Rear Wing Protection

[Carbon Fibre]

Greetings! My first post although I'm yet to be a Seven owner - it's on order!

While I'm waiting the wait (probably another 11 months!) I've been exploring rear wing protection options and wondered what people's experiences were. I've obviously found a few bits and pieces on here but not much that seemed to discuss them all in one place.

So far as I can see there are three main options:

1) Go for painted fiberglass rear wings with protectors, and then get them resprayed as and when I can no longer bear the sight of the stone chip damage.

2) Go for painted fiberglass wings, protectors and PPF, and then hope the PPF does it's job.

3) Go for carbon fibre rear wings and hope that money can solve the problem!

Any thoughts and recommendations from the crowd? To my surprise it seems that resprays look as though they might be cheaper than the PPF option - but I guess it depends on how long the wings last before they need some sort of remedial work.

A few other questions, apologies if they're a trifle mundane!

- How fast will a painted wing sporting only protectors last before it's chipped to death? I know this will depend on lots of factors (speed and roads in particular) but a general feel would be good.

- Does the self-healing PPF work? i.e. would it take a brick to do any damage? 

- I'm assuming the CF wings are not impervious to damage but no-one ever seems to protect them with sacrificial protectors in the same way as the painted wings. How do they compare to PPF for stone chip resistance?

- Are the CF wings impervious to the under-arch damage that the fiberglass wings can suffer (i.e. star cracks)?

Any advice gratefully accepted!

Dave

 

 

[Curly]

Are you planning keeping a showroom appearance car or one you accept minor cosmetic marks? There is no wrong answer - only your own answer

I have 18 year old  SV  with painted fibreglass with carbon fibre protectors -  yes there is some stone marks and a few star cracks (plus plenty of other marks/scratches on the rest of the car)   but I enjoy every moment in the car, taking care but accepting that the car was bought to use.

What ever you decide enjoy !!

[GulfSeven]

Everything that goes under the front wheels gets fired at the rear wings.

 

I had the full XPEL PPF kit fitted before my car was delivered a year ago. After 1,500 miles the paint is still perfect. If you look closely there are a couple of dents in the PPF above the carbon wing protectors that don't self heal from larger stone impacts.

 

The carbon wing protectors are good too. I ran over a metal door handle (!) which was fired onto the rear wing, and luckily the mark it left polished out.

[SLR No.77]

I've had all the combinations, GRP with only protectors, bare carbon, painted and painted with PPF.  Bare carbon fares best followed by bare GRP, closely followed by paint with PPF. 

Anything purely painted will lose paint pretty quickly, particularly on the lower outside front corners, the PPF really helps but it needs to go quite high up the wing.  There's a wraparound carbon protector available from Millwood but personally I don't think they look great.

Currently I have bare carbon arches, the side panels of the car are full PPF, and I have mudflaps on the front.  I was caught out on a number of newly stone chipped roads at the weekend touring in Scotland and despite plenty of chippings bouncing off the wings and into the cockpit, I've not acquired any chips.

Stu.

[David aka Blue7]

1. For my 4th 7, I chose carbon wings all round and after 6 years on Scottish roads with sometimes quite viscious  instances of surface dressing, they have not been damaged below as was the case with previous fiberglass wings and star cracking.

2. I have tried different types of PPF, none self heal but I would always have it applied.  On the one occasion I didn't have it applied, the rear wing  strips not protected by the standard stone guards were trashed in a matter of months.

3. The best solution for rear wing protection is to remove the standard stone guards and fit the wrap around carbon stone guards from either Millwood or David Layle of Classic Carbon.  I bought the Millwood versions a few years ago but had to return them because of what I considered to be poor quality consisting of pin prick type holes and many imperfections in the carbon pattern.  To my surprise Millwood did not offer to replace them and to be fair I have seen Millwod variety fitted to another 7 and they look good.  I presently have a set of David Layle Classic Carbon variety on order, they have the advantage of extending further up the wing than the Millwood variety and having previously purchased many other carbon products from Classic Carbon, I know the quality is first class.  There is an article on page 29 of June Low Flying, with some good information about CF and David Layle explains the different qualities of carbon products.

A lot will depend on where you intend to drive the car, up here in Scotland the surface dressing that is applied to repair road surfaces consists of quite large aggregate which is not rolled in to the tar, Bear Scotland just leave it up to the cars to do the job and erect warning signs with 10 mph speed limit ... which does not prevent damage.

So my choice is PPF to rear and front wings, nose cone and also the sides plus c/f wings and wrap around stone guards to rear wings.  I also spray the underside of the rear wings with underseal to cushion the impact of any stones.

David

[Mrp]

On my previous 7 I managed with front mud flaps and full carbon rear wings (without stone  guards) which got a good coating of wax polish twice a year.

[paul richards]

Mud flaps help a lot. My car is yellow with self coloured wings and these don't seem to show chips anything like as bad as painted wings (especially those that have a light undercoat). Also self coloured wings are relatively cheap to replace compared to painting new wings. 

[K7 VCT]

I have the millwood carbon fibre protectors fitted about 2 years ago, wings and protectors still holding up well after 4000 miles.

[Benton]

What chips?

[Caesar]

I'm thinking to invest in a set of 'wrap around' Milwood style but am having a problem finding their site,

 

[TomB]

https://www.millwoodcaterham.co.uk/serviceandparts

[7 wonders of the world]

Front flaps keep stones and blat splat under control  

[SLR No.77]

"Blat splat" ... what a great term 

Stu.

[Caesar]

Got it!  Cheers

 

[Caesar]

Thanks but that doesn't seem to have a link to "wing protectors" or, actually anything else ??
 

[David aka Blue7]

They are not a standard off the shelf product, you have to order and the best way is to contact Jon Vicker direct.  The email address that I used was:

info@millwood-mc.com

or

jon@millwood-mc.com

The David Layle Classic Carbon version is here:

https://classiccarbon.co.uk/products/wrap-around-stone-guards

[GulfSeven]

Does anyone sell front mud flaps or are they all DIY?

[SLR No.77]

https://www.demon-tweeks.com/uk/demon-tweeks-universal-mudflaps-244135/

[R400svn]

That is a pic of my car on a recent trip. They are carbon arches covered in ppf film. Cleaned off look mint underneath. Ppf is the way to go then no need to worry 

[Geoff Brown]

Not only have I applied PPF half way over the painted GRP rear wings but also to the carbon protectors. After eight years there is some road rash but nothing that one cannot explain away as 'light patina'. 

if you can apply the PPF to the CF protectors before riveting on.  

Previous cars owned both had stainless steel protectors & after only about four or five years of road use they did need changing as the condition had gone way past 'light patina'.

[SLR No.77]

"Does anyone sell front mud flaps or are they all DIY?"

Tim, as a more complete answer to your question, I used one of the Demon Tweeks universal mudflaps cut in half, so a pair will do two cars. They're anchored to the wing-stay with threaded Bighead fasteners, then the wing is bonded on top.  Anything catching on the mudflap doesn't put any pressure on the wing itself.

Stu.