FYI I stopped by WheelXperts and frankly came away unimpressed. I looked over a black Model 3 that they had just finished applying Xpel Stealth on.l and was waiting for customer pickup. These were my notes:
- The biggest flaw I saw was a tear on the rear bumper piece.
- There were quite a few bubbles and squeegee marks. I don’t know if this is normal for a newly applied wrap though and it just needed time to settle?
- They only wrapped 3/4 of the side mirrors, leaving the part facing the inside bare.
- The shop owner remarked that the only part they remove when installing the film is the side camera. I asked because the edge wrapping around the headlights/taillights was not as clean as I would’ve liked.
- I’m not sure if this is true for all installers, but it didn’t wrap around the backup sensors that cleanly, so you could clearly tell that there’s a wrap on it.
- Minor thing, but instead of taking off the T emblems, wrapping under, and re-applying, they just cut around it. This created a visible transition between the film and a tiny sliver of hood next to the emblem.
- They do comparatively less than the higher priced places, specifically just a wash and clay bar.
On tints, I was mainly interested in 3M Crystalline. They incorrectly told me what %’s were available, which made me believe they have very little experience with that particular film. But he wasn’t even that well versed in the Xpel tint film they normally use (Xpel Prime XR Plus). However, the tint work I was able to inspect seemed ok.
I don’t mean to sound too harsh. They were very nice, and offered an extremely competitive price (1/2 that of high end shops). I also want to note that I’ve yet to do an in-perso inspection of any other shop. My next step is to stop by OCDetailing soon for a comparison. Will report back when I do.
