How to repair paint chip with 3M clear bra installed?

[nysimonsez]

I have 3M clear bra installed in both front and rear bumpers of my 07 Lexus. Someone put a chip into the rear bumper, cutting thru the 3M . I think it was done by his license plate frame. Now I have a chip (about 2 mm) and loose 3M where the chip is.



What`s the best method to repair? Do I need to remove the 3M (I hope not!)? Since there`s probably not enough room to polish with the 3M around it should I just do my best with touch-up paint and leave it at that?



thanks

[jimmie jam]

if the 3M was torn that will only make it stand out repaired or not. you will have to remove the 3M repair the "chip" and then have the 3M reapplied. depending on the color it will hide alot of the repair if it is 85-90% at a glance and not "perfect". i did this on the painted mirror cap on my avalanche. you can`t see the "dot" touch up underneath. you got clipped hard if it tore through the material (which will strech about 30+% before breaking). that`s alot (30%).



good luck. :xyxthumbs

[David Fermani]

I`ve never seen anyone cover the rear of their vehicle. How come? I know it protects your paint, but I thought the focus was for rock chips/debris (& door edges), not minor impacts?

[David Fermani]

I`ve never seen anyone cover the rear of their vehicle. How come? I know it protects your paint, but I thought the focus was for rock chips/debris(+ door edges), not minor impacts?

[jimmie jam]

I`ve never seen anyone cover the rear of their vehicle. How come? I know it protects your paint, but I thought the focus was for rock chips/debris (& door edges), not minor impacts?

david, this stuff is very strong and will infact protect from impacts. the rear is not often done but it is actually a good idea depending on where/how you park your car. i have had a car saved from a large piece of tire on I-95 at 80 MPH. scuffed and marked the film really badly but after removing the film the paint was perfect! this film was developed in the 60`s by 3M to protect the leading edges of the chopper blades when flying them in the jungles of Nam. that`s some very severe service duty! i have this stuff on all my cars/truck and bikes (its great to protect that custom paint job on a helmet). :2thumbs:

[nysimonsez]

Thanks Jimmie Jam. I figure I can`t repair the 3M film unless I replace it so I`m just going to do my best and touch up the paint so it`s less noticeable. I guess the impact was pretty big, maybe something sharp from the other vehicle`s bumper to make that dent. I`ve had the #M on for over a year and it`s the 1st chip I got that actually went thru the protection.



David - I put it in the rear bumper because I used to live and still drive and park in NYC where many people have no regard for other people`s properties. People always bump the other cars when parallel parking. Sometimes even when they have enough room to park 2 cars in that space, they still hit the car park in front of them just because they`re lazy to back up one more time.



thanks again.

[David Fermani]

That`s probably why I see cars with NY plates peppered with bumper scuffs on all 4 corners down here. HaHa.

[Macruz19]

You`ll most likely need to replace that film piece.

[Saintlysins]

David, the abominable drivers in major cities are the reason Clear Bra companies are doing so well! Here in the New York/New Jersey area, most of the parking is parallel along side the curb. I can not tell you how many people ‘bump-park’ their car into a spot. If you have any love for your car and you’re in this area, you’ll get the super thick Clear Bra. On the Merc we’ve done 12 mil clear on the outermost-curve of the bumpers just to prevent the story that started this thread. On my old Dodge Ram, I had a trailer-hitch mounted, ‘step-bar’ made out of heavy duty diamond-plate for the rear and welded the diamond-plate to the front brush guards.

You’d ‘think’ that would be a big preventive measure against others ‘bump-parking’ the truck, but alas, the diamond plate always had bits of paint and bumper rubber from the inconsiderate drivers. I’ve come back the truck to find a woman ruined her rear bumper as she bumper-parked her car so hard into mine the diamond plate bit so the rear bumper and had slightly dislodged it when she pulled away! :sosad -on her!

Now … back to the original thread … :xyxthumbs

I would pull the whole ‘Clear Bra’ section off the car and get the paint fixed professionally. Wait the obligatory 4 weeks for paint cure and then Re-Clear Bra the bumper again, maybe go with the thicker product. It won’t cost you as much as you think, the prices have shrunk since you’ve had yours done, and you’re only replacing one section.

To make you feel better … think how much worse it would’ve been had you NOT protected it to begin with?