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The fast that the plotter didn't even cut straight warrants a full refund. Sorry to say but as soon as you see a quality job to compare to in person, it will make you sick to your stomach to not have this corrected by someone else and a refund.
A plotter should have no human manually doing anything and cut straight edges. Would they have done some manually by hand?
That's about the same quality as I've gotten on a couple of cars. Cost was $750-$900 per car. I had it done to protect the cars on the track. For that purpose, I was fine with it. I wouldn't be happy with that quality for the price you paid or if I was a cars/coffee guy.
Hello everyone, just got my new 991 partially wrapped (bumper, complete front hood, lights, a-pillar) with Suntek, and walked away not sure if the quality of the work done is normal or just over expectation on behalf. I would have though PPF these days would be seamless (cannot see seams unless you look under hood, etc) but they say the software used with the 991.2 template don't require removing bumpers to go under as the templates don't require except for full wrap in a different color or matte. I checked their work on a McLaren in the shop at the same time and was similar.
How does this compare with others that have done a wrap?
Around the gas door
by the headlamp and corner lights
A pillar / front fender
gas door without flash
A pillar / front fender without flash
headlamp without flash
Edge margins are way too wide. I would not be happy at all.
I don't know the circumstances of what you paid for, but I can tell you that not all pre-cut patterns yield that result. I just had my '18 GTS full front end (no A pillars) done at the dealership using pre-cut patterns, and it looks nothing like those pictures. Even with the patterns they were able to roll almost all the edges over enough to make them invisible. You can run your finger down the edge between the fenders and hood, and it is perfectly smooth like there was no film there. The only visible seam, if you look closely, is along the top edge of the bumper, which I would guess is pretty normal given the complexity of the bumper for a pre-cut pattern. The only seams that I have I would equate to what I see in those pics are the bottom of the fenders at the rocker panels. That seam is perfectly straight but around a 1/16" from the edge. I just put that in the no harm, no foul category, as you can't see it unless you stoop down looking for it. The mirror backs (folding mirrors) were a little funky, but the forward areas were covered, and it really is hard to see the open edges. Car is carmine red.
I will admit I was kind of shocked how well the edges were handled, and did not expect all the most obvious edges to be rolled liked they were.
All my installs have had rolled edges where possible.
Personally I would not be happy with that install at that price. Installs out here have edges rolled for that price. I’m in Alberta.
I think I got lucky - because I was pretty ignorant about PPF. I was explicitly told that the PPF would wrap around all the edges. One exception was the headlights, where it's reasonably aligned with the edges, but not perfectly. I was shown a wrapped 911 before I agreed to have the work done. If I hadn't been told about it up front, then I wouldn't have known to even ask for it.
Yep, a good wrap should have rolled edges / wrapped under the seams - in other words it should goes over and not pre-cut. The pre-cut pieces sucks because the edges attract dirt like a magent. Also, if you use clay to clean the edges, some pieces of the clay will get stuck on the edge. This coming from experience, so never again!!
So I just bought a lightly used 2017 with only 975 miles and it came with a wrap that looked pretty much like yours with wide margins. In my case it was some odd film, brand unknown, with a poor quality surface that just didn't look right. Between those two problems I decided to have it replaced right away. At least the original PPF kept it clean until now.
I got a quote from my local SunTek dealer to do the "track package" at $1800 US, which includes larger rear hip rock guards and mirrors on top of the items in the "front clip" set you listed OP... and that included SunTek Ultra with rolled edges. (In my case I went ahead and upgraded further to the full car package after deciding to splurge).
My car is currently being done and is being finished today, but I've already examined their work so far. My wrap is looking comparable to what I see in Gellie's photos above. The hood edges are fully rolled so they are no visible edges at all. I don't think anyone would ever know a PPF is on it. The same with the gas cap. On the edges that can't be rolled the margins aren't as wide as yours. We decided not to pull the headlights like they would on the 991.1 since the 991.2 requires the bumper to be removed for headlight removal. I didn't want them doing that. But they did pull the hood emblem and side markers and got PPF up under the edges of those. (I'm having them put the new clear markers I just got back on while they are at it).
I'll take some corresponding pictures to the ones you've taken once I have the car back tomorrow morning in case that helps with your arguments with your installer.
BTW, the $1800 quote included the upgrade to SunTek Ultra. That was a 15% up-charge over "normal" SunTek. And just for the record, the whole car was quoted at $4600 with Ultra, but I managed to argue it down some as a repeat customer that has used them on multiple cars in the last 15 years (but mostly for window tint). For those in Austin area, I can highly recommend Sun Busters.
It' an either or proposition. Either you put up with the precut not wrapping under the edges OR you allow someone to come dangerously close to your paint with an exacto knife. There was a horror story about a guy getting his brand new gt3 cut up due to the second option gone wrong. The precut just keeps paint from getting chipped so it does its job. Water based Paint from Porsche today is like 3 miils thick so without it your are hosed.
It' an either or proposition. Either you put up with the precut not wrapping under the edges OR you allow someone to come dangerously close to your paint with an exacto knife. There was a horror story about a guy getting his brand new gt3 cut up due to the second option gone wrong. The precut just keeps paint from getting chipped so it does its job. Water based Paint from Porsche today is like 3 miils thick so without it your are hosed.
There's no reason rolled edges should cause cut damage... if anything it would be the reverse. ???
My prior car also came with PPF and one of the mirrors on it came from the prior owner with a loose edge. The installer I now use fixed that for me for free by trimming away the bad edge right on the car. He let me watch his technique as I too expressed concern above cutting on the car. I looked very closely at the results and could see no trace of any damage,
A couple of days ago I watched my installer's rolled-edge technique on the gas lid and part of the hood. He did all of his cuts for these prior to rolling, leaving maybe a quarter inch or more of film hanging off around the edges. He then let the film dry a little so that the glue became more tacky, then just rolled the edges tightly under the edge once it would firmly stick. Any final tweaks he had to make to eliminate overlap on the rolled edge on the back side was done on the back and left me with no concerns but even then I trusted him not to cut the paint due to prior experience with him.
In the current install there are places where he has to make cuts on the car for the non-wrapped edges, like below the black trim of the window on the doors, but that is where the skill and experience of the installer comes into play.
A precut like shown by OP in his edges leaves the leading edges of the paint exposed, especially vital on the leading edge of the hood. In that case the precut is not doing the job as well as it could.
02-12-2018, 03:19 PM
