Uh oh. Ceramic coating swirls (xpel) - with PPF as well. Question and cautionary tale
Hi all - I have three cars that have xpel products on them. All professionally applied over a year ago by the top local xpel installer. No issues there at all! On 2 of the cars, I have 10-year PPF covered with 8-year fusion plus premium ceramic on top. The 3rd car does not have PPF, but does have the 8-year ceramic fusion plus premium.
In short, the three cars have only ever been washed by the original installer (they do washes for previous PPF/ceramic customers) along with 2 different mobile detailing companies. Both of which I thought have done solid jobs … until … see photos. Holy cow. Different shots where you can see spider web looking swirls. HEAT does NOT take these out (thought maybe the self healing PPF would help on at least those 2 cars that have that).
Long and short, the cars are one by one going back to the original installer. They tried heat, they tried to very lightly polish… neither worked. They’re going to have to strip the ceramic and reapply. With obvious careful consideration on the two that have PPF.
I suppose this post is as much of a question to the community of if you have ever seen this before… And is the stripping of the ceramic and reapplying truly the best answer? Along with a cautionary tale to those out there… Be careful. From here on out, I will only ever be cleaning them myself (typically Rinseless wash - ONR) and/or bringing back to the original installer for washes … just not as convenient as having the mobile detailers come out :(