What Went Wrong Customizing My New 2026 Porsche Carrera T …and what I did about it!

Hi everyone, welcome back to the series. My name is Chris Stout, and today I'm going to be talking about what went wrong customizing my new 2026 Porsche Carrera T. As of this episode, I haven't even received it yet. It's so supposed to have now cleared customs and be somewhere in North America, hopefully making its way westerly towards me in the Midwest. So this is, like I said, what, what went wrong. And I should also then note that what, what I did about it. You'll see in this series— please do look in the show notes below— you'll see links to the other episodes within this series of some of the, the hijinks and things that have been going on with this car. Hopefully be educational or empathic, as I've noticed I've seen in some of the other show notes that people have had similar situations. So I appreciate that kind of feedback as well too. So if you've seen the other episodes, I'm not going to reiterate all those, but I just wanted to make note that you'll see that I tried to do— I went to the configurator, ordered a new car, the Carrera T, and tried to do it with the aero kit. That's literally a story for another episode, but this was kind of what it was looking like, and that was kind of what my goal was. I found out that I could not get the aero kit. It could delay or never be part of the car, so that That's again a story for a different day, but it got me into thinking about how can I customize the car once I get it, and then it's going to be a lease, so there's got to be things that I can also kind of undo. I realize there'll probably be some capital loss with the process of doing that, but at least for the time I have the car, it'll be the car that I want, the way that I want it, kind of customized and individualized to me. And then hopefully afterwards parts could maybe be sold through PCA or other places, and someone can get some fun and use out of them for on their projects. So I'm, I'm not— I say that because I am not unique to customizing 911s, and most Porsches I think lend themselves very nicely to that historically. This is my first. This is a 1970 911 Targa T. Did a few things to it. It had some wiring issues and stuff. I sorted all that stuff out. I did some cosmetic things with it and kind of refreshed it. I put that front chin spoiler on it, the 2 Fun license plate, um, blacked out all the chrome and whatnot, did some interior tweaks and fixes. And that was really kind of the— where I got the bug, I got the bite that got that whole, um, this process started with that. And I had this car probably 1986-ish, '87, something like that. So it was a '70, uh, the year, model year is a '70, and I probably had it when it was about 15-ish, 12-ish years old. I got really active in the— I guess, well, there's '91, so that kind of sets a base. So maybe I had it in 1989, '90. So I had a nice little write-up about it in the Chicago Scene, which was the Porsche Club of America's branch in Chicago back in the day. From there, life happened, kids happened, work happened, etc. Got a little money and still had an itch for 911s, so got a 1999 996. This one did, again, chin spoiler, side skirts, a crazy rear wing, carbon fiber dash stuff inside. It was a 6-speed, so that was nice. I enjoyed that car. Then sold it, got the itch again. This time I went with the Cabrio hardtop. It came with the removable hardtop that sat in the basement most of the time. I love this one. I love the wheels. I did put— made the brake calipers red, did a side skirt that's hard to see there, totally new front bumper cover, totally new rear diffuser in the back, new exhaust new wing. I think they're Recaro or Sparco seats. Carbon fiber in the dash there as well too. It was a Tiptronic, which was okay. I said I would have loved to have a 6-speed. Straight exhaust on it, K&N filter, etc., etc. So nice, nice project with that. Also, I'm, I still, I'm a big fan of 928s. I know not everybody is, but again, kind of went through this one as well too. This was a gray market Euro spec, so it didn't catalytic converters, but put a Borla exhaust on it, Momo steering wheel, took out those crazy psychedelic checkerboard seats, put in Recaros in there. I had a car phone in it, had an in-dash CD player, which was kind of cool at the time. Did an S4 rear bumper, S4 rear wing, side skirts as you can see, BBS 3-piece wheels, Yokohama dry tires, 928 S4 front bumper valance, bumper cover. Came with the H4 headlights, which I liked a lot too. Just really— no sunroof, no air conditioning, stuff like that too. 5-speed, which was great, which was fun. So really enjoyed that car as well too. And then rented a 911 GT3 and did Tail of the Dragon, which was fun. And then more recently, most recently last year, rented a 718 GT4, kind of track prepped, better brakes, some tweaks to the ECU, roll cage, etc., etc., and got to do the Nürburgring, a few laps in Nürburgring with a great coach there. So that was, that was all fun. So this is a little bit of the background of stuff that I've messed around with Porsches, my own Porsches, and building. So I really was not having hesitant and too nervous to do that. A little bit because it was a brand new Porsche and it's a lease, but, uh, not, not, you know, not enough to— that's going to stop me or dissuade me. Um, I loved this as a model. I'm not a big fan of wraps and mats and stuff like that. I would prefer the shine of this, but I thought this was still an interesting example. And really not a fan of black wheels, but, but otherwise this served as an inspiration. Obviously they were able to get the aero kit on this one. I don't think it was a manual, I'm not sure. I don't think it's a T, but I'm not super sure from this video. But one of the things you can kind of tell if I point it out to you is that they put a carbon fiber hood on it and they left the carbon fiber in gloss. So the car itself was like in a matte black finish but had a gloss hood. I don't know if it had a sunroof and had the, the black top, how they managed that, but I just really kind of thought how that looked nice. And since I couldn't get the aero kit, I was now in the shopping for getting a rear wing. And then when I was in the process of shopping for the rear wing, I happened come across these hoods, and I like the carbon fiber hood. So that was kind of what got me down this modified rabbit hole. So this is the same car, and this is kind of like a GT3 hood with these vents in it and stuff, obviously in carbon fiber. And you can tell maybe now the difference between the flat of the body and the gloss of the carbon fiber finish. But I really liked that. My car is going to be finished in silver, and I thought the black of what's going to be on the top of the car, the engine cover of the car, and the black hood would all be kind of synthetic and, and work well together. So the point of all this is that it got me down some other rabbit holes of like, well, if I can't get a factory aero kit, I'm going to do my own versions of it. If I'm already doing an aero kit, now I'm seeing all these other options for hoods and carbon fiber hoods and stuff like that. So let's take a look. So, so I did. There's a variety of price points. Most all are kind of— I mean, if they're really cheap, they're probably horrible, and if they're really expensive, they're probably really good but too expensive. So if you get probably within a 10-15% standard deviation of what these prices are, then you're probably, you know, going to be getting quality products that are going to be generally, you know, good quality, good fit, appropriate materials, dry carbon fiber weave, etc. So I went to— and I'm going to guess it's spelled— you can see it there, it's CVR Bonized. So it's Carv Bonized. I'm just going to call it Carbonized for ease, but it's spelled C-V-R-B-O-N-I-Z-E-D. And it was the company, and this was pre-Christmas. And as a lot of places did with Black Fridays and stuff like that, they had a sale on, on their stuff. And I contacted them and I said, hey, I want to lock in the sale price, actually on the hood, but I don't, you know, I don't need it now. I'm not sure if my deal is going to go through. If you've seen the other videos, is it on again? Is it off again? Am I going to get it? Am I not going to get it? So I said, I want to put a $500 deposit down to lock in the sale price, but I want to have an agreement with you that if the car, if, you know, it kind of doesn't turn out or whatever, that I can, um, you know, cancel the order and get a refund. They're like, fine, fine, fine, no problem, and got all that stuff in writing. So I, um, was shopping again for a wing. This one I wasn't real crazy about, but it got me into taking a look at their stuff. And then in the process of looking at their stuff, I was like, ah, there's the hood. So price looked pretty good at $3,150. This shows it not in the gloss. I think it's maybe a little bit more expensive if in the gloss price, maybe like $32, $33, I forget, something like that. But if you're going to paint it anyway, it kind of doesn't matter. It doesn't need to be gloss. So this is what they had. So I, you know, contacted them and double-checked because it looks like, you know, it says it in the URL, it's like 991.1, 991.2, and I was like wanting to make sure it was a 992.2 that it would fit. They guaranteed me that would fit. I said, okay, I'll pull the trigger. We have this understanding that if things don't work out with the car, I'll get my $500 back, you keep your hood. I won't need a hood for a car that I don't have, etc. They're all fine with that. They're all very cool with it. So, um, I was circling back, you know, time has passed, I'm getting ready to pull the trigger. I'm talking with shops about doing installations and doing paint matches for stuff that needed to get paint, etc. And I go click— I've got a Word file that has these pictures and has these links, and I and click on the link, and you can see there it is, carbonize.com, but the site cannot provide a secure connection. So sometimes that happens. This actually is an HTTPS, so it should be secure, but you know, no dice. I tried it— this is on Chrome— I tried it in Microsoft's, whatever theirs is, and just, you know, kind of no luck with it. So then I also searched on Instagram, so I just Googled it, and on Instagram is like, okay, great, here, here's here they are. Um, this is, you know, Carbonized on Instagram. Here's some of their interior stuff with steering wheels and a lot of stuff on BMW parts and whatnot. So I'm like, okay, great. So then I click on that to go a little bit further, and this is on Instagram. So if you look at the handle there, it's instagram.com/carbonized, and this page isn't available. So now I start kind of getting worried. I looked back in all my emails, so I did have a nice audit trail, worked with, I think, a person named Justin, don't quote me on that, but Weston, Justin, I forget. I do have it in my notes. And they, you know, we were all in agreement with this, and I was like triple-checking to say, hey, car didn't work out, let me know. But little did I think that they weren't going to work out. So now I'm kind of panicked. I've— at least I don't have, you know, $3,000, $4,000 in with them and parts that are never going to come, or parts that come and are going to be a problem, or, you know, I'm going to be stuck in some way. So They were just unavailable. I mean, I could not— the emails, I sent another email that never— I was ghosted with that. It didn't bounce, but I just didn't get a response back. You know, I'm either getting 404 errors or I'm seeing these kinds of things if stuff doesn't exist. And just all of a sudden it's like the company was no longer around, and I'm thinking, great, what am I going to do now? So fortunately, I had charged this on a Chase United Airlines mileage credit card, and I contacted them, had a very nice conversation with them. They were very supportive. I explained everything that had happened, that I had documentation, I had emails, etc. All the emails were, you know, dated and return addressed and everything. So it just created, you know, a nice little dossier of materials should I, should I need them. So what they did was they reversed the $500 and kind of froze it. And then just to kind of show you what this letter said, the important part of it is that— so transaction date, that was when it was. There's a merchant name, $500, my deposit. And it says, here's what you need to know: you do not have to pay for any disputed amounts while we research the dispute. Now, of course, they could say we feel like the, you know, the dispute isn't justified and you do owe them $500. That's a possibility with any kind of dispute with the credit card. Temporary credit for the disputed amount and see the credit now, which is very nice of them. So that was like on my next statement and it'll be on one of your next 2 billings. It was on my next one and merchants can provide information supporting the changes. So, 'cause usually what they'll say is, have you tried to contact the merchant? I had tried to contact the merchant. I had let time pass, you know, sufficient amount of time, not crazy amount, not, not 10 minutes later, but let them know that too, that I also had an audit trail that was proof of my attempts to rectify this on my own and to contact them. With no response back. So I don't know what happened. I mean, I— maybe some of you might know. If there is, please put it in the, in the notes below or in the communications, because I have had, you know, zero success in being able to reach anybody there. I can't get any phone numbers. I can't, you know, the website originally it said something like, uh, we're working on the website and, you know, leave us your email and we'll be back in touch. Now it doesn't even say that. So there's no images, there's no, no nothing. It's just kind of a desolate ghost site. So at this point in time, this is kind of what my solution is, that I'm not getting any parts from them. If you're interested from the other part of the, the aero kits, I'll have another episode on this. I do have a line from another company that seems to be in business and much more reputable with regard to the aftermarket rear wing. And I'm probably going to go with a wrap on— I'm going to get PPF for the front bumpers and fenders, but I'm probably going to go— they've kind of convinced me, I need to see it in real life first, but I've seen it just, you know, on via my phone of a wrap that looks— that has great depth to it and looks really like genuine carbon fiber, not like, um, you know, some, you know, uh, weird contact paper. So, um, my thinking is, is that I can still have that kind of look of the black hood, the black top, the black rear deck in, you know, dark and in carbon fiber to contrast with the silver. And then that would also act as a paint protectant. And then when it came time to turn the car back in, that could be removed and the paint would be protected and in good shape underneath it. I'm not going to give prices in here. If it actually does happen, I will give a shout out to who does it, and then once there are final prices, then I will talk about what the costs and stuff like that were. But at this point in time, that's kind of what my general plan is. I have emails and conversations and texts with those folks because they are also a body shop and they can do some of the installation if I do go with a different aftermarket wing. And I'm getting their opinion as to, um, you know, have you worked with these people, this supplier, and, you know, what's their fitment like, things like that. So bottom line is, you know, be, you know, buyer beware, caveat emptor, but, um, you know, look at, uh You know, I tried to do my due diligence, and I thought I had done a good job of it. I'm really glad that it was just— if I do wind up eating it, that it's $500 versus in the thousands. Pardon me. But that's, you know, do it with a credit card. Don't do it with a debit card. Don't do it with a bank transfer, because you lose any kind of ability to, you know, have your rights as a customer with this, with something that's either someone's going out of business, which is sad, or something nefarious is going on and they're a scammer or something like that. I have no idea which which it is with this, since I have, you know, no response back from them at any level. So I hope this has been helpful and educational. If you've had similar or varied experiences, please do share those in the comments below so we can all learn from your experiences and be able to see what you've done for your solutions. And I hope if you've liked this video, please do subscribe. It's quite an eclectic channel. We've got cars and bikes and podcasts and documentaries and all sorts of things on here, stuff that I might be involved with and find of interest. We've got stuff. You can see I've got two different bikes, Ducatis and BMWs. I've got Ultimate Street Car Challenges and all sorts of kinds of races. I've got another car, Mercedes, Mercedes-Benz CLE 450 Cabrio, the whole racing stuff with the 2023 Corvette C8 Z51, etc. So hopefully there'll be some other materials in here that you might find of interest. And if there's certain kinds of episodes, I'm probably going to be maybe doing one on an Audi that I had that I missed that I love so much. But if there's other kinds of topics and things like that that you'd like to see some videos on, you know, please do share that, and if we can produce those, we'd be happy to as well. So thanks for watching today. Please do like and subscribe if you like us and want to subscribe to us, and I really appreciate your time watching this today. So thanks so much, drive safe, and until next time, I'm Chris Stout. Drive safe.