Some questions on Clear-Bras

[G35stilez]

I am looking to clear-bra the front bumper, headlights, and mirrors of my new car.

I want to order the pre-cut kit early so that the nose is never bare to road debris.

The two kits I have in mind are ArmorGlove and Xpel.

Does anyone have any experiences with these brands, the pre-cut kits, or installation?

I am very interested to hear any input.

Thanks!

[Scott P]

I think Deanski had ArmorGlove on his Lexus.

[Stephan]

I am looking to clear-bra the front bumper, headlights, and mirrors of my new car.

I want to order the pre-cut kit early so that the nose is never bare to road debris.

The two kits I have in mind are ArmorGlove and Xpel.

Does anyone have any experiences with these brands, the pre-cut kits, or installation?

I am very interested to hear any input.

Thanks!

There was a place in Wethersfield that used to do it now they moved to East Hartford I believe. They were mainly a Subaru Performance shop but they did all types of cars for the clear film. I think they used 3M. I will try to find you the name.

[Stephan]

Found it the place is called xxtuning. They are in East Hartford. Here is the link...on the site it has something for paint protection.

http://www.xxtuning.com/

[G35stilez]

Found it the place is called xxtuning. They are in East Hartford. Here is the link...on the site it has something for paint protection.

http://www.xxtuning.com/

I appreciate your help .


Their prices seem to be a bit steep compared to competitors.

[jdoria]

go to Detailing Dynamics in Mineola. They are 3m certified in film application. Some of these kits I have seen are certainly not to your standards. Massive orange peel, misaligned application, color darkening. I had the 3m on my Cayenne which was black. I beleieve Detailing Dynamics installed it for the dealer I bought the car from.

[Crazy1]

(GSRstilez) have you checked out www.starshieldarmor.com ,I heard go things about company and products!

[kaos]

Hey Sean, gratz on the new ride.... err.... what izzit? We want the scoop! (and pix)

Anyway... I got the film done on my new Accord. Definitely wouldn`t have a new black car without it. Keep in mind that there are only a couple of manufacturers of this film, and lots of places that market it under their own names. Xpel and RockGard I know for sure are 3M. Not sure on some of the others, but it`s easy enough to find out, just with a phone call.

The guys that did mine use the Avery film. It`s a clearcoated film, just like the newest generation of 3M film, and has a 7 year warranty, as opposed to 3M`s 5-year warranty. They said it is also much much easier to work with from an installer`s standpoint; goes better around compound curves, less wrinkles/bubbles to get out. They`re another trusted name, as Avery makes a lot of the vinyl for the vinyl graphics industry, as well as their numerous paper and label products.

Something to check into, if you`re worried about it, would be the applicability of the warranty if the product is not professionally installed. I say "if you`re worried about it" because installation is 50% or more of the cost of getting it done, so you could, in theory, do it yourself, have it yellow or peel in half the warranty duration, do it again yourself and have it last that long again, and you`d be at the same point as if you had it done professionally and done again under warranty for free.

As far as installing it yourself... I`m sure that with your skills, you would be able to do it. It will be neither fast nor as easy as it looks, but I`m sure that you`ll be able to achieve professional-looking results. The guy who did mine took about 5 hours to install the whole kit, including a custom piece for the front ground effects, and custom pieces for the rocker panels. The pre-cut kits are computer-cut, and mine was perfect. Just remember to round all your corners. Pointy corners will peel in a heartbeat. (That`s pretty much a golden rule of any type of decal.) As a matter of fact, once you`ve done your own car with it, you might find yourself wanting to add this as a service for your business. It`s a lot of work, but the profit margin on it is very high. For instance, I paid $800 for my install. I could have purchased the full kit plus enough bulk film to do the ground effects and rocker panels for in the neighborhood of $350. Based on that price alone, the guy made about $80 an hour for the install. However, since he does it for a living, he made the investment to buy the knife plotter that will cut the kits, so the bulk film probably only cost him $100 or so for everything he used on my car. That`s a heck of a profit margin. If I were running a detail business, I would definitely be going to get trained as a certified installer, and offering this service. And the plotter would pay for itself in about 4-5 kits.

Anyway.. if you`re planning on doing it yourself, just see where you can get the kit the cheapest (there are lots of retailers of this stuff, all selling it under their own names), find out whose film they use, and as long as it`s 3M or Avery, get it the cheapest place you can find it, cuz it`s all the same.

You can take a look at my picture thread for some pix of the car with the film on.

-Mike

[G35stilez]

Thanks for all the responses!

Mike: VERY helpful reply, thanks much!

I was kind of narrowing it between 3M and ArmorGlove, but will certainly look in to Avery now.

And yes, I was seeing how this would go and possibly add it as another service. The profit margin is great if your work is.

Thanks again.

[kaos]

Hmm, I hadn`t checked into ArmorGlove. They use DuPont film, and it carries a lifetime warranty if professionally installed. That`s pretty darn impressive. And DuPont is a name that I would certainly trust. They`re based in Connecticut, you might call and ask what it would cost to get certified, and have your certification training be done on YOUR car. If it costs, say, $1000 for the certification course, and the film would cost you $300`ish anyway.... It`d kinda be like paying for the installation, but getting trained on it as a bonus and be able to resell the product. Plus you`d have it on your rolling business card. hehe

[Deanski]

Sean,

If you value your car, go with Armorglove! Since they do mostly high-end vehicles in the area (Ferrari, Lambo, MB, Porsche etc) they have been the go-to people.

If you go to any Porsche Club event in the notheast, chances are you`ll see plenty of Armorgloved cars! When I was up at Limerock, just about all the cars both track and street had Armorglove installed.

Best thing is you can have the hood wrapped as well as other "custom" options to your liking. I hate installs done with film that stop at the edge of the hood sides. They all look like giant decals.

The new film is 3M "Aerospace" film that is way more clear than what I had on the Lexus.

If you want to see for yourself, stop by and look at my black Porsche. One small issue is keeping sealants or wax from the seams. I don`t bother taping, I use a boars hair brush firm enough to remove the products w/o damaging paint or film. Maybe it`s time I start taping, as I`m sure it an only lead to the edge starting to lift a bit.

Another good thing with Armorglove is warranty.

Detail Dynamics also does some very nice work and is featured on some of the Porsche forums I belong to. I`d stop by the shops, check out the workmanship and judge yourself. Go and look at some of the work done and some in progress.

Best thing with whatever film you go with is even if you get some A-hole that scuffs-off paint on your car, a quick removal of the film and your paint is perfect! It also protects from light door dings as one NYC reporter has it on their doors of an SUV that gets parked in NYC parking garage.

I`d get the film done before you take delivery or as soon as possible so you don`t have any stone chips before it goes on.

PM me if you want to stop by!

Deanski

[kaos]

Actually Deanski, I just spoke with the ArmorGlove folks today (cuz I was curious), and that`s where I got the information I posted above about them using DuPont film. The person I talked to said they switched away from the 3M because the DuPont is much easier to install, goes around corners much better, and is more resistant to yellowing.

[Deanski]

Whichever film they are now using, it looks very clear and no orange peel look to it.

The big PITA was my Aerocup front airdam/spoiler. Difficult to cover all the openings and angles, but they did a very good job. The crew had a pre-cut one fresh off the CNC machine to match the Aero perfectly.

Don`t forget the side mirrors and door cups Sean... Those long fingernails will do in any door cup area! Side mirrors are always taking a hit.

I also had them do the rear dog legs of the wheel wells. Porsches get quite a few stones thrown up there.

Deanski

[G35stilez]

Thanks Dino and kaos...


I spoke to Jeff at Armorglove yesterday and mentioned you, Dino. Now, if I were to order off the website and do the install myself on the front bumper, headlights, and mirrors, it would cost me about $330 to my car. He said they`d do it for $365 installed.

I`ll leave it to the pros on this one .

Now, I just have to get my damn car...they pushed back the date from today to Friday because it`s "delayed at port" .

[Deanski]

Thanks Dino and kaos...


I spoke to Jeff at Armorglove yesterday and mentioned you, Dino. Now, if I were to order off the website and do the install myself on the front bumper, headlights, and mirrors, it would cost me about $330 to my car. He said they`d do it for $365 installed.

I`ll leave it to the pros on this one .

Now, I just have to get my damn car...they pushed back the date from today to Friday because it`s "delayed at port" .

Sean,

Good deal! Joe and Jeff are great guys!.

Just found and interesting aspect of the film when it gets warm/hot in the sun.

If you try to wipe a MF towel on it while it`s hot, the fibers from the MF`s stick to it! I just was finishing up cleaning the Porsche, when I wiped the front film with one of the "DMT" MF`s and got lots of very fine fibers stuck on it. Humm, let`s see, cool it off in the garage back to normal temps, wiped off all the fine fibers. Interesting!

I have to ask about that, and you may as well too. Seems the film gets "sticky" when hot. When cool, no problem. This answers a few other issues with application of Zaino to the film. Warm/hot, Zaino smears. Cool it`s fine.

Anyway, just thought you should know. I just found this issue today.

Deanski