xxyion

For rock chip protection, a clear bra for the front is your best bet.

If you decide on ceramic coating, make sure you do your research. There are many different types of ceramic coatings and they all work a bit differently.

Some are spray on coatings that add a small candyshell layer which will eventually wear off like wax. Others are applied every 6 months and form almost a gel like layer (hard gel). And then there are some which coat the shell in a super hard coating that can only be removed with abrasive techniques like polishing.

I had my BRZ ceramic coated with Ceramic Pro which is the super hard coating. The process takes longer than most other ceramic coates, and is a two week cureing process for the car. However i did notice that ever since that happend, i never received a single scratch on the car. Sure rock chips are inevitable, but microswirls and microscratches were a thing of the past. I also didnt have to wax my car anymore to get a super slick hydrophobic touch to the car and nice mirror shine. For me its worth it.

AZS2KDancer

A friend of mine owns at least 3 Corvettes (had 4 at one time) and has each one protected with 3M. A local S owner with at least two S's swears by Xpel Ultimate. Comparison videos online say they are pretty comparable, yet the 3M supposedly offers a warranty, whereas the Xpel does not. I haven't confirmed this. I've heard from both camps that say they are satisfied with the products they chose. I would not opt to install a full frontal bra myself.

darcyw

3M offers a warranty- I want to say its 5 years.
darcy

zeroptzero

That distance must be beyond the average distance that S2000's follow on Dragon drives, my car never got pelted by so many stones as it did on the Dragon trip, it was relentless lol.

OMG VTEC

Anyone else's car completely covered in rock chips? I'm thinking the previous owner never waxed the car. I'm going to have to repaint.

rpg51

Seems to me a reasonable approach is to be careful, and then when the inevitable chipping appears, either live with it or respray. It sure is a lot cheaper. The result at a good shop will be very good.

zeroptzero

This is very common, many people talk about Honda soft paint on the S2000, so you are not alone. Waxing the car would not have helped.

AZS2KDancer

I just had the hood respray, both fenders and both mirrors along with the new bumper cover and grill. The respray at the quality shop that did the work is more than my quote for Xpel frontal coverage. I'm hesitant to take the S out on the road until I can afford the PPF in a month or so.

rpg51

I had the experience of striking a small object that the pick up in front of my rolled right over but not my S. Cracked the lower lip of the front bumper cover and I had to replace it. Xpel would not have prevented that from happening,

I've debated putting some film on the the bumper. So far I've ended up figuring I'll just do a respray or maybe throw a lip on it if it starts getting chipped up. I'm a lot more careful after that experience I had.

I will say this - if you ever replace or respray, take good pictures to document before and after and maybe keep the old bumper cover to help with re-sale.

GuthNW

My car came with PPF applied to the front bumper fascia, and it extends back to include part of the hood and fenders. The fronts of the mirrors were also covered. I'll admit that I have no stone chips on these areas, but I also have no idea how bad things might look if the PPF were not in place. So the product seems to be doing a fine job but I have nothing to compare with. Installation of the PPF does not look like a task that I would want to take on myself. I have no idea how much something like this would cost, or what the replacement cost would be for that matter. When I'm washing the car I can see that the film itself on the very bottom edge of the bumper fascia looks a bit frazzled in a couple of places. I can live with that and only think about it when I'm down low cleaning that part of the car.