I Drove To SEMA In My 200,000-Mile Jeep Wrangler To Learn How To Install XPEL Paint Protection Film. Here’s What I Learned

Late last year, XPEL kindly invited me to attend SEMA, the big car show in Las Vegas filled with amazing custom cars and aftermarket suppliers and parties and burnouts — You know, SEMA. To get there, I of course had to take the 1991 Jeep Wrangler YJ that had just received a full XPEL Paint Protection Film application at the hands of some true artists. Here’s what the trip to Vegas, the absurd car show, and my time with XPEL was like.

The trek began in typical David Tracy fashion: I had to rapidly fix my car in order to make a Mercedes event in Las Vegas, and the Jeep was both running poorly and vibrating on the highway.

The vehicle might have made the 300 mile trip, but it wasn’t going to be pretty, and I couldn’t risk it. I diagnosed the vibration as a bad universal joint, so I quickly yanked the Jeep’s tiny rear driveshaft. Here it is in my hand:

The engine’s stumble was, in my opinion, likely caused by a clogged fuel filter, so — because I was running out of time — I enlisted help from my friend Taylor as I toiled with old U-joints:

Once underway, the drive to Sin City was honestly miserable. The vehicle ran and drove perfectly — that wasn’t the problem, nor was the fact that I had given myself zero extra time before the Toyota event I wanted to attend. No, the issue was the dirt-cheap soft top I had just installed and was trying out for the first time. Seriously, look at the fitment on this thing:

That door just swung back and forth as the Jeep’s brick-like aerodynamic profile rushed down the highway, the door flapping loudly in a way that would drive anyone crazy. But worse than that were the zippers:

Just look at that metal zipper sitting atop the other, just banging away like a high-pitched drum, driving me absolutely bonkers.

The good news is that I just made it in time for the Toyota briefing, which meant I got to see in-person the Toyota Tacoma X-Runner Concept and the FJ Bruiser:

Plus, I got to hang out with legendary auto journalist Andrew Collins:

Then the next day I got to meet Jay Leno:

And throughout the show I got to see some seriously bonkers builds:

But most importantly, my arrival meant I got to hang out with our friends at XPEL, whose Paint Protection Film (PPF) is something I believe in, especially as an avid off-roader who likes driving his nice Jeep Wrangler wherever the heck I please:

Here, have a look at what XPEL showed me at SEMA:

XPEL first showed me its booth, where I learned that the company also makes a ton of products having nothing to do with cars. For example, it turns out they make Solar Window Film that you can put over your house’s windows to dramatically reduce radiant heat transfer from the sun (and no, it’s not just a really dark film like a window tint):

It also turns out they make a protective film for bikes:

And there’s ceramic coating that I kinda want to put on my shower’s glass so those bubbles won’t keep leaving markings that are borderline impossible to get off:

But enough about that. I was there for car things —  namely, I was excited about trying my hand at applying Paint Protection Film, since I’d seen Johnny from 405 Motoring do it on my Jeep, and was dumbfounded by how challenging it looked. XPEL actually set me up with Travis, the company’s PPF installation guru (trainer), which meant that not only is he the best of the best, but he’s also almost certainly had to teach some absolute duds how to install this film, so I felt comfortable knowing that I was probably not going to be the very worst he’s ever seen. Probably.

The vehicle I was going to get my first lesson on? The BAC (Briggs Automotive Company) Mono; that’s this British street-legal track car:

Travis walked me through the various fluids that his team uses to install the virtually invisible urethane PPF. There’s water and baby soap, which is the “slip solution” that lets the film float on top of the car’s panel, there’s alcohol, which is used to really give the film a nice solid “tack” that bonds with the panel, and then there’s gel, which is used for really tight corners and other areas it’s otherwise tough to get the PPF to stick.

Travis started off by spraying the hood of the BAC with some of the slip solution, and then “back-rolling” some film right over top:

Back-rolling involved taking some of the film off the backing paper and pressing it against a dry part of the car so the adhesive would cling in place. This allowed Travis to easily unroll the rest of the backing paper, placing the film pretty much exactly where it needed to be. I say “pretty much,” because it was still a bit wrinkly and out of place, which is why Travis then lifted up the PPF and sprayed some more slip solution under it so it could float a bit better.

From there, he broke out the alcohol solution to get the PPF to cling tightly in the top right corner, which is where he began his squeegee-ing:

Travis installed the PPF onto the front of that BAC Mono like an absolute boss, because that’s literally what Travis is. Here he is changing his grip just before rolling the front edge of the PPF under the car’s hood — a very tight turn to make:

I tried the same thing, using some really tacky gel to hold down that upper corner, and while I definitely did better than I expected thanks to Travis’ instructions, I would definitely not want to have to do this onto a customer’s car, for they’d be deeply disappointed in my work:

It’s a complex operation that involves anchoring one point, then squeegee-ing outward from there, while avoiding trapping bubbles, trying to fold the PPF under lips, making sure things don’t slip too far from where they’re meant to be, keeping things slippery enough so the squeegee doesn’t hang up — it’s a true art.

Also at SEMA, XPEL showed off its Design Access Program, or DAP. This is a software that lets a shop pull up a car out of a giant list, and then literally just print whatever panel they need PPF for (or if they’re installing window tint, they print out the right size tint for the windows of a given car):

You can see XPEL’s window tint for a Tesla Model 3 above (note that DAP also provides instructions/pointers for installation). Below is an example of what PPF would look like for a section of a Porsche 911. The colors are there to break the PPF into sections to help provide an installer instructions on how to best apply the film:

Also at SEMA, I got to experience PPF’s self-healing properties. Check this out:

Most importantly, I got to attend an XPEL party for dealers and their guests. You can actually see Travis, PPF installation king, in the photo directly below:

Here’s a little clip I shot:

The party was legit, and a reminder of just how many people believe in this stuff.

Following the party, I drove home from Vegas and peered over my 1991 Jeep Wrangler’s beautiful hood, imagining all the scratchy brush I’ll be driving through, putting XPEL’s PPF’s self-healing property to the test. Beautiful Jeep: Get ready for some serious off-roading: