What happens when a wrapped panel takes a knock

First thing: vinyl is not repaired

On paint, a scuff gets polished and often disappears. Vinyl offers no such route: the film takes no abrasive, it cannot be touched in with colour, and any attempt to disguise the mark leaves a patch with a different finish.

What we do instead is replace. The smallest unit is not the mark, it is the part: if the knock is on a door, the whole door is redone, because vinyl is cut and tucked in around the edges of each panel.

Three situations, three answers

A surface scuff that only marks the film

The paint underneath is intact and has done its job. We take the film off that part and fit new film; the rest of the car is left alone.

A cut or tear that reaches the paint

As well as redoing the part, the clear coat has to be assessed. If it is open, that gets sorted before covering again: under film, an area with broken paint keeps getting worse.

A dent with deformed metal

The order is bodywork and paint first, vinyl afterwards. We do not do bodywork: the car goes to a body shop and comes back once the panel is finished.

The real problem is the shade

Redoing a part is a contained job. Whether the new part then looks like the ones beside it is no longer up to us: film that has spent two summers in Valencia is not where it was when it came off the roll, and there are differences between production batches as well.

It shows most on light solid colours and on whites. On textures, on carbon and on dark shades it usually goes unnoticed. We hold the sample against the panel in daylight before doing anything, because that part of the decision is yours.

• Replace the part on its own and accept a difference that may be barely visible or obvious.
• Redo a whole section, a complete side for instance, so the transition falls on a natural edge of the car.
• Redo the entire wrap, which only makes sense if the film was already near the end of its life.

What to do in the first hours

• Photograph the area in daylight, close up and from a couple of metres, to see the real extent.
• Do not pull at a lifted edge: what is a loose corner today becomes half a panel peeled off.
• No tape over the film, least of all on matte: it leaves a mark when it comes off.
• Keep the pressure washer off the area until it has been looked at, because water goes straight underneath through a cut.
• If paint is showing, do not leave it for weeks: moisture under the film is what turns a cut into a bodywork problem.

If you are claiming on insurance

The wrap is part of the damage and can be documented as such. We give you an itemised quote for the film side — the parts affected, the material reference and the dismantling work — so you can submit it with the rest.

What the insurer decides is outside our ground and we do not predict it. What does help is having the original quote to hand, with the exact reference of the film that was installed.

Message the workshop →

If the panel had PPF on it

Then the impact found exactly what was put there to take it. A film that is punctured or cut has done its job: the paint underneath is usually intact, and that piece of film is replaced with no further consequences.

That is not an installation defect and it is not a warranty case, any more than a scratch caused from outside would be. The warranty of up to 3 years covers yellowing, cracking and lifting with no external cause, and the exact term is stated in the quote.

What the warranty covers →

What helps from day one

Keep the quote with the film reference on it, and tell us early when something happens. A panel redone two weeks after the knock matches considerably better than one redone a year later, simply because the gap in ageing is smaller.

And if the car lives on the street and you know it will pick up scuffs, it is worth planning protection film on the contact areas from the start: door edges, sills and the handle recess.

Work by the part →PPF on rub areas →