Clear Bra

Does anyone have experiences or opinions to share on Clear Bra. I am picking up my car this weekend and it has a Clear Bra on the front end, rear bumper, and near the areas where tires kick up mud/dirt. You can't even really tell it is there, my concern is how it holds up and how the paint looks if you ever have to remove it.

It's a must

Wow, um, do a search. You'll get 100 threads with about 200 opinions. =) I've seen some that the owners said came with the car from Porsche, and they really stand out (in a bad way). I was looking at a Cayman with Porsche installed guards that were already looking yellow, ick. On the other hand, I've seen many of them applied after-market, and they look great (or rather, were very hard to see). More importantly, I've seen two cars with good quality after-market clear bras that had taken serious hits and the paint had survived. One car I almost bought had hit someone/something and scraped down the side of the front bumper. On the portion covered by the clear bra, no paint damage. Where the clear bra ended, cut down to metal. Also, I saw one with a clear bra that had taken a hit from a rock hard enough to cut through the clear bra, making a tear almost a quarter inch wide, and it had barely dinged the paint. That would have been a major chip without the clear bra. After much deliberation, I had a clear bra installed, and I'm glad I did. So far, I haven't taken any hits that would have hurt my paint, but eventually I will. Not really useful to you, since you already have it installed, but... If you decide to get one, I think it is critical to choose your installer well, and also to choose the correct installation method. I had the option to do a 'custom' job on the hood and bumper, or use a pre-cut kit. The pre-cut kit will disappoint, as it will be cut around your hood emblem, and will end just at the edges of the hood. A custom job will take off your emblem, put on the material and wrap it around the edges of the hood, leaving no lines on the hood except wherever you end it (I had 20" up from the front edge of the hood covered, so I have a line straight across the car at that point). Same thing for the bumper, which has all sorts of openings: pre-cut will leave lots of visible lines and will not fill into the openings, custom job will do a lot of wrapping and tucking. The custom job was just $200 more, and very much worth it. Many people will say to save the money and use it to pay for a re-paint if you ever get chips/dings/scrapes to justify it, and that you will come out ahead. Personally, I chose to avoid the need to re-paint. The clear bra products can be taken off the paint with no damage to the paint. My installer indicated that it will require a professional to do it correctly, and that it requires some heat, etc. They also indicated an expected life of 7 years, ask me again in 6.8 years and I'll tell you how it worked out.

Very informative reply, thank you. That's why I didn't do a search, I wanted your opinion!

the only time you'd take off the clear bra is if you messed up your bumper - there's really no reason why you'd take it off at any point in time as it does save you from your paint chipping. respraying is great, but it'll chip if you give it a good 5K-10K miles whereas in that same amount of mileage behind a 3m film, it'll look pretty much spotless and for many many more miles. so you notice the lines... who cares. no one else really does and u have peace of mind knowing that big **** rock didn't just crack your paint. i actually need to respray my front bumper and i will put on the 3m film no doubt for the life of the car so i dont' have to bother with repainting barring anything hitting it in an accident to which i'd have to repaint/replace anyways. peace of mind is what you're paying for cuz either way you can get the bumper fixed

Clear bra is great. Had it on my 1995 black Carrera Coupe. Had it installed along the lower body of my wifes 2001 Avalon that we just sold. We have cinders here in Central Oregon in the winter. Avalon looked great when we sold it a couple of weeks ago. We just had the clear bra and the clear 3m put on the sides up to the door edge strip on my wifes new Mercedes. My new C4S Cab is getting the same treatment next Tuesday. I love the 3M invisishield. It cost me $965 from an independent to do the full job on the Mercedes. It extends the usability of our cars immensly.

Down boy...a little strong...MUST. Perhaps you like plastic slipcovers also? I say to each his own...although the technology is getting better and better...I still prefer no bra at all

That seems weird to me. That paint under the bra will never get polished / waxed. Do you just wax over it?

Yes, you wax the clear bra. The paint is carefully cleaned in the prep process, and the plastic protects it. I was told to wax my bra once a month or so.

Use Plexus: PLEXUS

Irk, where did you get yours installed? and how much did it cost you? I was thinking buy the 3M film online and do it myself... -john

I had Premier do it, they are based out of the bay area, but they come down this way fairly often. It cost me $1200. I watched them do it, and there is no way I would ever attempt it myself. It didn't look incredibly hard, but it didn't look easy, either. They also had a number of special tools, and it wouldn't seem cost effective to purchase those for one install.

I also had Premier install mine. They did a fantastic job. I've had it on for about 2 years now and it is still basically invisible. 99% of people don't even know it's there until told about it. There are marks in the film but the paint is fine. I'd much rather have the replaceable film marked than chips in the paint. You wash and wax the covered part of the car exactly the same as the rest of it. Highly recommended especially if you plan to track the car. The most important thing is to use a good installer.

That sounds expensive! I had my C4 clear bra'd and tinted, along w/ my wife's S8 clear bra'd and tinted by a real pro for $1,100. He even tinted the rear window on the removable hard top. I'm a firm believer in clear bras if you drive the car on a regular basis. Road rash is everywhere.

not expensive at all for what you get. I had a little fender bender that damaged my driver's side door about 4 months ago. Works autobody told me they needed to blend the fender as well. I told them it's not going to happen because it's gothe clear bra on it. His reply, "where?" - Yeh, I did the whole front end going all the way up to the door w/o a seam. He was amazed out how the film looks and the lack of lines as is usual with regular guys. Premier's the only company that I think can do this and I've seen a lot out there.

Too add on to this, clear film made by 3M has a clear coat on it so that is why you can wax over it. There are other manufacturers of the film that do the same thing, but not all.