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I'm in the PPF business and I can tell you that is not a bulk install. That antenna cut out I'm pretty sure they couldn't align it properly and had to trim. Other than that, the install is very standard pre-cut install, not bad at all.
It looks like Shyte for the cost... total waste of money if this isnt a track car. I have 15,000 hard miles on my '21 GT4 with some road damage to the rocker panels and behind the rear wheels and only 1 or 2 very small chips in the front. Totally acceptable for the couple of track days and the way I drive in the canyons. Im glad I saved my money and put it into fixing the other unacceptable aspects (exhaust/suspension) of this "GT" product.
Things like this are making me reconsider PPF entirely.
Even after a recommendation, you run the risk of this happening and having to either throw a fit to get it fixed, or be unhappy with it. And as most of us are probably aware, literally anything we're not happy with as car nuts can lead to being unhappy with the overall car and "moving on" for the next hopeful candidate...
And you won't know until the job is done and have to go over it with an electron microscope. What a pain in the ***.
FAR too much damn money for clear plastic. I'm back to thinking I just suffer through the scratches and swirls like I always have and somehow survived. To hell with this.
as long as you hand wash correctly, you’ll just have some rock chips, which don’t bother me one bit. No scratches or swirls. I know it’s a minority opinion, but Iv’e never even considered PPF.
Sorry to hear about your troubles with this OP. Maybe your credit card company - if used - can help you with this?
The only thing I don't see discussed to death already is them pitching "hand cut" and "custom install" as a good thing, but that sounds to me like them putting spin on the fact they can't afford the proper cutter, software, and pattern licenses. Some hand-cutting is necessary of course but doing it all that way just sounds like a bad idea to me. A pattern would have had a nice wart cutout for example.
FWIW, my installer uses patterns but the software allows him to customize it when he wants to tweak it. For example, I watched him modify my A pillar and roof piece to meet a request I had; but he kept the clean cutout in place for the roof wart.
To those that claim touch up paint will resolve the issues or that they can repaint the car, I personally would not pay top dollar for a car that has been completely resprayed at 5-10 years old, no matter how much it is documented, or for a car with a bunch of touch up spots all over. Even with PPF your car may have some imperfections on the paint but the damage will be reduced significantly for sure! A poorly done PPF will still protect better than no-PPF at all.
OP, sorry that the shop has not been helpful at all. As others have suggested since they offered no resolution I would name them to spare the pain of dealing with the shop to other members down the road.
Here's why I now get PPF. When I was replacing the clear stone guard on the rear haunches of my agate 2014 C4S, it became especially clear how badly the grit had messed up the paint. The clearer section was protected by the clear stone guard. The stone guard was very beat up but had mostly protected the paint.
It's hard to believe, but that's not splattered dirt, it's paint chipping that the car got during its time in Salt Lake City. The dark splotches on the lower photo is where the dealer's paint touch-up guy tried to fill in the deeper damage. Granted this is kind of a worse-case location for winter gravel on a car that was driven in winter, but PPF would have helped so much.
In Texas they like to use macadam a little too much. While we might not have the winter gravel to deal with, we get to deal with the macadam gravel all year long. It's PPF for me even if I have to occasionally replace some of the lower sections.
To those that claim touch up paint will resolve the issues or that they can repaint the car, I personally would not pay top dollar for a car that has been completely resprayed at 5-10 years old, no matter how much it is documented, or for a car with a bunch of touch up spots all over. Even with PPF your car may have some imperfections on the paint but the damage will be reduced significantly for sure! A poorly done PPF will still protect better than no-PPF at all.
OP, sorry that the shop has not been helpful at all. As others have suggested since they offered no resolution I would name them to spare the pain of dealing with the shop to other members down the road.
I guess you wont be buying my car then.... However, you will never get $7,500 to $12,000 back on PPF - NEVER. The only thing that really counts in resale is the original spec and miles... thats it. For me PDK, Sofas, no leather (except steering wheel/gear shift), iron brakes... MSRP was $114,000 paid a little under $110,000 (plus CA Sales Tax) in Jan 2021. I could car less what the car looks like OR what its worth in 10 years when I have 85k miles and maybe sell it... For me GT Silver looks better with a bit of patina on it. As ive stated wife has a 992 with factory PPF on the rockers with about 5,000 miles, no track time and she drives like an old lady. Her PPF already looks like crap and needs replacing! PPF is a bit of a scam IMO...
I guess you wont be buying my car then.... However, you will never get $7,500 to $12,000 back on PPF - NEVER. The only thing that really counts in resale is the original spec and miles... thats it. For me PDK, Sofas, no leather (except steering wheel/gear shift), iron brakes... MSRP was $114,000 paid a little under $110,000 (plus CA Sales Tax) in Jan 2021. I could car less what the car looks like OR what its worth in 10 years when I have 85k miles and maybe sell it... For me GT Silver looks better with a bit of patina on it. As ive stated wife has a 992 with factory PPF on the rockers with about 5,000 miles, no track time and she drives like an old lady. Her PPF already looks like crap and needs replacing! PPF is a bit of a scam IMO...
Did you lose money to a PPF business? Give it a rest.
Hi all,
I just had full body PPF installed on my GT4 from a highly recommended local installer. The installer said it was a 100% custom install with bulk film. They wrapped edges as much as possible without doing much disassembly.
This is my first experience with PPF so to be honest I'm not sure what to look for. I feel like they did a good job overall (no stretch marks or fingers) and the wrapped edges on the hood/fenders look nice. But there are a few spots that I'm not super happy with. In general, there are some places where the edge of the film does not reach the edge of the paint, and also one spot where the and cut edge is kind of rough.
I'm not sure if my expectations are reasonable or if I'm nit picking too much, so wanted to check with some experts before I reach out to the installer.
1. There is a bit of a gap between the edge of the film and the bottom of the headlights. It's minimal on one side, but noticeable larger on the other side. I was kind of hoping the edge of the film would be more flush with the headlight.
The side with the larger gap:
2. There is a bit of an uneven cut where they went around the antenna wart. Maybe I shouldn't expect it to be perfect since it is hand cut, but it kind of bothers me.
3. Underneath the door handle, the film comes from the top and bottom but does not meet. They didn't remove the handles so I understand this area is probably hard to work on.
4. Gaps on some of the edges (like the door seal trim and outer edges of rear diffuser) are larger than I was expecting. I guess I was expecting the film to be more flush with the edges. There are also some relief cuts in the reflector channel and license plate area of the rear bumper, but I think that is probably unavoidable due to the shape of the bumper.
What do you guys think? Are any of these areas things I should bring up with the installer? Or is this considered a good install and I'm just being too picky?
I paid less for complete car, tint and windshield on mine. It wasn't a fully custom job, but it was still a really good install and what I consider at least an A- job. I don't think yours was terrible, but it's definitely a B-/C+ job and that sucks since you paid so much despite the Bay area markup. The antenna will always have spacing to let out the liquid and not get bubbles. But you're better off with a pattern cut than a crappy crooked cut. Anyway, lesson learned and use a different installed on future cars... It's not the end of the world and the car is still protected/easy to clean.
So to update you guys, I reached out the the installer to ask about some of these issues and did not really get a favorable response.
Basically, he insists that because the film is hand cut there will always be some variation due to human error, but that all of the work he completes is up to their shop's standard. He thinks that if this is not up to my expectations, I should find a different installer. I think he said this is 98% for them and if I wanted 99% he could maybe do it by spending a lot more time and charging me more.
He also said they purposefully leave a gap at the panel edges because when the film is squeegeed, water can go under the trim at the edge and bring dirt down, creating contamination and causing the film to lift. Not sure if this is BS or not.
He said they will not redo any panels because they think this is the best they can reasonably do. All they will do is trim film off of the existing install (like if an edge is lifting). Like for the cutout around the roof wart, he said it will never be perfect because it's impossible to hand cut a straight line, so instead of redoing the panel all he can do is try to cut a smoother line by cutting off more film.
Not really sure where to go from here...it seems like it'll be an uphill battle to get any resolution on this.
I always advise clients to give the business an opportunity to resolve things as we all have off days
with that said, they may be honest and telling you the truth…that may be the best THEY can do, and if that’s the case, I would want my money back, and they can remove everything
I’d let them know that the work that’s currently on your vehicle isn’t up to your standards…and I forget what you paid, but it may well be in line with the price point
When I hear how much people pay for ppf and it’s “perfect”, I sometimes cringe because I know what it costs and there’s honestly not enough $$$ in the deal for the caliber of cars like a Porsche, or corners are being cut…literally and figuratively …these cars require truly a skilled professional who’s devoted to the craft and smart business sense to be around many years from now to service the client/car
as with anything, cost of doing business has gone up for all of us in this industry…labor, materials, rent, EVERYTHING costs more and I personally am still having a hard time every time I get my Amex bill with the vendor charges 😂😂
If you’d like, call me Monday and I’ll help guide you through this…there’s always a solution, just gotta keep a cool head and positive vibes
but that installation is not something I’d want for my Porsche, but I understand how work like that gets out there, but that’s a whole other topic for another thread…let’s try and make lemonade here if possible 💪🤙
Sorry to hear about your troubles with this OP. Maybe your credit card company - if used - can help you with this?
The only thing I don't see discussed to death already is them pitching "hand cut" and "custom install" as a good thing, but that sounds to me like them putting spin on the fact they can't afford the proper cutter, software, and pattern licenses. Some hand-cutting is necessary of course but doing it all that way just sounds like a bad idea to me. A pattern would have had a nice wart cutout for example.
FWIW, my installer uses patterns but the software allows him to customize it when he wants to tweak it. For example, I watched him modify my A pillar and roof piece to meet a request I had; but he kept the clean cutout in place for the roof wart.
I mentioned that I wanted the rear 718 Spyder emblem removed as I was installing a Spyder emblem. However, that was lost in translation as they cut around the 718 emblem and I only noticed when I got home.
I messaged them about it and they said to bring it back in and they will redo the rear bumper. That's how you take care of customers.
$7.5k??? WOW!!! A person could buy a LOT of touch up paint for 1% of that amount. IMO, it’s a huge waste of money with an ROI of 0%.
Good luck selling your car for top dollar without PPF. You will alienate a ton of buyers if you have over 5k miles and no PPF with a car worth 100k+, then those that will stick around will lowball you knowing it's not PPFed and has rock chips all over.
Is the ROI 100% of the PPF install? No, but it makes a huge difference when you sell your car, especially now that we're entering a buyers market and buyers will have a choice. Someone will take a PPFed well cared for car all day at the same price over one that has chips/no PPF, which means you'll have to price yours lower as you get lowballed.
Good luck selling your car for top dollar without PPF. You will alienate a ton of buyers if you have over 5k miles and no PPF with a car worth 100k+, then those that will stick around will lowball you knowing it's not PPFed and has rock chips all over.
Is the ROI 100% of the PPF install? No, but it makes a huge difference when you sell your car, especially now that we're entering a buyers market and buyers will have a choice. Someone will take a PPFed well cared for car all day at the same price over one that has chips/no PPF, which means you'll have to price yours lower as you get lowballed.
PPF, full front as minimum, is pretty much industry/consumer accepted standard now
that’s the first thing I do whenever I acquire a new vehicle mainly because I know myself, and don’t enjoy chips and scrapes…it’s just what’s value to MEET
as you said, who wants to pay top dollar for a pre-owned car with rock chips/touch ups, when another is available protected in wear/tear areas
even when it comes time for resale, imagine removing the old ppf and revealing the paint frozen in time…you’ll easily get some value out of that…maybe not what you paid for the ppf, but that also depends on the sticker price 👍
__________________ Specializing in Porsche/Ferrari since 1995
I mentioned that I wanted the rear 718 Spyder emblem removed as I was installing a Spyder emblem. However, that was lost in translation as they cut around the 718 emblem and I only noticed when I got home.
I messaged them about it and they said to bring it back in and they will redo the rear bumper. That's how you take care of customers.
Good luck selling your car for top dollar without PPF. You will alienate a ton of buyers if you have over 5k miles and no PPF with a car worth 100k+, then those that will stick around will lowball you knowing it's not PPFed and has rock chips all over.
Is the ROI 100% of the PPF install? No, but it makes a huge difference when you sell your car, especially now that we're entering a buyers market and buyers will have a choice. Someone will take a PPFed well cared for car all day at the same price over one that has chips/no PPF, which means you'll have to price yours lower as you get lowballed.
This sounds like when a realtor says you should replace all the windows in your house for $30k so you can sell the house for $20k more.
09-17-2022, 03:04 PM
