Q: I am a newbie (trained by X-Pel about a month ago) and was doing my first WRX bumper last night. Things were going great....I could see all the stretch and tack points and had just finished working up to the headlight. I was really happy and then I came down to stretch and tack down at the bottom lip by the fog lights. I could not get adhesion AT ALL. I finally gave up and went back up and finished the other top side of the bumper to the light and again on the other side had troubles with adhesion down at the bottom lip. 5 hours later....I ripped the kit off and went to bed (well after midnight).

Before anyone lays in to me on being an unexperienced installer....I know...so I am trying to diagnose the problem so it does not happen again. Here are things that I tried and the result of what I think might have been the problem.

-Too strong of slip (it was floating pretty good) and then waiting quite awhile (I didn't get to these pieces until probably an hour or more into it) before working the piece (the slip dried to the adhesive). But shouldn't my alcohol have washed it off still???

-Too strong of alcohol. I mixed multiple bottles up with different solutions hoping to remedy the problem. I know that too strong of alcohol will attack the adhesive. If this happens, does it affect any future adhesion...even if you get the right dilution?

-Surface not cleaned properly. I cleaned and then recleaned after not getting adhesion. I used 3M adhesive remover and wiped immediately after with a clean cloth (probably 3 or 4 times). The bottom lip of his bumper does have some chips and nicks (mostly just in the clearcoat) and he did have underbody coating put on but it wasn't on the paint where I was trying to apply.

-I used a polishing compound in my prep work to polish out some small scratches that he had. I then used the adhesive remover. I don't think this would have been the problem as the compound was thoroughly removed.

-The temperature began to drop as we approached evening. It probably dropped below 60 before I fully closed the garage door and heated the garage up. Shouldn't the adhesive respond better after the temperature comes back up...even after being exposed to a lower temp? I also tried using my heat gun and was getting better adhesion (still pretty low though it seemed) after seriously heating but then it made it pretty tricky to stretch and tack with everything real warm.

Any suggestions or comments would be appreciated. I am one of those guys that hates just saying "oh...don't know why...but it works now". I think a good understanding of how everything is working together (slip, alcohol, adhesive, paint surface, etc.) will make a good installer...not just how well you swipe with the squegee (by far the easy part).

And now I know what you guys talk about when you have "those" jobs...the ones that make you wish that PPF didn't exist. But I know it will happen...comes with any trade.

Thanks- frustrated newbie

A: We have all had that happen, I had the same thing on a Porsche last week, except on the hood of all places. You seemed to have covered all the bases. I tried this and it seemed to help. with the solutions mixed, if the bottles werent shaken, and you didnt use warm water with your slip mix, you may have had a concentration down at the bottom, sounds silly but I've seen it, same with alcohol. its always best to mix with tempid/warm water then aggitate the bottle (hand it to wife or suitible aggitator).

If you have an area tacked/set, and the area being stretched to wont grab, you utimatly have to get rid of the fluids in that area, rewipe with a paper towel or micro fibre being careful not to get lint stuck to film, then stretch to the area and hold, allowing your hand heat to help adheasion, once it grabs you can squeegee it out. On a dark color car, if it left some marks, then you can go back with your alcohol solution and spray then squeegee again to get rid of marks.

I have had pieces of film cut off the same kit as the hood and wont stick.

Another possibility is if when he had the work done on the car someone may have had a silicone based product there, and the compound didnt take it off.

I hope this helps, and quite honestly, things are going to happen that you just cant answer why...try not to dwell on it.