Clear bra/Opti coat on a repainted car
 

Preface: I used the search button. I couldn't come up with anything that matches my situation exactly.

Car was crashed. smashed bumper, fender, door, quarterpanel. all need repainted. Insurance was going to replace my half clear bra. I don't want the clear bra to fade at different rates so i was going to just replace the entire clear bra (extra at my expense). My question is given that the car will be majorly repainted, should if forgo the clear bra and get an opticoat on the whole car instead. I'm worried about clear bra removal on top of a repainted car. I'm also questioning whether or not i should even bother since it will have been repainted anyways.

Suggestions? Thanks for your help guys.

I would just clear bra the mirrors and front bumper, opticoat everything else.

Huh?

My hood has just as much rock chips as my bumper...


And my roof
And my fenders
And my door...

My suggestion is get the whole car opti-coated before any clear bra goes on, and then put clear bra on top of that. Otherwise, your car may look dull under the clear bra in areas you didn't get opti-coat compared to the rest of the car that will look like it's been freshly waxed for a long, long time.

And if you can, try to get Xpel Ultimate put on, instead of a 3M clear bra. Xpel allows UV rays to pass through instead of blocking them, so the paint under the clear bra will fade at the same rate the rest of the paint does, so if you remove your clear bra one day, your paint won't have two different shades. Xpel also has its own clear coat and doesn't change in colour either, it doesn't yellow or fade.

I got opti-guard on my car the day I picked it up, and then got Xpel Ultimate the next day after the opti-guard had cured. I got full front bumper, full hood, full front fenders, full a-pillars, and front of the roof, and of course, side mirrors, and headlights.
Everytime I wash my car, it still looks like I just picked it up a day ago, and it's been waxed and detailed, even though it was just a quick pressure wash. Xpel is so much more invisible compared to 3M, that not a single person in the last 6 months I've had the car has noticed I even have a clear bra, unless I point out exactly where to look.

Calgarians are so much more lucky then Torontonians in terms of clear bra. I was hearing a stat the other day that clear bra job in Calgary is on avg. 7.5/10 in terms of quality of installation where T. is 3.5/10. Shadow shield which is the main trainer in Calgary is a excellent place where to learn to install clear bra properly, hopefully our facilities will be there as well one day. I hope you went to Carlos for your Opti Coat Pro (Opti Guard)

Yup, definitely went to Carlos. He was highly recommended. The night I picked up my car, the paint was so badly scratched by whoever washed the car at the dealership before delivery that the car looked like it was at least two years old. There wasn't even an inch where there were no scratches. Carlos took all of them out without any problem and Opti-guarded it.

I had a private installer do my Xpel, not a shop. He was a friend of a friend, but somehow an authorized Xpel installer by the Xpel company, and he came to me and installed it all in my garage while we chatted. He did a flawless job.

Can't help if you drive behind gravel trucks lol.

Anything i should be mindful of here due to repaint? I know i should be waiting a month for it to cure but other than that i'm in the dark.

I recommend to wait a minimum of 2 week to let the paint cure before install the clear bra.

If the painting is quality and properly cured before installing. Then there should be no risk in removing the paint protection film in later years.

The only time I have seen paint peeling is due to bad paint work.

With Opti Coat Pro, you can apply it directly after a paint job. It has no curing period. The paint doesn't have to off-gas, cure, bake etc. with Opti Coat Pro.