Hi all,

I want to share a story here and ask that after some thought and consideration that you will respond with a suggestion.

I live in South Florida where I was involved in the auto industry for just under four years. During this time, I became good friends with a man who owns a window tint shop which shall remain unnamed at this time. He deals mainly in fleet work and dealer jobs. He has about ten dealerships that have him tint their cars exclusively when a customer asks for window tint. Rarely does he do a car for an "individual" calling off the street so to speak.

In the past few years while working in a few of the dealerships that this man did tinting jobs for I asked "Bob" (no need to divulge his personal information at this time) if he would do tint work for my personal car(s) as he did for most of the other employees. He has tinted five windows on my Acura TSX (one year ago) and just recently tinted my murdered out '98 Lincoln Town Car. His work is nice and his prices are very reasonable.

A few months ago I purchased a 997.1 C2S X51 car and was very sure that I had to have Cocoa interior after seeing my friend's black 911 with Cocoa. My car came fully tinted from the previous owner and it looks perfect. It is such a beautiful leather color and is rare to find, especially now that it is no longer produced to my knowledge.

Anyways, my friend recently called me and asked me if I had "a hookup" for window tint because he wanted to have his windshield tinted with a light film so that he could protect his full leather dash from fading or getting too hot. I gave him "Bob's" number and they set the appointment up for today. I was bored and decided I would go with him to see Bob's new shop. Bob explained that he had a relatively new employee working but that he would supervise the job and make sure not to let anything happen. We had warned Bob of the pre-treated dash and how there should not be any chemicals or ANYTHING other than water to touch the dashboard. We also supplied Bob with a towel so that he could cover the dash as it was being worked on if necessary.

Fast forward to tonight. I get a call from my friend who is absolutely bummed out because after going downstairs to the garage to see how well the bubbles are drying out (hot FL sun and heat), he sees that the dashboard has been marred in about FIVE places.

On the left far left side of the upper dashboard where the leather meets the plastic, there is a quarter sized indentation. On the passenger side, same thing! Only it gets worse- on the passenger side, not only is there and indentation in the same spot of almost the same size as the other side, but the leather A pillar (car has leather A&B pillars) has actually bubbled out at the bottom forming a 4 inch arch shaped bubble. Aside from that, there are another two small indentations in the crease where the passenger side dash airbag stitching meets.

After going over to his garage to see this, my heart dropped to my stomach. I don't even know what to say. I am speechless. At this point, I don't know if he should just "live with it" or try to fight to get a new dash board and A pillar.

Does Porsche even make a Cocoa leather dash and A Pillar? If they do, and he shows Bob the damage that has been done, I am sure Bob will be extremely unhappy to see that he has a possible $6-8,000 repair bill on his hands. Then again, he runs a pretty large business (this is not a Mom n Pop tinting place on the corner) and has to be heavily insured. At this point we are both lost for words and as you all can imagine, I feel partly responsible and guilty for what has gone down. It would have been so much easier to just buy the Porsche windshield screen and place that in the car when parked for long periods of time.

PLEASE tell me how you guys would handle the situation because right now this second, my head is spinning and my adrenaline is pumping. I made sure to remind myself and my friend that we are in good health, have great lives and are lucky to be driving such nice cars in the first place. But to go to a place to have your dashboard PROTECTED and end up leaving with it SCREWED UP is just BS.

Regards,
John

Edit- friend contacted Bob and Bob said "not sure how something like this could happen. We did not use any special tools. The 911 windshield has a very easy curve and was simple to do. Come by tomorrow and I'll take a look at it".

Also, if anyone knows of a leather product or method that helps to remove indentations, please let me know so I can pass along the knowledge. I know I have seen a thread either here or on 6speed explaining how to remove indentations from seats. Not sure about the dash. What do you guys use on your leather dashboards?

 

I think you need to bring the damage to "Bob's" attention immediately. The longer you wait more doubt will be cast about the origin of this damage. Secondly Bob may not even be aware his new employee is damaging customer's cars. You may be able to save another person the grief of having their car damaged. If Bob is a stand up guy he will take care of the issue regardless of what it cost.

Good luck

Ken

 

+1

Always better to know sooner than later, under any circumstances!

 

+1 on the "let Bob know ASAP."

 

edit Edit- friend contacted Bob and Bob said "not sure how something like this could happen. We did not use any special tools. The 911 windshield has a very easy curve and was simple to do. Come by tomorrow and I'll take a look at it".

Bob is a stand up guy from what I know. I just hope that he takes care of the "little man". If my buddy had an account with him and was processing hundreds of cars a year through him this wouldn't even be a question.

 

Can't wait to read the next chapter of this story.