brt3

I have a 911 Carrera GTS on order through an out-of-state dealer. My plan is to pick this up on the East Coast and drive it back to the West Coast. The alternative is shipping, but I'd really like to drive the car -- as long as the weather's not extreme.

I'd never consider doing this without first installing paint protection film. I'm used to having my cars done by Sam at Premier Mobile, and he's generally considered the best in the West. He's done 4-5 cars for me, so I'm used to the this level of install.

My plan, in this case, would be to use speedFilm out of the Atlanta area. I've spoken with the owner/installer, David, and he seems to be very focused on offering a top-quality install. They don't do as much custom work as Premier Mobile, but that shouldn't be an issue in my case. They also do less disassembly on 911 installs when compared with Premier; Premier always remove the headlights and badge to minimize seams, edges, and cut-outs.

Does anyone here have any experience with speedFilm?

gravedgr

Oddly enough, I don't know. I didn't put any clear coat on my SY as I didn't like the way it looked.

brt3

What are your plans for the GTS; do you think you'll opt for the ClearBra on that beauty? Looks like I have about 10 weeks to decide...

NC 997

If they aren't willing to remove the P-car badge from the hood, which can be done in 1 minute or less, I'd think twice..

gravedgr

I will, and I'd like a whole-hood / whole-fender install instead of the partials that were typical previously. I'll get more serious about the installer, kit, and so forth when it gets closer to December.

Eric - Plug Guy

http://www.teamspeed.com/forums/997-...lear-bras.html

gravedgr

Not so good review of Speedfilm @ the dealer. Wonder if it was Hennessy or Jim Ellis. I'm super suprised, given how many cars move through both dealers, that they could continuously do a poor job - I'm wondering if this was a fluke.

brt3

I'm curious as well. I should go back and re-read the thread Eric references, but those damned SF Giants kept me busy tonight (via TV, not in person). It appears that speedFilm sells a lot of kits. I am unclear if the complaints regarded a speedFilm kit installed by someone else, or if speedFilm personnel did the actual install.

In speaking with the owner of speedFilm, he mentioned that they typically perform the installation on Hennessy Porsche vehicles at the dealership. Now, he also sounded like a good guy who cares about doing a great job.

However, this uncertainty makes me lean towards having my GTS shipped home to have the install done here, by someone I've worked with before and whose quality of workmanship I'm very familiar with. I've been burned by film installers before, and it's really not a great deal of fun.

Lots of good advice on this board. I have to come clean and say that a lot of the rest of the world regards Porsche owners as a&*holes. Let me be blunt -- in my experience there are a lot more of those on the Mercedes boards. If this board is representative of the larger Porsche community, I'm very happy to be climbing on board the Porsche bandwagon!

morecarl

I saw an example of a dark car with film at Hennessy and decided to pass on the film. Very noticable imo. Might be different on a light color.

I've read a couple good reviews about Detailed Designs Auto Spa in Lawrenceville (near Atlanta). I'm thinking about calling them up to see if they have any examples I can take a look at. I'll report back when/if I go.

stevepow

I'm not thrilled with mine - you gotta get close to see the bubbles, blotches, wrinkles and it beats getting paint chips - and no razor blades were used (hence the sloppy cut out around the hood emblem), but I'd love to have it done over with the results like I see Premier posting photos of...

Of course the car in the showroom with it, when I was buying my car, looked great...

If you are happy with Premier in the past, I'd say ship it or most likely plan to have it redone...or maybe you get lucky. Shipping coast to coast probably costs more that a "throw-away" film job, no?

brt3

Premier Mobile is not in my backyard, but they're only 90 minutes away. I have seen a Porsche Carrera GT where they covered the entire car in film. I am extremely visual and damned picky, and I'd bet you that 90% of people wouldn't even notice the film on this car from 5 feet away. They really do a phenomenal job and they do a lot of Porsches. As does speedFilm, no doubt, since they install for Hennessy...

Unless I have more concrete proof that speedFilm is in the same ballpark quality-wise, I will forego the pleasure of driving the car from GA to CA and have it shipped. I've been extremely careful in speccing the car, and won't take a chance on something like this. Importantly, if I ever have a problem Premier can deal with it, and they've never had any hesitation to fix a couple of small issues that have arisen over the years.

stevepow

Another Atlanta alternative, Stone-X - they did my BMW a few years ago and it was pretty decent, although they do use razor blades...

Speed2000

That car was done at Ellis. Cars done there during the winter have to be done inside their service area and we have to have a bay scheduled to work in. The customer did not show up for his scheduled appointment (had three other cars there that day so we had the bay), and showed up the following day for the install when we were fully booked at Hennessy.

Ellis called and said the car was in and needed to be done since the customer wanted to take the car to Florida the next day. Realizing his car would be chipped up on the trip w/o protection, and not wanting him to risk to damage to the car, I bumped another customer to later in the evening and made arrangements to get to Ellis after taking care of the customers that did keep their appointments at Hennessy.

Once at Ellis, we found there were no bays available and ended up doing the car under the parking deck where there was very little light to work with on a black car. Not having enough light its easy to miss a lot of the bubbles simply because you can't see them, but bubbles are normal and will cure out but the more there are the longer that curing will take and are more noticable on black cars than any other. Guess its my fault, shoulda let him ride w/o the film and beat up his car on the trip, but I know how I would feel if it was my Porsche so we did the install under less than ideal conditions.

I did call the customer when he returned from his trip and offered to look over his install and take care of any issues he had at that time but he has yet to make the car available to us or even pay for the work.

NC 997, the reason we don't remove the badges anymore is because they are made out of pot metal and the threads will strip out very easily. No matter what film is used, no product lasts forever and at some point it all needs to be removed/replaced which means the badge has to come off again and more than likely will strip out on the second go around.

Edgy01

Really recommend that you simply ship the car. Then have things done properly on the left coast. It's not worth the risk having some amateur screw up the paint.

gravedgr

I have yet to make a final decision, but am considering Atlanta Protective Films (Xpel), Stone-X (3M, I think), and I haven't completely ruled out Speedfilm.