Clear wrap disaster, resolution, and advice sought

[derand]

ATTENTION DERAND, CALLING DERAND!

Strap in fellas, this one is a doozie...

I haven't been on the forum all week as I've been terribly depressed. I dropped off my brand new GT350R at "the best wrap shop in town" to have a full clear wrap and Modesta BC-04 applied while I was on vacation. I picked the car up on Tuesday and this is what I found:

How much did this cost me? $5400. Yup. That price included rolling edges that you can see aren’t rolled, wrapping the spoiler, etc. Perfection is impossible, and I really don't want it anyway as these cars comes from the factory kinda wonky. But that's a bad wrap job at any price, and it damaged original manufacture.

The shop has 4+ star reviews on Yelp, Facebook, and plenty of great reviews on every car forum I've been able to find. I've seen their work first hand and it was the reason I chose them. They do 918s, GT3 RS, Aventadors, etc.

As you can see there wasn't a straight edge or edge that runs parallel to the bodywork anywhere on the car. Cuts are terribly jagged. It's obvious that a razor was used AGAINST THE CLEAR COAT as the paint is scratched. There was hair, dirt, etc. under the wrap.

Worst of all, for some reason they applied 5-pieces of film to the hood, roof, and trunk each. The car has stripes which we agreed to cover with one whole sheet. There's no reason to cover the painted section separate from the striped section unless you've got matte stripes. They cut the edges by hand while on the car, including into the stripes. The 5 pieces wouldn’t even be that bad if they had been machine cut, but the hand cuts are beyond wavy.

I kinda lost my shit. I was sort of able to hide it, but I'm 6'4" and 215lbs and when my hands start to shake and my voice begins to tremble it's pretty obvious that I'm not OK with this. Bad words were said.

I spoke to the manager. I provided dozens of pictures to the owner. I did a 15 minute video walk around identifying all of the issues.

They owned up to it. The owner of the shop isn't involved in the day-to-day to the best of my knowledge, but clearly it's his call on how to proceed. The manager and the client-facing guy admitted that this was not up to their standards and promised that they'd make things right. I asked the two guys independently what happened, and they were embarrassed and surprised. I don’t know the details of who the hell was working on the car, but it wasn’t their top guy clearly. A guy that runs a competing shop got wind of this and made some calls. According to him the tint guy did the PPF, but I don’t know what the truth is.

My e-mail to the owner, manager, and client-facing guy:

I will give SHOP the opportunity to correct this to my satisfaction. That means that that car needs to be restored to the condition it was in when I delivered it to you:

• All of the film needs to removed by SHOP as there isn’t a single satisfactory application on any body panel, and the current film is obscuring potential paint damage.
• Any damage to the paint needs to be repaired at SHOP’s cost.
• Damaged OEM stripes need to be replaced at SHOP’s cost, including those that might be damaged by removing the film or repairing the paint.

As agreed, the immediate next step is to remove the film to inspect underneath and understand the extent of any paint and stripe damage. I will be present during the film removal to document the condition of the car. All steps after that will depend on what we find under the film.

They agreed. So what did we find under the film? The trunk and hood stripes are fucked and have to be replaced. The clear coat is lightly stratched along the stripe lines on the trunk and the hood, and in a few other spots, but it’s not so deep that a polish won’t fix it. To my surprise, the film was removed without damaging the undamaged stripes, which is good news, I guess.

The car is back in my possession, unwrapped, and damaged. The damage is fixable without having to add paint, but it’s damaged.

My next move is yet to be decided.

Option 1) Get the shop to do it again. Correct the paint, replace the stripes, and put one piece each on the hood, roof, trunk. The shop is collocated with the best detail shop in town (another reason I picked them) who has agreed to do the paint correction, and I trust that they’ll do it right. I’m pretty sure that the shop won’t screw it up this time and will put the guy that does Aventador/918/458 wraps on the job, so I have a reasonable expectation that the job will be done correctly. It's in their interest to knock this out of the park.

Option 2) Get my money back, have somebody else correct the paint, reapply the stripes, and wrap the car, and have the first shop reimburse me for parts and labor.

I’m leaning towards Option 1. Everything about this points to it being an anomaly. Bad job, bad quality control, bad client management, but an anomaly nonetheless. Even the guy from the competing shop vouched for the integrity and quality of the offending shop.

I don’t harbor any ill will, I just want my car to be done to my satisfaction and to receive a quality of work commensurate with its cost.

Fuck me. I need a drink

Sorry to see that mess wow that is going to cost them big time I'm sure he cut on the car also.

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[ForTehNguyen]

that is some awful worksmanship. Why even cut this stuff by hand, the shop I used had a plotter the cut the stencils perfect

 

[EF300]

Hey dont forget old reliable.

Flaming bag of dog poo on the front door step. Ring bell and run !

 

[machsmith]

Man... sorry about this crap. I swear im gonna camp out at my installers and watch their every damn move. For 5500 it better be perfection.

 

[ForTehNguyen]

I would run from this place and find a place that has a plotter

 

[derand]

ATTENTION DERAND, CALLING DERAND!

Strap in fellas, this one is a doozie...

I haven't been on the forum all week as I've been terribly depressed. I dropped off my brand new GT350R at "the best wrap shop in town" to have a full clear wrap and Modesta BC-04 applied while I was on vacation. I picked the car up on Tuesday and this is what I found:

How much did this cost me? $5400. Yup. That price included rolling edges that you can see aren’t rolled, wrapping the spoiler, etc. Perfection is impossible, and I really don't want it anyway as these cars comes from the factory kinda wonky. But that's a bad wrap job at any price, and it damaged original manufacture.

The shop has 4+ star reviews on Yelp, Facebook, and plenty of great reviews on every car forum I've been able to find. I've seen their work first hand and it was the reason I chose them. They do 918s, GT3 RS, Aventadors, etc.

As you can see there wasn't a straight edge or edge that runs parallel to the bodywork anywhere on the car. Cuts are terribly jagged. It's obvious that a razor was used AGAINST THE CLEAR COAT as the paint is scratched. There was hair, dirt, etc. under the wrap.

Worst of all, for some reason they applied 5-pieces of film to the hood, roof, and trunk each. The car has stripes which we agreed to cover with one whole sheet. There's no reason to cover the painted section separate from the striped section unless you've got matte stripes. They cut the edges by hand while on the car, including into the stripes. The 5 pieces wouldn’t even be that bad if they had been machine cut, but the hand cuts are beyond wavy.

I kinda lost my shit. I was sort of able to hide it, but I'm 6'4" and 215lbs and when my hands start to shake and my voice begins to tremble it's pretty obvious that I'm not OK with this. Bad words were said.

I spoke to the manager. I provided dozens of pictures to the owner. I did a 15 minute video walk around identifying all of the issues.

They owned up to it. The owner of the shop isn't involved in the day-to-day to the best of my knowledge, but clearly it's his call on how to proceed. The manager and the client-facing guy admitted that this was not up to their standards and promised that they'd make things right. I asked the two guys independently what happened, and they were embarrassed and surprised. I don’t know the details of who the hell was working on the car, but it wasn’t their top guy clearly. A guy that runs a competing shop got wind of this and made some calls. According to him the tint guy did the PPF, but I don’t know what the truth is.

My e-mail to the owner, manager, and client-facing guy:

I will give SHOP the opportunity to correct this to my satisfaction. That means that that car needs to be restored to the condition it was in when I delivered it to you:

• All of the film needs to removed by SHOP as there isn’t a single satisfactory application on any body panel, and the current film is obscuring potential paint damage.
• Any damage to the paint needs to be repaired at SHOP’s cost.
• Damaged OEM stripes need to be replaced at SHOP’s cost, including those that might be damaged by removing the film or repairing the paint.

As agreed, the immediate next step is to remove the film to inspect underneath and understand the extent of any paint and stripe damage. I will be present during the film removal to document the condition of the car. All steps after that will depend on what we find under the film.

They agreed. So what did we find under the film? The trunk and hood stripes are fucked and have to be replaced. The clear coat is lightly stratched along the stripe lines on the trunk and the hood, and in a few other spots, but it’s not so deep that a polish won’t fix it. To my surprise, the film was removed without damaging the undamaged stripes, which is good news, I guess.

The car is back in my possession, unwrapped, and damaged. The damage is fixable without having to add paint, but it’s damaged.

My next move is yet to be decided.

Option 1) Get the shop to do it again. Correct the paint, replace the stripes, and put one piece each on the hood, roof, trunk. The shop is collocated with the best detail shop in town (another reason I picked them) who has agreed to do the paint correction, and I trust that they’ll do it right. I’m pretty sure that the shop won’t screw it up this time and will put the guy that does Aventador/918/458 wraps on the job, so I have a reasonable expectation that the job will be done correctly. It's in their interest to knock this out of the park.

Option 2) Get my money back, have somebody else correct the paint, reapply the stripes, and wrap the car, and have the first shop reimburse me for parts and labor.

I’m leaning towards Option 1. Everything about this points to it being an anomaly. Bad job, bad quality control, bad client management, but an anomaly nonetheless. Even the guy from the competing shop vouched for the integrity and quality of the offending shop.

I don’t harbor any ill will, I just want my car to be done to my satisfaction and to receive a quality of work commensurate with its cost.

Fuck me. I need a drink

What I can see is the back was done by hand cause XPEL has no program for the rear of the car. Also no program for a one piece hood, you have to bulk the hood or have the Suntek program.

 

[PJR202]

In your situation, this is what I would do..

Get a full refund and ask to allow another shop to remove the film, even if you have to send pics to the first shop so they knew you took it off. DO NOT publicly bash the first shop. Get the money.

Take the car to another shop. Tell the story, let them take a really close look to see what can be done. I'd be willing to bet if they can do the work they'll go above and beyond to make it perfect. Not only will they be very sympathetic to your situation, but it's also a great opportunity for them to "show up" the other guys and get your ultimate review and recommendation to everyone (including mustang 6G).

As good as it is that the first shop is trying to make it right, they already made it wrong once on your very expensive, badass car. At this point, you need a hero. Let someone else put on their cape.

 

[Goofball]

In your situation, this is what I would do..

Get a full refund and ask to allow another shop to remove the film, even if you have to send pics to the first shop so they knew you took it off. DO NOT publicly bash the first shop. Get the money.

Take the car to another shop. Tell the story, let them take a really close look to see what can be done. I'd be willing to bet if they can do the work they'll go above and beyond to make it perfect. Not only will they be very sympathetic to your situation, but it's also a great opportunity for them to "show up" the other guys and get your ultimate review and recommendation to everyone (including mustang 6G).

As good as it is that the first shop is trying to make it right, they already made it wrong once on your very expensive, badass car. At this point, you need a hero. Let someone else put on their cape.

Well said sir. :cheers:

 

[CobraO]

Did you get a breakdown of those costs? Why was it so much?? I've called a couple places in Houston and the quote was about 1/2 that.

Sorry for the CF, I can't believe someone tried to pass that off as quality workmanship. Especially for that kind of $$$.

 

[1BlinkGone]

PJR202 has good wisdom. Having said that, I'm not sure I'd want these characters to even TOUCH my car again for Film removal. What else will they screw-up?

Do get proper paint-correction done before reinstalling new stuff. Take your time to find the right shop. I'm not in Texas, so those shops out here I'd immediately suggest with no reservation won't do you any good unless you have the car transported to them & back home. I wish you well and much success. Nice car!

 

[Armen]

I can't even imagine how someone looked over the car after doing that job and thought "Ya, this looks Ok." For that reason alone I'd be looking for money back and another installer.

 

[Lurker_350]

I would bring it to the XPEL headquarters here in San Antonio. You aren't that far (~ 3 hrs) and they do good work. PM me if you want contact details for one of their guys.

 

[Blaze489]

Are they one of the certified Xpel installers that are listed on the Xpel site? I found my shop through the Xpel site, and they had a plotter like others have said that make perfect cuts. When I went in to drop off my car, I saw them cutting a piece for corvette Z06.

 

[Spacebird]

Hey all, I appreciate the insight. Some updates since I last wrote:

The wrap has been removed so we could get a good look at the damage. The hood and trunk stripes have to be replaced. The rest are fine. There are some light scratches along the hood and trunk that will have to be polished out. With the stripes off this won't be too difficult. Honestly, I was expecting worse.

A fellow forum member wrote to say that he had his car wrapped at the same place and they did a great job. The other forum member’s job was also one piece over the stripes as it should be. This confirms the suspicion that they outsourced the job to somebody new who didn't know what he was doing. That doesn’t absolve the shop of anything of course. They shouldn’t have delivered it to me like that.

The shop is being pretty good about making things right. I’ve asked them for a full paint correction, replacement of the stripes, redo of the film, and then “something else”. If they simply fix the paint and stripes redo the film I’m back to where we should have been in the first place. I’ve been pretty inconvenienced by the whole thing, so I think it reasonable that I ask for some sort of goodwill gesture (they should have offered, but…).

They’re going to get back to me tomorrow. I’ll make a decision then. I remain on the fence about what to do.

 

[SoCalTim]

Glad to hear the shop are co-operating with the clean up.

That is truly one of the worst wrap jobs I've seen done to an enthusiasts car, and my initial thought was 'What, did they let the apprentice loose on this one?'... Doesn't look like the person applying the wrap had any clue what they were doing. Dirt under the film, non-rolled edges, jagged cut lines etc etc....very disheartening to see that level of work on such a stellar car.

I hope you get her back to pristine condition, sounds like a paint correction should get you back on track. As previously suggested, I would be inclined to request a full refund and have the wrap done elsewhere, but if you wish to let the shop have a second attempt then you are more forgiving than I am.

Best of luck with everything.

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