[Pol]

Originally Posted by EL BAN

Pol I'm glad it will be taken care of.

I recall your posts about the bumper being damaged before you took delivery.

It's possible that the bad paint is really the work done after that initial damage and not necessarily the paint from factory then?

Was the bumper repainted completely when it was fixed the first time?

Thanks EL BAN!
After the damage before delivery there was only a partly repainting. At first I claimed a completely new bumper and they gave one. But the big problem was an exact copy of the Mineral Grey on the plastic bumper. The matching with the fenders and the hood was a no go. After a couple of try-outs we (the dealer and myself) decided to repair the old bumper. They did a paint spraying with the best approaching paint. And that was OK.

[Pol]

Originally Posted by doug_999

I'm very curious about this as well - if the entire bumper had been painted, that might explain what happened.

And.. it is very difficult to get the paint to look perfect on a repainted bumper. Something about how the particles stand up? I don't remember - my bodyshop guy was explaining that the static charge on the bumpers is different than the car (plastic vs. metal) and that there is a new tool out to help with this (it uses a slightly radioactive charge to help the paint do what it is supposed to).

Anyway... I have to decide in the next 24 hours if I'm going to do my front clip (and possibly rear quarter) in Xpel. So really curious to hear if your bumper was re-painted.

Tomorrow I can pick up the car. The painting needs to cure 14 for days before redoing the XPEL.

[doug_999]

Originally Posted by Pol

Tomorrow I can pick up the car. The painting needs to cure 14 for days before redoing the XPEL.

So the paint that came off - was that a re-painted part or factory paint?

[Pol]

Originally Posted by doug_999

So the paint that came off - was that a re-painted part or factory paint?

The paint that came off was indeed factory paint.

[XPEL]

Hello Pol,

Sorry for the trouble you had with our film. We make every effort to ensure our film is as perfect as it can be, but with an optical product like this sometimes things do slip by the QC process.

Regarding the paint that was lifted during removal, barring some sort of fluke contamination, the paint systems used on modern assembly lines today produce a minimum bond strength of 16 MPa and maximum of 25 MPa between the panel and the coating depending on color, iridescence and the system used. Our film’s bond at normal state (immediately following installation) is .0753 MPa. Even after heat and time have cooked it to the surface as hard as it possibly can be, the bond is still only 0.17 MPa. What that means is in the absolute worst case scenario the bond of factory paint to the panel is over 94 times stronger than the bond of our film to the paint. In the best case, the paint is 332 times stronger. If any paint protection film pulls paint off a panel, something likely went wrong with the painting process. That’s why it is so rare for something like this to happen.

@omasou,

3M lawsuit resulted in a change to the XPel adhesive. One person said it was weaker another said if anything it was too strong. I have also heard that they moved their manufacturing and had issues w/quality control that I believe have since been fixed. So both may have been correct.

No changes have been made to our film as a result of the lawsuit. There was, however, a change in the production facility to allow for continued growth and demand.

[Pol]

Originally Posted by XPEL

Hello Pol,

Sorry for the trouble you had with our film. We make every effort to ensure our film is as perfect as it can be, but with an optical product like this sometimes things do slip by the QC process.

Regarding the paint that was lifted during removal, barring some sort of fluke contamination, the paint systems used on modern assembly lines today produce a minimum bond strength of 16 MPa and maximum of 25 MPa between the panel and the coating depending on color, iridescence and the system used. Our film’s bond at normal state (immediately following installation) is .0753 MPa. Even after heat and time have cooked it to the surface as hard as it possibly can be, the bond is still only 0.17 MPa. What that means is in the absolute worst case scenario the bond of factory paint to the panel is over 94 times stronger than the bond of our film to the paint. In the best case, the paint is 332 times stronger. If any paint protection film pulls paint off a panel, something likely went wrong with the painting process. That’s why it is so rare for something like this to happen.

@omasou,




No changes have been made to our film as a result of the lawsuit. There was, however, a change in the production facility to allow for continued growth and demand.

Thanks for your intervention/reaction on my individual case here as a result of my e-mail dated 14th October.
In the meantime I hope a second Ultimate XPEL treatment of the bumper will be the right one.

[Pol]

In the meantime the bumper has been repainted and I think they did a good job.
I took a picture that shows a small difference between bumper and fender. As a result of the light conditions (a blue sky and low sun) the upper part of the fender somehow appears a little bluish. So comparing the change over fender/bumper gives a distorted image. Comparing with the lower part of the fender where I put the equal sign seems to be more realistic.
As you see, Mineral Grey remains a very tough colour to reproduce. The guy who did the painting informed me that a small difference is unavoidable.
The paintwork has to cure a couple of weeks before reinstalling the XPEL .

[BAN_M2C]

Looks good to me! Glad you got it sorted out!

[pruettfan]

Originally Posted by XPEL

Hello Pol,

Sorry for the trouble you had with our film. We make every effort to ensure our film is as perfect as it can be, but with an optical product like this sometimes things do slip by the QC process.

Regarding the paint that was lifted during removal, barring some sort of fluke contamination, the paint systems used on modern assembly lines today produce a minimum bond strength of 16 MPa and maximum of 25 MPa between the panel and the coating depending on color, iridescence and the system used. Our film’s bond at normal state (immediately following installation) is .0753 MPa. Even after heat and time have cooked it to the surface as hard as it possibly can be, the bond is still only 0.17 MPa. What that means is in the absolute worst case scenario the bond of factory paint to the panel is over 94 times stronger than the bond of our film to the paint. In the best case, the paint is 332 times stronger. If any paint protection film pulls paint off a panel, something likely went wrong with the painting process. That’s why it is so rare for something like this to happen.

@omasou,




No changes have been made to our film as a result of the lawsuit. There was, however, a change in the production facility to allow for continued growth and demand.

Thanks for the clarification. My car is being done on Thursday by Protective Film Solutions in Scottsdale, this information gives me even more confidence that I am making the right decision of how to protect my car.

[CosmosMpower]

Glad to hear this has been resolved. I had an xpel ppf put on my m2 and it's nice that they back their product.

[Janitor1]

Originally Posted by pruettfan

Thanks for the clarification. My car is being done on Thursday by Protective Film Solutions in Scottsdale, this information gives me even more confidence that I am making the right decision of how to protect my car.

I just picked up my lbb from Robbie on Friday. The car looks amazing and I like the peace of mind knowing that my car has the best protection on the market.

[pruettfan]

Originally Posted by Janitor1

I just picked up my lbb from Robbie on Friday. The car looks amazing and I like the peace of mind knowing that my car has the best protection on the market.

Robbie is the best, it seems like he is doing all of the AZ M2s.

[chambolle]

First time I have tried Xpel and I was skeptical about the stuff. However, I had the dealer do the installation and if there turns out to be a problem, I am relatively certain the dealer and/or BMW NA will have to stand behind the product and the workmanship.

The factory installed film on the rear fenders is pretty clunky stuff, but I am going to leave it where it is unless the dealer recommends removing it. Access to my house is via a gravel lane, and all manner of crap gets thrown up against those bulging rear fenders after a rain, even at 5 mph.

[quikM2]

Originally Posted by Pol

Tomorrow I can pick up the car. The painting needs to cure 14 for days before redoing the XPEL.

Are you sure it's just 14 days? When I looked into this I was told by multiple installers and detailers domain on this forum that it was minimum 2-3 months before reapplying Xpel to a freshly painted surface.

[XPEL]

Originally Posted by quikM2

Are you sure it's just 14 days? When I looked into this I was told by multiple installers and detailers domain on this forum that it was minimum 2-3 months before reapplying Xpel to a freshly painted surface.

I honestly depends on the painter and the quality of materials used. If the paint is done correctly and baked it can be applied shortly after. If the paint is done "out-gassing" it's ready for PPF (clear bra). We work with many body shops for replacing XPEL on crashed vehicles and they come fresh from the body shop

[Pol]

For the sake of completeness the new X-Pel wrap on the bumper is now a fact since mid-November. This time and up to now it seems they did a perfect job.