Hey guys,

My car is about to go under the gun and I am wondering if anyone has a type of clear paint protection applied on their car and whether you like it or not.

Thanks,

Alex

 

lol, you are asking on the wrong forum about that kind of stuff.

The Lotus Elise/Exige have an option to have Star Shield applied to the car. Might be standard now on them. I have some friends who added some to 350z last year. It takes car of the little nicks and dings you might get but it don't do much if a decent size rock smacks the car. IMO, worth it if you plan to drive the car quite a bit on the streets.

 

I've used the 3M on a few cars and I think its awesome. It works very well at keeping the front end from getting all chipped especially when driven in the winter with sand and slush all over the roads.

The important part really is the application. The 2 times where I really liked the application was when it was custom cut by a high end detailing shop. We recently had an accident on our Mini which required replacing the clear bra. The shop tried to cheap out by installing one of those pre-cut kits and it sucked. Way too much space at the edges where it mates with headlights and such. A good installer will remove the lights and grills and apply the film as close as possible to the edges.

 

I'm actually going to Texas this winter to train on this, so I can add this to my tinting company. 3M or Xpel are very good products and seem to have control over the famous "yellowing" that some clear bra manufacturers have been fighting with for years. Very cool stuff, vitually invisiable from 3 feet away. I think the only minor hang up I hear somewhat often is when you wax your car you have to run a towel around it's edges or you will have wax build up on the edges that gets very noticeable, but again a minor thing.


It's is expensive and requires profesional installation to insure that it lines up properly and is applied in a correct fashion....you can't lick and stick this stuff.

Kits for the front bumper and mirrors usually run around 300 installed, and should have a lifetime warranty.


Beats the hell out of rock chips on a new paint job.