California’s Aerowerkz Motorsports had its work cut out in February, when a 1/1 Pagani Zonda AY rolled into the shop. This ultra-rare special edition of the Pagani Zonda proved to be a challenging installation.
One of One
Over the course of a week, Aerowerkz Motorsports team members, including owner Philip Chan, manager James Vong, PPF and wrap installer David Castillo and PPF installer Larry Li, helped bulk-install STEK DYNOshield paint protection film (PPF) on the Zonda.
“It is very hard to compare to any other cars,” Chan says. “It does have way more aerodynamic parts compared to normal road vehicles. We’ve done the Bugatti Divo and this is much harder than that.”
Chan and his team used the following tools to reach the finish line: STEK’s pink squeegees, metal Olfa knives, 30-degree carbon blades, clear transfer tape, Johnson’s shampoo and STEK installation gel.
A Group Effort
“The most difficult part of the installation was not leaving any stretch marks behind,” says Chan, who completed 60% of the car while working with team members. “It is a transparent color shifting clear coat on top of exposed carbon fiber. The finish is extreme high gloss with no orange peel. Any debris/stretch marks /silvering will show. There is a lot of curvy big panels that require a lot of stretching. And a lot of aerodynamic body kit or panels that are very hard to reach. A lot of parts are one-off for this vehicle. And we had a very small window for this car due to transportation.”
Chan and his team bulked most of the panels, making customized patterns for certain hard-to-reach and hard-to-cut areas. The project required removing the spoiler, headlight and the canards.
What advice does he have for others who work on a Zonda? “Plan ahead and work with your team,” Chan says. “It will require a lot of bulking and cutting onto the panels. Only highly-trained installers should work on this type of vehicle. We have different teams—we started from the front with certain installers focused on the aero kits. I mainly tackled the big panels, and my other installers focused on the time-consuming small parts.”
Please contact editor Chris Collier at ccollier@glass.com if you’d like to participate in this series. And check out the series’ first three entries below.
• PPF Projects: The 2022 Toyota Tundra
