Living with a McLaren 650s Spider as an (almost) daily
Discussion
Ferruccio said:
I don’t want to p/ss on anyone’s strawberries, but shouldn’t they just paint’em right in the first place?
Probably.However - despite Ascot telling me they have no record of bodywork warranty claims, and did no sales prep painting - the bodyshop tell me that they can see the car has had some paint done at some point. The difference in colour does seem to be on entire panels, so that is probably why.
I have no idea why the car has had that paint in the past - the joy of buying a second hand car I guess - but I'm 110% happy McLaren are correcting it.
I'm sure somebody will be along shortly to point out another reason McLaren's are s
t though. 
In the euro trips I've done in my cars... 2 of them had no PPF and the front bumper ended up peppered, 2 of them had PPF and looked as if they hadn't been driven (after the bugs had been cleaned off).
Mine were done with Xpel Stealth, cost about £1500 for the frontal area (bumper, bonnet, wings, mirrors, A pillars). One was done about 2-3 weeks after being freshly painted, not noticed any reactions or anything.
Mine were done with Xpel Stealth, cost about £1500 for the frontal area (bumper, bonnet, wings, mirrors, A pillars). One was done about 2-3 weeks after being freshly painted, not noticed any reactions or anything.
Shaoxter said:
In the euro trips I've done in my cars... 2 of them had no PPF and the front bumper ended up peppered, 2 of them had PPF and looked as if they hadn't been driven (after the bugs had been cleaned off).
Mine were done with Xpel Stealth, cost about £1500 for the frontal area (bumper, bonnet, wings, mirrors, A pillars). One was done about 2-3 weeks after being freshly painted, not noticed any reactions or anything.
Thanks - very useful to knowMine were done with Xpel Stealth, cost about £1500 for the frontal area (bumper, bonnet, wings, mirrors, A pillars). One was done about 2-3 weeks after being freshly painted, not noticed any reactions or anything.
I’m being OCD re front pu. There’s a patch a few inches which looks like the paint has been blown in on PU. One thing to PPF over factory paint quite another over a body shop. If factory a 8/10 to 10/10 nowadays I’d say the job I got was a 7/10. That’s very good from an independent body shop imo. Rest of car 100%
The respray on our yellow 993 better IMO by Riviera but to be fair yellow a much easier colour than met black which shows every imperfection if not done right first time. I had to repaint as scraped the car lightly at VMAX other wise would not have bothered. More modern British cars catching my eyes like yours Davek
The respray on our yellow 993 better IMO by Riviera but to be fair yellow a much easier colour than met black which shows every imperfection if not done right first time. I had to repaint as scraped the car lightly at VMAX other wise would not have bothered. More modern British cars catching my eyes like yours Davek
davek_964 said:
My 360 has had paint from Riviera. Fabulous job
Yes our 993 for a bit of fun and quite by surprise won R21 concours overall best car last year so Riviera's work top notch. The respray I think was in 2015/16 so three years and 15000 miles on and winning PCGB winning concours outstanding. Topaz have PPFd the 993 and no issues but I have no idea between how long the paint was put on her and then Topaz put the PPF on. Will check for you as no reaction whatsoever looks perfect and you can barely see the PPF So - car went to the paintshop on 2nd March. Last week, the estimated delivery date was 9th April (i.e. day before the BH weekend), but sadly their head office have decided they should close today. Although my car only requires re-assembly / alignment of panels - they aren't able to get parts they need for other cars so little point them being open.
On the plus side - I've said many times in this thread that I was struggling to keep the mileage down to the annual limit - and that is clearly not going to be a problem this year after all. In fact - not only will I stay well under the 12K warranty limit, I probably won't even need to increase my initial estimate of 8K for the insurance.
And - if I do decide to get PPF on the car - the paint is having time to cure in their nice dry workshop with the battery on charge - rather than on my driveway.
And it does look fabulous, even without doors.......
On the plus side - I've said many times in this thread that I was struggling to keep the mileage down to the annual limit - and that is clearly not going to be a problem this year after all. In fact - not only will I stay well under the 12K warranty limit, I probably won't even need to increase my initial estimate of 8K for the insurance.
And - if I do decide to get PPF on the car - the paint is having time to cure in their nice dry workshop with the battery on charge - rather than on my driveway.
And it does look fabulous, even without doors.......
12pack said:
So how long will your car be in isolation for then? Hope the 12c next to it doesn’t have symptoms......
I didn't ask - I assume they'll be closed for at least a few weeks. If their reason is lack of supply of parts, I guess it's until their suppliers / McLaren start running normally again.Since I can't really use it, I actually decided over the last few days I'd rather it was there than here so it's worked out OK for me.
Finally - 1 week short of 4 months since it went to M&A for a full respray - I collected my car on Friday. In fact, the car was ready for collection from M&A a few weeks ago - and I did go and see it then - but I didn't want to collect it or use it before PPF went on, and M&A were happy to keep it for 2 weeks until the PPF appointment.
The paintwork is perfect. Once again a huge thanks to McLaren - this is customer service above and beyond what I expected - and to be honest, it still seems to good to be true. And M&A are definitely a good choice if you need paint. My only regret regarding the paintwork is that I should have got the front splitter painted (at my cost obviously). M&A painted all the orange bits of the car - but I should have realised there would be chips on the splitter - I'm actually a bit disappointed they didn't take the opportunity to tout for business and ask me if I wanted it painted!
I only realised I had a lots of chips on the splitter when the car was at Azuri for its PPF. They weren't happy covering a chipped splitter - but obtained some McLaren palladium touch up paint and made a very good job of touching up the chips before adding PPF. I guess such new paint is likely to come back off if the PPF is ever removed from the splitter, but it will be no worse than it was to start with.
Car also has a vinyl front plate now as suggested by Azuri and it looks so much better!
I was actually quite anti-PPF before this - which I know is an odd thing to say considering how much I've just paid to have it done. I thought it was a big compromise - that it's quite visible on some panels and affects the shine and colour. I had it done - reluctantly - because of how badly the chips showed up on my bonnet before the respray, and I knew that if my perfect new paint job got similar chips again I'd be quite upset. It's never bothered me on other cars, but it really did look awful on the 650.
Now - I have absolutely no regrets about the PPF. Azuri have done an astoundingly good job - and kept me fully updated with videos and pics. Graham knew I had concerns about having the mirrors done (you can't do McLaren mirrors in one bit, so there are joins) - so I got close up videos of the mirrors - as well as a promise that if I wasn't happy with them, the PPF would be removed and they would be ceramic coated. There is no problem with them though - if you know the car has PPF, and know the mirrors have joins and go looking for them then you'll find them. But otherwise, you won't even notice them.
And in fact, that's true of the entire car - you simply wouldn't know it had PPF fitted and you have to look very very closely to see that it has.
I can honestly say that having started out feeling that I had to get PPF even though I didn't really want it - I now have absolutely no regrets and if I ever replace the car, it's replacement will be going straight to Azuri. Incidentally - I got several quotes for PPF and Azuri were the only one where the price included a full detail (treatment of the wheels / calipers, treatment of the interior leather) - and they were one of the cheaper quotes. I've always thought my silver calipers were a tad boring compared to the coloured versions some people have - but mine now look like they've been hewn from a solid block of silver.
After 4 months, I'm embarrassed to say I'd actually forgotten how to use the car. Mirrors were not where I like them, but it took me 5 mins to remember how to adjust them. But at least driving the car was easy enough - despite its power, it is the easiest car to drive I've ever owned.
The car wanted to show how glad it was to see me - just before I left, I briefly opened the door (engine off) so the comfort exit started moving the seat back. I changed my mind, closed the door and started the engine - this appeared to upset the car. When I got home, comfort exit / entry no longer worked. But leaving the car locked for a couple of hours put it in a better mood - I have read somewhere before that interrupting the comfort entry / exit upsets the car.
Overall, I'm very happy to have it back. I sold me 360 just over a week ago, and I must admit I am considering spending a little of that on the 650 - soft close doors are an utter waste of money - but I might get them the next time the car is at a dealer.
Sadly, it's not photo weather today, but I did take a picture on collection:
The paintwork is perfect. Once again a huge thanks to McLaren - this is customer service above and beyond what I expected - and to be honest, it still seems to good to be true. And M&A are definitely a good choice if you need paint. My only regret regarding the paintwork is that I should have got the front splitter painted (at my cost obviously). M&A painted all the orange bits of the car - but I should have realised there would be chips on the splitter - I'm actually a bit disappointed they didn't take the opportunity to tout for business and ask me if I wanted it painted!
I only realised I had a lots of chips on the splitter when the car was at Azuri for its PPF. They weren't happy covering a chipped splitter - but obtained some McLaren palladium touch up paint and made a very good job of touching up the chips before adding PPF. I guess such new paint is likely to come back off if the PPF is ever removed from the splitter, but it will be no worse than it was to start with.
Car also has a vinyl front plate now as suggested by Azuri and it looks so much better!
I was actually quite anti-PPF before this - which I know is an odd thing to say considering how much I've just paid to have it done. I thought it was a big compromise - that it's quite visible on some panels and affects the shine and colour. I had it done - reluctantly - because of how badly the chips showed up on my bonnet before the respray, and I knew that if my perfect new paint job got similar chips again I'd be quite upset. It's never bothered me on other cars, but it really did look awful on the 650.
Now - I have absolutely no regrets about the PPF. Azuri have done an astoundingly good job - and kept me fully updated with videos and pics. Graham knew I had concerns about having the mirrors done (you can't do McLaren mirrors in one bit, so there are joins) - so I got close up videos of the mirrors - as well as a promise that if I wasn't happy with them, the PPF would be removed and they would be ceramic coated. There is no problem with them though - if you know the car has PPF, and know the mirrors have joins and go looking for them then you'll find them. But otherwise, you won't even notice them.
And in fact, that's true of the entire car - you simply wouldn't know it had PPF fitted and you have to look very very closely to see that it has.
I can honestly say that having started out feeling that I had to get PPF even though I didn't really want it - I now have absolutely no regrets and if I ever replace the car, it's replacement will be going straight to Azuri. Incidentally - I got several quotes for PPF and Azuri were the only one where the price included a full detail (treatment of the wheels / calipers, treatment of the interior leather) - and they were one of the cheaper quotes. I've always thought my silver calipers were a tad boring compared to the coloured versions some people have - but mine now look like they've been hewn from a solid block of silver.
After 4 months, I'm embarrassed to say I'd actually forgotten how to use the car. Mirrors were not where I like them, but it took me 5 mins to remember how to adjust them. But at least driving the car was easy enough - despite its power, it is the easiest car to drive I've ever owned.
The car wanted to show how glad it was to see me - just before I left, I briefly opened the door (engine off) so the comfort exit started moving the seat back. I changed my mind, closed the door and started the engine - this appeared to upset the car. When I got home, comfort exit / entry no longer worked. But leaving the car locked for a couple of hours put it in a better mood - I have read somewhere before that interrupting the comfort entry / exit upsets the car.
Overall, I'm very happy to have it back. I sold me 360 just over a week ago, and I must admit I am considering spending a little of that on the 650 - soft close doors are an utter waste of money - but I might get them the next time the car is at a dealer.
Sadly, it's not photo weather today, but I did take a picture on collection:
davek_964 said:
It's Xpel
Did you choose Xpel for any particular reason?
My newly painted 720S is stored up waiting for paint to properly cure. It will then have PPF applied. I had Xpel on my previous white 720S, but I have been told by a PPF fitter that Suntek is better for darker colours and for paint that has been flatted and is free of orange peel. Apparently, Xpel has a texture, whilst Suntek doesn’t and has more clarity. Xpel is more durable. So I am being told.
The paint on my 720S is now like glass. Would be a shame to choose a PPF that may effect the appearance.
Have you noticed a texture in the Xpel?
Edited by anonymous-user on Saturday 27th June 15:19
[quote=davek_ soft close doors are an utter waste of money - but I might get them the next time the car is at a dealer.
[/quote]
Hi Dave, Last month I DIY fitted soft close to my 12c coupe for ..... wait for it ..... £165 all in.
It took about 2 hours to do and it is actually fairly straightforward.
In a nutshell you buy some S/H Tesla model X latches on ebay.com for about $50 each and watch any of the 3 or so videos on youtube / mclaren life forum for fitting instructions.
I'm happy to say that the Tesla parts do indeed fit and work perfectly. One very slight snag is that you have to loose either the emergency key unlockor the door strap release on one side of the car. Personally, I was happy to accept this for a £1000+ saving.
If you really don't fancy the DIY fit i'm sure a competent garage could do this for a few hundred quid.
It's Sooooo nice not to have to slam the doors any more.
Biggest snag is having to re educate wifey NOT to slam the door !
[/quote]
Hi Dave, Last month I DIY fitted soft close to my 12c coupe for ..... wait for it ..... £165 all in.
It took about 2 hours to do and it is actually fairly straightforward.
In a nutshell you buy some S/H Tesla model X latches on ebay.com for about $50 each and watch any of the 3 or so videos on youtube / mclaren life forum for fitting instructions.
I'm happy to say that the Tesla parts do indeed fit and work perfectly. One very slight snag is that you have to loose either the emergency key unlockor the door strap release on one side of the car. Personally, I was happy to accept this for a £1000+ saving.
If you really don't fancy the DIY fit i'm sure a competent garage could do this for a few hundred quid.
It's Sooooo nice not to have to slam the doors any more.
Biggest snag is having to re educate wifey NOT to slam the door !
These will fit .... shipping costs as much again as the parts - but the whole lot is about 20% of MCL price
https://www.ebay.com/itm/2015-2020-Tesla-Model-X-F...
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Tesla-1084918-00-D-Model-...
2oAAOSwz~paA0hh
https://www.ebay.com/itm/2015-2020-Tesla-Model-X-F...
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Tesla-1084918-00-D-Model-...
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