Has anyone had experience with TLC Auto Detail or Speed and Tech Motoring for a PPF install? I'm looking to get a 'track-pack' type install done on a Cayman and have been quoted good prices by both - $2.8k by Speed and Tech, $2.6k by TLC (including a 20% black Friday discount). I've heard good things about both, with maybe a little more feedback for Speed and Tech in general. Other quotes by GlasWerks, Profilm, and American Shine were around $3.5k.

 

I have had great results with Film Source, albeit a bit pricier, their ceramic coating is amazing.

 

So I’ve used speed and tech and America shine. I’ve only used speed tech once. They are quick and can get you in and out fast and cheaper. Their job was 70%-80% of American shines. I think the film is precut from templates. You don’t get the wrap around edges and stuff. But it was good enough.


I’ve been using American shine for many years. Slightly more but you really do get a result where you can’t tell the car has been wrapped

so it really is a question of what you want to spend, and can you wait a bit longer.

 

I've been using Patriot Auto Detail in Springfield for PPF for years. They do a combination of tuck and pre-cut, but been very happy with their work. Their owner, Greg, is a veteran and PCA Potomac member.

 

Appreciate the responses, but I ended up going ahead with TLC. Got some positive feedback from other local owners and the ~$1k lower quote I got was hard to pass up.

 

Would appreciate pics after you get it back. Thx

 

Can do! Might be a bit, as with holiday season happenings I'm probably not going to get it dropped off till early January. I'll post up once it's back, though.

 

Following up on this as I finally got the car back from TLC. Total cost of $5k for a full wrap. Dropped off January 27th, picked up March 14th (about 6 full weeks). Overall, I can't say it's been a great experience - Dave at TLC has always been very nice and helpful whenever I've communicated with him, but communication was rather spare across the 6 weeks. No confirmation when I dropped off the car, no estimate on completion pretty much until around 4 weeks in, and getting most updates required that I reach out (often multiple times). Going from a 2 week estimated turnaround to 6 weeks was rough (especially with the communication). From what I've been told:

• 2 weeks in, the initial wrap failed to cure properly and was replaced by SunTek under warranty.
• 3 weeks in, the replacement film had arrived, but the flu had run through the shop and the lead installer was out sick.
• 4 weeks in, the lead installer had just gotten back, with an estimated completion of the end of the following week or the beginning of the next week.
• 5 weeks in, the estimate remained the same (now end of this week or beginning of next week).
• 6 weeks in, the pickup gets pushed back last minute from Tuesday to Friday (literally the last possible day due to me needing the car for an autocross event on Saturday).

I see the car in-person on Wednesday, and it honestly looked less than 50% done (major panels still unwrapped). I'm not sure how Tuesday was ever an estimate for completion. Completed and picked up on Friday the 14th.

As for the wrap itself, I think the overall result looks good (though I don't have much context to judge with). I'm not sure how much better/worse it'll get given some time - there are some pulling edges/moisture spots/bubbles here and there. Dave's take was that a lot of the stuff under the wrap should clear up within a couple weeks.

Unfortunately some wires got crossed internally and what I expected to be a gloss wrap ended up being matte. We had discussed possibly doing matte before I settled on gloss, and I guess the final decision got lost between the invoice (which listed gloss) and their internal ordering processes. Dave has offered to re-wrap with gloss at no cost if I'd like, so I've been mulling over the finishes again. As an apology for the delays and the mix-up, Dave also ceramic coated the wheels, PPF, and windshield and offered a year of quarterly maintenance details at no cost.

After looking the car over carefully, I noticed that the passenger side rear taillight was unfortunately reinstalled misaligned. Compared to the driver's side, the passenger side taillight has a much larger gap between the bottom of the housing and the bumper. This is causing the taillight to contact the spoiler when it's in the retracted position. The taillight housing the chewed through the PPF and started chipping the paint on the corner of the spoiler. This reassembly mishap has somewhat shaken my confidence in the quality of the work - it just makes me feel like I can't trust any of their reassembly, or that it was done with care to get everything aligned nicely.

I've put a bunch of photos into an imgur album here: https://imgur.com/a/cayman-ppf-Cs9nuLQ

 

Thanks for the write up.

This is a terrible job tbh. Getting it matte instead of gloss, reinstalling taillight incorrectly causing damage, multiple edges are terrible, gloss paint easily visible through seams on top of six weeks turnaround.

I'd get my money back and then stay away from them.

 

I agree wholeheartedly. Total clown show experience and a very sub-par PPF job (in the wrong type of PPF even) as an end result. I would recommend @GlasWerksDMV in Sterling. I have had 3 Porsches done by them (full body, custom PPF installs) and I would bet the title to my car that they have done hundreds of Porsches, particularly 981/982/991/992 cars. You will pay more than what you paid at TLC, but it will be worth the result.

 

This isn't how this process is supposed to go at all. If this is something you would like our assistance in moving forward don't hesitate to reach out. I don't like hearing about experiences like this from our industry, Takes the fun out of what we do.