I've had most painted surfaces covered with a "low tack" vinyl for the last 6 months to protect from scratching while I climb all over doing the wiring. I noticed that the vinyl was getting a little brittle and more and more difficult to remove lately, so I decided I'd better just remove it before it became a permanent fixture. I still want long-term protection on the canopy deck since I've seen that those tend to get really beat up on flying planes. I purchased some 3M paint protection film (the stuff used as rock chip protection on the bumpers of cars) which I'll wrap the canopy deck with. There's definitely a learning curve for applying the stuff. I made the recommended "slip/tack solution" out of water, dish soap and isopropyl alcohol and sprayed the surfaces with it as well as the PPF. That allows you to slide the film around before using a squeegee to tack it down. I got the left side done. It's fiddly, and I made some goofy cuts to trim it around the pieces that are attached to the canopy deck, but I'd say it's good enough. It should keep the paint from getting beat up and chipping. The PPF is supposed to last about 10 years, at which point you can peel it off and redo it. I did end up with some bubbles due to technique, but for the most part it's an invisible cover and the paint looks great through it. I'll put the PPF on both sides for the canopy to rest on, and I think I'll also do the lower half of the walls of the baggage area.
That's when things went South. I'm not sure what the story is with the paint on the baggage floor, but it's a wreck. The vinyl was really stuck to it. I used a tiny bit of heat to ease pulling it up, but by the time I was done I had pulled up a few patches of paint and in other areas I had created paint bubbles where it didn't pull off but had obviously pulled away from the metal. Very disheartening, although I'm not surprised. This paint has been problematic since the get go. Thankfully it's just the baggage floor. I'm not sure if I'll cover it with the same clear PPF or just leave it. The problem with the PPF is it doesn't stretch as well as the thinner "car wrap" vinyl (very different than the cheap vinyl I had on up to this point), so I don't think it would lay down very well over the pop rivet heads on the baggage floor. Regular car wrap would be able to conform to the rivets with the addition of heat. The car wrap is really just made to change the color of a car, so doesn't provide nearly the same level of protection as PPF, but it would still help to keep the paint from pealing away any more.
I'm not too worried about the aesthetics of the baggage area, just protection from long-term damage. I grabbed the carpet I bought from Classic Aero to see what the fit is like. It's a perfect match to the baggage floor, so at least my perfectionist side won't have to stare at bad paint forever. If I put some better quality vinyl down under the carpet, I think it'll all be fine. They make the car wrap vinyl in every color imaginable, so I can probably even find some dark grey to compliment the paint. If I had it to do all over again I'd skip painting the entire interior and just use the car wrap vinyl over the primer. Next plane.
