Clear bra or leather bra?

H

heffergm

New member
I'm debating putting a clear bra on my (new) car. The main issue is cost, or rather, cost as relative to what it will gain me in terms of resale value (basically nothing as far as I'm concerned) and satisfaction in not having a beat up front end.

The alternative is a traditional leather full face bra, which has it's own share of drawbacks, but is a lot cheaper.

Getting an XPEL (3M) clear bra installed is going to run me in the neighborhood of $900 or so. Another brand, clearshield I belive it's called, runs about $600, but I have a hard time not buying the best, which I'm pretty confident would be the 3M product. A standard leather bra will run about $125.

I basically already know the pros/cons of each, but I'm curious to hear from other people interested in detailing... what would you do if cost was a concern (not necessarily a prohibitive one, but I like to stick to some semblance of a budget).
 
heffergm said:
I basically already know the pros/cons of each, but I'm curious to hear from other people interested in detailing... what would you do if cost was a concern (not necessarily a prohibitive one, but I like to stick to some semblance of a budget).
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My decision was to live with the damage and if it got bad enough, I would have it painted. :) So far, I have never had to have the paint work done and several of my vehicles have gone in excess of 150,000 miles and as long as 14 years. If I can avoid unpaved roads and gravel trucks that leak all over the road, I haven't done too bad. My highway speeds are usually 5 to 10 over the posted limit so the exposure is there.

A friend of mine has used the vinyl bras on a limited basis. When he is going to be around town, he leaves it off. When he has a road trip of a couple of hundred miles, he installs it for the duration of the trip. Seems to work for him.

Charles
 
I was thinking of doing something similar to your friend. Basically leave it on during the week for work, then remove it on the weekends for around town, cleaning, etc.

I have a 100 mile round trip commute to work, and it's all in "traffic" (though always moving at a good clip). I'm going to have to keep myself further back from cars ahead of me because my 2003 WRX is already showing quite a lot of damage... certainly not anything horrid, but it's noticeable to me.
 
heffergm said:
I was thinking of doing something similar to your friend. Basically leave it on during the week for work, then remove it on the weekends for around town, cleaning, etc.

I have a 100 mile round trip commute to work, and it's all in "traffic" (though always moving at a good clip). I'm going to have to keep myself further back from cars ahead of me because my 2003 WRX is already showing quite a lot of damage... certainly not anything horrid, but it's noticeable to me.
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Circumstances can require us to do a lot of things that we don't really care to do. Fortunately, my commute was 6.5 mile each way in light traffic. Of course, it only takes one rock from one vehicle to do a lot of damage. My wife's car is almost 7 years old and has been on about 80 yards of unpaved road, (because of construction), in its lifetime. She drove about 3 mph for those 80 yards.:D

Charles
 
heffergm said:
I was thinking of doing something similar to your friend. Basically leave it on during the week for work, then remove it on the weekends for around town, cleaning, etc.

I have a 100 mile round trip commute to work, and it's all in "traffic" (though always moving at a good clip). I'm going to have to keep myself further back from cars ahead of me because my 2003 WRX is already showing quite a lot of damage... certainly not anything horrid, but it's noticeable to me.
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Our commutes and concerns are pretty similiar, except that 2/3 of mine is 2 lane state road traffic, weaving through the corn feilds and cow pastures of Indiana and Ohio. Consequently I get lots of bugs, which concerns me in addition to the rocks.

Anyway, I have the vinyl variety for my daily driver and install it for only a few days at a time, then take it off and clean the felt underside of the bra and the surface of the car. I definitely don't leave it on when it is expected to rain. With my 1st new car last year I left the thing on for weeks at a time, even through rain, and when I would take it off I'd notice discoloring (of the paint!) that would take a few days to normalize. This convinced me to not wear it too long at a time.

A few weeks ago I was looking into the clear bra and determined the $'s were too steep for me right now.
 
Actually, most of my commute is on 2 lane state roads through the fields and cow pastures of Virginia ;)

I'm not too concerned with bugs. Zaino keeps them at bay. But the paint wear from the bra sounds pretty annoying. I don't know if I'd rather have rock chips or scuffing. Maybe I should just learn how to repaint/wetsand... who to practice on first... :)
 
I recently put the clear bra on my new Accord. After seeing what my LeBaron looked like after owning it for 11 years, there was never a question in my mind that it was going on. So far I love it. You can only see the line from close up, at the right angle.

I got what I've seen referred to as a "deluxe" package, the hood, fenders, bumper, mirrors, and then custom work for the front under-spoiler and rocker panels. Cost me $800. Sure, I could do one repaint for that price, but then the car's been repainted, and that takes away from resale, even if there was no accident involved. Speaking of which, you had mentioned that resale was one of your primary concerns, and you didn't think the clear bra would add anything. Well, in a sense, that's partially true, don't expect somebody to pay more for your car just because it has the film on it. However, having the clear bra on from early in the car's life will avoid a big decrease in resale value due to having a chipped up front end; so in that sense, yes, it does "add" to resale.

As far as cost goes, if you're considering a leather/vinyl bra, and just using it when you especially need it... If you're willing to take the time to repeatedly install/remove it all the time, then this can be a cost-effective option. Here's how I'd do the math: Get some kind of a rough idea of how often you think you'll have it on the car, for how much of your driving. Say, for instance, that you decide that you'll probably have the bra on for 50% of the car's miles. You are then essentially getting 50% of the protection of the film, so if you can pay less than 50% of the cost of the film, you're ahead. However, keep in mind that the other 50% of the time, it is completely unprotected, and you'll still end up with some chips, though fewer than if it was never protected.

In the end, the affect of rock chips on resale is going to depend on who you're selling the vehicle to. If you're just going to trade it, a dealership probably won't deduct too much, as long as the amount of chips are reasonable for the age of the vehicle, and not overly noticeable. If you're selling it to a private party, or, if I were to go look at the vehicle at a dealership, and it was all chipped up, I would demand a repaint before purchase. As a matter of fact, before I decided to go new, I was looking at used Accords, and went to look at one with a lot of rock chips in the front end (black with 22k miles). I told them they'd need to repaint the whole front end, not just touch up the chips.

Some more opinions, including some pix of the installation on my car, are in this thread.

HTH
 
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