I’ll never forget the conversation I had with Ceramic Pro in a small hotel room in Long Beach, California about how I wanted to race cars. 4 months later, 100s of hours phone calls and endless email strings, they made my dreams come true. With the help of JIMGLO Trailers and many other supporting sponsors, we will be touring the United States attending “for fun” and competitive “pointed” track events. More importantly, answering the question many automotive enthusiasts are wondering, “does Ceramic Pro really work?”

The inspiration for our wrap design was actually quite simple. It is modeled after the 2017 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR Factory race car. The design features flowing lines that meet at the front of the hood and “flow” back down the fenders, doors, and end at the back of the side skirts. The design continues in the rear around the upper bonnet and rear bumper area.

The design would need to be rendered and scaled in an AI file for plotting. For those expert services, we reached out to Ashley from Hero Prints as he aided in the design and render on our last partial wrap below.

After about 3 weeks of design revisions, we were finally able to satisfy the needs of everyone with their logo placements and the design was finalized. Ceramic Pro requested that the wrap features the following materials, matte white as the base to showcase that the coating could protect the most challenging color, some sort of texture to display the hydrophobic, gloss effect, and a color that would make it stand out on the race track… and for that I chose the wildest pink possible.

Without hesitation, we turned to Vinyl Vixen and Wrapsesh AZ as our choice of wrap installers. Along with Ashley, they were as well contracted for the installation of our last wrap. They were given less than 24 hours to complete our last project and worked through the AM to make it happen. I will never forget that and I will personally continue to use them as our wrap installers.

Now that we’ve got the design, the render, the AI file, so what’s left to do now? Pick our EXACT colors! I headed down to Wrapsesh and met up with Jessica to discuss our color options. She handed me 5 different wrap swatches that contained about 100+ different color options. To our surprise, the process did not take as long as I imagined. I landed on 4 main colors for our Ceramic Pro/JIMGLO wrap. For our base color, Ceramic Pro had asked us to make sure that we do a Matte finish to show the strength and power of the Ceramic Pro PPF & Vinyl coating. Myself being the boujee type I am, KPMF K75574 Matte Pink/White Starlight was my chosen color the base layer. In simpler terms, the name means that the vinyl is a matte white base but has an awesome pink metallic shift. If you move your head and eyes back and forth, the car changes from white to pink with a dramatic sparkle effect.

For our grey stripe, we decided to keep it basic to hopefully show that Ceramic Pro would indeed work on a normal, gloss like color. Orafol 970RA 076 Gloss Telegrey was my choice for our grey stripe.

Next up was our pink stripe and you all KNOW I had to go ALL out for this one. I told Jessica I wanted a pink that matched the Ceramic Pro logo but it had to be the most stand out color. We unanimously agreed with Hexis HX20RINB Gloss Indian Rose Pink which ended up being my favorite part on this wrap. The color features a strong pink with a crazy amount of silver flake. When hit with direct sunlight, the color shimmers back and forth!

For our front and rear bumpers, Ceramic Pro and I decided it would be a great idea to wrap them entirely in Avery SW900 Textured Carbon Fiber Premium Film. This vinyl is extremely thick, course and we wanted to see if the coating would penetrate the vinyl and keep it protected. Additionally, all of the decal stickers were cut in the carbon fiber-like vinyl.

Lastly, I gave Jessica and Mike free reign on my helmet design and they did not disappoint! They matched my wrap around the helmet with the same materials used on my car. My last name is displayed prominently on each side with our FFP logo on the rear. The carbon fiber wrap was a nice touch on the top of the visor with the Ceramic Pro logo.

Now that all our bases were covered it was time to get down and dirty with the vinyl wrap install. While Jessica got the plotter warmed up and ready, Micheal got busy and disassembled our front bumper, doors, and rear bumper. These two take their jobs extremely serious. Check out these diagrams Jessica created that displays the exact square footage of vinyl needed to wrap our Mustang.

Since we filmed the entire install, I got to witness every step of this complicated process. Jessica started by attacking the doors and laying down that beautiful white starlight material. With teamwork, Mike and the team laid down a giant, single piece of carbon fiber vinyl over our GT350 front bumper. From there, the team of 3 found their rhythm. The doors and hood happened quick, next were the hips of our Mustang. Our car was really starting to transform at this point.

Every part of the car that needed to be white was completed, it was time for Jessica and Mike’s expert skills to come in to play. I watched as they both carefully laid down their knifeless tape on the rear bumper and quarter panels. To my surprise, the process of laying the additional vinyl looks very rough and almost uncoordinated, but once the tape was removed, it revealed the final design. The torches were brought out and the vinyl was one with our Mustang in perfect form. From the front fenders all the way to the back of the side skirt, Mike carefully laid knifeless tape, not once, not twice but three times to create our 3 stripe design. I seriously had my jaw on the floor as he was literally drawing the design on my Mustang BY HAND.

Fast forward a few days later, the final touches were being applied. Each decal was laid by hand with exact measurements to ensure both the driver and passenger side matched according. Finally stepping back and taking it all in for the time was such a gratifying feeling. The entire time I was just thinking to myself “wow, I can’t believe we actually got past the first step of this program”. Walking around the car, you’ll immediately notice the white to pink hue shift. Your head will bobble back and forth as try and figure out what the main color is. As you keep exploring, you’ll notice the euro flow of the pink, grey and carbon stripe. Don’t let the fender fool you because that is real carbon! As I’ve always told everyone, every sticker on this car has its own story to tell. It’s been 3 years and 8 months since the purchase of our Mustang and we’re proud to promote and support the sponsors that have stuck with us since day one.

Now that our Mustang is back in our hands, it’s time to get only HALF OF THIS WRAP PROTECTED. You heard me right, we will only be coating HALF of our Mustang in Ceramic Pro PPF & Vinyl to see if this ceramic coating will actually hold up to the race track and harsh environments. I bet you think I’m crazy but I’ve just got to know if the hype behind these ceramic coatings is real. Our good friends over at Hyer Quality Detail, a certified Ceramic Pro Autospa, will be applying the 50/50 coating. After letting the coating cure for a full week, our Mustang will be going back under the knife to receive some much needed “track-ready” modifications for our highly anticipated Autoclub Speedway showing. The track day will be taking place on August 17th and 18th. Free rides in our Mustang are highly encouraged! If you’re in the area, feel free to stop by our pit to have a chat with us.

Social Media
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ffperformanceaz/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ffperformanceaz/
Youtube: https://youtube.com/thefunctionfactoryaz

Sponsors
Ceramic Pro
JIMGLO Trailers
Full-Race Motorsports
Turbonetics
Toyo Tires
Competition Clutch
Ksport USA
Diode Dynamics
Anderson Composites
Mackin Industries
Hyer Quality Detail
Tomei
Voodoo13
Motul
Brey Krause
Street Faction
Vixen Vinyl
WrapseshAZ