast of Florida and he was driving it to Stuart during the month of May, which is prone to the dreaded Love Bugs.


Here's the full write-up from this detail, way back in 2014

2014 BMW 535i - Removing Dealership Holograms, Swirls and Scratches

The owner lives on the East Coat of Florida and would be driving his new BMW to the West Coast and that's about a 3 hour drive and during Love Bug season that can mean a lot of dead bugs on the front of a car.

I spoke with the owner before hand to discuss the Love Bug issue here in South Florida. I actually suggested holding off on detailing his brand new BMW till after the Love Bug season passes so we wouldn't have to worry about bug impacts for his drive home. He really wanted to get the paint corrected without more time going buy so I sent him the link to a write-up by another forum member showing how to make a Blue Painter's Tape Bra.

This is how the car arrived.








So the first thing we did was carefully remove the Blue Painter's Tape Bra...










Using the blue masking tape isn't too bad. Just take your time putting it on and taking it off.

[Desertnate]

An option to the blue tape is some stuff I recently purchased called Track Armour. I won't link to it to ensure I don't violate the TOU of the forums here, but it won't be hard to find.

The roles come in various widths, I bought the 3" roll as it would be easier to cover small areas like side mirrors, air dams and vents below the bumper, and to run a strip along the roof/windshield seam. I haven't tried it out yet, but the sole purpose was to protect my car on road trips. My track days are all Autocross and you don't have the same dangers as a road course track day.

The Track Armour may be easier to apply than multiple rolls of painter's tape. Also, when I first started autocrossing and didn't have my magnetic numbers I found the adhesive from the blue painter's tape became very hard to remove after several hours in 90F+ heat. That tape came right off, but there was goo left behind after it baked in the sun all day.

[joebruin77]

Xpel makes a temporary PPF that would work well for this purpose:

Xpel Trackwrap

[MFT]

Thanks for the insights and advice all. If I didn't leave it till the last minute I would have been tempted to try Trackwrap, but ended up just getting 2 rolls of 1.5" 3M green auto masking tape and doing my best with that...

[Mike Phillips]

Thanks for the follow up and the awesome picure!




The Alpha looks battle hardened!


:dlthumb2:

[mdbenge]

Looks like you figured it out just fine. I use blue painter's tape and not the really good stuff either especially for shorter drives. The more expensive brand is much tackier than the cheaper stuff which means less residue. Now, if I was driving across Florida I'd pop of the better tape.