Ceramic Coated

[AW2015M4]

Hey fellas, one of those threads again. Just had my entire car ceramic coated with paint correction among some other things. I found them on yelp, had stellar reviews, figure I’d try them out. Prior to that I had seen some samples of their work live, looked good, granted most were brand new cars, mines is a 2015 aw m4.

While dropping the car off for inspection I detailed what problems the car had rock chips, scratches, etc., certain areas I needed addressed, he said no problem. That was his honest chance to tell me what he could or could not fix in my opinion. At that point I would have had realistic expectations upon pick up.

Fast forward to pick up date, my first gripe was the antenna that was wrapped (had top roof wrapped gloss black), it had a vertical line straight up on the back side, looks like ass. I know this could be done with a one piece and you cannot see seams. Upon asking he goes thats the best we can do, wtf really?! Second was a mark on rear bumper, looked like a license plate ran up on it, it looked that way when I bought it used. Although it looked better it is still is an eye sore. His response, you guessed it, thats the best we can do. Well upon inspection why didnt u tell me there is a possibility it might not come off? I could live with it had he told me he would try his best. Bunch of rock chips still on front bumper, and i know you can’t fix those but I wished he would have advised me to do some dr. Colorchip and come back for coating. I’m a novice I didn’t know any better so I take a 50/50 blame here. He coated over it and I can’t use the colorchip now because it won’t adhere. Paid him and said if I see any problems I’ll be back, he said ok.

Day later got home and had some time to fully examine the car with a led lamp. Here are my questions and wanted some validity before I go back blasting.

- do the weather strips get coated, wiper arms, the gloss window trim surrounding? My weather trims still look somewhat faded. The fine scratches can still be seen on the gloss black trim, which I thought could be polished out.
- once coated can you see fingerprints?
- do certain trims get removed to hit areas that cant be polished on the exterior? I got a bunch of cracks that still has grime/dirt in them. Is this even included during paint correction?

Keep in mind I can’t wash my car for 10 days, so I can’t even test out whats been coated but I have a feeling not everything is. When i look under the side skirts he didnt even polish that area and it looks like he coated over it smh. Dude put a chip my front IND grill, like he brought whatever he used too close, which led me to beleive he didn’t tape anything off. I just want to know if I’m expecting too much or did I get bamboozled? When I dropped off the vehicle I even told him look sure I want a deal but I don’t want you to lose money as well, like really which customer would ever say that, well I did. I’m sure most of you will ask but i paid 2650 to get ceramic pro’d lifetime, wheels and callipers, window tint, and had the roof and a front lip wrapped.

Thanks for letting me vent and if you could give any past experiences or insight that would be great. TIA.

[Wmf80]

He did you good. No lube.

[smithf80]

Originally Posted by wreckedmyf80

He did you good. No lube.

Lmaoooo.

Anyway, on to your question OP.

Sounds like you've come across a somewhat shitty installer.

To set a standard, however, wiper arms and weather stripping are typically not coated. Anything that is painted, however, should be.

Use your phone flashlight to check for swirls or coating streaks on the car, if you find any of these, you should take the car back. For the amount you paid, you should have been able to get a damn near perfect paint correction at the least.

Aslo, when you can wash, make sure that car beads like theres no tomorrow, everywhere, especially and including the barrels of the wheels and the calipers.

As for your antenna, while you technically can do that in one piece, its not advisable. The more proper way to do it would be in two pieces, however some people are better at others at hiding the fact that its done in two pieces.

[Eric S]

antenna, vinyl it with a seam up the back is ideal for longevity unless you pull the antenna off, but that opens up another can of worms...juice isn't worth the squeeze there, live with the overlap seam. (when we were doing vinyl, we would try and put it along the pass side edge, not in the middle. theory behind that is the driver walking up to his car from the back wont hardly see it if at all)

As for the chips, they will always be visible, even if you use DR color chip. If you want it perfect, then repaint the whole bumper.

Unfortunately, you got the CP style of pricing. They don't take into account the time value of what it really takes to correct the paint properly. Sometimes it takes 12 to 20 hours of polishing, and at a shop rate of 80-100 per hour, your 2600 for vinyl roof, lip, paint correction, and coating lifetime application simply doesn't allow that amount of time to be allotted for the car. I just looked up the CP lifetime warranty package...you were supposed to get all the trim, glass, plastics, 4 layers of 9H, 1 layer of light, and the wheels and calipers coated...)

That is just one issue with the CP brand and what they are doing.

If you would like to bring the car in, we would be happy to look things over in person and give advice if you are in the OC area (but not to bash any other shop, just to help you out and settling your concerns, point out what might be a simple fix, etc) Feel free to reach out

[Clark_Kent]

Sounds like a substandard experience, sorry to hear. So who did this to you? Inquiring minds want to know. Also, where the pics at?

[psun786]

Don't want to hijack this thread, but Yelp review can't be trusted 100%. Just like Amazon, Yelp has lots fake review.

Two years ago I had my brand new pearl white STI PPF wrapped by one of the best rated shop in SoCal. The dude didn't even fully wash car and I can still see some dust caught under the film.