The ultimate choice of paint protection from rock chips, scratches, and more.
The streets of Houston are not kind to vehicles. Potholes, construction, and debris are just a few things that can potentially hit your vehicle while you’re driving.
On top of that, you have people rubbing against your car in a parking lot, bird droppings, and road tar. Not to mention the summer heat that beats on your paint all day (which is why we offer window tinting).
Want to protect your car’s paint from potential damage? The best option is going to be paint protection film (PPF) or sometimes referred to as a clear bra.
PPF is a transparent film that is installed on the exterior of your vehicle. It’s flexible, durable, and does an amazing job at protecting your paint. This is the absolute best solution for long-term paint protection.
We also offer full car wrap services if you’d like to change the color of your vehicle. You can pick almost any color and be a very unique car on the road.
Durable, Self-Healing Film: The primary goal with PPF is to protect your paint from potential damage. With it’s self-healing abilities, minor swirls or scratches inflicted on the film will disappear with a light heat exposure.
Hydrophobic Properties: Whether it’s rain, dirt, or stains, the PPF does a great job at repelling any elements so it doesn’t get etched into the film and ultimately your paint. This is great when you wash your vehicle.
Installing PPF is one of the most difficult things to do. You need to have a strong understanding of film to make sure it’s installed properly on your car. And that first starts off with the prep work beforehand. Here’s a general overview:
Clean Wheels and Tires: The first step is to start with the most basic part of the car and that’s thoroughly cleaning the wheels, tires, and fender wells.
Detailed Wash: Next we’ll do a very thorough hand-wash to remove any dirt, grime, or road tar that’s build up on the paint. We’ll also take the time to clean the detailed areas like the emblems, vents, and grilles.
Remove Iron Fallout: Now we start to prep the paint to remove it from any contaminants. We first start off with an iron decontamination to remove any iron fall out from the paint.
Clay Bar Treatment: Next, we’ll use a clay bar to remove any rough texture on your paint from stuck on debris. This is when we make your paint feel like glass.
Dry Vehicle: Using an air blower and microfiber towels, we’ll blow out the standing water around the vehicle and dry the panels.
Polish Paint: Now it’s time to start to cut and polish the paint. Based on your condition, we’ll cut and polish the paint to remove heavy defects to make your paint shine. This will greatly help the finished product once we install the PPF.
Install PPF: Using a combination of our plotter, solutions, and tools, we’ll install the PPF on the panels and areas you want protected. Sometimes this can be a quick job if we’re just doing your hood or it can me a week-long project if we’re doing your entire vehicle.
Final Inspection: Before you pick up your vehicle, we’ll inspect the panels and edges to make sure the PPF has been installed to our standards.
Price is based on size, condition, and the type of coverage you’d like on your vehicle. We can work with what you specifically want!
If your vehicle already has existing PPF, we can remove it. If it’s only been there for a few years, the removal should be simple. The older and more worn out the PPF is, or if the underlying paint already has rock chips, then the higher chance that paint will come off during the removal.
If the film is ten years old with cracks and yellowing, we have to assume it’s going to be difficult to remove. For one, we don’t know who installed it or how it was installed. Were there already rock chips on the paint before the PPF was installed? What brand of film was used and what is its warranty?
This is important to note because if we go to remove old brittle film and we get to a rock chip that was already there when the PPF was initially installed, then when we start to remove the film, there’s a high chance that the paint will also come off with it.
It’s inevitable with removing worn-out paint protection film. We’ve seen it dozens of times across different vehicles in all ranges of age. This is why we don’t rush this process at all. We have to go slow and steady to minimize the chance of paint chipping. And even then, paint can still chip.
A lot of the time, the paint that gets chipped are small areas. But depending on your car’s condition, the age of the film, how it was installed, or the film that was used, larger areas can chip.
That’s why we’ll inspect your vehicle and give you an honest assessment of what the removal process will look like.
This is an additional fee because PPF removal is very time-consuming and tedious. We’ve taken up to 16 hours to remove very old film from vehicles. So the price to remove PPF can range between $500 to $3,500. It all just depends on the level of work we have to do.
If you recently purchased a new vehicle with low-mileage, then that’s the perfect time to get paint protection film installed on your vehicle. Ideally, your paint will have little to no rock chips on the paint which greatly helps during the installation process.
The sooner you can get it protected, the better. It doesn’t take much to drive around Houston or park somewhere that will cause damage to your paint. It can be something as a piece of debris falling out of the truck in front of you and hitting your hood or someone brushing against your fenders in the parking lot.
You don’t want to wait until after the damage has been caused to get paint protection film on your vehicle.
This is completely up to you in terms of preference. The most common type of protection will be the front-end of the vehicle because that’s where it gets the most impact. The front-end usually includes the full hood, bumper, headlights, front fenders, fog lights, and side mirrors.
If you’re taking your car to the track, you want to protect any area that can get hit by road debris or pick up rubber. So the front-end protection would be ideal, but you’d always want to protect the bottom rocker panels, the rear quarter panels, and even your roof.
There’s no hard-set rule to any of it so you can protect what you want. If you have a work truck or a vehicle that goes to a job site, maybe it makes sense to protect the doors or bed of your vehicle as that’ll be a high-traffic area.
If you just want the ultimate protection from day one, you can get the PPF installed on every panel of your car. This is ideal for new vehicles that you plan to keep for a while so the condition stays in top shape.
We deliver our services based on what you’d like to achieve. If we want to stay mindful of the budget, we can protect parts of your front-end that have the highest potential for damage. Or if you want it protected from top to bottom, we can also do that.
A popular form of protection are ceramic coatings. It’s a durable, long-lasting sacrificial barrier that helps repel water, debris, and road grime. It also adds an incredible amount of gloss to your paint. However, a coating doesn’t stop your paint from getting rock chips, scratches, or any other form of damage. That’s a big misconception about ceramic coatings.
While your driving around Houston and a debris hits your car, with a ceramic coating, you’ll get a rock chip in your paint. With paint protection film, the rock ship would only make impact with the PPF and your paint underneath will remain untouched.
A coating can last several years with proper maintenance. But naturally, over time, after many washes and where you’re driving, it’ll get micro-swirls and a light poilsh will be needed to “reset” the paint back to standard.
With paint protection film, it keeps your paint in pristine condition since nothing ever touches it. If your PPF gets swirls, it has self-healing abilities. With heat, like your car sitting in the sun, the light swirls will go away. This is another big benefit to PPF.
If your main goal is to protect your vehicle from potential road debris damage or bugs etching into your paintwork, PPF is the only choice. For customers who want the absolute best of both worlds, we can install the PPF for the ultimate protection and apply a ceramic coating on top of the PPF.
A PPF install can take half a day to a whole week. It really depends on the amount of coverage we’re doing and the complexity of the panels. The job can also take significantly longer if we need to remove the existing PPF on your vehicle.
Panels like the hood can be easy and straightforward if there’s no vents or curved areas. But the more emblems, curved areas and vents are on the panel, the longer the job is going to take.
Installing PPF on your vehicle is one of the most time-consuming services we offer due to how tedious the job is. Our goal is deliver a quality install that’s going to hold up for years. We don’t want the film lifting on the edges or having bubbles or debris in the film. On panels like the hood, we go for a seamless install. We tuck the film to the underside of the hood so you don’t see the PPF. If you have emblems on your fenders, we can remove them, install the PPF, and reinstall the emblems for a clean install.
We use a plotter to cut out our kits. This allows us to create very precise kits that will fit cleanly onto your panels.
R3 Detailing started off as a mobile-detailing company in 2011. Over the years, as we expanded our services, we moved into our first shop in 2019.
Our detail shop is located just down the street from the Willowbrook Mall. Feel free to pass by the shop so we can inspect your vehicle, talk about what you’re looking to get done, and go over your options.
How much does PPF cost?
It depends on a few factors; the condition of the vehicle, the type of PPF, and the amount of coverage you want on your vehicle. It can range from $250 to $2,500 and more. For instance, getting your hood done versus the hood, front bumper, fenders, and roof are two completely different scenarios (and results in a completely different price).
Do I need PPF on my car?
It really comes down to personal preference! If you’d like to keep your paint in the best form that it can, then PPF will be the best option for you. Imagine you’re driving down the highway and rocks go flying to your vehicle. The only way to keep your vehicle protected from that is PPF. If you see the value in that, PPF is the way to go!
How long does it take to install the PPF?
It can take between a few hours to a few days! I know that’s a wide range, but it really depends on your vehicle (a large truck versus a small sedan), the panels you want wrapped (the hood versus the whole vehicle), and the amount of prep work we have to do before the installation. If you solely want the hood done, that can take a few hours. If you want the entire vehicle wrapped, that can take a whole week.
Do you offer detailing services?
Yes, we sure do! We’ve been detailing cars since 2011 and can take care of your needs. We also offer full interior cleaning, smoke odor removal, wash and wax, and more!
It depends on a few factors; the condition of the vehicle, the type of PPF, and the amount of coverage you want on your vehicle. It can range from $250 to $2,500 and more. For instance, getting your hood done versus the hood, front bumper, fenders, and roof are two completely different scenarios (and results in a completely different price).
Tue - Fri: 9am - 5pm Saturday: 9am - 2pm Sun & Mon: CLOSED
281-450-3147
12155 Cutten Rd Suite 104 Houston TX 77066
