Clear Bra Removal

[rrobello]

I was wondering what is the proper technique for removing a clear bra. My friend recently purchased a used black 04 Cobra and the previous owner had installed a really cheesy clear bra kit and he would like to have it removed. I am going to be detailing the car to remove as many of the swirls I can after the clear bra comes off, but I am apprehensive about removing the bra itself. Will it peel paint? Do I use a heat gun and slowly pull like vinyl graphics? Any and all pointers and inside info would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

[SoCal Guy]

I had an acura integera with a 3 year old 3M clear bra installed. It started looking bad from the rocks hitting it.
The way I went about removing it was by heating it with a blow dryer. The job goes much quicker with a buddy.
We heated it at one end being careful not to stay on one spot for two long and very slowly peeled back. Some spots
were very stuck to the point the blow dryer was not having any effect and th film was pulling on the bumper. In
those instances we applied 3M adhesive remover. It took quite a long time but no damage was done to the paint,
however a lot of adhesive was left on the bumper. More 3M adhesive remover was applied then the area was machine
polished. That bra really saved the bumper from rock damage. I have heard of plastic razor blades I have not used them
but something similar would be very useful to get that first corner off, we used an old credit card.

[gfspencer]

I did the same thing that SoCal Guy did. My Porsche Cayman came with a clear bra. It looked really cheesy so I took it off. I parked the car in the sun and I warmed the clear bra with a hair dryer. I used my fingernail to get a corner up and then I gently pulled the clear bra off. (I got some pretty good blisters on my thumbs so you might use gloves.) I used 3M adhesive remover to remove the adhesive that remained. After the bra was off I cleaned the paint and waxed.

[jimmie jam]

i'm interested in knowing why you guys think that a clear bra looks "cheezy"? i have one on my corvette, CTS and avalanche. they are all white (except for the caddy which is white diamond) and you can't even see them. is some light you can see the hood line on the caddy but its no biggie. i think that rock chips look "cheezy" on a nice ride. just my opinion though.....

[Macruz19]

Originally Posted by jimmie jam

i'm interested in knowing why you guys think that a clear bra looks "cheezy"? i have one on my corvette, CTS and avalanche. they are all white (except for the caddy which is white diamond) and you can't even see them. is some light you can see the hood line on the caddy but its no biggie. i think that rock chips look "cheezy" on a nice ride. just my opinion though.....

There are cheap brands. For instance, my gf has a 06 Civic Hybrid, and she paid for the 3M clearbra, but the dealer had a tint place place clear tint on her car. She found out that it's not 3M when she encountered some damage and the rock went right through the film. That was weird because the film was so clear that the film was actually thin.

She then complaint to the Dealer owner and they had them replace it and put on the authentic roadblock by Autobahn.

[rrobello]

'I think all clear bras look cheesy no matter how great of quality the clear is or the install is. Even if you cover the entire car and have all the edges end in creases, gaps or underside of the body so you can not see lines you can still tell it has clear bra on it. For instance I saw this Enzo that had no visible lines at all on it but portions of the car had the lightest of orange peel effect in the paint where the rest of the paint was flawless. It was ever so slight (much less than say a normal chevy or ford paint job) but stood out like a sore thumb. So I started looking more closely and into the crevices and undersides of the body panels and noticed that it had a clear bra in those areas that looked like Ferrari had botched the paint. And that clear bra I found out was installed by these guys:\r\n\r\nclear bra, paint protection film, tint, auto tint, safety film, chip paint, kits, custom, car\r\n\r\nwho are top notch and do nothing but high end exotics.\r\n\r\nPersonally I would never put a clear bra on my car and Ive installed a couple in the past since I also tint. (the reason I asked about removing is because I have never had to remove one prior to this car and had heard that there could be issues). I think that if you pride yourself in the brilliant finish and shine of your paint then why dull it with a clear bra? Just drive a bit safer and keep your distance behind cars, I know accidents do happen and that you cant be too careful, but hey that can happen even with a bra on it. Especially for the cost to have one put on, you can have the bumper repainted for less in most cases. But thats just my opinion.\r\n\r\nBut on this car, the clear bra was some cheap kit that the previous owner of the car installed himself and did a horrible job at that.\r\n\r\nP.S. I gave it a go today and it came off nicely. I started with a heat gun set to low and for some reason that made it harder. The glue heated up and the bra came off but was leaving the glue on the bumper and hood. So I stopped using the gun and just slowly pulled with it cold and it came off leaving no glue. For the places that it did leave glue I used the adhesive remover to clean it up. Thanks for the insight and I will post the full detail and pics when I am through with the car.'