05-14-2010, 09:54 AM
As promised here is the write up on this temporary clear bra stuff. But first, let's start with a reason to put something on the front of your car before you hit the road for some R&R.
Yes, that is a nail that landed sideways on my car. The head cut almost all the way through the vinyl bra. The lesson here is that while a permanent clear bra is great for everyday driving, when you are headed out on the mean highways for extended exposure to trucks, construction zones, and god-knows what else, put a decent vinyl bra on over your clear material.
To the clear stuff. They sell the wrap in rolls and kits and such. I got the 18" roll and used a box cutter. The razor blade cutter thingy they include with the wrap is useless - put it in the recycling bin and put a new blade in your exacto knife.
Directions say put the stuff on side to side - i.e. horizontally. Well, naturally I don't read no stinking directions and so we put it on the hood front to back. Like so.
My advise - follow the directions. Its a bit hard to see in this picture, but at freeway speeds the material on the hood ballooned, badly (you can sort ot tell as the hood profile looks more like a PT Cruiser than a svelt 968). You can see that we tried to tape it down repeatedly during pit stops - to no avail. I also recommend that you tape the mirrors - the wrap covered well, but it flapped around a lot and we ended up taping it all down on teh mirrors later.
So the next day we redid the hood. We started at the top - did the corners of the hood actually, then applied in strips back to front, so that the overlap is kept down by the wind, rather than peeled up. And - the applicator is important. They sell a felt covered plastic thing that helps you apply the film properly. I did not have that with me so I used a washcloth from the hotel (shhh....) and it worked OK, but not great. But, it worked well enough. You can see that the material is pretty tight on the hood on this, second application. It stayed that way for the next 2000 miles.
An important tip (included in the directions, btw) is to not apply to dirty bits (under the hood, in the wheel wells). It will just lift off, almost immediately. I got a bottle of isopropyl alcohol and cleaned off the underside of the hood, let dry, and wrapped underneath. It is critical to do that as much as possible. If you don't wrap around the edges the stuff will start to peel up after 20 minutes at 70 mph.
Here is a pic of wrapping around the door jamb - same idea.
Something else that we found was that before you apply its a good idea to wipe the area down with isopropyl to remove the wax. This stuff won't stick to wax, period. Notice how the wrap has pulled off the side cladding completely.
Once we removed, wiped down with IPA, and applied new material it stuck much better.
Finally, you can see that we used a lot of painters tape (3M FWIW). The stipes on the fenders are not for show (although they are very racy looking [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.gif[/img] I put those on to control the ballooning (same bad front to back application as the hood - but I ran out of material to replace). We also needed to tape down a lot of edges. This turned out to be a very important aspect.
Rolling down the road we would hear a piece here or there flapping around. We got tired of stopping and repairing and so started to ignore it and retape at the next scheduled pit stop. Mistake. The sound you hear is your clear coat grinding away. Also - taping over an area of poor adhesion is OK - but you need to remove the part that is not adhering, clean it with IPA, then tape. The wrap is slightly adhesive, and a loose piece will trap road dirt. If you tape that to your paint it will sand away your clear. So I had a bit of buffing to do in a couple of spots, but nothing that was unrepairable.
Was it worth it? Absolutely. When we peeled the stuff off in the garage 2700 miles after application, the paint was clean and unharmed in any way. It also allows you to put a vinyl bra on without concern about sanding the clear. I'm putting it on the Van as I am picking up my son from his freshman year tomorrow - some seriously large bugs on that trip.
Yes, that is a nail that landed sideways on my car. The head cut almost all the way through the vinyl bra. The lesson here is that while a permanent clear bra is great for everyday driving, when you are headed out on the mean highways for extended exposure to trucks, construction zones, and god-knows what else, put a decent vinyl bra on over your clear material.
To the clear stuff. They sell the wrap in rolls and kits and such. I got the 18" roll and used a box cutter. The razor blade cutter thingy they include with the wrap is useless - put it in the recycling bin and put a new blade in your exacto knife.
Directions say put the stuff on side to side - i.e. horizontally. Well, naturally I don't read no stinking directions and so we put it on the hood front to back. Like so.
My advise - follow the directions. Its a bit hard to see in this picture, but at freeway speeds the material on the hood ballooned, badly (you can sort ot tell as the hood profile looks more like a PT Cruiser than a svelt 968). You can see that we tried to tape it down repeatedly during pit stops - to no avail. I also recommend that you tape the mirrors - the wrap covered well, but it flapped around a lot and we ended up taping it all down on teh mirrors later.
So the next day we redid the hood. We started at the top - did the corners of the hood actually, then applied in strips back to front, so that the overlap is kept down by the wind, rather than peeled up. And - the applicator is important. They sell a felt covered plastic thing that helps you apply the film properly. I did not have that with me so I used a washcloth from the hotel (shhh....) and it worked OK, but not great. But, it worked well enough. You can see that the material is pretty tight on the hood on this, second application. It stayed that way for the next 2000 miles.
An important tip (included in the directions, btw) is to not apply to dirty bits (under the hood, in the wheel wells). It will just lift off, almost immediately. I got a bottle of isopropyl alcohol and cleaned off the underside of the hood, let dry, and wrapped underneath. It is critical to do that as much as possible. If you don't wrap around the edges the stuff will start to peel up after 20 minutes at 70 mph.
Here is a pic of wrapping around the door jamb - same idea.
Something else that we found was that before you apply its a good idea to wipe the area down with isopropyl to remove the wax. This stuff won't stick to wax, period. Notice how the wrap has pulled off the side cladding completely.
Once we removed, wiped down with IPA, and applied new material it stuck much better.
Finally, you can see that we used a lot of painters tape (3M FWIW). The stipes on the fenders are not for show (although they are very racy looking [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.gif[/img] I put those on to control the ballooning (same bad front to back application as the hood - but I ran out of material to replace). We also needed to tape down a lot of edges. This turned out to be a very important aspect.
Rolling down the road we would hear a piece here or there flapping around. We got tired of stopping and repairing and so started to ignore it and retape at the next scheduled pit stop. Mistake. The sound you hear is your clear coat grinding away. Also - taping over an area of poor adhesion is OK - but you need to remove the part that is not adhering, clean it with IPA, then tape. The wrap is slightly adhesive, and a loose piece will trap road dirt. If you tape that to your paint it will sand away your clear. So I had a bit of buffing to do in a couple of spots, but nothing that was unrepairable.
Was it worth it? Absolutely. When we peeled the stuff off in the garage 2700 miles after application, the paint was clean and unharmed in any way. It also allows you to put a vinyl bra on without concern about sanding the clear. I'm putting it on the Van as I am picking up my son from his freshman year tomorrow - some seriously large bugs on that trip.
(This post was last modified: 05-14-2010, 09:58 AM by rxter.)
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