Should I remove this clear bra?

[brodiem]

This was installed by a previous owner, and I have no idea how long its been on the car or what kind it is. I'm assuming it's 5+ years though. I'm not sure how transparent they're intended to look so I thought I'd see what others think. You can definitely see a little bit of color difference but I wouldn't say it's yellowed from the sun or anything. I've read some horror stories about them being left on the car too long and then not being able to remove them. And while the car is garaged over the winter I plan to do a good polish/paint correction + CQUK, so if it's going to need to come off soon then I'd rather do it prior to working on the paint. Maybe if anyone else has some shots of their clear bra particulary on AW paint it would help with comparing the overall condition.

[wfdeacon88]

Mine is VERY similar to yours .. I think you benefit a little from the color being white, as my space grey shows the scratches (on the clear film) worse than this.. however, I am having an absolute nightmare removing it. I suspect mine is about 6-8 years old, maybe less.. My first thought is that even if it doesn't look that bad, if it's that old, GET IT OFF NOW. The more you wait, the worse and I'm having a disaster situation.

here's the thread I posted on the other day, scroll down to see the defails.

Removing clear bra https://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1554229

[brodiem]

Originally Posted by wfdeacon88

Mine is VERY similar to yours .. I think you benefit a little from the color being white, as my space grey shows the scratches (on the clear film) worse than this.. however, I am having an absolute nightmare removing it. I suspect mine is about 6-8 years old, maybe less.. My first thought is that even if it doesn't look that bad, if it's that old, GET IT OFF NOW. The more you wait, the worse and I'm having a disaster situation.

here's the thread I posted on the other day, scroll down to see the defails.

Removing clear bra https://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1554229

I have to say, it was your post that inspired me to make this one in the first place

[wfdeacon88]

Originally Posted by brodiem

I have to say, it was your post that inspired me to make this one in the first place

I just want to do a nice polish, fix other minor blemishes on the entire car and get it back to it's prime (its in great shape except some normal wear and tear), but I can't do any of that until I get mine off... You might be less inclined to rush it, if you are not in the same position as myself with wanting to do a total paint correction, etc... I do have some time coming up two weekends from now, so perhaps I'll have a chance to tackle it myself with a plastic razor blade and just knock it out, then clean/polish.

One tip! don't do what I did and attempt the feat unless you are going to finish it... I made that mistake and now I have a one sq ft jagged area driving me crazy. hopefully yours is not as bad as mine.

[SAMM3Y]

No experience with clear bra but I left a wrap on a car for five years once and it totally ruined the paint, it was a brand new car prior to the wrap. It was parked outside for the majority of its life though and was a multi-colored wrap for a small business. If I were you I'd remove it as quickly as possible if it's 5+ and probably consult an expert to do it. It's a very tedious procedure and I'm sure they know the BKM (best known method) .

[brodiem]

Originally Posted by wfdeacon88

I just want to do a nice polish, fix other minor blemishes on the entire car and get it back to it's prime (its in great shape except some normal wear and tear), but I can't do any of that until I get mine off... You might be less inclined to rush it, if you are not in the same position as myself with wanting to do a total paint correction, etc... I do have some time coming up two weekends from now, so perhaps I'll have a chance to tackle it myself with a plastic razor blade and just knock it out, then clean/polish.

One tip! don't do what I did and attempt the feat unless you are going to finish it... I made that mistake and now I have a one sq ft jagged area driving me crazy. hopefully yours is not as bad as mine.

Thanks, yeah I'd expect I'll be garaged until April with the winter season, and similarly plan to use the opportunity to do a full paint correction and ceramic coat before putting it back on the road. Honestly the clear bra doesn't look "bad", but I don't have a good reference of what "good" is either. I just don't want to have a similar situation you're going through, and a lot of re-work with the paint if it's going to come off sooner than later.

I will say, I have one of the adhesive eraser wheels that was suggested in the other thread that I used when I was removing the old adhesive after removing things like the factory trunk spoiler and M trunk badge, and it works miracles compared to the failed attempts I tried first using chemicals like goo gone and a ton of scrubbing. Hopefully it works as well for removing your clear bra.

[brodiem]

Originally Posted by SAMM3Y

No experience with clear bra but I left a wrap on a car for five years once and it totally ruined the paint, it was a brand new car prior to the wrap. It was parked outside for the majority of its life though and was a multi-colored wrap for a small business. If I were you I'd remove it as quickly as possible if it's 5+ and probably consult an expert to do it. It's a very tedious procedure and I'm sure they know the BKM (best known method) .

Wow scary stuff there, you hardly ever hear this side of the story when talking about wraps, just the wow factor of the fresh installs

When I do it I'll probably test the waters by trying to remove the smaller pieces on the front fenders, and I do have a steamer to use that seems to be suggested by most

[wfdeacon88]

Originally Posted by brodiem

Wow scary stuff there, you hardly ever hear this side of the story when talking about wraps, just the wow factor of the fresh installs

When I do it I'll probably test the waters by trying to remove the smaller pieces on the front fenders, and I do have a steamer to use that seems to be suggested by most

forgot to mention, luckily, PO removed the bumper piece.. I did get a fender and one mirror off before I tried the hood a week or two later. Took an hour or more on the one fender I accomplished, but the hood is a monster for some reason.. so much surface area and the surface might be making it worse. I'd say for me, fenders are 1 hr each, but hood is going to be 5-8 hours, so just want to clarify my entire attempt. I didn't have a steamer so I took to the experienced professionals with a steamer for that attempt at the hood... they called me two hours after I dropped it off and basically said "nope nope nope" come get it no charge we give up.

[SAMM3Y]

Originally Posted by brodiem

Wow scary stuff there, you hardly ever hear this side of the story when talking about wraps, just the wow factor of the fresh installs

When I do it I'll probably test the waters by trying to remove the smaller pieces on the front fenders, and I do have a steamer to use that seems to be suggested by most

It's the horizontal (roof, hood, trunk) panels that suffer the most from the sun, if there's any cracking in the wrap it's gonna be trouble. I'd Try a low point in the bumper at first to see how easy it starts to come off with steam/heat. I'd start with a heat gun, you'd have to get steam real close to do much.

[wfdeacon88]

Originally Posted by SAMM3Y

It's the horizontal (roof, hood, trunk) panels that suffer the most from the sun, if there's any cracking in the wrap it's gonna be trouble. I'd Try a low point in the bumper at first to see how easy it starts to come off with steam/heat. I'd start with a heat gun, you'd have to get steam real close to do much.

Agreed. problem with steam is if it doesn't have any flex and pull, there's no way to get it under the film and working from the bottom up.. mine comes off in tiny flakes... so steam is essentially worthless... I'm going to be picking and carefully scraping

[brodiem]

I decided to go and start removing the film. I started with the mirrors using a heat gun thinking that if something went horribly wrong then I could just replace the mirror caps. But they came off pretty much in a single piece, then moved on to the fenders and same thing again, and without much adhesive residue at all. At this point I'm questioning whether I should have started to remove anything at all since obviously it isn't brittle and must have some life left, but at this point I decided I'm past the point of return and start on the hood. This has been much more trying - the edges are difficult because the film is wrapped all the way around to the underside of the hood, it's breaking apart in smaller pieces, and there is lots of residue left on the hood to clean up later. I only got about 1/4 done of the hood, and I'd guess it'll take another 2-3 hours at least, plus cleaning off all of the adhesive residue. So it's probably for the better to be doing this now after all..

[wfdeacon88]

Originally Posted by brodiem

I decided to go and start removing the film. I started with the mirrors using a heat gun thinking that if something went horribly wrong then I could just replace the mirror caps. But they came off pretty much in a single piece, then moved on to the fenders and same thing again, and without much adhesive residue at all. At this point I'm questioning whether I should have started to remove anything at all since obviously it isn't brittle and must have some life left, but at this point I decided I'm past the point of return and start on the hood. This has been much more trying - the edges are difficult because the film is wrapped all the way around to the underside of the hood, it's breaking apart in smaller pieces, and there is lots of residue left on the hood to clean up later. I only got about 1/4 done of the hood, and I'd guess it'll take another 2-3 hours at least, plus cleaning off all of the adhesive residue. So it's probably for the better to be doing this now after all..

Sounds like you made the right call! Waiting would only make it more painful to remove. Glad that it worked out for the most part on the other pieces.

[SAMM3Y]

Originally Posted by brodiem

I decided to go and start removing the film. I started with the mirrors using a heat gun thinking that if something went horribly wrong then I could just replace the mirror caps. But they came off pretty much in a single piece, then moved on to the fenders and same thing again, and without much adhesive residue at all. At this point I'm questioning whether I should have started to remove anything at all since obviously it isn't brittle and must have some life left, but at this point I decided I'm past the point of return and start on the hood. This has been much more trying - the edges are difficult because the film is wrapped all the way around to the underside of the hood, it's breaking apart in smaller pieces, and there is lots of residue left on the hood to clean up later. I only got about 1/4 done of the hood, and I'd guess it'll take another 2-3 hours at least, plus cleaning off all of the adhesive residue. So it's probably for the better to be doing this now after all..

Paint still looks good though!! Nice work! It'll take a little patience but looks like it'll come off with no damage to the clear... any tough spots you could try a hot wet soapy towel soaking around the edges..

[wfdeacon88]

best video I've found that shows almost the same exact state of mine and how to remove. Mines a little more brittle but close.

[brodiem]

Thanks for the video. The process I ended up using was very similar. I used some 3M Adhesive Remover which worked great, and rather than a credit card I used some Bondo fiberglass spreaders (they are a fair bit softer than a credit card).

In this pic you can see what it looks like with half of the hood removed:



I was a bit worried at first with how significant the appearance was on the removed section compared to the paint on the upper part of the hood, but as you can see, after removing the rest and spending some time removing the adhesive, it looks pretty good:



It's still being stubborn getting it back to a glass-like smoothness. I tried using a medium aggressive clay bar as well (Riccardo Blue) but it didn't help much, so back to more scraping and also some moderately aggressive scrubbing with a terry towel. It's certainly in need of a good cutting polish after this is all done.

[dparm]

I'd just take it to a certified Xpel installer and have them do the whole hood. They'll need to prep the surface before applying anyway, so just explain that the previous owner had the 18" wrap so they can concentrate on polishing the transition point.

[brodiem]

Originally Posted by dparm

I'd just take it to a certified Xpel installer and have them do the whole hood. They'll need to prep the surface before applying anyway, so just explain that the previous owner had the 18" wrap so they can concentrate on polishing the transition point.

Yeah, I considered that option but decided to proceed since it'll be garaged for another few months and I wanted to do a full paint correct + ceramic coat before the spring anyway. I did wonder if having the car ceramic coated would be an issue getting the film to bond if I decide to get it wrapped again though. I'm still undecided if I'd ever get another film again or not, though I like the idea of having it on the bumper and mirrors, just not sure about the hood and fenders, the edge of the film is a bit annoying when cleaning it and tends to build up a "dirt line" over time..

I was able to get the last of the residue off and I think it'll be close to perfect after a polish.

[wfdeacon88]

Originally Posted by brodiem

Yeah, I considered that option but decided to proceed since it'll be garaged for another few months and I wanted to do a full paint correct + ceramic coat before the spring anyway. I did wonder if having the car ceramic coated would be an issue getting the film to bond if I decide to get it wrapped again though. I'm still undecided if I'd ever get another film again or not, though I like the idea of having it on the bumper and mirrors, just not sure about the hood and fenders, the edge of the film is a bit annoying when cleaning it and tends to build up a "dirt line" over time..

I was able to get the last of the residue off and I think it'll be close to perfect after a polish.

paint correction and ceramic coating is the way to go. Makes washing and cleaning ten times easier plus not a pain like this shit to get off..