Clear Bra vs. No Bra

[ST185RC]

Originally Posted by Stang70Fastback

Well, that's part of the answer right there. I do a LOT of highway driving in an area with bad roads (Chicago) that tend to throw a lot of debris. In addition, this is my winter driver, which means rock salt on the roads in the winter. If you do a lot of road trips and such with the car, you will accumulate a LOT of rock chips.



While I don't yet have any first-hand experience with this, when I was looking to get this done to my car, I did a lot of research. Clear-bra technology has come a long way. It used to be that the bra would block UV light, which protected the paint from fading underneath, but resulted in exactly what you describe. Modern-day bras, such as the XPEL wrap I have, are specifically designed to intentionally allow UV light to pass through, in order to supposedly ensure that the underlying paint fades at the same rate as the rest of the car. Now, I have no personal experience with this, as I've yet to remove the wrap, but that's the theory, and as it stands today, the paint looks identical on both sides of the line. In theory, the only difference would be swirls in your clear coat on the section that wasn't treated, but a simple paint correction should fix that.



Not sure what you mean by this. WITHOUT the clear-bra, the car would be beat up in one place only: up front. The whole purpose of the bra is to protect the parts of the car that otherwise WOULD be beat up, resulting in a car that is now pretty consistent all over. Yes, in this photo I compare two sections of my hood that make it look like the rest of the car is pockmarked, but that isn't really the case. The car as a whole is uniform now. Without the bra, the front of the car would appear sandblasted. It would be FAR more unbalanced.

It's also worth noting that the alternative is to run no clear bra, and just repaint the front end of the car after a few years, which arguably won't cost any more. The difference is that the car with the bra will look great across all of those years, whereas the car without the bra will accumulate more and more chips, looking worse and worse for wear during that same timeframe

What I meant was that the paint underneath the clear bra will be more vibrant than the rest of the paint on the car.

The car gets beat up everywhere as in your case the rest of the hood. Also mirrors, windscreen, and roof typically take a beating. Hell, My friend's s2000 has a deep rock chip on the rear quarter panel. Point is, over time, everywhere on the car will take a beat; the car's age will show through whether you have a clear bra or not.

But bottom line, again, it's personal preference. Not hating, but I never saw the point. I feel the same about those who spend $1000 on opticoat pro.

[Stang70Fastback]

Originally Posted by ST185RC

The car gets beat up everywhere as in your case the rest of the hood. Also mirrors, windscreen, and roof typically take a beating. Hell, My friend's s2000 has a deep rock chip on the rear quarter panel. Point is, over time, everywhere on the car will take a beat; the car's age will show through whether you have a clear bra or not.

But... that's not really how it works. You make it sound like the whole car exterior wears at the same rate. This isn't true at all. I'm at 60,000 miles, and the rest of the car is pretty much fine. It's the front that takes 95% of the damage. The clear-bra equalizes that so that it takes just as little damage as the rest of the car.

I should point out that I cherry-picked that one section of the hood to show the difference, but that is by far the worst area of the car that just got unlucky. The rest of the car doesn't look like that at all. Without the clear-bra, the rest of the car would look fine, just as it does right now, but the front bumper and mirrors would look sandblasted.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by Stang70Fastback

But... that's not really how it works. You make it sound like the whole car exterior wears at the same rate. This isn't true at all. I'm at 60,000 miles, and the rest of the car is pretty much fine. It's the front that takes 95% of the damage. The clear-bra equalizes that so that it takes just as little damage as the rest of the car.

I should point out that I cherry-picked that one section of the hood to show the difference, but that is by far the worst area of the car that just got unlucky. The rest of the car doesn't look like that at all. Without the clear-bra, the rest of the car would look fine right now, and the front bumper would look sandblasted.

I think some of the colours may show the blast effect more than others. The blue or the orange may look worse than the white or black since the change in shine makes the colour look much different. The others may not have the same variation.

[cueball89]

My Xpel film has saved my car from numerous paint chips. The unprotected portions of the car are fairing pretty well. I would get it again. My "certified" installer was terrible though. Every time I look at the front of my car I'm cursing his name.

[aimforapex]

Originally Posted by KR-S 86

I feel like a lot of guys reading the title will quickly click on this thread only to be disappointed and sad.

im one of the victim.

[Leonardo]

Originally Posted by KR-S 86

I feel like a lot of guys reading the title will quickly click on this thread only to be disappointed and sad.

I was half expecting some NSFW content...




I don't like the clear bra on my FR-S. The pollen here is brutal! ( I live in the Willamette valley, look it up, it is the grass seed capitol of the world! )


The edge is hard to keep clean of pollen.

[NoHaveMSG]

I am considering this after getting my car resprayed. The front of it is absolutely hammered at 60K

[86geek]

Originally Posted by ST185RC

But bottom line, again, it's personal preference. Not hating, but I never saw the point. I feel the same about those who spend $1000 on opticoat pro.

I paid $400.00 for Opticoat Pro when my car was less than a month old. It becomes expensive because auto paint correction. So basically a new car shouldn't need much of any paint correction. Unless dealership detailers created a lot of swirl marks. I only had a small swirl on bottom of my hood.

Prepping before applying any type of ceramic coating is labor intensive & time consuming.

Tcoat after you paint your car & get a clear bra then ceramic coat it

[Ernest72]

These cars are so low the whole car is in the rock zone. I just gave up. its a DD and I will just try to keep it looking nice, but not OCD about it. Respray after a few years if I feel the need.

[DrButtDrugs]

My car looks great from 10 feet away. From closer.... why not have a drink or 3?

[Qwimby1]

Mine is black, which compounds the problems. It has a few chips, but worse, swirl marks on the hood and rear deck. Someone tried to polish them off unsuccessfully and we're afraid to grind anymore for fear of going through the remaining clear coat. I plan to have the hood and rear deck clear coated again, which theoretically should fill in all the swirl marks. I have an excellent body man who has done good work for me before. He tells me he can spot paint some of the chips since he'll be clear coating over them. I plan to track the RS so I'll have to figure out some kind of upfront protection. I don't tailgate, and my 05 Miata with 98,000 miles has very few rock chips up front.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by 86geek

I paid $400.00 for Opticoat Pro when my car was less than a month old. It becomes expensive because auto paint correction. So basically a new car shouldn't need much of any paint correction. Unless dealership detailers created a lot of swirl marks. I only had a small swirl on bottom of my hood.

Prepping before applying any type of ceramic coating is labor intensive & time consuming.

Tcoat after you paint your car & get a clear bra then ceramic coat it

The guys that are painting my car specialize in painting transport trucks. They said they will put so many coats of clearcoat on it I will only have to worry about flying boulders chipping the paint even without a bra. That added to the fact that the aftermarket paint they use is far more resilient than the stock in the first place should keep it better longer. The low VOC paint that all the plants are forced to use since 2012 are just too hard and inflexible to be able to take even a small impact without chipping.

[humfrz]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

The guys that are painting my car specialize in painting transport trucks. They said they will put so many coats of clearcoat on it I will only have to worry about flying boulders chipping the paint even without a bra. That added to the fact that the aftermarket paint they use is far more resilient than the stock in the first place should keep it better longer. The low VOC paint that all the plants are forced to use since 2012 are just too hard and inflexible to be able to take even a small impact without chipping.

Got the picture .....


humfrz

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by humfrz

Got the picture .....


humfrz

Oh god not blue! Have you not seen what the blue car drivers are like?