Had Full Xpel Ultimate PPF Done - Need Opinions on the work done

[Lorne34]

I have done PPF in a lot of cars (GT350, ZR1, GT3RS). I have used several different installers and here is my summary of years of dealing with PPF:

- It has advantages and some pretty distinct disadvantages
- No install was perfect. A true perfect installation is cost prohibitive as it requires them to disassemble all trim pieces and custom cut film. The cost for this is 2-3x labor than regular template based film
- Its true that film gives you piece of mind but its not as practical as the paint. Meaning, to remove/reapply PPF isnt as easy as you think. I have seen many, many, MANY installers talk about paint peeling off (in Porsches, Corvettes, BMWs) even with using steamers. They blame bad paint from factory, the manufacturer does not warranty the work, so you are fucked. I am talking about 4 different installers over a 3 year period on 5 different brands. So it can happen to anyone.
- If you need any paint work on the car, you must remove all the ppf on surrounding panels to blend the paint.
- The edges of PPF turn into black borders with dirt. No way around it. I have tried various approaches like washing it weekly, using a brush, etc. but its so much headache
- you cant polish off ppf as you can a clear coat to remove scratches etc. this self healing film thing is a BS. I have accumulated 150,000 miles with PPF and not once I could take advantage of this. I have lots of scratches (due to dirt getting stuck on a wash mitt during wash) that I am staring at.

I would still cover cars where panels are CF. The ZR1/GT3RS hoods cost over $15,000 (no its not a typo). The wing cost $5,000, front splitter $4,000. In these cases, $500 per panel is worth as insurance. But for GT350, I would not PPF it at all.

I have to agree with you on some of this. I have had 2 other Mustang's with PPF and both times it was a good install, but I still was not 100% happy with how it looked. I had several areas that got hit where the ppf buckled and created a bump in the ppf which I would run my wash mitt over. It's a delicate balance between wanting to protect the car, but having to deal with the dirt lines, etc...
I did not do the whole vehicle on my two previous models because I saw a Dodge Challenger with a full wrap and the lines and break points just didn't appeal to me.
I decided to go with full top of the line Gtechniq ceramic on my 350 and skip the ppf. I will deal with chips as they come. I also purchased track armor tape for track days and long trips so that I can protect it in those situations.
I do feel for the original poster... I don't understand why any business would immediately get defensive about their work unless of course they do shitty work and are always battling with customers.
I think going up the chain to Xpel Corp is the way to go, if someone did a shoddy job, gave me a hard time about even brining it in and was not courteous and attentive to my needs there is NO WAY I would have them touch the car again....

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[UnhandledException]

Not true. Whereas it was more expensive, the manufacturer showed me what is possible without removing large parts. Yes some disassembly is required (5.0 logos for example) but nothing major. If someone is requiring that, then they aren't following manufacturer recommended installation methods

It is true.

XPEL is in TX (and I see in your location as TX). That's a different world you live in (and I did live in TX so I speak from experience) vs where I live (expensive Northeast) or California. Where there are more people with money (to throw away), there is a tendency to "not care" about this. Same can be said about sh!tty car dealers. You have a $250,000 Porsche and the service technicians treat it worse than a Ford technician treats a GT350 in midwest (both I am speaking based on personal experience). XPEL is no different. Over here the cost of install of a shitty installer is more than the cost of the great installer there.

I paid over $6000 for ZR1 for full coverage (and I paid $4000 for about 60% of GT3RS as front was already wrapped). The ZR1 was done 2 years ago (right now quotes are around $7500) and the installation was 5/10. I paid around $3800 for the GT350 for 60% of the car 5 years ago. That was the worst install (I had to go back 7-8 times). XPEL corporate has 0 power over the installers (they will say go to small claims court). Its no different than Ford corporate having no power over Ford dealers.

I have now done this for so long with so many installers that I know its not the fault of that one particular installer. The fact is, these "volume" installers living in high cost locations (NY/NJ/CT/CA/etc) can only earn a decent living by doing many cars. They rush rush and rush some more. I have spent enough time watching them (have you?) because I had to take my cars back so many times to fix lifting edges, misalignments, bubbles, dirt under, etc that I realize there is no way to make it right without spending an arm and a leg.

Somewhere midway of my XPEL journey, I got frustrated and I have spoken to so many "good installers" in so many different parts of the country that I know in a region like mine where most owners of these cars in the top 2% earning bracket of the country, you have to pay insane amounts of money (i.e. ZR1 for $12,500-$14,000) to do a "right" install. There are these "good" installers in further inland where they charge less ($9000) but now you have to ship your car to them and back, its a wash at the end (and other headaches).

It's utter bullshit and XPEL allows it. They should have a quality control process where they not only enforce some standard pricing but also can penalize dealers (by enforcing X% refunds on installs and kicking them out temporarily if multiple violations happen).

And I want to also emphasize that you should watch XPEL being REMOVED on a car - not on some youtube video, but in person. Stop looking at pictures of prior installs, thats the best case scenario. Worry about the worst case - what if you have to remove/replace it? You will cringe. You will get goose bumps as if its your own car and be like W T F. It has the most powerful glue and it does pull the paint from time to time. And you ask the question point blank to the installers, they say "there is never any guarantee, it happens from time to time. Its a risk you take going through this" - gee whiz.

On that note, there is no chance it will not pull the vinyl stripe. So the point of protecting the precious vinyl stripe (which costs $595) with a $$$$ worth of XPEL (if you did hood/trunk/roof/bumper - thats $4500) is really retarded considering you would have to reapply the stripe. On that note, good luck reapplying part of the stripe and match the gaps/straightness/etc to the stripe thats on the car.

All of these "theories" of what XPEL does is too artificial. In reality, its just not practical. The only thing it does is it gives you piece of mind. You are either staring at paint chips or rips in XPEL. Both look equally bad. One blends in with the rest of the car, the other looks unoriginal.

I have now spent around $20,000 of my own money to XPEL. I am not some armchair theorist here badmouthing it. It is not worth it unless you are trying to protect some $15,000+ CF panel. Too many things that can go wrong (and they do) and no skilled installers that you can afford. Paying $12-14k on an install is insane even for a $250,000 car.

 

[StangRS]

Why do you say their templates don't allow for wrapping over the edges? Of course they do. This is purely the installer over cutting or not stretching it properly. I posted pics of mine done which clearly shows the contrary.

I can't remember the exact video I saw it in, but I was watching some videos by chicago auto pros, which seem to have a faily decent rep based on what I've read and heard, and they mention that the templates don't go beyond the panels in most cases. A good shop will take the template from xpel and extend the edges by 1-2 inches or so in order to achieve this. In this video they at least mention templates not covering over the edges:

My OCD would not let me live with that. looks horrible at any cost.
I would not have any faith in their ability to correct the job as there are just too many blatant flaws.... making me question their ability to do any better.
Only option for me would be complete removal and the shop should refund the entire labour portion of the invoice. Id be willing to eat the cost of the material.

I definitely have my concerns... I am taking it by tomorrow to point everything out and determine the options.

That looks like your car in their gallery on the website.

Yep, that's my boy alright.

 

[OGsmakDadE]

Man I wouldn’t have accepted the work, period. Good luck with these guys, but I have a feeling you’ll be calling the manufacturer…

 

[Michael_vroomvroom]

On that note, there is no chance it will not pull the vinyl stripe. So the point of protecting the precious vinyl stripe (which costs $595) with a $$$$ worth of XPEL (if you did hood/trunk/roof/bumper - thats $4500) is really retarded considering you would have to reapply the stripe. On that note, good luck reapplying part of the stripe and match the gaps/straightness/etc to the stripe thats on the car.

I would not apply PPF over stripes myself as they are cheap and easy enough to replace if necessary, and PPF does nothing to improve the look. Matching stripes on one panel to the stripes on the rest of the car is easy enough though. I've seen my own stripes done twice already at a shop that I would only rate as mid-range, without problems, so I would not worry much about that.

For the more expensive and complicated mach1 hood decal it makes sense to protect it with PPF IMO, unless you have access to cheap replacement mach1 hood decals. You will then only need to reapply the decal after the PPF has been broken through, at which point you may well have to repaint the hood also. Leave the mach1 decal on top of the PPF, and you may have to reapply the not so cheap mach1 decal several times during the lifetime of the PPF.

 

[Lorne34]

I would not apply PPF over stripes myself as they are cheap and easy enough to replace if necessary, and PPF does nothing to improve the look. Matching stripes on one panel to the stripes on the rest of the car is easy enough though. I've seen my own stripes done twice already at a shop that I would only rate as mid-range, without problems, so I would not worry much about that.

For the more expensive and complicated mach1 hood decal it makes sense to protect it with PPF IMO, unless you have access to cheap replacement mach1 hood decals. You will then only need to reapply the decal after the PPF has been broken through, at which point you may well have to repaint the hood also. Leave the mach1 decal on top of the PPF, and you may have to reapply the not so cheap mach1 decal several times during the lifetime of the PPF.

I agree, I see my stripes as PPF... if I really like them I will eventually get them painted..

 

[GoBlueGT350]

Where did you have this done? Completely unacceptable job, they should NEVER have gone over the stripes with one piece of film.

Installers make ALL of the difference when it comes to PPF. If it is all feasible I would go to Larry and Jenn at Clear Auto Bra Michigan: http://www.norockchips.com/ and have them take a look.

I've had them do both of my cars including the entire front end of the GT350 and they do simply outstanding work and stand behind it. My hood has a separate piece of Xpel film for each stripe and in between to avoid that air gap that will worsen as you go forward, same for the front bumper sections. The installs on both of my vehicles have been flawless and based on the clients vehicles shipped in from around the country to their shop, their work is second to none.

If I were you I would not take my vehicle back to that original shop and would go to someone who is truly an expert in the field. Feel free to PM me if you want more info on my experience with them.

 

[CANTWN4LSN]

Certainly am ignorant on installing PPF. But had mine done with one piece Suntek on entire hood including stripes and 4 years later remains impeccable with no lift or air gaps. Therefore wonder why you say stripes need to be covered separately. Removing the PPF I suppose could be a different story if needs to be done.

 

[Postal Bob]

Certainly am ignorant on installing PPF. But had mine done with one piece Suntek on entire hood including stripes and 4 years later remains impeccable with no lift or air gaps. Therefore wonder why you say stripes need to be covered separately. Removing the PPF I suppose could be a different story if needs to be done.

A lot depends on the color of the car. The air gaps are less noticeable on lighter colored cars. I have a black car, and my installer said to definitely not cover over the stripe with one big piece, as you'd see what looks like a white line along the edge of the stripe.

 

[StangRS]

Here's another update: Last week I was told I could go in the 11th or 12th because the owner should have time then. I called the 12th and he told me that he would be out of town, but would be back Monday or Tuesday... Just my luck we lost power due to a big storm on the 11th, which remained this way for 3 days and as a result my sump pump overflowed and flooded my basement. wooooo. Needless to say, PPF was not my priority for a few days...

Fast forward to Tuesday, I call and he says he isn't back yet and to come Wednesday, which brings me to today. I got there and the guy was mostly defensive. He agreed that the peeling bits were bad (to be fair he told me to bring it back after 2 weeks of taking it home to allow the ppf to dry out and to see if anything needs to be fixed or redone), but mostly made excuses. Multiple times he used the phrase "ppf is protection, not perfection" or something along those lines and that to obtain "perfection" it would be a full custom wrap vs using the templates, which would cost a lot more. Personally I don't fully buy it. IMO better work could have been done, including fully extending the film over edges which were easy to access (eg the trunk lid). I also pointed out my disappointment with them proceeding to not pull off the badges/door handles when doing my car to prevent seams from showing. He did not agree to redo it and simply said to keep it clean and it would be fine. To prevent further pulling back of the existing film he trimmed off the hanging film carefully with an xacto knife.

He told me to bring my car by next Tuesday and he would "go over it with a fine tooth comb" to make sure there are no major issues left and if anything needed to be redone they would do it. I have my doubts that anything would be redone. We shall see... It basically wasn't worth arguing over as it was clear they weren't going to do much else.

 

[Shift]

Here's another update: Last week I was told I could go in the 11th or 12th because the owner should have time then. I called the 12th and he told me that he would be out of town, but would be back Monday or Tuesday... Just my luck we lost power due to a big storm on the 11th, which remained this way for 3 days and as a result my sump pump overflowed and flooded my basement. wooooo. Needless to say, PPF was not my priority for a few days...

Fast forward to Tuesday, I call and he says he isn't back yet and to come Wednesday, which brings me to today. I got there and the guy was mostly defensive. He agreed that the peeling bits were bad (to be fair he told me to bring it back after 2 weeks of taking it home to allow the ppf to dry out and to see if anything needs to be fixed or redone), but mostly made excuses. Multiple times he used the phrase "ppf is protection, not perfection" or something along those lines and that to obtain "perfection" it would be a full custom wrap vs using the templates, which would cost a lot more. Personally I don't fully buy it. IMO better work could have been done, including fully extending the film over edges which were easy to access (eg the trunk lid). I also pointed out my disappointment with them proceeding to not pull off the badges/door handles when doing my car to prevent seams from showing. He did not agree to redo it and simply said to keep it clean and it would be fine. To prevent further pulling back of the existing film he trimmed off the hanging film carefully with an xacto knife.

He told me to bring my car by next Tuesday and he would "go over it with a fine tooth comb" to make sure there are no major issues left and if anything needed to be redone they would do it. I have my doubts that anything would be redone. We shall see... It basically wasn't worth arguing over as it was clear they weren't going to do much else.

Im not one to say this, but can you fucking sue the shop to get your money back? Fucking $7000 for a piss poor job, and absolutely NO after sale support.

That is money down the god damn drain. My friends $1000 front end PPF job looked better than this, and his PPF did not extend over the edges, but at least they were nice, clean straight lines.

 

[CJJon]

Here's another update: Last week I was told I could go in the 11th or 12th because the owner should have time then. I called the 12th and he told me that he would be out of town, but would be back Monday or Tuesday... Just my luck we lost power due to a big storm on the 11th, which remained this way for 3 days and as a result my sump pump overflowed and flooded my basement. wooooo. Needless to say, PPF was not my priority for a few days...

Fast forward to Tuesday, I call and he says he isn't back yet and to come Wednesday, which brings me to today. I got there and the guy was mostly defensive. He agreed that the peeling bits were bad (to be fair he told me to bring it back after 2 weeks of taking it home to allow the ppf to dry out and to see if anything needs to be fixed or redone), but mostly made excuses. Multiple times he used the phrase "ppf is protection, not perfection" or something along those lines and that to obtain "perfection" it would be a full custom wrap vs using the templates, which would cost a lot more. Personally I don't fully buy it. IMO better work could have been done, including fully extending the film over edges which were easy to access (eg the trunk lid). I also pointed out my disappointment with them proceeding to not pull off the badges/door handles when doing my car to prevent seams from showing. He did not agree to redo it and simply said to keep it clean and it would be fine. To prevent further pulling back of the existing film he trimmed off the hanging film carefully with an xacto knife.

He told me to bring my car by next Tuesday and he would "go over it with a fine tooth comb" to make sure there are no major issues left and if anything needed to be redone they would do it. I have my doubts that anything would be redone. We shall see... It basically wasn't worth arguing over as it was clear they weren't going to do much else.

A full custom wrap would cost a lot more than $7K? WTF? That is repaint money territory right there.

Hopefully you paid with a CC. Call them and dispute the charge.

 

[Blwnsmoke]

Here's another update: Last week I was told I could go in the 11th or 12th because the owner should have time then. I called the 12th and he told me that he would be out of town, but would be back Monday or Tuesday... Just my luck we lost power due to a big storm on the 11th, which remained this way for 3 days and as a result my sump pump overflowed and flooded my basement. wooooo. Needless to say, PPF was not my priority for a few days...

Fast forward to Tuesday, I call and he says he isn't back yet and to come Wednesday, which brings me to today. I got there and the guy was mostly defensive. He agreed that the peeling bits were bad (to be fair he told me to bring it back after 2 weeks of taking it home to allow the ppf to dry out and to see if anything needs to be fixed or redone), but mostly made excuses. Multiple times he used the phrase "ppf is protection, not perfection" or something along those lines and that to obtain "perfection" it would be a full custom wrap vs using the templates, which would cost a lot more. Personally I don't fully buy it. IMO better work could have been done, including fully extending the film over edges which were easy to access (eg the trunk lid). I also pointed out my disappointment with them proceeding to not pull off the badges/door handles when doing my car to prevent seams from showing. He did not agree to redo it and simply said to keep it clean and it would be fine. To prevent further pulling back of the existing film he trimmed off the hanging film carefully with an xacto knife.

He told me to bring my car by next Tuesday and he would "go over it with a fine tooth comb" to make sure there are no major issues left and if anything needed to be redone they would do it. I have my doubts that anything would be redone. We shall see... It basically wasn't worth arguing over as it was clear they weren't going to do much else.

Without question, take them to court for your money back. It's a piss poor job. Just his responses alone tell you exactly how this is going to go. Many of us have already posted pictures of our jobs done and they are nearly perfect. I can't find 1 single issue with mine. My vehicle was done with the templates. This was them not stretching it and cutting it too short.

Heck, you have enough pictures in this thread of other cars with the same product showing his job is absolutely horrible.

 

[DougS550]

Without question, take them to court for your money back. It's a piss poor job. Just his responses alone tell you exactly how this is going to go. Many of us have already posted pictures of our jobs done and they are nearly perfect. I can't find 1 single issue with mine. My vehicle was done with the templates. This was them not stretching it and cutting it too short.

Hey. Did he say, "NO-Major Issues"?. man you need to make sure this guy meant: "NO-Issues, Minor, Major, Cosmetic, "ALL". I mean that is a allot of money for a rap, but since you paid for it, get it Done OEM Perfect. Good Luck

 

[derand]

Here's another update: Last week I was told I could go in the 11th or 12th because the owner should have time then. I called the 12th and he told me that he would be out of town, but would be back Monday or Tuesday... Just my luck we lost power due to a big storm on the 11th, which remained this way for 3 days and as a result my sump pump overflowed and flooded my basement. wooooo. Needless to say, PPF was not my priority for a few days...

Fast forward to Tuesday, I call and he says he isn't back yet and to come Wednesday, which brings me to today. I got there and the guy was mostly defensive. He agreed that the peeling bits were bad (to be fair he told me to bring it back after 2 weeks of taking it home to allow the ppf to dry out and to see if anything needs to be fixed or redone), but mostly made excuses. Multiple times he used the phrase "ppf is protection, not perfection" or something along those lines and that to obtain "perfection" it would be a full custom wrap vs using the templates, which would cost a lot more. Personally I don't fully buy it. IMO better work could have been done, including fully extending the film over edges which were easy to access (eg the trunk lid). I also pointed out my disappointment with them proceeding to not pull off the badges/door handles when doing my car to prevent seams from showing. He did not agree to redo it and simply said to keep it clean and it would be fine. To prevent further pulling back of the existing film he trimmed off the hanging film carefully with an xacto knife.

He told me to bring my car by next Tuesday and he would "go over it with a fine tooth comb" to make sure there are no major issues left and if anything needed to be redone they would do it. I have my doubts that anything would be redone. We shall see... It basically wasn't worth arguing over as it was clear they weren't going to do much else.

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