Ah yes... You can't even see it!!

Gotta love clear bras. They are so invisible!! I'll bet you can't tell from these pictures, but this car actually has one on it. Incredible, yes?

 

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/OCDetails/3aed0638.jpg

 

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/OCDetails/27c299e6.jpg

 

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/OCDetails/6e0500a8.jpg

 

You can't tell me it is a cheap clear bra either. This is $40K+ car and this particular owner knows how to spend the bucks. You should see their other cars... Anyway, this is not a cheap one, but it is what happens when you don't properly maintain a clear bra. ESPECIALLY if you put it on white. If you don't put UV protection on these suckers, they will turn yellow. It's just a fact. They are not 'no maintenance' items. In fact, they may be more maintenance than the black bras since these just don't scream out "DO SOMETHING WITH ME!" Aerospace 303 is your friend. If you have a clear bra of any brand, make sure you are using it. This particular bra is 3 years old and it has looked like crap for quite awhile. They do not last forever, unfortunately.

I can see it. It hides the flake in the metallic in these pictures

How often do you need to apply the Aerospace 303? I'm looking at getting one of these for my wife's car (LOTS and LOTS of highway miles going on it) and I'm getting sick of the rock chips. My only fear is that it'll look like this. Its a dark blue car, so not as noticeable, but still.

Apply it every time you wash the car. You can never have too much protection on these suckers. And never wax or polish it. In fact, unless you are putting 303 on it, don't even touch it. These things haze easily and they are not easy to fix.

 

If this particular bra were on black it would be even worse. The whole bra was all scuffed up and hazy. The yellowing is what shows up best just because the car is white, but if this were black or any other color then it would be the other damage you notice first.

 

I had three people standing in the driveway with me while I was talking to them about different things and none of them was the owner of this car. However, they all had clear bras that were similarly yellowed or damaged. Every single one of them said that they had a warranty to have it replaced for free if it ever yellowed or bubbled, but guess what? It takes too much time to go in and have it done and nobody has cashed in on it. That is what the installers bank on. Clear bras will fade, yellow, bubble, stretch, shrink, haze, scratch, oxidize, and everything else you can imagine. Most clear bras should be replaced every two years if you want them looking like new. A good clear bra will cost around $500 bucks to custom fit to your car. Repainting the chips on your bumper and hood will cost right around the same, so it is really just a matter of preference.

 

Honestly, if I were to buy a new car then I would probably get a clear bra just on the bumper. Not on anything that crosses body lines, but just to the seams. It wouldn't be as noticeable and it would protect from 90% of the damage the front end of your car gets. I can deal with a chip here and there on my hood. I can touch that up and make it go away. I can't fix gouges in clear bra from the same rock. The bumper just gets hammered though, so I would like to have that protected.

Something to be said for the quality of Lexus bumper paint... My wife had a road gater (tire chunk) that hit her bumper and did some damage to it. We had that area repaired (it did some nasty stuff and we had to get it repainted, headlight replaced, etc) and within 10k miles the part that is repaired looks HORRIBLE. I'm not saying a few rock chips, I'm saying 70+ in a small 1sqft area. The rest of the factory OEM bumper/paint job has maybe 15 chips on the entire thing and 4 or so in the direct opposite area of the bumper. We're in a big fight with the service company that did the "work", but it's suprising to me how well the OEM paint has held up on the bumper. The hood is a different story though, and I'd actually be more apt to get the hood protected before the bumper having seen the quality.

The dealership has a good clear bra they can apply to it and it carries the warranty and such, so i'm likely going to go that route when the hassles with the service company are through with. Wont go to them for chip repair either, they did it to cover their arses on their shoddy work and they literally globbed huge amounts of paint on the chips and it looks like a 3 year old took paint to the front of the car and went nuts with it. I'm assuming GOOD chip repair would only touch up the chips exactly and not overpaint everything? Hopefully hiding most chips and gashes?

It depends. Bumpers have a flex agent added to the paint to make them more resistive to rock chips. If they just busted out an airbrush and painted the area with normal paint, then that would account for the problem.

 

Some rock chips can just be touched up, wetsanded, and polished and you'll never even know they were there. Others can be a bit more of a pain. A lot of it depends on the color and where the chips are. I've done it both ways in order to repair chips and hamburger bumpers, so there really isn't one way which is better than another. I'm repainting the front spoilers on my Corolla to match the new bumper I'm putting on and touch up paint isn't going to cover it for those, so I'm going to have to respray the whole piece. There are just millions of little pinhole chips everywhere and touch up paint won't begin to cover it.

I saw a silver STi the other day at my tuning shop that had a very noticable clear bra on the front and side panels.

 

I know he does a lot of autocross and lived in Alberta where the winters are terrible but damn! It looked awful.... I'm guessing he never took care of the clear film either. It looked noticably darker and dingier than the rest of his paint.

well good thing my 3m bra is on my HGM car lol

Here is a much better example of a clear bra.

 

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/OCDetails/996turbo/026380ee.jpg

 

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/OCDetails/996turbo/23c36c10.jpg

 

Can you see it?

 

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/OCDetails/996turbo/cab585e3.jpg

 

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/OCDetails/996turbo/7c72509b.jpg

 

The whole hood, bumper, and both front fenders are wrapped with it. That is the only way I'd put it on any of those panels. Either wrap the whole thing, or don't even put it on. That's why I don't mind it being on the bumper, but halfway up the hood is just stupid. It stands out and just looks bad after a really short time. This one is going to be a lot of work to maintain, but that is what he has me for.

 

It really is a good job though. A couple issues that I would probably have a problem with, but overall it is very very clear.

 

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/OCDetails/996turbo/22acc415.jpg

Not being facetious, but I literally can't see the clear bra on that Porsche.

That's because it covers the entire panels. The whole hood from the bottom to the top and wrapped around the edges. Imagine if you were trying to wrap your car with an advertisement printed on vinyl. That is how they wrapped the front half of this car. The front end is already getting hammered too. He drives through a ton of construction every day and probably puts somewhere between 15 and 20 thousand miles a year on this car alone. He beats on his Alpina B7 too. I think he loans his cars to his business partners because I don't know how someone can drive as much as he does and still stop to make money.

That's because it covers the entire panels. The whole hood from the bottom to the top and wrapped around the edges. Imagine if you were trying to wrap your car with an advertisement printed on vinyl. That is how they wrapped the front half of this car. The front end is already getting hammered too. He drives through a ton of construction every day and probably puts somewhere between 15 and 20 thousand miles a year on this car alone. He beats on his Alpina B7 too. I think he loans his cars to his business partners because I don't know how someone can drive as much as he does and still stop to make money.

 

I need his job apparently

That's because it covers the entire panels. The whole hood from the bottom to the top and wrapped around the edges. Imagine if you were trying to wrap your car with an advertisement printed on vinyl. That is how they wrapped the front half of this car. The front end is already getting hammered too. He drives through a ton of construction every day and probably puts somewhere between 15 and 20 thousand miles a year on this car alone. He beats on his Alpina B7 too. I think he loans his cars to his business partners because I don't know how someone can drive as much as he does and still stop to make money.

 

That's incredible. Looks great!

 

A whole car wrap in "clear" bra is kind of an interesting idea...

 

I drive around 26k/year. It sucks spending 2+hrs/day in your car. But when you DO spend that much time in the car, it matters a whole lot that you enjoy it.

He is the number one closer for Coldwell Banker in the US. He definitely works hard for the money he has. I don't know if you could pay me enough to work 80 hours a week every single week. I sort of like being able to come home and have hobbies and family time. His kids wouldn't be able to pick him out of a lineup. I guess having sweet cars and a killer house makes it worth it though. His house has freaking turrets and a front door 5 inches thick for crying out loud. lol Here it is before he changed the wheels out for those black ones.

 

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/OCDetails/house.jpg