Temporarily Protect Your Ford's Paint for up to Seven Days!
Road Wrap paint protection film is your DIY answer to saving your paint. Check out our blog for more as we try it out ourselves on the wife's Family Truckster AKA '02 Explorer Sport Trac.
While walking the vendor rows at the Mustang 45th anniversary we stumbled upon Road Wrap and stopped to listen to the sales pitch. It sounded interesting, protect your paint for up to seven days with a self-installed paint protection film. We've seen the "clear bra" stuff installed for well over $500 and for $30 a roll we thought it would not only keep the Florida Love Bugs off the wife's Sport Trac, but it would be a great and easy way to protect the paint on our '66 Mustang and '65 FFR Roadster, both of which would require custom clear bra installation at considerable cost. And forget the blue painters tape for track day, which really doesn't protect your car from track debris anyway since it is so thin, just apply Road Wrap at the track before heading out for your hot laps!
So we bought a roll with the $25 show special and figured we'd give it a try. After washing the Sport Trac (which it desperately needed since my son parked it too close to the paintball field last Saturday) I dried the truck completely and pulled out my roll of Road Wrap. The product adhered easily to to the painted fender and I continued to wrap the roll around the front of the truck, tucking, pulling, and pushing, as I went along. It certainly didn't look pretty, but hey, I'm protecting the paint, not looking for an installation award. The bottom of the fascia was a little tricky since it has a mild texture, and I've had to go back once or twice to smooth the Road Wrap out and restick it. Not the end of the world.
All in all we were impressed with the ease of installation and thickness of the product, but don't go crazy trying to get it as smooth as a professionally installed clear bra type product (which is usually left in place for years), as you'll be yanking this stuff off the following weekend or at the end of your track day. Oh, and here's a tip, as you cut out your grille openings for cooling, you can use those scraps to fill in small areas or cover your mirror bodys.