My clear bra install on a Silverstone Metallic E90 Civic

[mdosu]

So in the past week, forum member "Red_Baron" and I spent a good part of 3 nights installing a 3M clear bra onto my car. The bra is a 3M Ventureshield precut for the partial front clip. The length covers up to, but not including the hood dome.

Here are some pics of mostly post install:

The cleanest my car will be for a while, a comprehensive wash, clay, and partial wax:



Red_Baron going over the details:



The Good: Clean Fender and Hood Install, 95%-98% of the bumper is clean and smooth :





The Ugly: Given it's our first time working with the 3M material, and while Red Baron has extensive experience working with vinyl, we did experience some technical difficulties. Minor overlap and ripping:


Bumper was already chipped in some areas, I didn't sand down any of it, so some parts are not 100% smooth and b/c we installed the bumper and lights on day one, we worked way too fast and we overlooked some parts and left some air bubbles (but for the most part, large bubbles can be minimized post install with a pin and more "blending" of material. Dark spots on the photo are cloud reflections, not imperfections, picture really can't capture the details of the minor imperfections:


Pic whoring time! Car won't be any cleaner than this, soak it up! :




Props to Red Baron and my wife for all the time spent doing this project, this one took a lot longer than anticipated, but the results exceeded my expectations!

Props to forum member Raja_Ventureshield for all the after sales support! I texted you like 100 times for tips, thanks again!


Next steps:
I still have wrap my mirrors and a few extra areas around the wheel arches. I also have to trim and tuck the excess material for the final finishing touches.

Lessons learned: if you're super anal and a perfectionist, don't do this yourself, you'll likely fuck it up, and you'll feel like shit afterwards. Leave it to a professional. You'll need a serious detail beforehand, if you have preexisting chips, you'll likely want to do something about it and someone who has a lot of experience, time, and means to re-cut film.

If you're a DIY, and like me, want to learn this process, save money, spend time with friends, sweat like a dog in a super hot garage, and can accept some imperfections, then follow the few DIYs online, and make sure you have another person or two to give you a hand with the large pieces. Let me know if you want me to share with you the DIY threads on this. No matter how you do this, you can't simply read the DIY, you just need hands-on experience to really know how to do it, it's partially art, partially science, and takes a lot of patience.

[TrevorM3]

I don't think you'll like it after awhile. Crap starts to build up, and it looks shitty.

[mdosu]

Originally Posted by TrevorM3

I don't think you'll like it after awhile. Crap starts to build up, and it looks shitty.

thanks for the comment, we'll see about that...this car is effectively a garage queen all its life, and the color works better than base color black or white cars. I estimate, it'll be about 5 years, minimum, before it shows its age as the Ventureshield material is the "state of the art", for now. The major differences between this and other brands are mostly UV treatments, they're all the same thickness.

[TrevorM3]

Originally Posted by mdosu

thanks for the comment, we'll see about that...this car is effectively a garage queen all its life, and the color works better than base color black or white cars. I estimate, it'll be about 5 years, minimum, before it shows its age as the Ventureshield material is the "state of the art", for now. The major differences between this and other brands are mostly UV treatments, they're all the same thickness.

Dude honestly, if it's a garage queen why would you even need the bra?

It's your car obviously,but the only time i'd deem a bra necessary is if i did a TON of highway driving. Regular city driving won't wreak havoc like the highway.

Best of luck, and nice color!

[mdosu]

Originally Posted by TrevorM3

Dude honestly, if it's a garage queen why would you even need the bra?

It's your car obviously,but the only time i'd deem a bra necessary is if i did a TON of highway driving. Regular city driving won't wreak havoc like the highway.

Best of luck, and nice color!

Seriously? You the type of person when your gf shows you her new blue dress, you say say it's too blue, just so you can always criticize? You obviously had a bad experience with the bra in the past. Do I need to explain to you my rationale for using it?

Based on your logic, if the car gets driven a lot, you need a bra, yet the bra will discolor when exposed and used...thus validating your belief a bra is useless?

Same can be said about your cf spoiler on your trunk and backglass. You don't have a race car, you dont need the downforce, why did you waste your money? Cf will always yellow over time, doesn't sound like a good investment to me.

[Sandye90m3]

Originally Posted by TrevorM3

I don't think you'll like it after awhile. Crap starts to build up, and it looks shitty.

Originally Posted by mdosu

Seriously? You the type of person when your gf shows you her new blue dress, you say say it's too blue, just so you can always criticize? You obviously had a bad experience with the bra in the past. Do I need to explain to you my rationale for using it?

Based on your logic, if the car gets driven a lot, you need a bra, yet the bra will discolor when exposed and used...thus validating your belief a bra is useless?

Same can be said about your cf spoiler on your trunk and backglass. You don't have a race car, you dont need the downforce, why did you waste your money? Cf will always yellow over time, doesn't sound like a good investment to me.

Trevor M3, I completely disagree with you. I've had mine for 4 years now, and it looks just fine. Well worth it if you ask me.

[Hujan]

Nothing to add except to say that this might be my favorite M3 color. It occupies a nice middle ground between Alpine White and Space Gray. Very nice!

[Nang Vann]

Looks good enough for me,

[Someone?]

That's cool, Good job. im going to be getting a clear bra installed shortly, but im not going to do it myself.

[GOLFFRR]

[1MOREMOD]

nice work. now get to modding how have you spent so much time on here and have a stock car!

[Endless619]

Originally Posted by 1MOREMOD

nice work. now get to modding how have you spent so much time on here and have a stock car!

[Endless619]

Originally Posted by mdosu

Seriously? You the type of person when your gf shows you her new blue dress, you say say it's too blue, just so you can always criticize? You obviously had a bad experience with the bra in the past. Do I need to explain to you my rationale for using it?

Based on your logic, if the car gets driven a lot, you need a bra, yet the bra will discolor when exposed and used...thus validating your belief a bra is useless?

Same can be said about your cf spoiler on your trunk and backglass. You don't have a race car, you dont need the downforce, why did you waste your money? Cf will always yellow over time, doesn't sound like a good investment to me.

Don't stress man. We have a lot of new trolls on here. I am one of them.

[1MOREMOD]

Originally Posted by Endless619

i know this dude and have to give him shit. looks like i see a csl trunk!

[mdosu]

Originally Posted by 1MOREMOD

i know this dude and have to give him shit. looks like i see a csl trunk!

i took a double look myself..thought it looked like CSL trunk too. lol thanks man.

[FormulaMMM]

Nicely done. Mine has similar imperfections. Don't care.. has done a significant amount of protecting in the 2 years since install.

[1MOREMOD]

Originally Posted by mdosu

i took a double look myself..thought it looked like CSL trunk too. lol thanks man.

so its not a csl. thats weird looks like one. good work bud.

[TrevorM3]

Originally Posted by mdosu

Seriously? You the type of person when your gf shows you her new blue dress, you say say it's too blue, just so you can always criticize? You obviously had a bad experience with the bra in the past. Do I need to explain to you my rationale for using it?

Based on your logic, if the car gets driven a lot, you need a bra, yet the bra will discolor when exposed and used...thus validating your belief a bra is useless?

Same can be said about your cf spoiler on your trunk and backglass. You don't have a race car, you dont need the downforce, why did you waste your money? Cf will always yellow over time, doesn't sound like a good investment to me.

woah, calm down there...

As I said, it's your car do as you please.


I'm still not understanding why anyone would want the bra if the car is barely seeing the road. Apparently I'm an idiot, however. The idea of the bra is to protect the paint from chipping. Last time i checked, being in the garage doesn't chip paint. Carry on.......

[Raja Ventureshield]

Props to forum member Raja_Ventureshield for all the after sales support! I texted you like 100 times for tips, thanks again!

no problem Mike. You can buy me lunch after Ramadan is over. :-)

[///M Power-Belgium]

What a clear bra your car gives is ...protection,and that you have now !
So, good work is done mduso

[Brucewonder]

looks like ass sorry

[ionaetp]

I don't think you'll like it after awhile.