You can drive the car and have the film applied at your convenience. It takes about 3 hours of labor. If you did get a chip beforehand, it can be repaired quite easily if touchup paint is available. There are detailing methods whereby the chip is repaired with a bit of paint which is then higher than the surrounding area. Then this is leveled off after it's dry so that the repair is near perfect and level with the surrounding paint. The 3M film would lie flat, no question. You can do the 'langka" type approach yourself in a few minutes. I've done it on BMWs and it works fine. You don't even have to buy their stuff.