copland007

Why in the world is the paint on this car so brittle!! I drove a '92 geo prism for 8 years and never, NEVER, had a paint chip from a rock.

Now, I have been driving my new '02 TLs for four weeks and already have four paint chips!! Two of them down to the metal !!! Ahhh.... ( yes I know, quite an upgrade to go from a Geo to an Acura )

I did some searching and looks like xpel seems like my next investment (sorry sways will have to wait).

In everyone's opinion is it worth spending the mucho bucks to get xpel and have it professionally installed or is it something I can apply myself?

Any comments appreciated.

nameeri

Two paint chips right here too. Got them both driving on the freeway from rocks. And i jost got my car in October!! I agree, the paint on this car does seem to be a little brittle. I got some touch up paint from the dealer for like 5 bucks and using masking tape and an exacto knife, i was able to atleast make it appear like there was no chip.

juniorbean

iTrader: (5)

Personally I just went with the bra (only installed the hood part) and it has been doing a fairly good job. If you want total protection, the X-pel (or something similar) is the only way to go....

TypeSontheProwl

Don't hold me to this but I read somewhere (autopia?) that this is due to EPA regulations for air quality control where the car manufacturers have to use more water than solvent based products. This produces a more brittle surface subject to chips and marring. I think this goes for most of the other American car manufacturers

Regarding the Xpel, if you have any experiencing tinting windows. It works on the same principal, you can do it. I had a friend to it, who had tinted his windows and it came out pretty well.

Would you like to see some pics of it?

ice091298

almost 2 months and not a scratch careful inspection every day, and so far nothing wrong, except a huge splatter of bird sh1t on my sunroof

fahoumh

you think that's bad, my cuz has 2001 Civic and the windshield is cracked in 3 different places and he got the car in June!!:p

copland007

I don't have any tint experience. I think I would be to worried about doing it wrong

Do you have pics of the final product on the car or the steps? Either would be nice if you could... thnx

RiCE-DaDDy

no scratches so far and got the car in august but im gonna invest in those xpel stuff
is there any other company that makes those invisble bras too?

hankw

Wax your car. It protects the paint. I wouldn't say completely, cause I have only had my car for 1 month and it already has one paint chip.

copland007

I just finished putting klasse on it, but unfortunately the damage had already been done. I'll see how that holds up.

daverman

No amount of wax can deflect a piece of rock traveling at 70 MPH! If you really want a barrier against debris, try the 3M ScotchCal (XPel) products.

I've got a bunch of tiny little paint chips on my hood. It drives me crazy! I don't know what to do about them. Touch-up paint doesn't seem to work too well on previous chips.

hankw

Good Point!

kchao2000

I had Xpel installed on my car; but it can't 100% protect you from stone chips. I still got a stone chip on my hood where above the Xpel covered area. (That happened after I installed and the stone was from a trailer.)

Well... at least put Xpel is better than put nothing.

bricot

I think the Xpel works great. They also have the material in bulk, I had them do some custom stuff that isn't included in any of the kits.

bigbadboss101

I guess one needs to give more room between cars when driving on rocky roads. I live up North and in winter we have sand, salt that car be damaging to cars. Sometimes on highways I get huge chunck of pebbles flying my way.

I am going to do the Zaino process before winter. The hood deflector and bra are nice but I find them good at trapping dirt and dust and I have to remove them before wash, which IMO is PITA.

TypeSontheProwl

Here is a pic of the final results.

More to come.

TypeSontheProwl

Another:

TypeSontheProwl

Here is where you can see the line.


When you buy the Xpel, you can ask for a video regarding installation. Good luck

RWD

I decided after reading the numerous threads regarding the brittle paint, to purchase a Bra. I had the dealer install it when I took delivery. I have been meticulous with taking it off when I wash it and when it rains. Today when I put it back on, I noticed a chip between the headlight and bumper. This is where one of the Bra tabs insert. Talk about brittle paint! There is no way a rock did this. Any feedback from Acura about the paint quality?

Thanks

Bitium

That is because you never drove over 80 mph.

Mr Hyde

My entire front end is X-pelled including the sideskirts of teh body kit, and some custom pieces.

My advice to you is to purchase X-pel only for the headlights and foglights.

For my front bumper, and side view mirrors. I used the X-pel bumper which does not wrap around the entire bumper only the very front most parts and has "relief cuts in it which are cut outs in the kit which allow it to wrap around parst better. If I could do it over again, I would have got the ArmorGuard bumper picec which goes from wheel well to wheel well covering the entire front bumper with no relief cuts.

For the Hood I went with a custom piece. X-pel only goes to the edges of the Hood leaving an outline all around the edge of the hood, plus its top half runs straight across the hood. The ArmorGuard wraps around the bottom and side of the hood, has a nice curve to it which helps it blend in nicely. but but didnt go high enough up the hood for me, so I had the guy custom cut a piece which had a nice curve, wrapped around all the edges, and went up high enough for me, and most impressive of all, the custom cut piece for the hood was much cheaper than the prefab X-pel and Armor Guard pieces.

I also had custom pieces cut for the sideskirts of my body kit to prevent scuff marks from shoes, a custom cut piece for the bodykits front lip, and custom pieces for the sideview mirror bases.

My advice is to let a pro do the install, my guy letft some airbubbles in one of my sideskirts, I showed it to him and without asking what I wanted to do, he said he would redo it no problem. Its harder than it seems, and after watching them do my car, I am gald I didnt spoil the kit and waste that money just to have him do it again. I wasted alot of $$$ by going with an entire X-pel kit first and also by buying the kit on my own.
The detailing guy buys the kits at big discounts, and he can pick and choose among pieces in different kits, so buying through him woudl have saved me even more money. I redid the X-pel hood which I was unappy with and went with a custom piece later on.

Had I known then what I know now and just posted, the money I could have saved would have paid for sways with some change left over. Oh well live and learn. :p

TUFF GONG

Man Sandeep....you've become somewhat of an expert on the clearbra through your experience huh

And yes, I just noticed a my first small yet noticeable nick on my hood just past the Armourgaurd bra Ahh well, I got to check out that custom piece they made for you. I wasn't too keen on how the x-pel was straight across the hood. On the other hand, the armorgaurd doesn't go high enough to protect as much area. You may have the perfect size, nice.
BTW, I could of thought my pre-fab kit was told to be a ArmourFend

Daverman, this is kind of a anal question perhaps , but where are the majority of your nicks? I posted a picture of my car in which you can clearly see the clearbra line with my booboo dotted red...yes I'm nut's. I realize it can happen anywhere

I had made a appointment to have the kit installed a week before delivery back in July. I have to admit I've been satisfied with the kits protection so far.

For anyone wondering the worthiness of this whole clearbra thing, IMO I think it's a good investment.

Especially since Mr. Hyde did all the R&D for you

daverman

TG: The chips I have are mostly on the front of the bumper (dang gravel-ridden cement trucks). There are also tiny nicks all the way across my hood, reaching up to maybe 14" above the top of the pentagon chrome line. I also have major nicks on the front left fender top and front left fender near the windshield.

Dang gravel-ridden... oh wait, I said that already.

copland007

Haha... You have a good point there A few times when I was lucky going down hill I would hit 85...

Thanx all for your input. I talked w/dealership and they may be able to get a bra for me either free or low cost. So I am going to live with that for now and look around for some pros in the area which can install the X-Pel stuff. From what I am hearing it sounds like a good investment.

Any chance any Bostonians here that know of a good place they would recommend?

Thanx again everyone.

TUFF GONG

I'm no Bostonian but here's a link of x-pel's site which has a "enter your zip & find your nearest installer". I don't know if you did this yet but here it is

http://www.xpel.com/forms/installform.html

Mr Hyde

LOL That experience and R&D was not cheap!!!

For my Custom piece he traced the curve of the S4 ArmorFEND(my mistake) Kit and used that. Its not as much a curve as the TL-S ArmorFend kit which dips so low, and giives me much more coverage.

GoodLuck Copland