PPF/Ceramic/Tint Expectations and Results

[krashinit]

I recently took delivery of my Model X in August, but Tesla had to take it back to repair/replace a lot, including the windshield.

About three weeks ago, I got it back and took it to the highest-rated luxury wrap place I could find in Cleveland, and they kept it for two and a half weeks.

They charged me $10.6k for the whole thing.

This included:

• $7,500 - PPF Full Vehicle Matte (emblems removed for black out, full tuck, and disassembly as needed. All Painted surfaces covered in STEK DYNOMatte PPF)
• $375 - Vinyl Wrap Ceramic Pro Bronze (1 layer of Ceramic Pro Vinyl and PPF Top Coat)
• $900 - STEK Ceramic Window Tint Complete (STEK Smart Series nano-ceramic window tint full car + windshield)
• $350 - Glassparancy Total Car Kit (Chemical glass treatment of all exterior glass to provide optimal clarity and hydrophobic properties)
• $150 - Ceramic Coating Wheel Faces (Coating the faces of the wheels with two layers of Ceramic Pro (1 layer of 9H, 1 layer of Top Coat)
• $500 - Ceramic coating of all interior surfaces, mats, trim, and leather)

The communication was horrible, but they finally finished, and I was appalled by what they did to the car. It looks incredible (from a distance) but the tint on the driver/passenger door was a mess. There were jagged edges, big gaps from edge to tint, etc.

Here is what I noticed immediately, which they said they would fix but then gave me a speech about "1/16" industry standard" allowances for PPF.

• Very sloppy cut lines all around.
• Marks where they clearly pressed too hard on edges, turning the PPF white
• Marred surfaces
• Lifting edges on panels
• Liquid stains all over the mesh dash
• Jagged marks in window tint where somebody pressed into it too hard (clearly)
• Bubbles everywhere which they assured me would settle down in a week.
• Side mirrors were a two-part (and poorly cut) application. I was told they couldn't do one piece, which is understandable, but the seam is really bad.

I'm attaching pictures of some of the things, but I was pretty shocked with how poor it turned out. Yes, the matte looks incredible to me, but that's the product at work. The actual craftsmanship of the application seems shoddy at best, incompetent at worse.

What do you all think? Is this stuff expected that they will fix, and I shouldn't be concerned? The owner assured me they would fix everything I pointed out. My problem is... I expected them to see these things and fix them before I even picked it up.

Looking for advice and thoughts. Thank you!

 

[Genie]

My ppf and chrome delete is similar after 1.5 years. The visible edges you see will stand out more over time. I‘m living with it, I don’t want to take my car back to them after this, and I’m leaning towards replacing it at 5 years.
I get that yours should have been done right but unless there is more to it I’d let them redo it.

 

[krashinit]

My ppf and chrome delete is similar after 1.5 years. The visible edges you see will stand out more over time. I‘m living with it, I don’t want to take my car back to them after this, and I’m leaning towards replacing it at 5 years.
I get that yours should have been done right but unless there is more to it I’d let them redo it.

In my talks with them, they are firm that they will stand by their work and redo everything that needs to be redone.
I'm going to have to let them handle it.

I just wasn't sure how normal all this is. It's my first car over $15k, my first new car, and my first time ever getting a wrap.

 

[chudiddy]

I'll chime in as I had my black MXP wrapped, tinted, and ceramic coated as well. I drove directly from delivery to the shop and left it there for over a week. This was a very reputable shop that got excellent reviews and its actually the second vehicle I brought to them. They did a partial ppf on my daughter's black M3 and that came out great. When i picked it up, i was over the moon at how it looked but then over the next few days I started noticing the same things you were with regard to sloppy cuts, bubbles, two piece mirror cut, edge peels, etc. The tint came out 100% perfect but to my knowledge they outsourced the tint job.

Then a few weeks later i started noticing at the bottom of the falcon wing doors, the Xpel stealth film started developing pits that you can feel with your hand as you rub across it. I am not sure how this happened but all i can remember was that they just freshly paved my road and i recall hearing tiny rocks kick up from the tires so I assume thats how it happened. I told the shop about it and I ended up bringing it back to show them. They kindly re-wrapped both sides as well as reapplied the ceramic coating. I showed them the rest of the blemishes around the car and they agreed to fix it all.

After another few days, I went back to pick up the car and most of the blemished areas were taken care of however after a few more weeks, they started showing up again. I'll probably contact them again to see if they can do anything but my conclusion is that anything and everything shows up on a black car. No matter how nice and clean you try and keep it, it gets dirty within a few hours of driving. Like Genie said above, I too am living with it and I'll probably end up replacing it in a few years anyways.

I kind of regret getting a black car even after telling myself I would never get black. My 2018 MXP that i replaced this with was white and I had the same stealth wrap on that car and I could get away with not cleaning that car for weeks and it would still look great.

Don't get me wrong, the black matte looks absolutely stunning when its clean but if i had to do it all over again, I would've gotten white/white just like my last one.