That sucks. I am about to put a clear bra on our cars. Thanks
the warning.


Do you think they ordered the Mini Cooper and not the S kit and
that's the reason for the scratches around the scoop?

This whole situation is a bit ironic. The point of the clear bra is to
avoid chips and dings and scratches. I hope they can buff it out
so that you can't even notice it was there at all. Godspeed.

 

Apparently, some of these places free hand the patterns...which means that they will cut them on your car sometimes. I would definitely ask them how they get their patterns before I let them touch my car. The best situation seems to be when they have their patterns machine cut right there at their shop. After I get this situation all taken care of I'm taking the Mini to another place that can machine cut them. It's three hours away, and I thought about taking it there two weeks ago (if I had only known what I know now - I didn't go there because of the distance) I just hope that the place that did this damage will give me a refund...or that will be money down the drain. ...because there's no way I'm letting them redo this. I hope a lot of people learn from my mistake...words like "certified," "licensed," etc. don't mean a thing. Look for people that have the right equipment...and experience...and maybe a Porsche or two waiting in line to have their bras installed.

 

while i did the Xpel bra install on the aero bumper i had to trim a little
bit off the top sections just under the headlights. it was hard to cut,
but i pulled up the bra away from the panel with my wet fingers while
i cut with a pair of small curved scissors. my scissors never came
in contact with the body. ive been complimented on the install on
many occassions from not only my car buddies, but from the dealers
as well. must have been beginner's luck. lol

 

Kenchan, did you install the xpel on your hood too? Was it hard to install? Everyone keeps telling me how impossible it is. Maybe you can give us all hope.

 

^^ i only did the aero bumper. i don't have any chips on the bonnet.
i don't think you really need it imho on the bonnet.

 

sorry, the bonnet gets chipped too. all those sexy curves around the headlight end up almost vertical on the nose.

trust me, i speak from experience. chipped the bonnet on the way home from the first road trip, b4 i was able to schedule a clear bra install.

 

that's bad luck like the cracked winshield.

 

Off the subject, but who has a cracked windshield?

 

Strange thing happened...I mentioned this incident on a forum for people who do these installations to see what they had to say about it. It received a totally different reaction. It seemed to go both ways. Some of them thought I was being picky...that I shouldn't get a refund, etc. (He performed labor on my car and deserves compensation...that kind of thing.) I was kind of surprised. The others said that I should have him fix the scratches and ask for a refund. I guess the lesson we need to learn from this is that not everyone cares about your car the way you do, so be careful when choosing people for any job. I have one more question:

The guy wants to fix it himself. I'm not sure if he's capable of doing it without making things worse. I was going to let him, but I was just on the phone with my Dad who said that I should make him go through his insurance to get it fixed by a body shop. I hope I'm not kicking a dead horse here; I'm just curious what other Mini owners would do in this situation. Would you guys let him do it himself? ...or would you take my Dad's advice?

 

my original post was to get the guy's insurance info and work it
out with your insurance agent. take your dad's advise.

 

not mine!

 

If it was me, I would NOT let him touch the car again. I would take your father's advice. Fool me once.. shame on you... fool me twice, shame on me!

 

Get his insurance info and let someone else do it. If he was certified through 3M, a call to them should take place too, he's representing their product and training methods.

 

I took it in today. I shouldn't have been worried about it. He's going to take care of everything. He's ordering some precut film for the front end. He's redoing everything, and he's going to have it sent in to a body shop. I'm relieved at this point.

 

Update:

I picked my car up yesteday. It looks great. No scratches...and the bra looks nice. I also had him tint my windows, and that turned out great too.

 

Excellent! Did they have to repaint?

 

No. They didn't repaint it. That concerns me a little. I'm not sure how much clear coat I have left. *shrug*