prairiePPFer

There are situations where it is good to have around, but in my thirteen years of film I've only used it a handful of times. The issue with it comes when you go to remove the film or have to make corrections next day. I've had to remove full wraps from folks who rely heavily on adhesive promoter, and the glue removal can take days of extra time - not to mention, can also take the paint with it. Whether it's extremely high or low quality paint, it can be etched and damaged by adhesive promoter. Plastics can be irreparably burned by it within seconds. It's better to prep your edges with isopropyl alcohol and take an adequate amount of time to dry before returning a vehicle to a customer. It will save you a lot of headache in the long run, and preserve customer vehicles.

That is crazy. I usually dedicate two full days to the installation and then keep it for another three to go over every inch of the vehicle several times. Problems always arise in the curing process. Totally unreasonable to expect you to do it in a day. Even if you're the fastest guy out there, you'd still want to be putting out better quality than that.

I'm at the point where I'm completely unnerved by this problem and I'm not sure what to do! I prep every vehicle that I work on with 3 different solutions that strip the wax off of the edges. It's not my first rodeo. I thought I'd developed a fool proof system, and to be fair, it works on every other brand. And then I'll get these BMWs back, usually within a week to a couple months, and they've blown a whole piece of film off. Or a lot of pieces of film off. And when I go to remove it, it peels off like there wasn't even glue there. I've had an issue on certain BMW headlights for a long time where they release static and it messes with the glue, creates a crazy stretch mark, and peels like butter, but it seems like this is all encompassing now. It's not ceramic coating - the paint is so soft it scratches when you breathe on it, and most of them are fresh off the truck. The rockers are the absolute worst. I'm at the point where I wrap every edge, and I still get them back. The majority of warranty issues I have are with this problem. I've spoken to a few reps about it from multiple companies and all I get is a blank stare. Anyone else have this issue? All tips are appreciated.

Yeah I would say that you're being underpaid. I have been told I'm underpaid and I make 9 hrs at a similar rate for similar package. This is a great question, as it's definitely time for me to renegotiate as well and it's so difficult to do. Dealerships want to keep everything the same for every vehicle, but man has it gotten difficult to put a blanket rate over every car. It used to be that you'd get the odd one with a fully painted front end, and now it seems like that's all I get. 6 piece grille and 3 piece bumpers on the new trucks really strain that flat rate.

I try not to use it at all. It's a lot easier to correct issues if you haven't used it. The minute you put it on, you know you can't fix anything without having to replace that piece. And leaving a ton of glue behind on removal. But every so often, when the film just will not stay down due to wax or something rough preventing adhesion on that spot, it can be a lifesaver. Pro-tip - if you're applying film on a repainted vehicle, don't do it.