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Botched XPEL Stealth ppf installation. What are my options?

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So, I have a new model x which I went to get wrapped with xpel stealth, ceramic coated and tinted.

This is my first time getting such work done on my car and I'm not a happy camper. The tint has tons of bubbles and particles stuck between the tint and the window and there was a lot of the ppf (which wasn't wrapped around the edges btw) overlapping or starting to come up on the edges. I had sympathy for how hard it is to tint the front windshield so I let it go.

A few months later, a lot of the corners were popping up so I called to have them repair it. I picked the car up at night and then went back to work thinking I was taken care of. The next day, I go out to look at my car and I find, to my horror, all he did was cut away the flaps that were starting to pop off. Mostly this is benign except on the bumper where he cut off two 1 inch by 5 to 6 inch strips and worse left the adhesive behind which I'm sure will just collect mud and dirt.

I also talked to him on the cost of redoing the front bumper after the ppf has collected enough rock chips and he said he recommended against it because it may damage the paint. I'm so confused, I thought ppf was meant to be a sacrificial layer which can be removed and replaced after sufficient damage but now he's saying I can't do this?

Have I been bamboozled? I paid so much to protect the car, but now I have two huge exposed ugly gaps and I'm told I can't replace the ppf. Does this sound reasonable to you guys or were my expectations to high? Has anyone run into a situation like this before? What are my options? Can I take it to another ppf installer to get a second opinion and maybe get those two wholes patched? After this installer has done a subpar job so many times, I'm hesitant to get his help anymore.
 
Definitely take it somewhere else. Where are you located?
Nashville, TN. I'm just going down the list of installers on the xpel site. I'm new to all of this, so I'm not exactly sure the best way to sift out the bad apples from the good ones. The holes are on the inside of the left and right walls around the front vent of the car if that makes sense. Its not super noticable but def in prime rock chip positions. I can post images later. Hoping someone can just charge me to install some xpel stealth strips on the holes but if the whole bumper can be redone safely, then I'm okay with that too.
 
Nashville, TN. I'm just going down the list of installers on the xpel site. I'm new to all of this, so I'm not exactly sure the best way to sift out the bad apples from the good ones. The holes are on the inside of the left and right walls around the front vent of the car if that makes sense. Its not super noticable but def in prime rock chip positions. I can post images later. Hoping someone can just charge me to install some xpel stealth strips on the holes but if the whole bumper can be redone safely, then I'm okay with that too.
You definitely got a non-profesional job. His shop and his process was dirty. He does not know what he's talking about when saying taking the PPF off will ruin the paint. I know a thing or two about applying PPF because I did my 2022 MSLR myself: DIY PPF on 2022 Blue Model S
I did redo the hood, PPF comes off with hot water without messing up the paint. If you have the time, try it yourself.
 
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You definitely got a non-profesional job. His shop and his process was dirty. He does not know what he's talking about when saying taking the PPF off will ruin the paint. I know a thing or two about applying PPF because I did my 2022 MSLR myself: DIY PPF on 2022 Blue Model S
I did redo the hood, PPF comes off with hot water without messing up the paint. If you have the time, try it yourself.
That is really impressive, you said it comes off with just hot water? The first thing I tried after seeing the horrific adhesive residue left behind is a towel soaked in 175°F water and the adhesive did not seem to care at all. Do you have any tips on removing this adhesive residue the installer left behind?

If they were an authorized XPEL installer, I would maybe contact XPEL to see what their thoughts are on this? Not sure if they will reply or not though but worth a shot.
Thinking about this, in my experience complaints like this are forwarded to the company/person you are complaining about as well, so I feel like if I do this, I'll be burning bridges with this original shop. Which... may not matter because I do not trust them with my car anymore... anyways, I'd feel way better if I had another shop to take care of me before submitting a complaint to xpel.
 
Do you have any tips on removing this adhesive residue the installer left behind?
When i redid the hood i used hot water from a coffe pot. I put a towel on the car and poured the water over it. I bet you can find a youtube video as i did. To remove the glue get some isopropyl alcohol from the drug store. Mix it with water, I don't remember how much ... try 20% IPO. This is used just before PPF is applied to ensure the surface is grease free.
 
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First of all document EVERYTHING if the place did a poor job hold them accountable, AFTER documenting everything ask them To remedy the problems CORRECTLY.
If they refuse, contact Xpel with all your documentation if they are no help ( I believe they may help if they warrant the product ), if this does not work research small claims court procedures in your jurisdiction.
Do Not allow them to take advantage of you
 
I haz some pictures to share.

I hope I'm sharing these right, the first has an annotation showing the area on one side of the bumper with ppf which was half hazzardly torn off, he did the same to the other side of the bumper despite it not needing such treatment, maybe he hoped i wouldn't notice he just removed a foot of ppf in such a shitty manner. I also have some bonus pictures of the back truck area where he removed a few centimeters of ppf leaving behind a gross seam.
Remember the areas where he removed the ppf has a very gross rough, sticky residue left behind even though you can only see it in the upper part of the missing ppf on the first image.


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First of all document EVERYTHING if the place did a poor job hold them accountable, AFTER documenting everything ask them To remedy the problems CORRECTLY.
If they refuse, contact Xpel with all your documentation if they are no help ( I believe they may help if they warrant the product ), if this does not work research small claims court procedures in your jurisdiction.
Do Not allow them to take advantage of you
I'm not happy with it at all, but I more just want it fixed than to punish this shop which did such a poor job. I'm hoping I can find someone who can either safely redo the front bumper or just apply two 1 inch by 6ish inches of ppf strips where the first shop poorly removed the ppf. Maybe redo that ugly rear bumper too. If i can keep repair costs under 2k, I don't think it's worth pursuing the first shop. But I will consider posting my experience on here with their store name so future Nashville Tesla owners aren't tempted by this shitty place. Again, assuming I can find somewhere to take better care of me.
Maybe Nashville is just a bad place for ppf.
 
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I'm not happy with it at all, but I more just want it fixed than to punish this shop which did such a poor job. I'm hoping I can find someone who can either safely redo the front bumper or just apply two 1 inch by 6ish inches of ppf strips where the first shop poorly removed the ppf. Maybe redo that ugly rear bumper too. If i can keep repair costs under 2k, I don't think it's worth pursuing the first shop. But I will consider posting my experience on here with their store name so future Nashville Tesla owners aren't tempted by this shitty place. Again, assuming I can find somewhere to take better care of me.
Maybe Nashville is just a bad place for ppf.
its Unfortunate you will allow this shop to do bad work and then just move on to pay another shop to do the same work you already paid for.
Putting the shop name on here for other tesla owners to not use them is good but unfortunately ALL Tesla owners are not on this site.
You paid for a product / service you are entitled to that or a refund so you can get what you paid for elsewhere.
 
I would not give that shop another chance with my car, you have seen the quality of their work. I think pursuing a refund is best and who knows, maybe xpel will get involved since this tarnishes their name along with the shop.
They may well offer to redo it, but you lose your car for a day or two (again) and no reason to think they’ve gotten better at it.

I had my front bumper cover replaced after collision and there were bubbles in the new ppf but I hadn’t accepted it yet and they redid it with no problem, maybe it happens a lot.
 
Thank you for the encouragement and feedback guys!

I ended up going to Tennessee Paint Protection over on Seaboard Lane in Franklin, TN after talking to the owner, Jason. They seemed very knowledgable, eagerly agreed to give a second look at the car, as well as offered the advice of calling XPEL to get them to cover any warranty repairs which may be necessary.

I took the car in, and was really impressed by his shop. He had 6-8 cars in various states of getting wrapped or getting paint protection done as opposed to the last place which would have 0-2 at any moment (this probably should have been a mega red flag). They said the frunt bumper should have been redone instead of the ppf cutting they did, and cutting ppf on paint was likely to cause damage, which is why they generally don't do it. They rubbed off the sticky adhesive in about 10 minutes or so which the other shop left behind and gave me some options.

Even though it's less than ideal, I had them apply two strips of stealth ppf over the spots exposed by the other installer. We'll see how it holds up. It's not the prettiest thing but at least the bumper is protected and the spots are relatively out of sight. If it doesn't hold up, we'll redo the bumper, but I'd like it to last 1-2 years at least so if there is paint damage then i'll be ready to just wrap the car before applying more ppf. I also got quotes for redoing the front tint which has imperfections (which happens often with the difficulty at applying xpel tint and the size of the window. He assured me his tinting guy could do a much better job) and a quote for redoing the bumper which I thought were reasonable.

Overall, happy with how they treated me and they were quick with the touch ups. I'll be going back to them in the future for any further repairs on the botched job from the other shop and any further ppf needs.
 
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