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Went for it. Installed Friday and reassembled the car yesterday. I took all the shiny bits off the front of the car and delivered it to the Orlando installer - this guy has done the bras for the Ferrari dealership here for 15 years and it took 4 weeks to get on his schedule. Basically, the front was done in the manner a vinyl car bra would fit. The film was wrapped across the front at the forward hood surround edge, down the side of each fender, around the parking lights and across the lower front valence. The headlight buckets were separate pieces. Also had two small pieces added just behind the rear wheels at the lower quarter panels. Very pleased with the look. It doesn't look "orange peel-y" like other products and I can detect no difference in the gloss of the paint... Seriously - you have to be about 3' feet away to detect the light seam running down the fenders and that's the only visible sign of the work.
The installer did an amazing job of hiding seams that were required and clearly took some care on the car. The stuff has a 10 year warranty but nobody recommends running with it that long....6-8 years is the max - prob on the high end of that range for garage kept cars.
The experts say I'll regret this when I remove it in 6-8 years but my theory is if I have to repaint the nose from removing the bra at some point; I would have had to do it anyway from all the accumulated damage from years of driving without any protection... The installer says that depending on the age of the material, quality of the paint, etc.. he's removed dozens and dozens with no issues - guess I'll find out unless I sell the car before the time limit..
And, no the modern adhesives don't yellow anymore like the "old" offerings.
Last edited by Frankie the Fink; 07-15-2018 at 10:59 AM.
Looks great Frankie. Should give you some cruising peace of mind. I used the self-healing Xpel on my GT350 which I think is very similar to the Suntek. I've studied the surface in my garage under fluorescent lighting where it ends on the hood and I cannot tell any difference in orange peel or surface texture from one side to the other. I wish they made a pre-cut kit for more old cars as I did the whole front of my GT myself with a pre-cut kit and with a little care and patience it turned out really nice.
I have something similar on my C7 Z06......stuff works good. The C6 and C7 guys swear by the stuff. Some guys go as far as having the entire car covered in it. Mine isn't, the front like yours and then there is some along the side and rear.....
I looked at Xpel and 3M but the Suntek was the least noticeable and, even better, has the least aggressive adhesive. A plus for later removal on repainted cars.
The installer cleverly ran one seam along a straight line behind where the horizontal side portion of the bumper hides it completely.
There was some doctor’s Maserati in the shop that got completely “wrapped” with Xpel — not sure there is a pre-cut kit for that either.
Last edited by Frankie the Fink; 07-15-2018 at 02:58 PM.
Looks great been thinking of the same for our 63.
Did the installer touch your car with a knife or razor blade?
Can I ask, what was the total cost?
Thanks,
GS
No, my car was not touched with a razor blade - as stated there is a seam (or two) that required trimming - this is where the expertise comes in...the cuts are measured against the car and the film lifted slightly and the cut made up off of the paint. I watched it being done.
Anybody wanting to know the cost can PM me - I'm not gonna get into it with the cheapskates on here....part of the labor is based on difficulty - I offset a bit of that by removing things to get to the state shown in the first picture...
Is this the outfit off Fairbanks in Winter Park? I had those guys add an Invisible Bra to my BMW and loved it.
Yup, those very folks.....the owner did the work and was as good as it gets....672 Jackson St to be exact......
He was committed to making sure I was happy and that I knew all the facts beforehand.....
Not cheap, but then I didn't want Joe Dirt doing the work... There are a lot of places that do wraps, window tint, bling wheels, sound systems and the bras as a sideline - didn't even consider them....
My guy prob had a 1/2 million dollars in cars in his shop while mine was there -- exotics and high end stuff...exclusively for invisible bras and whole car "wraps".
Last edited by Frankie the Fink; 07-17-2018 at 08:03 AM.
No, my car was not touched with a razor blade - as stated there is a seam (or two) that required trimming - this is where the expertise comes in...the cuts are measured against the car and the film lifted slightly and the cut made up off of the paint. I watched it being done.
Anybody wanting to know the cost can PM me - I'm not gonna get into it with the cheapskates on here....part of the labor is based on difficulty - I offset a bit of that by removing things to get to the state shown in the first picture...
Stress reliever that's where you get the most small rocks ,I also feel in your area its worse with the FL highway .
I noticed this while on vacation last year. Nice job
Hey Frank, can we see a pic or two of the lower rear fender with the film? I'd like to see where the film line is. Cheers, Bill
Well I gave the installer this pic of the Cleartastic static rock guards (which everyone seems to be out of) he used that as a guideline but said he could do something more subtle - did he ever. I really can't even capture it in pictures since its so low and hard to get an angle on so you prob won't see anything...
The above graphic with the black line will give you some idea..
What he did is a bit shorter than the Cleartastic stuff and the rear top edge is nicely rounded instead of being a sharp corner...
Last edited by Frankie the Fink; 07-17-2018 at 11:23 AM.
Frank, do you know if this is the same material used to "wrap" a car? A friend just had his new McLaren completely clear wrapped at the dealer in St Pete for $3k. It's completely invisible.
Last edited by survivor66; 07-17-2018 at 11:21 AM.
I have no idea - any of the brands Suntek, Xpel, 3M, etc.. can be used to wrap an entire car.....
A Nissan that I saw in this shop had only the hood done and i personally wouldn't have been happy with it - clearly looked like orange peel next to the original paint job....not sure which product it was - certainly not Suntek.. But that's what the customer wanted..
Be careful when waxing/detailing your car with the clear wrap installed. Some waxes have a bit of abrasive in them and can dry white. This will get into the seams of the clear material..............and you cannot see it initially................but will over the next year leave a faint white line due to sun exposure and time. You can remove this with a bit of work, but it will not come out by simply washing the car.
My 2011 GS Corvette had a partial wrap done by the previous owner. Good and expensive shop did the work. Wrap was invisible at the time I purchased the car (about 1 year on the wrap). Later, I used Meguiars Gold Class wax on the car. Just one application to date. Apparently this wax has a bit of fine abrasive and it showed up about a year later as a faint white line around some of the seams. I guess I did not get it all removed, even though I worked to polish off/remove the wax at the time with multiple microfiber towels.
I can remove these faint lines, but it takes a lot of time to do so. They are generally not very noticeable when driving the car, but can be seen right after a wash and dry.
No, my car was not touched with a razor blade - as stated there is a seam (or two) that required trimming - this is where the expertise comes in...the cuts are measured against the car and the film lifted slightly and the cut made up off of the paint. I watched it being done.
Anybody wanting to know the cost can PM me - I'm not gonna get into it with the cheapskates on here....part of the labor is based on difficulty - I offset a bit of that by removing things to get to the state shown in the first picture...
07-15-2018, 10:50 AM
Suntek Self-Healing Invisible Bra
