Concerns about a clear bra.

joyriide1113

joyriide1113

There is no cure!
Im fed up with the way my front bumper is looking. Rock chips everywhere. I'm going to get my bumper repainted but this time wanna protect the paint from getting bad.

I still need to look for a good place, but my concern is about the shop "prepping" the bumper before the install.

I'm sure they use some time of alcohal mix, which I'm ok with, but I doubt they will wash gently, dry with a WW, and then use a soft MF to prep the paint. Im sure they'll grab w/e shop rag is lying around and just wipe the dirt down.

My car being black, I dont want the marring or swirls to show up in full sun and not be able to fix them, since the clear bra would already be installed.

Any help?
 
joyriide1113 said:
Im fed up with the way my front bumper is looking. Rock chips everywhere. I'm going to get my bumper repainted but this time wanna protect the paint from getting bad.

I still need to look for a good place, but my concern is about the shop "prepping" the bumper before the install.

I'm sure they use some time of alcohal mix, which I'm ok with, but I doubt they will wash gently, dry with a WW, and then use a soft MF to prep the paint. Im sure they'll grab w/e shop rag is lying around and just wipe the dirt down.

My car being black, I dont want the marring or swirls to show up in full sun and not be able to fix them, since the clear bra would already be installed.

Any help?
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There is a place here that puts the 3M clear bras on and they do a bang-up job..I would make sure that you get the paint as good as possible before going there and find a good shop that you can trust to do the job right the first time
 
Maybe you could supply some products for them to use while they prep or ask if you'll be able to do it with your products? That's the only thing I can think of other than finding a shop that does awesome work.
 
Just make sure you do your homework and get the right kind. You don't want one that looks like this:

clearbra.jpg


That car is an expensive car and I'm sure the owner didn't intend to cut corners. They just didn't do their homework very well and either neglected the vinyl or it was really cheap and poorly applied.
 
Jngrbrdman said:
Just make sure you do your homework and get the right kind. You don't want one that looks like this:



That car is an expensive car and I'm sure the owner didn't intend to cut corners. They just didn't do their homework very well and either neglected the vinyl or it was really cheap and poorly applied.
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Yea, I saw that pic in my search here on the forum...I only want it on the fornt bumper. Any brands you guys seem to like more?
 
joyriide1113 said:
Yea, I saw that pic in my search here on the forum...I only want it on the fornt bumper. Any brands you guys seem to like more?
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3M has one that I have seen and like... real thin...one thing to think about..is on black you are going to see the bra and the line where it starts and stops....especially when it get dusty...this is what I have seen on the cars with them
 
You could always take a road trip up to see Dwayne. I heard that he was becoming an installer of that stuff.
 
If Dwayne learns how to install, I really would not mind driving a few hours to get a job done right. Only problem would be the chips I'd get on the way there. :(

I was also looking around at this place who offers "clear shield" and have their pieces computer cut. advise?
 
I would hope they all have their pieces computer cut. That is pretty much the way it is done unless they use a die cut method. That would get complicated to have to make dies that big for every make and model car out there. Not to mention the size of the press you would need...
 
budman3 said:
Maybe you could supply some products for them to use while they prep or ask if you'll be able to do it with your products? That's the only thing I can think of other than finding a shop that does awesome work.
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This is what I did. I brought my MF towels and I cleaned the area my self. Than they installed the bra. I also made sure that they used a new squeegee not one that was all hacked up.
 
My opinion is that on a black car the "clear bra" will always be more visible than any swirls underneath it (I've had 5 black cars 4 with the clear-bra). Plus it will always look like orange peel. I did not or will not do it on my Porsche! Just would rather re-paint when need be! On DD or SUVs what the heck. I wouldn't worry that much about the paint for looks sake just for adhesion sake, IMO.
 
With hindsight I should have put something on the bumper, but I'd never put something over the hood that leaves a line. I don't care how invisible it is. It will always reflect differently and it will always show the texture, just like Statman said. I put a bug deflector on the front end of my hood and will just deal with anything that gets above it.
 
Statman said:
My opinion is that on a black car the "clear bra" will always be more visible than any swirls underneath it (I've had 5 black cars 4 with the clear-bra). Plus it will always look like orange peel. I did not or will not do it on my Porsche! Just would rather re-paint when need be! On DD or SUVs what the heck. I wouldn't worry that much about the paint for looks sake just for adhesion sake, IMO.
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I totally agree. I found this out after getting a clear bra put on my new TSX last year. Its really pissing me off because it looks like orange peel on the front of the hood where it is. From certain angles (standing where the driver door is) the line is really noticable as well where it ends, as jngrbrdman pointed out.
 
I just got it done on my new Accord coupe. After having seen what 11 years of my driving habits did to the front end of my LeBaron, there was no way I was going without it on my new black car. :) I'm very happy with how it turned out. You can tell it's there only from certain angles up close. I did all the prep for it myself. Washed and Pb's Pro Polish. I would have clayed it if I had some with me, but I didn't discover that I was out until I went rooting around for it and couldn't find it. :) Some shots:

Installation:



Side-view, visible line:



Head-on view, hardly visible at all:



More pix to follow in a separate thread, once I finish a full detail (hopefully today).
 
Just so you know after the car is painted you should wait at least 30 days before you go ahead and put that on. So unless you plan on not driving it...it will be tough to avoid some chips.
 
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