My supervisor has half of his hood done on his black Lexus car, and it looks good.
You can hardly see it.

There is a video at the Xpel site showing a piece of metal half treated with the film, then they pelter it with gravel from a machine.
http://www.xpel.com/

I take it this has to be pro installed?
I may look into it for the FJ, as right now the hood shield Toyota has for it is available only in Canda until around fall in the states.
Here are three shots of it, very nice.
http://www.pnw4runners.com/fj/P5050004Medium.jpg
http://www.pnw4runners.com/fj/P5050002Medium.jpg
http://www.pnw4runners.com/fj/P5050001Medium.jpg

Is the Xpel very expensive?
I see Griot's carries some film from 2" to 4" wide that you can run over the leading edge of the hood, but I would rather have more protection than that.

I do hope though that Lund or Toyota gets their act together and get us some hood shields here in the states.
With the FJs window being near verticle, I have read the windows can crack very easily from rock chips.
The hood shield would help a little with that.

 

corey,

i have it on my hood. i applied it. its not a perfect application, but close enough for me. i would recommend that you have it professionally installed. on my wife's lexus, we had the entire front hood, the plastic valence and hte mirrors done for about $500. you cnat even tell unless you are close up

bob

 

Thanks Bob, yeah my boss had the underside of his mirrors done too.

He does the same as me when it comes to waxing.
He has the Porter Cable, and clays with it and waxes it with the same Griot's stuff I use as far as clay & wax go.

His really shines.

 

I run xpel on my 04 Dcab and like you said you hardly notice it, I also run the headlight shields which I hope will delay the scraches and yellowing of the plastic headlight. The headlight shields were why I chose Xpel and not 3M. I do recomend that you have it done by some one that has done it before, it is doable but there are little tricks that makes the installation go better and look better. The stuff has already saved me from some major dings.