I'm sure that you have noticed the number of posts for paint protection & clear bras on this Forum. The choice in the USA seems to be quite bewildering...

For the UK I've been speaking with Armourfend & they are going to template the car as soon as they are available...

At present they have estimated between £ 200 & £ 300 which will be front bumper, leading part of wings & bonnet, spray zones off of all wheels & mirror backs.

I would like to gauge interest in this - to allow us to...
1. get our cars protected from the poorly maintained UK roads &
2. get the best possible price for those of us that are interested.

I've seen the product on finished vehicles & it is a good investment IMHO - let me have your views

 

I'm interested.....but would need to see it first.

Cheers

Paul UK

 

Was not aware bras for cars existed till I found this site!

Idiot questions:

How does it work ie is the finish visible to the eye

Is it 'fitted' or bonded to the paint surface

Do they create a ridge between coat and unprotected paint areas

Does it show after detailing, or can it yellow/age faster than other paint surface

Jez

 

Sorry but I can't see the point in these things. Ok they protect the car from stone chips, but you have to drive around in something that looks naff!.
It's like people who put crap covers over their car seats and then take them off to sell the car, so only the new owner sees the benefit.
Well, that's my rant for the day, back to work now.

Paul.

 

Same here. All the ones I've seen pictures of have been black and look naff, a clear one might be much better but I'd want to see it on a car first.

 

OK, here's the general info. on what the hell a bra is...

...so we've determined that we are not talking "lift & separate" here...

There are two types of bras - the black textured vinyl "strap-on" one & the clear smooth vinyl "permanent" adhesive one.

You may have seen VW Beetles, Porsche 356s & early Porsche 911s sporting the black type - the main manufacturer is a company called Colgan (try a search on the web sometime)

The newest innovation is the self adhesive clear film which is made by 3M. The model of car to which it is to be fitted is firstly templated, if not already in the library & then the parts are laser cut, before finally being fitted to the car (in a very similar way to window tinting films, using fluid / squeegee / heat) & hey presto...

the shine is sealed in & the rocks are sealed out - OK you may get some small marks in the vinyl over time, but you can always go for a peel & re-apply.

One of the first companies to enter the market was a UK company (believe it or not) & you can check out their site on www.armourfend.com

Seriously I've seen their work on Lambos & Porsches (if you want to check their work wander around an AFN Porsche garage)

I have no affilliation with them, but I just want to keep my car showroom fresh... Let me know what you think... Sure there is a slight line where you go from film to paintwork, but I'd prefer that to a rock chip

 

Sounds nice. I would prefer it to be cheaper, but hey... what you going to do when you want to protect your car?

Put me down as interested and let's see where it takes us.

The Black ones are all over the place in the US, and I think they look horrible, however, I have never seen (or maybe not noticed) a clear one...

rich

 

The clear protective stuff is very popular with the TVR Tuscan crowd, as our cars are very prone to stone chips. Must be something to do with the low down design and, erm, maybe all that speeeeed!

You can see the stuff (it's just like a big transparent sticker) from less than 4 feet away, but further afield you can't see it. I'm not very keen. I sort of think that a front end respray every coupld of years is a more 'natural' solution. True, it saves the stone chips from marking your car, but they just mark the protective film instead which starts to look tatty. I'd rather have stone chips than marks that make people go "what is THAT?!"