Got Clear Bra Installed

I just had a new clear bra installed on Saturday by the guys at Premier Protective Films International.

Premier installed a "pre-cut" kit using a film by Prestige Film Technology. This film, Prestige ClearGuardX, has much better clarity than the Ventureshield Ultra film I was previously using. The Prestige film has a 7 year warranty, is 8.5 mil thick, and I believe it uses an "embedded" clear coat technology that is similar to Avery Dennison NanoFusion.

Premier used a combination of XPEL patterns and custom pieces for the job, even though this was priced to be a "precut" installation. The fenders were of the larger pattern from XPEL, the hood was completely custom with wrapped edges (made from a 24" roll, so almost 24" of coverage) and the bumper was from the XPEL pattern. They were originally going to use the XPEL pattern for the mirrors, but they decided to do a custom mirror because the quality of the mirror pattern from XPEL was not satisfactory.

Also, for the fender pieces, they were able to get the film within 1/16"-1/32" of the edge. The hood was custom and the edges were wrapped. The mirror was custom as well, so the film was at the edge. The bumper, due to the size of the piece and the curvature of the bumper, was within 1/8" of the edge on most parts; some areas nearest the tire may have been closer to 1/6" though. They also "removed" the tow hook cut-outs from the bumper pattern and manually cut and tucked the film into the tow hooks.

Overall, I am very happy with the quality of the job and clarity of the film. Their work is 95% perfect-- the few minor imperfections I could find were on the bumper, and that is expected due to the bumper being a pre-cut pattern and the size/curvature of the bumper. I highly recommend Premier and the Prestige film, even though the price was a bit high at $790. You definitely get what you pay for. And I also looked closely and could not find any razor cuts. I just wished that I had paid them to do the job the first time, instead of spending $500 on my previous clear bra and having to peel it off (and almost destroyed my hood's finish while doing so) due to a poor installation.


I took these pictures the day after the installation, so the car is a bit dirty and some of the white stuff you see is dust and/or sealant residue.

View from two feet away:



Clarity of the film:



Picture of the custom hood with wrapped edges, and the closeness of the bumper piece to the edge:



Distant view of the mirror:



Since my installer felt the XPEL pattern for the mirror could be better, he did a custom mirror. It was too risky to cover the entire mirror due to the possibility of lifting, at least for this design:



Distant view of the amount of coverage:



I also bought Premier's PF1 ppf cleaner and will also be using the XPEL PPF sealant twice-a-month to keep the film in good condition. Hopefully the film will remain in good condition for 5-7 years.

Update:

Link to the film manufacturer's page:

http://www.prestige-films.com/auto_clearguard.shtml

 

During the film removal process, the bumper, fenders and mirrors peeled off without leaving any adhesive behind. On the hood, most of the film came off cleanly, but a 18†by 18†square of adhesive was left behind. This adhesive was fairly thick and goo-gone or 3m adhesive remover would not remove it.

At the advice of a local paint/body guy, I soaked the area with 3m adhesive remover for 15-20 minutes and only then, with a credit card, was I able to gently scrape the thick layer of adhesive off the hood. However, even after doing so, there were still thin spots that were not removable with the 3m adhesive remover. At the point, it was evident that the 3m adhesive remover had also done some damage to the clearcoat—under inspection with a florescent light, you could see lots of severe etching on the clearcoat. The clearcoat had a lot of small cracks if you look at it from an angle.

Anyway, I took the car back to that paint/body guy since there were still some spots on the hood that I could not get off. He used lacquer thinner and a rough terry cloth towel to get the rest of the spots off, which actually came off quite easily. The lacquer thinner didn’t cause more etching, but it left the clearcoat with a hazy finish. At this point I thought I needed to reclear the hood.

Luckily, I took the car back home and used my Flex 3401XRG on speed 6, a Lake Country Orange pad and Meguiars M105 ultra-cut compound for 10 passes and it removed all of the etching, scratches and discoloration. Followed up with a Lake Country White pad and Meguiars M205 and the finish looked perfect—you could even see the metallic sparkle. But point is, it was a close call, and I probably had to shave off a good amount of the clearcoat. Next time I’d have a professional remove it, they probably have some tricks I don’t know about it. But I’d be really careful…maybe you’ll have better luck than I did.

 

The only pieces that I watch them cut on the vehicle were the hood and the fenders. The bumper was an XPEL pre-cut pattern.

The Prestige film is a film from Japan, as I understand. There's an ongoing thread about my car and this film over on tintdude as well. You are correct about the lack of a nationwide warranty due to the small installer network, but I was well aware of those implications and it was a matter of choosing between a good/reputable installer and a mediocre installer with a nationwide warrantied film.

As you and others have pointed out regarding the hood to fender alignment, I have decided to send the installer an email to see how they want to address this, if at all. I'll keep everyone posted on their response. I just hope that I am not being too unreasonable.