Invisible Paint Protection Installer?

Keith Vail · **Posted:** Fri Sep 05, 2008 7:39 pm

I am looking at the Scotchguard Invisible paint protection, invisible car bra to put on the S2000. Does anyone have it installed on their car and where did they have it installed? Also were you satisfied with it? I got a quote from a guy in Cary who has a vinyl place that just started doing it and he quoted me $600 which seems ridiculous but I could be totally wrong. Please let me know what your experiences have been. Thanks in advance.

Wes Eargle · **Joined:** Mon Oct 27, 2003 9:47 am **Posts:** 3683

That price sounds consistent with what Lotus of Durham was charging for their clearbrassieres. From what I understand, the product itself isn't cheap, and with all labor, you get what you pay for.

Keith Vail · **Posted:** Fri Sep 05, 2008 9:38 pm

Wes Eargle wrote:

That price sounds consistent with what Lotus of Durham was charging for their clearbrassieres. From what I understand, the product itself isn't cheap, and with all labor, you get what you pay for.

Thanks Wes for that. I really wasn't entirely sure how much it should cost. Does Lotus of Durham do any car or only Lotus'?

Adam Ligon · **Posted:** Fri Sep 05, 2008 10:42 pm

Pete, from TVP, does alot of this as well as tint. And does it directly for most of the dealerships in the area as well.

He has tinted several of my cars, and done paint protection on a buddies 135i

Karl Shultz · **Posted:** Fri Sep 05, 2008 10:55 pm

Keith, $600 sounds "about right" to me too. If it were me, I would want someone with good references. Being able to see their work would be a plus.

Let me know how this plays out, and I'll be interested to see what it looks like. I'm considering getting it done to my S2000 as well, after I get the nose repainted for the *third* time :shock:

this winter. I'm kind of hoping that maybe the clear bra stuff will help the paint stay together the next time the nose folds under when I drive over a pointer cone.

I'm also quite interested in which parts of the car they protect. The lowermost part of the front fenders on these cars get chipped up a bit because of the way they're shaped. It's too late for my car, but you'd be well advised to protect that, if it's an option.

The one thing I remain skeptical about is what this clear bra stuff will look like in a few years' time. I guess that's sort of a roll of the dice.

Michael Westerfield · **Posted:** Fri Sep 05, 2008 10:58 pm

I talked the dealership into putting it on my new mustang. They took it to the Formulaone place on spring forest. I was told the price was 795$. You can barely tell it's there except for a few spots were bubbles were left behind. I don't mind them as it isn't too noticable and the job was free to me. I would recommend it, but would look to see the shops work first if I were paying for it.

Keith Vail · **Posted:** Sat Sep 06, 2008 9:33 am

Thanks for the advice everyone. I got the name of the guy who does all the cars for Foreign Cars Italia in Greensboro. I got it recommended from a local Triad member who just had it installed on his Nissan GTR. He said the basic package which is bumper, headlights, mirrors, fenders, and front of the hood costs about $500. He had the entire front half of the car wrapped and it cost about $800. I will be giving him a call on Monday to get an estimate.

Chuck Frank · **Posted:** Sat Oct 04, 2008 11:30 am

Don't know if this is still relevant, but Donna and I put ours on ourselves. It was quite complex on the Solstice with a lot of places that required stretching or shrinking over compound curves and butt seams that needed aligning. It took the better part of two days, but we were quite pleased with the final results, and I'm a perfectionist. The material is quite tough and forgiving, you can lift and reapply it several times. Ours even came with back of the mirrors covers, but I never could quite figure out the correct orientation and starting point so we just left them off. You can get an idea as to how difficult it would be by looking at the outline for your car. If it is a fairly simple shape it will be straight forwards, if it looks like a piece from a puzzle from hell it will be that to put on.
The main thing we found out about it is that it protects the paint quite well, but cone "blood" is very hard/near impossible to remove. If you order and do your own, buy some extra material on the roll they sell to cover the unique areas that take cone hits as well. One or two events will tell you where they are.

BriceJohnson · **Joined:** Thu Apr 13, 2006 7:33 am **Posts:** 2230

definitely do it. If you want to know why, come look at the front of my mazda, as compared to the front of my wife's MINI. Mine is a disaster of rock chips, hers is pristine.

We paid $400 for hers, but its a MINI so there wasn't too much that had to be covered, the shapes are pretty simple, and it was when we bought the car new. Ours was applied by someone in Winston Salem, not sure of the exact name, but my wife can dig it up if you want. They did great work.

Chuck Frank · **Posted:** Sun Oct 05, 2008 10:35 am

Honda is noted for having thin soft paint (probably due to solvent restrictions in Japan). I looked at the pattern for your S2K and it looks even more complex than the Solstice, so you might want to bite the bullet and have someone else install it.

Karl Shultz · **Posted:** Sun Oct 05, 2008 11:41 am

Keith, I'll restate my earlier point that if you can get the lower part of the front fenders, behind the wheel arches, protected, you should definitely do that. That part of the car gets pretty badly chipped up by rocks getting thrown up by the front tires

Same goes for the leading edge of the rear fenders, down close to the ground.

Chuck Frank wrote:

Honda is noted for having thin soft paint (probably due to solvent restrictions in Japan). I looked at the pattern for your S2K and it looks even more complex than the Solstice, so you might want to bite the bullet and have someone else install it.

Chuck, you're right about Hondas having relatively soft paint. I'm curious though, since I've never done it before, how that might affect the installation of a clear bra. Just curiosity.

Chuck Frank · **Posted:** Mon Oct 06, 2008 12:21 am

It shouldn't affect the bra installation IMHO. Japanese automakers are required to use water born paints, which go on thinner and tend to be softer than solvent based paints, so they chip and scratch more easily, so protection is a good idea.

Karl Shultz · **Posted:** Mon Oct 06, 2008 11:10 am

Chuck Frank wrote:

Japanese automakers are required to use water born paints, which go on thinner and tend to be softer than solvent based paints, so they chip and scratch more easily, so protection is a good idea.

The good news with soft paint is that while it's easier to damage, that also makes it easier to correct said damage. Regarding the thickness of the paint, I'd say that Honda paint, for the example of Keith's S2000, is typically in the 100-120 micron range. Which isn't much, but it's enough to be able to correct imperfections for as long as Keith owns the car for sure. The Germans are typically in the 120-140 range, with some occasional high spots. Here is a detail of a Mercedes CL63 with some paint thickness readings.

This is something I'm curious about with the paint protection films - whether or not scratches can be polished out of them effectively. High levels of correction often involve a fair amount of heat (from friction), and I've often wondered how easy it is to correct protection film without damaging it.

Chuck Frank · **Posted:** Mon Oct 06, 2008 11:31 am

Vinyl is thermoplastic, and the adhesives are heat sensitive. so I wouldn't use anything on it that creates heat. It doesn't scratch that I've noticed. It was originally designed for military helicopter blades to protect them from sand/dust/dirt kicked up in frontline landing zones, so it is very tough. Nascar cars use it on the front ends to protect the sponsors advertising. Before that the front ends would be sandblasted clean in a 500 mile race.

Keith Vail · **Posted:** Mon Oct 06, 2008 11:48 am

Thanks for the opinions. I have not had it done yet as I am back and forth on it. I think it is a good thing but I have a fairly tight budget this year for obvious reasons and I want to get the car prepped well. I have a solution for the leading edge of the fenders being sand blasted. I picked up some small $10 universal mud flaps and installed them so they only stick out a little bit from the wheel well. They do a good job and are not an eye sore.

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