PPF Cost Guide: What Does Paint Protection Film Cost?

$2,500+ for a full front kit. $6,000+ for a full body wrap. That's the range for paint protection film in Australia, and the spread is entirely about how much of the car you want covered.

Here's the breakdown.

PPF Cost in Australia — Typical Price Ranges

Coverage Level	What's Included	Price Range
Full front	Bonnet, bumper, guards, mirrors, headlights	$2,500+
Full body	Every painted panel, bumpers, mirrors, headlights	$6,000+

These prices are for quality film from reputable brands — LLumar, XPEL, SunTek — installed by an accredited professional. Cheap film from unknown brands will cost less upfront, but the clarity, self-healing, and warranty won't be there.

What Affects PPF Cost?

Coverage area. This is the biggest variable. A full front kit — bonnet, bumper, guards, mirrors, headlights — covers every panel exposed to stone chips and road debris. It's the standard level of protection for most vehicles. Full body covers everything. The step up roughly doubles the material and labour.

Film brand. LLumar Valor, which is what we use, carries a 12-year manufacturer warranty and has a self-healing topcoat that removes light scratches with heat — hot water or direct sunlight. Lower-tier films cost less but offer fewer features. Generic films cost less again, but the warranty and long-term clarity drop off significantly.

Vehicle size and complexity. A flat-panelled sedan is straightforward to wrap. A car with aggressive body lines, recessed panels, or complex bumper geometry takes longer and uses more film. SUVs and utes use more material purely on surface area. A Porsche 911 with all its curves costs more in labour than a Toyota Camry.

Installer quality. PPF installation is highly skill-dependent. The film is applied wet, squeegeed into position, and heat-shaped around edges and curves. A good installer with a controlled workshop, proper lighting, and experience with your vehicle type will charge more than someone working out of a garage. The finish reflects that difference.

Full Front PPF Cost Breakdown

A full front kit — bonnet, front bumper, front guards, side mirrors, and headlights — is the most popular option, and for good reason: it covers the area that takes 80% of the road damage at a fraction of full-body cost.

Typical price: $2,500+.

The final price depends on the vehicle. A small hatchback with simple panel shapes sits will be close to that starting price. A large SUV or a car with complex bodywork pushes the price up.

What's included in a quality full front job:

• Pre-cut patterns — the film is precision-cut by plotter to your vehicle's exact template rather than trimmed on the car with a blade
• Surface preparation and decontamination
• Film application and heat forming
• Edge wrapping where panel geometry allows
• 12-year manufacturer warranty (LLumar Valor)

The DAP (Design Access Program) system matters. DAP is industry software that holds precision cutting templates for thousands of vehicle models — it drives a plotter that pre-cuts each piece of film to your car's exact panel shapes before it ever touches the paint. That means no razor blades near your vehicle during installation. Hand-cut PPF is cheaper, but the risk of cutting through the clear coat — particularly around headlights and edges — is real and irreversible.

Full Body PPF Cost Breakdown

Full body wraps every painted surface: bonnet, bumper, guards, doors, roof, boot lid, rear bumper, pillars, sills, and any other exposed panels.

Typical price: $6,000+.

That starting price covers standard sedans in straightforward colours. Costs increase for large SUVs, complex panel geometry, and vehicles that require extra attention to panel gaps, wrapped edges, and complex curves.

A full body job takes around 5 days of installation time. The labour alone is substantial, and the amount of film used is 3–4 times what a full front kit requires.

Is full body worth it? For high-end or limited-production vehicles — yes. A GT3 RS, an AMG GT, or a car you intend to preserve in factory condition benefits from full coverage. The resale value of an unmarked car with documented PPF history can recover a significant portion of the protection cost.

For most daily drivers, full front is the better value proposition. The front end takes 80% of stone chip and road debris damage. The sides and rear face less direct impact unless you're regularly driving on gravel roads or dealing with car park door dings (PPF handles those too, but it's a different risk profile).

Modern PPF has come a long way — the film no longer yellows or discolours over time, so partial coverage on side panels is a viable option without worrying about colour differential between protected and unprotected sections. That said, wrapping full panels rather than partial sections gives the cleanest finish and is easier to maintain long-term.

PPF vs Ceramic Coating Cost

These are different products solving different problems, but the comparison comes up constantly.

PPF is a physical shield. Ceramic coating is a chemical surface treatment. They do different things, and for maximum protection, the answer is both: PPF first, then ceramic coating applied on top. For the full comparison, read our PPF vs ceramic coating guide.

Is PPF Worth the Investment?

Compare the cost of PPF to the cost of the damage it prevents.

A bonnet respray after stone chip damage is a costly exercise — the price depends on the colour, the painter, and whether the new paint is blended into adjacent panels. That's for one panel. A full front PPF kit at $2,500+ protects the bonnet, bumper, guards, mirrors, and headlights — everything exposed to the same road debris.

A customer's Golf R had multiple stone chips across the bonnet after two months of M1 commuting. The touch-up repair quotes were adding up fast. He went with a full front PPF kit instead — bonnet, bumper, guards, mirrors, headlights — installed with LLumar Valor. Twelve months later, the front end maintained its condition despite daily motorway driving.

A Porsche Cayman owner came in after a single gravel truck encounter on the Pacific Highway. The bonnet had over a dozen fresh chips. The respray quote for the bonnet alone was steep — and that only fixes the damage already done. Full front PPF protects every forward-facing panel for the next decade. The maths was straightforward.

The film also self-heals light scratches. LLumar Valor has a thermoplastic polyurethane topcoat that reforms when exposed to heat. A light scratch from a fingernail, a key brush, or a carwash swirl disappears with hot water or a few minutes in direct sunlight. That's not marketing. It's a measurable physical property of the film.

PPF maintains resale value. Stone chips, scratches, and road rash are cumulative. A three-year-old car without protection will have visible damage on the front end. The same car with PPF won't. When it's time to sell or trade in, the paint condition matters to buyers — and documented PPF protection is a selling point.

The decision is straightforward: if you drive on highways, commute through areas with roadworks, or park where gravel and debris are common, full front PPF pays for itself the first time it absorbs a stone chip that would otherwise have taken a chunk out of your bonnet.

How to Get a Quote

PPF pricing depends on your vehicle, the coverage level you want, and the film brand. We quote based on your specific car — not a generic price list — because panel complexity and surface area vary significantly between models.

We install LLumar Valor paint protection film at our Hornsby and Gosford workshops. Every installation uses pre-cut patterns, so no blades touch your paint. LLumar Valor carries a 12-year manufacturer warranty, and we back our workmanship separately.

Contact us for a free quote — we'll walk through the coverage options and recommend the right level for your vehicle and how you use it.