When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
I had PPF & ceramic done and would like some opinions on the quality of the work.
Many panel junction corners are unprotected by PPF. Is this normal?
Also, a paint correction was supposedly performed, but there is a lot of orange peel (seen in the reflection here). Is the orange peel normal for Xpel PPF?
PPF edges lifted 1 week after job. On the panel there is an air bubble or dust (there are not many of these spots in this job).
PPF edge lifted along both front AC condensers. Is this unavoidable?
PPF edge lifted at gas lid. It rubs the body panel when I open and close the gas lid. Is this normal?
Scuffed (it is physically rough) panel edge on trunk lid.
This looks like ceramic high spots to me from wiping the adjacent paint. There's a similar high spot on a side mirror wind diffuser.
The shop also installed a darker window tint than discussed. Will the rear defroster lines be affected by tint removal?
This work was done by Moe at Glistening Perfection, a well regarded shop on this forum. The job took 8 weeks, and I believe my car sat for 5 weeks before any work was done.
The shop has these photos and has not addressed them.
I am trying to schedule the follow up appointment now, and the shop is ghosting me.
No, I would never be ok with the outcome, even more so when I have a really good idea of what you probably paid for it. At 1500$, I might MIGHT accept this quality of work. At 3k, I wouldn't. And at the likely more than double that you laid out - I'd have not taken the car back to my posession in this condition. Hazing, artifacts, wrinkled edges, lifting edges, binding ppf on fuel door, bubbles still visible on delivery, and especially the short-trimmed pre-cut panel corners - all of it is amateurish garbage to me. Then you have scuffed paint that I'm presuming you are 100% sure was not there when the car was dropped off for ppf. Car took 8 weeks, shop now ghosting you.....I hope you paid on a card that can now be disputed, as I think with 2-3 days of no response/acknowledgement I'd give the shop a 6 hour warning that the charge was going to be rejected. Hopefully you've got a good relationship with your bank too. I would pay on cc for this type of work, and I know Chase would back me up on a dispute - they have before, to the tune of 5 figure airline tickets with no BS.
The tint is a whole other concern, both on the 'not doing what the customer requested and agreed to', and on the removal front. I doubt the defrosters will get ruined from removal, but TBH I've never done it before and have seen weirder stuff happen than this. You're correct to be concerned about that IMO. really sorry to hear about this ****-poor experience you're dealing with, best of luck on the resolution.
End of the day, for the #'s we are paying for this type of post-delivery work - at minimum you shouldn't have bubbles/wrinkles or any lifting edges a week in. The orange peel, that's a 50/50 to me. Current paint processes and formulas do not lend themselves to an orange-peel free life. Even paying above 7500 for detailing/ppf work I am expecting to see orange peel on my car. I did on my last ones, and expect it until we (never) return to oil based automotive paints. Can't avoid it unless spending, crazy enough, even more money for a proper wet-sand job to be done before polishing and ppf install. I'm hyper critical of my detailers and on this topic, there's no room to take that stance. IMO it would be unrealistic to expect the peel addressed unless a full wet sanding was line-itemed on the invoice/estimate.
Last edited by DreiPedals; 11-30-2022 at 03:43 PM.
These PPF jobs are expensive. I've seen many that were done right. This does not look like one of them, sorry to say. Just as a datapoint, the PPF work I recently had done by a quality outfit in Warrington PA looks excellent, and the shop had me proactively come back two weeks after to review it and handle any issues that might have come up (I saw a few minor bubbles that the made go away). That service is part of their normal process. I just decided to have them do a ceramic coating job as well.
Dispute the PPF charge until they address it. If you got the tint shade in writing on an estimate and they did it wrong, dispute that also.
Sorry this happened to you. At these prices, nothing less than excellent should be expected.
My understanding is PPF should be basically invisible right? I did my own on my mountain bike and it is hard to see/nearly invisible - The pictures above are making me cringe and second guess whether I want to do PPF on my incoming car (I was planning on it as I autocross and it will be driven year-round).
One may consider that acceptable if they have never seen a truly high quality installation. To me, that is complete crap. So many hack installers out there, it's incredible. I've relied on word of mouth referrals before too and got majorly burned. I've since learned my lesson and paid high attention to the PPF installation quality on cars I see at meets and other events and ask who did the installation which led me to using one of the actual best shops in the Dallas areas. And they only needed my car for less than a week because didn't have me waste my time by leaving it with them until they were ready to work on it. I have zero visible trapped contamination and, after 3 yeas, still zero lifted edges.
Corners not being wrapped I'd consider normal. Edges should be wrapped. Lifting of the PPF is not normal and should be corrected. Polishing wouldn't remove orange peel, you'd need to wetsand for that. That does look like a high spot on the headlight. Will need to be polished out, or even better, the film replaced. Window defrost lines should not be affected during tint removal if done properly.
Sorry but that does not look good. I had my Macan done with full ppf and in hindsight I would have used a different installer. He was very good though in that he replaced 6 panels including the hood twice until I was happy. Very good guy to deal with and he had some Porsches in lot when I first saw him but his shop was not set up to be dust free and he specialized more in wraps. He replaced any panels where there was lifting on edges like you have and where there were noticeable bubbles. The more you read about ppf you realize the experience, shop and quality of installer are really important to get it done right the first time.
The corners are normal, but the rest looks very poor. And 8 weeks?! That’s crazy. A good shop should get you properly scheduled and in/out in 3-5 days.
First and foremost, my apologies that you had to post this on rennlist as we haven’t responded to your last email on coordinating the complimentary follow up service
you sent detailed photos above, thank you for that, and as I mentioned, all will be addressed at follow up 👍
I will reach out asap and get you into the asylum
once again, sincerest apologies for not responding to you sooner…no excuse!!
__________________ Specializing in Porsche/Ferrari since 1995
The job looks ok to me- not great, not terrible. I'm not particularly nitpicky so me personally I wouldn't take it back except for maybe the gas cap issue, which is to be expected and I'm sure will be taken care of by any shop that has good business practices.
The 8 weeks though, is CRAZY and I would have flipped a lid after 2 weeks. I'm not sure how anyone could have tolerated an 8 week turnaround. Holy crap!
Just let me know when you're open and let's set an appointment. That timeframe is mind-blowing to me lol.
Last edited by manifold danger; 12-01-2022 at 10:38 AM.
I had PPF & ceramic done and would like some opinions on the quality of the work.
Many panel junction corners are unprotected by PPF. Is this normal?
Also, a paint correction was supposedly performed, but there is a lot of orange peel (seen in the reflection here). Is the orange peel normal for Xpel PPF?
The shop also installed a darker window tint than discussed.
Will the rear defroster lines be affected by tint removal?
This work was done by Moe at Glistening Perfection, a well regarded shop on this forum.
The job took 8 weeks, and I believe my car sat for 5 weeks before any work was done.
The shop has these photos and has not addressed them.
I am trying to schedule the follow up appointment now, and the shop is ghosting me.
What do we think?
doublejeopardy,
This work was done by Moe at Glistening Perfection, a well regarded shop on this forum.
The job took 8 weeks, and I believe my car sat for 5 weeks before any work was done.
The shop has these photos and has not addressed them.
I am trying to schedule the follow up appointment now, and the shop is ghosting me.
What do we think?
Sir, if you didn't ask us what we think I'd just keep my opinions to myself but you have asked so.
Bluntly putting it, That's a Super-Screwed-Up-MESS
Speaking from experience since back in the mid 60's here is what I'd personally do.
Run as Fast as you can and Don't-Look-Back from that Shop !!!
Take that Porsche to a Legitimate Professional Shop and foot the cost to have that Screwed-Up-MESS removed and then Totally Redone.
Sometimes no matter how careful we try our best to make the right decisions things can go wrong.
This is without any doubt one of those times.
I'm saying to you as a 77-year-old male move-on from that Shop as you Do-Not want them to EVER touch your Porsche again for any reason.
Bite the bullet in Cost and go get it done Professionally,
Terry Honaker
Last edited by tigerhonaker; 12-01-2022 at 12:25 PM.
I had a very similar experience with this shop and it was easily one of the most frustrating customer experiences I've ever had. Having been where you are now, take Tiger's advice and find another shop to have it redone.
An expensive lesson, but if your follow up experience is anything like mine you'll probably end up getting your car back earlier and enjoy a better final product.
11-30-2022, 02:53 PM
Opinions on this PPF & ceramic job?
