PPF or ceramic coating?
They are not competing products. Film is armour and stops stone chips. A coating is chemistry and handles gloss, dirt and water. Here is what each one actually does, and which one your car needs first.
One is armour. One is chemistry.
PAINT PROTECTION FILM
IT STOPS STONE CHIPS
A thick urethane film lies over your paint and absorbs the hit. The gravel strikes the film, not the paint. Nothing else on this page does that.
IT HEALS ITS OWN SCRATCHES
Light swirls and wash marks disappear as the top coat self levels in the sun. The paint underneath is never touched.
IT IS GUARANTEED FOR TEN YEARS
Shield Teck carries a ten-year warranty and will not yellow, crack or lift.
IT GOES WHERE THE DAMAGE IS
Frontal covers the panels that take the hits. Full covers every painted panel on the car.
CERAMIC COATING
IT DEEPENS THE GLOSS
A liquid layer cures hard and glass-clear over the paint, and the reflection gets noticeably sharper.
IT MAKES THE CAR EASIER TO WASH
Water sheets off and dirt struggles to key into the surface, so washes are quicker and gentler.
IT RESISTS WHAT LANDS ON THE PAINT
Bird lime, tree sap, fallout and detergents meet the coating first instead of your clear coat.
IT WILL NOT STOP A STONE CHIP
A coating is measured in microns. It is chemistry, not armour. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling you something.
Which one does your car need?
Find your car
YOU DRIVE THE HIGHWAY EVERY DAY
Film on the front, coating on everything else. Highway kilometres are where chips come from, and no coating on earth will stop a stone at 120.
THE CAR LIVES IN A GARAGE AND COMES OUT ON WEEKENDS
A coating on its own is usually enough. Low mileage means low chip risk, and what you actually want is depth of gloss and a car that washes easily.
THE PAINT IS BLACK OR A DARK GREY
Dark paint shows every swirl. Correction and a coating fix how it looks today. Film on the front stops the damage that no amount of polishing can undo.
YOU WANT THE PAINT TO STAY ORIGINAL
Film sits on top of the paint, not in it. The panel underneath stays exactly as it left the factory, which matters on a car you intend to keep or sell on.
YOU CANNOT DECIDE
Book it in and we will look at the car. Kilometres, colour, where it parks and what you plan to do with it change the answer more than any article will.
Most cars get both.
On a frontal fitment you get both without paying for both. Shield Teck film goes on the panels that take the impact: bonnet, bumper, headlights, fender arches, windshield arches, wing mirrors and a strip across the roof above the windshiled. A four-year ceramic coating then goes on every other painted panel and a nano ceramic glass coating goes on all the windows, free of charge. The film handles what hits the car. The coating handles how it looks and how it washes. Neither is doing the other’s job, which is why putting both on one car is not doubling up.
Still not sure? Ask us.
Send us the make, model and colour, tell us how far you drive and where the car sleeps, and we will tell you what it actually needs. If that is a coating and not film, we will say so. We are in Kyalami, Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm.