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i'm looking for some advice…two weeks ago i went snowboarding [the board fits perfectly in the car, see photo below 😂] i didn't actually take the car to the snow but i had to drive to take my stuff to my gf's place before we drove up there.
anyways when we came back i drove back home and parked in the corner in front of my house. dropped off my bags, which literally can't have been more than 2 minutes of me not looking at the car, came back out and went to park at my garage. then last thursday when i go to take the car out again i realized that someone tried to steal my badge! it has to have happened in those ~2 minutes where it was parked on the street at midnight because its the only thing that kind of makes sense. and by the way street parking is not totally uncommon here, there's often a GT3 street parked not even a block away from where i stopped that night, including that same day, i saw it when i went to my garage, but i digress. so yea this is what i came back to:
obviously the PPF didnt help a whole lot here…literal two minute job and of course they didn't even get the badge. i was extremely annoyed of course but i thought i'd just pay the fix or maybe use insurance, then a few days of not using the car, and it'd be okay. but i've just realized that after repainting the time for the paint to cure is 60-90 days! that's way too long for me to be without my only car, because i obviously dont wanna drive it on track or the highway without PPF and risk damaging the new paint job. so far i think i'm leaning towards: buy a carbon fiber hood, install it, and in parallel also fix the original one and keep it stored away while it cures then eventually PPF it and maybe swap it back [which probably also means just paying myself, no insurance claim]. definitely the more expensive option but at least im not without a car for three months. i first thought just buy another OEM hood but that will also need painting anyways so doesn't really work out.
what do you think of that plan? what would you recommend that i do?
i've been looking and i think this carbon hood is probably my best option, but its literally just what i found on google, i have no idea what im doing so please let me know if you have any thoughts for/against that brand or any other recommendations!
Have you taken the PPF off to see if your paint is damaged?
It's hard to tell in the pics.
have not taken it off but its clearly damaged. maybe on the phone its hard to tell on a bigger screen they're a bit better [paint color doesn't help tho], PPF is fully ripped in several parts and there's a huge gauge on the bottom right side where you can even see scratched aluminum. left side also has some visible aluminum but much less
Probably can only really assess the full damage with the PPF taken off.
It may be possible a specialist with the right tools and touch up paint followed by a polish could make it very hard to tell unless pointed out or even impossible to tell.
just another option to consider, only you know what degree of repair you would be satisfied with even if nobody notices, you will always know.
I wouldn't go through insurance and get it fixed. Tiny bit of bondo, sand. prime and paint. Chalk paint isn't tricky to match especially if they're painting just the hood.
Why would you be without a car for 3 months? Have a good shop fix the issue and if the paint needs to cure before ppf, drive it and enjoy the car. Maybe you get a few small rock chips that need some touch up but I wouldn’t stress about it.
Alternatively, have a shop address the issues as best they can after removing the ppf, paint correcting / touch up, and then wrap the hood. Black or CF wrap would seem better than buying another hood.
A proper or high quality paint job definitely does not take 60 ~ 90 days to cure. I have worked with some of the best paint shop in my area, the shop always told me if paint is not done right it doesn’t matter how long you let the paint cure, the paint will always peel when you remove the PPF. I would suggest seek around other paint/body shop to get 2nd opinion.
Probably can only really assess the full damage with the PPF taken off.
It may be possible a specialist with the right tools and touch up paint followed by a polish could make it very hard to tell unless pointed out or even impossible to tell.
just another option to consider, only you know what degree of repair you would be satisfied with even if nobody notices, you will always know.
yes definitely a **** situation… and you're right past a certain point its more about me being the one who knows there's still something not 100% right there
Originally Posted by Zeus993
Yeesh. Sorry to hear about this. Good luck sorting it all out.
thanks!
Originally Posted by ltfl09
I wouldn't go through insurance and get it fixed. Tiny bit of bondo, sand. prime and paint. Chalk paint isn't tricky to match especially if they're painting just the hood.
yea i was hoping since its not metallic or anything like that the paint might be easier to match!
Originally Posted by Jeff Jones
Sorry that happened.
Why would you be without a car for 3 months? Have a good shop fix the issue and if the paint needs to cure before ppf, drive it and enjoy the car. Maybe you get a few small rock chips that need some touch up but I wouldn’t stress about it.
Alternatively, have a shop address the issues as best they can after removing the ppf, paint correcting / touch up, and then wrap the hood. Black or CF wrap would seem better than buying another hood.
Originally Posted by psuwcc112
A proper or high quality paint job definitely does not take 60 ~ 90 days to cure. I have worked with some of the best paint shop in my area, the shop always told me if paint is not done right it doesn’t matter how long you let the paint cure, the paint will always peel when you remove the PPF. I would suggest seek around other paint/body shop to get 2nd opinion.
the shop i talked to [recommended by Porsche] said that to match the paint they needed to paint a bigger section of the hood vs just the tiny area around the badge, plus maybe needs some readjusting on the hood itself if it got bent, depending on how much force they put with whatever tool they used for prying away. they said 60-90 days and from how i understand this the longer duration for curing is because of the weather here in sf, if i was in arizona or somewhere much warmer then the curing time would be less. so maybe i could find a shop that has a curing booth but i haven't found any yet. happy to be proven wrong tho! haha would definitely make my life easier. i do mean to talk to at least one other shop to hear another opinion, just been busy and keep forgetting to call before the work day ends… 🤦🏻♂️
but yea i do wanna keep driving the car that's why im much more annoyed by the wait time to get it fixed than the cost of fixing it even tho its gonna be expensive. couple weeks ago i passed 12345mi, now i'm at a bit over 13k miles and i'm just shy of 1 year of ownership 🙃 [next friday!]
Ah man that's terrible - if it takes that long to cure the paint, you could try a short-term car lease (SIXT does 90 day rentals and there are a few car subscription services). If living in SF, I would be paranoid going forward about leaving a nice car out when the city is known for rampant theft thanks to your DA who doesn't enforce anything. Lived in the Bay for a few years and decided I wouldn't want my car or my family to be fodder for fentanyl addicts and wannabe gangbangers. (Longer term solution)Moved to SoCal and never looked back. (Even longer term solution) Recall Chesa Boudin and vote out Gavin Newsom - these guys are the epitome of failing upward
Did you do that to your badge yourself to justify the purchase of the CF hood? huh?
Sorry man some people are just little pieces of s....! Nonetheless, those 60-90 days prior PPF is just nuts. I don't buy it. I would bet you wait 10 days and nothing happens. I would actually bet it by doing it if it was mine but that's just my risk aversion level.
I'm starting to think that the PPF obsession is getting out of hand. I get it though- for a car that gets used every day, there used to be an acceptance that the hood and bumpers were going to get scratched, dinged, and chipped, and PPF can make that all but go away.
But to go as far as thinking you can't use your car for 90 days after a repair? That's kind of ridiculous.
Worse comes to worse, if anything does indeed happen to the finish during that time (barring another incident or huge stone chip, which PPF probably wouldn't help with anyway), wouldn't a quick correction prior to PPF make it all better?
Last edited by manifold danger; 04-28-2022 at 06:42 AM.
I applaud you for being so chilled about this. I think I would have killed someone if this happened to me.
Anyways, seems like you value your time enjoying the car over the total out of pocket cost to fix this. Which is smart IMO. Easier to make more money than time.
My suggestion would be buy CF hood and install. Let body shop take their time to fix whatever they need to do. PPF repainted hood.
During this wait, then decide whether you want to go back to chalk hood.
If you want the chalk back, then sell CF hood on here.
The other option would be to find a hood from the junkyard and repaint it as a temporary substitute. Or wrap it in CF instead of repainting to chalk.
+1 for just get a CF hood or wrap the hood in black or CF. Otherwise you'd need to repaint the entire hood. Being aluminum the body shop may recommend a new hood vs repairing the damage around the badge.
A little filler may be needed before a wrap as the damage may just show through, wraps are thin.
If it were mine, I'd probably drive it as-is though the summer and wait until the off season before getting it fixed. I realize in your area the off season isn't as extreme weather with snow as most parts of the country, but still.