Invisible Bra Installed

Bought the full kit on eBay. Did it myself. Complete novice and the whole install went smoothly. Paid $300 for whole kit, including entire front bumper, front of hood, both front fenders, A pillars, roof leading edge, both mirrors, painted trunk ledge, and door cups. If you have patience and willingness to watch a few YouTube videos, you should be fine doing it. I know theses been some discussion of this on here so I wanted to encourage other diy'ers to not be afraid to give it a shot. Hope this helps others.

No pictures? What kind/brand film was used?

Lightflyer1 said:

No pictures?

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It's invisible!

Lad79der said:

It's invisible!

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Now that's funny!

x2 what brand?

hhead said:

Now that's funny!

x2 what brand?

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All genuine 3M paint protection film. My car is reflex silver metallic so if you look real close you can see the edge on the hood in particular. But it looks great - have to know its there.

If anyone is interested here is the link to the auction. He will take best offers, so dont pay full price. http://bit.ly/PCVlg7

Also when you do the bumper cut the paper backing into 1/4ths so it's easier to manage... Thats the only real lesson learned. I'm really very happy with the results. My 2000 ALH has 231k miles and I wish I had done this on it years ago to protect from rock chips etc.

I had 3M installed for $525 Canadian inclunding taxes. Took him 5 hours and had him come back after a couple of weeks to complete some touch-ups.
included was the bumper, foglights, front fenders/corners, side mirrors and front half (18") of the hood.

Unless you are a glutton for punishment, why would you want to do this yourself??
I will take some pictures but all you can see are the edges of the film on a night blue metallic passat.

I'm still on the fence on this. My car is black, and I just don't want to see a line going across my hood.

hhead said:

I'm still on the fence on this. My car is black, and I just don't want to see a line going across my hood.

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From what I saw, some kits cover the whole hood.

Does the film get pits in it from sand and gravel? What does this look like over time?

Lightflyer1 said:

Does the film get pits in it from sand and gravel? What does this look like over time?

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I've had my 3M on for nearly 4 years and 65k miles. There are no pits / dents but when you are within about one foot, you can see where larger debris has hit the shield and there appears to be a slight haziness at these impact areas. These do not appear to be scuff marks (loss of material) but maybe particles imbeded in the film? I've tried to clean the areas but the impact areas do not completely go away. From 3 feet away, these areas are vitually impossible to see.

Now in fairness to 3M I really don't detail my car perhaps like some do on a regular basis. I simply wash it and NXT it about once a year. Maybe if I cleaned the frontal areas of the film evey week or so, these areas would not be there.

One other note is that dirt can collect at the edges of the film and if you are not careful in removing it, you can lift the edge ever so slightly and more dirt can collect. The solution is to trim 1/32 - 1/16 inch of the film off the edge.

I put some on a 2003 F150 I bought new, Sold it with 75k miles to my brother this past January. It still looked great!

Besides, if you are worried about how the film looks after use, what about the paint it is protecting? Is a replacement piece of plastic film easier/cheaper than repaint of same area?

Sharky said:

I had 3M installed for $525 Canadian inclunding taxes. Took him 5 hours and had him come back after a couple of weeks to complete some touch-ups.
included was the bumper, foglights, front fenders/corners, side mirrors and front half (18") of the hood.

Unless you are a glutton for punishment, why would you want to do this yourself??
I will take some pictures but all you can see are the edges of the film on a night blue metallic passat.

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maybe the $225.00 diff and the extra areas,
LEADING AREAS OF HOOD, CORRESPONDING FENDER AREAS, SIDE MIRRORS, FRONT BUMPER, HEADLAMPS, A PILLARS, ROOF EDGE, REAR STEP, ROCKERS/SIDE SILL AREAS ?

my dad has it on his cayenne turbo. it looks like ass now. (4 years, 30k miles) hopefully yours lasts longer.

I installed mine myself. Full kit, but I got a full cover for the hood (since the hood is low and the upper area is subject to rock chips as much as the lower area), and almost half my roof is also covered.

If you get hit hard enough, a rock can damage the clear bra to the point that it tears, and damage the paint underneath, but that is not a usual situation.

You need to treat the clear bra like paint. Keep it waxed, avoid excessive sunlight if possible. Otherwise it will age just like your paint will. I tore off a small part of the clear bra on my TDI a few weeks ago just to verify that there is no paint fade issues, and I couldn't tell the difference between covered and uncovered. So all good here

525 is a great price. The places I called were much higher than that and didn't cover as much. I did it myself to save the cash, of course. I just felt it wasnt as daunting of a task as some make it out to be, and I didn't want my new passat to end up with messed up paint in 5 years.

Lad79der said:

It's invisible!

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You can still see it! It is a film, but not invisible.

I went to the beach in Aruba once and some of the ladies from Europe were wearing invisible bras.

I'm a big fan.

hhead said:

I'm still on the fence on this. My car is black, and I just don't want to see a line going across my hood.

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I just called Trim-Line (they use 3M). They no longer do black cars because it shows the squeegee lines through the product and their customers were never happy resulting in the product being removed at customer request. So, now their policy is to not do black cars. It has nothing to do with the line, but with the overall look of squeegee marks throught. Bummer because mine is black. The rep I talked to advised me not to do it because they knew I wouldn't be happy.

Mack

I'm gonna keep waxing the hell out of it and just wait. On one of the posts at vortex, one of the links had a website with video of them putting film on a black BMW so....

HornetHandler said:

I just called Trim-Line (they use 3M). They no longer do black cars because it shows the squeegee lines through the product and their customers were never happy resulting in the product being removed at customer request. So, now their policy is to not do black cars. It has nothing to do with the line, but with the overall look of squeegee marks throught. Bummer because mine is black. The rep I talked to advised me not to do it because they knew I wouldn't be happy.

Mack

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i got the same word from a place in maryland. they don't do black cars anymore either.

Expensive waste. Write the check to yourself and thereafter regard it as a discount on your next new car purchase.

It's a machine that lives in the world outside. Stuff will happen. No matter what you do or imagine you're doing, it will deteriorate and become less new-looking and less valuable.

Save your money and make a mental adjustment. Your future buyer already has as he/she doesn't give a rip.

My Golf and Camaro both have the treatment....looks good and shows you care for your vehicle and definitely saves the front end of vw's soft paint!

asolo said:

Expensive waste. Write the check to yourself and thereafter regard it as a discount on your next new car purchase.

It's a machine that lives in the world outside. Stuff will happen. No matter what you do or imagine you're doing, it will deteriorate and become less new-looking and less valuable.

Save your money and make a mental adjustment. Your future buyer already has as he/she doesn't give a rip.

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...says the man in Arizona.
Next you will suggest not to waste money on snow tires and ice scrapers.

You are right though, I dont think it will add much value when trading in. The front of my '03 Jetta looks like the space shuttle after re-entry due to the amount of sand/salt they put on the highways in the winter around here

Full hood paint protection films cost a lot more that the 1/2 hood film as the area is much larger.

Also IMO the "line" is not very noticeable.

hhead said:

I'm still on the fence on this. My car is black, and I just don't want to see a line going across my hood.

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My 2012 is black and it looks like a black/silver front fading to black colored car now. The thin line is nothing compared to the damage on my car unprotected. Seriously considering doing this to whatever my replacement car will be.

This is what my golf looks like.
50% of the hood
Headlights
Front Bumper
Fog Flights
Grill
Foward part of the fender
Side view mirrors

All of it has stood up great. Car currently has 46k on it. I wash the car every couple weeks by hand and wax the car twice a year.