PAW

Mr Hyde

I remember you doing lots of research before you got your clear bra. You actually redid it once or twice to get it right. Any way, I've got a few questions

What material did you get?

Most people in Denver are custom cutting the entire car and not using Stoneguard or Xpel. Why did you get a kit instead of custom cut?

What thickness of material did you get? I checked out one shop yesterday. Good work but his 3M material was thin. It just about disappeard on the car. I don't think I what that for the front end. Maybe other places like the paint part of the door sills. My kids step on those.

TIA

Mr Hyde

The material used is made by 3M, no matter what kit you get they all use 3M film.

I went with the standard thickness with the bodypanels, only my fogs and headlights had thick sheets which is how the X-pel kit is designed

The downside of the really thick sheets is that it is much more noiceable at the seams and it distorts the appearance of the paint more itself giving it a sort of orange peel effect. I would only thick sheets on the lenses and mabe on the bumpers for protection, but not on the other body panels.

The rest of the info you want is in that thread you mentioned that I spent a good amount of time writing.

The search button gave me this.

http://www.acura-tl.com/forum/showth...l&pagenumber=2

http://www.acura-tl.com/forum/showth...highlight=Xpel

Good Luck.

In the end I say the X-pel was definitely worth the $$. My front bumper was rubbed 3x in the work parking lot, and I had a rain gutter fall on my hood leaving white paint rubbed into the clear bra. A little polish and all that damage came out, and my bumper has no real paint damage, it was all confined to the bra and 95% of it came out with some elbow grease, and using the right products.

PAW

Yep! I reread the threads and they answered most of my questions. The thickness question still bugged me. I looked at the 3M, Xpel and Stoneguard sites. There is a 6mil and a 12mil material. 3M recommends the 6mil for most applications. The 12mil for more intense use like 120mph race cars. The Xpel site talks about 8mil?!?! But, they also had a diagram from 3M showing the layers of the material. The 6mil/12mil referes to the Thermoplastic Urethane layer. The stuff that protects. There's also a clear coat and adhesive layer. Hence the extra 2mil. Here's the link

http://www.xpel.com/paint/scotchal.html

Mr Hyde
I'm left with a couple of questions for you.

Did you wrap the entire sill or just put down small sections to protect it from shoes? I'm thinking of wrapping the entire sill. No seams to deal with and more protection.

Did you use the thicker headlight/fog light material on your lights? Which brand?

Mr Hyde

I just wrapped the upper portion of the sill that is prone to being kicked/scuffed. Havent really had a problem, and no one notices that seam, only me when I am down there washing the car.

I used the X-pel kit for the lights which is much thicker than the stuff on my paint.