3M plastic hood film

T

tom deschler

clean wheels
The car mags show a plastic sticky protectant made by 3M that you can use to protect your hood or other spots from rock and other road wear. Looks like it peels off and then you carefully spread it directly on the car surface. Has anyone tried this? Ya, I know that anything that sits directly on the paint must be bad for it,esp if it is sticky. But I'm weighing that against the chips that I'm getting off the road. Esp. with winter coming. :eek:
 
Actually, from what I read and hear, that is a very good item especially if you do a lot of express way driving. I would rather have that on my paint than to have rock chips and no paint. Also try www.rockblocker.com
 
There are lots of different companies that make clear protection like that. Clear Bra, rockblocker, xpel, etc. Just make sure you do loads of homework to make sure it is worth it. You don't want your car looking like this:

clearbra.jpg


That is a very new looking Lexus and that is a very bad looking clear protection on it. Make sure that if you get one you get a high quality one that is installed by a professional. This is permenant when you get it, so it needs to be done right the first time. Make sure your car is not chipped up and swirled when they apply it or else those marks will be preserved forever under the clear vinyl.
 
It's not really easy to tell the difference between the different fits. I have had a distributor of Rockblocker tell me it wasn't one of theirs. They did mention that it has the same kind of cut that 3M uses, but he couldn't speculate as to the actual maker of that particular film. It could be the highest quality material in the world, but if you don't take proper care of it then it will begin to look like crap in a short amount of time. The film can yellow and really stand out on the car. Wax can gather along the edge and just accentuate it. It can swirl and haze and even tear if you aren't careful. It isn't an "apply it and leave it" product by any means. It still requires maintainance. Personally I would never get one on my hood. I might consider one on the bumper, but only because there wouldn't be visible seams going across body panels. Putting something across the hood like that is just tacky looking. You might as well get one of the black bras that you can at least remove when you don't need it.
 
I am sure the product on the Lexus in not made by 3M. I got my 3M installed about 3weeks ago and it didn't look like that. My car is also black and you could only see the line on the hood at a certain angle. Once the product is installed you would wax it when you wax your car (by hand only). Suppose to last at least 5yrs and guarrantee not to yellow. I am very happy with it. It's very important that you get the right installer to do the job. So check around.
 
The quality of the product is only as good as the care it is given. I've seen hundred thousand dollar cars swirled and oxidized to death. I could show you a picture of the paint and you would say "there is no way that is a $100,000 car's paint" but you would be wrong. The quality of the material isn't going to do anything against serious neglect or mistreatment. The owner could have used the wrong product on it or something. All I'm saying is there is cheap and there is high quality, but neither one of them can stand up to an owner who doesn't know how to take care of it.
 
I just installed the rockblocker headlight protection on my car. Not sure if I like the yellow yet. They make my HIDs look green. The film is very thick though. Good protection. I think its too late for the clear hood film. Mazda paint sucks and I have a ton of rock chips already.
 
I went to a local shop here that installs 3M and from what I saw it looked great but up close you could tell where the lines where at....I also noticed that once the car was dusty you could see the lines much better.....For those that are daily freeway drivers in areas with lots of driving conditions this would be a decent option....I did some reading on the net about this product for a customer and from what I read 3M was company that invented it...My guess is that I would look for a good shop that has experince in installing so that you get it done right and they will stand be hide there work, incase there is a problem
 
I don't know that I'd say install on all cars is a snap. I watched professionals tear their hair out installing it certian cars. At the detail shop I worked at they had a guy come in to install it on customer cars. He was there 3 or 4 times a week working on all kinds of cars. It is not as easy as you make it sound on every car. It's not so bad if you know what you are doing perhaps, but I wouldn't say that anybody could do it.

I put headlight covers on my Legacy when I got it. They were smoked though. I didn't like them because they pretty much negated the HIDs I had installed. So I trimmed out the corners and just smoked the turn signals. I used the left over film to tint the signals in my side mirrors. :) Gotta love playing around with that stuff.
 
Jngrbrdman said:
I put headlight covers on my Legacy when I got it. They were smoked though. I didn't like them because they pretty much negated the HIDs I had installed. So I trimmed out the corners and just smoked the turn signals. I used the left over film to tint the signals in my side mirrors. :) Gotta love playing around with that stuff.
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that film is extremely thick. youre right, i could see it being a pain on some front ends. the headlights werent too bad though.
 
I had to tint a Legacy wagon's rear tail lights with that stuff. As long as the surface is flat then it's no problem, but the wagon's tails are all curvey. It was a royal pain in the keester. Even the headlights weren't so easy with the big bubble in the middle. The film is flat, but not always is what you are trying to tint as flat as that. You have to stretch it with a heat gun and hope it stays in place. Putting this stuff on the front end of a car is no laughing matter. Headlights and tail lights are one thing, but imagine applying it to the front end of that Enzo in the thread somewhere around here. More curves than a porn star.
 
I have the complete 3M kit on my WRX and I can rest easy that I'm not going to have hundreds of little white chip marks and bug stains all over the front of it. Like someone said, get an experienced installer to do it, preferably someone who has done one on you r type of car before. I watched the guy do mine (for 5 hours) and there are certain nuances unique to each car. The hood you could probably do yourself, but I wouldn't even think about doing a bumper kit. As well, you can see the lines if you get wax residue along them, but it cleans up easy enough. Well worth it in my opinion.
 
It's a pretty popular dealer-installed option on exotics, the paint on them is designed to be able to hold up to a few rock chips but there are some ferrari guys that take high-speed runs through the desert or the salt flats and they would wear their bumper paint all the way through before they got these things. I guess it doesn't really matter if you can afford a ferrari but it's a hassle to get a respray.
 
I don't know if you have ever been to the salt flats, but you'll never see a Ferrari out there. I live in Salt Lake City and the salt flats is just a boggy desert of mud. There are areas where it gets a little more solid, but you would have to trailer the car out to them and you would have to be willing to really mess up your car while you are there.
 
I have Xpel installed on my 03 vette and it was VERY much worth the price! Near invisible and protects like armor! Mine has been on three years. My wife and I are going to Xpel school in Texas this October.
 
I've had Paint Protection Film (PPF) on my TL for about a year and it's well worth the money, IMO. There are several manufacturers of PPF; 3M, Llumar, Bekaert & Venture Tape to name a couple. It is a urethane film (8-12 mil thick) with an adhesive backing (similar to window film) and is applied to the surface of your vehicle. It's indistinguishable from about 3 feet and beyond and it is more noticeable looking from the rear of the vehicle than from the front. People don't notice it right off the bat until I mention I have it.

Most of of the names you see on the internet like Xpel, Clearshield, Invincashield and Clearmask are resellers who offer pre cut kits using products from the manufacturers. As far as installation, I would let a pro do it. There's far too many curves to deal with especially around the bumper areas and exterior mirrors.

Here are the results of the 3M Clear Bra Test and I think you'll be amazed at the results. I haven't found any other testing on the other manufacturers.
 
Jngrbrdman said:
I don't know if you have ever been to the salt flats, but you'll never see a Ferrari out there. I live in Salt Lake City and the salt flats is just a boggy desert of mud. There are areas where it gets a little more solid, but you would have to trailer the car out to them and you would have to be willing to really mess up your car while you are there.
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Road & Track tested the Enzo out there. It was trailered out, they wanted to get real top speed figures. They had to install a clear bra of some sort to protect it.
 
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