XPEL Full Body Glossy PPF Installed -- Reality vs Expectation [Photos]

So the moment I received the email from Rivian letting me know about the XPEL deal for existing R1T owners, I jumped in and signed up for the deal. Much thanks to TIM@XPEL taking his time sharing the details about this deal on this forum, I think everyone has a much better idea of what the deal would be (Edge wraps wherever possible, precut holes for the emblem/badge etc,.). However, I have yet seen one with the full body glossy wrap in blue.

After a long wait (I think installer responses started going out after TIM@XPEL clarified a lot about this deal in the forum), I finally got a call from one of the Colorado XPEL installer (The Man Cave) and I immediately dropped the truck off for the job. The installer was also kind enough to offer to do the full body in glossy ppf instead of the stealth ppf with an additional cost of $500 and with 10 yrs warranty instead of 5yrs. I also let them to do all window tints (using XPEL product) including front windshield and back for an additional cost.

After a few days of waiting, I finally picked up the truck this afternoon. It looks quite good at a distance. But devil is always in the detail so here are the pictures. I have never had a car ppf wrapped before so I'll let you guy be the judge.

Installer's disclaimer: They can only do edges where the XPEL tool allows them to(Can't extend the film to cover the edge.). And the window tint bottom edge also can't go into the interior window weather strip due to the XPEL tool limitation.

Front:

Charging port:

Hood LF corner:

Hood RF corner
Hood rear:

Hood RR corner:

Door Edge:

Door Front Edge:

Door Handle:

Door badge:

Mirror (Only wrap the outside body):

Mirror Front:

Gear Tunnel Door:

Rear Fender Top:

Tail Gate Letter and badge:


Window tint bottom edge:

This looks exactly like I expected based on Rivian’s/XPEL’s description of this kit.

It’s a pre-cut kit and they don’t wrap edges. That’s why it’s cheaper than other offerings because it takes less time and labor to install. You get what you pay for.

Personally I think it’s definitely worth it to pay the extra and get wrapped edges.

Kmann1994 said:

This looks exactly like I expected based on Rivian’s/XPEL’s description of this kit.

It’s a pre-cut kit and they don’t wrap edges. That’s why it’s cheaper than other offerings because it takes less time and labor to install. You get what you pay for.

Personally I think it’s definitely worth it to pay the extra and get wrapped edges.

Click to expand...

Agree, I couldn’t deal with that visible edge on the door or the lettering. It feels like it would just collect dirt after a while.

Edit: The more I look at this this more I'm annoyed on behalf of OP. This just looks like lazy work.

I thought it's the NON-OEM package that has the cutouts for the emblems and unwrapped edges. If they had in fact given you the OEM package (which they likely could not since you opted for gloss instead of stealth), there may have been fewer issues. There's certainly no way they could have gotten away with these wrinkles and gaps using stealth film and preserved the desired look.

Those are NOT the OEM parts designed for the Rivian package. Those are the Standard XPEL Coverage parts with the base wrapping options enabled before cutting them.

The OEM parts do not have cutouts for the emblems, and every edge that is intended to be wrapped for the program is already extended. If they cut the correct parts, they don't have to select any option or change anything before cutting them. Just open and cut and everything is correct for the program. For whatever reason, they chose to ignore this option and cut from the standard database. You would have to get with the installer to find out why.

I was perfectly ok with this and the level of protection I wanted for off-roading unlit I saw the cut out badges ya I'm no so sure I think I will do front only.

Blueassassin said:

I was perfectly ok with this and the level of protection I wanted for off-roading unlit I saw the cut out badges ya I'm no so sure I think I will do front only.

Click to expand...

Well, as I said, those are NOT the OEM patterns. There are no cutouts around the badges for the OEM Rivian parts.

I am amazed at the unpredictable nature of PPF installation and services. This level of protection would be fine for some, but after paying up having Xpel installed at a high end shop locally on an ICE car, I too am annoyed for OP.

per Tim’s post, it seems that the installer has some context they need to share with you as you chose the OEM program…

I have self-installed pre-cut ppf and can confidently say that some of this was just laziness. The film has enough stretch to get those edges way tighter so that the lack of edge wrapping isn’t a big deal. The pieces are intentionally cut smaller than necessary so the material stretch helps tightly cover the contours of the panel. On top of that I see bubbles around the emblems which should never happen. IMO - the installer CHOSE not to take the time to do it well.

I nearly closed this this thread, leaving with the takeaway of "Guess I'm not doing the Rivian/XPEL package", before I scrolled and saw Tim's message about the OP's experience not in fact being the Rivian package...
@ Admins, I might suggest calling out this key update in the thread title or editing OP's post, in the event others don't see Tim's context.

Personally it pays to have more wrapped around body panels. Especially in CO. I had my Tesla front end wrapped. They wrapped the whole front end. Wrapped around the hood. The side bumpers weren’t wrapped and dirt and debris has made its way on the side. It’s noticeable now especially on a white car. Heard good things about Man cave but surprised they would cut out around the emblems and not take them off

Well, I hope I don't get a call back from man cave and I get another installer. I recently submitted an xpel request for just the front wrap and I live in Denver area too. After seeing the pics but prior to seeing @Tim@XPEL 's post, I decided to just go with twraps ppf and doing a self install. Surely I can do a similar quality wrap than what man cave did here for a third of the cost.

But hopefully Tim can resolve or for some reason they intentionally chose the non oem wrap

Op, would you mind sharing the costs of tinting the front back and side windows?

I had Xpel install full front PPF on my R1T literally a few days before Rivian announced its deal. It cost several hundred dollars more than the Rivian-Xpel offer, which was super frustrating, at least initially. I reached out to Xpel about trying to get a partial refund. They predictably declined, but mentioned that their installation was not based on a kit, included the wrapped edges, and had the 10 year warranty as opposed to 5 years for the kit. I subsequently had a tech at the Rivian service center tell me that Xpel had done a great job and that the wrapped edges were better than the kit that Rivian was offering through Xpel. Long story short, I'm still a little frustrated by the bad timing that cost me a few hundred bucks, but I'm satisfied with the somewhat better installation that I received. That said, Xpel wanted like $2,500 more for the full truck than what Rivian and Xpel are offering for their kit, and I almost certainly would go for the kit option if I wanted the whole truck done.

If you are going to get pre-cut PPF with that kind of installation, you might as well just do it yourself.

Sorry OP, but that's some terrible work around the hood. Even without edge wrap they shouldn't return a truck to you like that.