GQS

Had my TL for a week now, hoping to wax it this weekend. I have the 3M clear bra and was wondering if you guys have any tips about waxing - it seems to me that the edge of the film will pick-up the wax and result in a white line which would be difficult to remove.

Any advice?

Also, do you wax over the film?

daniel1113

Treat the film like it's invisible and just wax over it like normal. You can avoid any extra build-up of wax at the crease by waxing in a direction that starts on the film and ends on the nearby paint. If extra wax does build-up, it is easy to remove with a micro-fiber clothe. I hope this helps.

JEKSWANG

I guess if you're careful, should be ok. Don't wax against the film edge, obviously.
I Zainoed over the film and all, that was ok, but I was in a hurry doing the claybay and now I have yellow gunk on the edges.

GQS

Good stuff, thanks for the responses.

mad63502003

What is the 3M clear bra?

brianlin87

iTrader: (1)

do a search

RubberBand

The wax line can easily be removed from a clear bra by using a q-tip dipped in some sort of adhesive cleaner or rubbing alcohol. Just rub it along the edge. You can also take a shop towel (the blue paper ones) and get it wet with adhesive cleaner or rubbing alcohol and scrub at the edge with your fingernail through the towel. This technique can also be used to remove the dirt line that shows up on lighter-colored cars.

mad63502003 - if you want some more info about clear bras, feel free to PM or e-mail me - I work in the industry for StonGard.

Mr Hyde

You can also tape over the edge of the clear bra with blue painters tape. It will come right off, and leave no residue at all.

frenchnew

Stay away from rubbing alcohol!!!

That stuff is meant for skin use, not for car use!. Most rubbing alcohol contains oil.

If you must use alcohol, use only pure Isopropyl Alcohol as it does not contains any oils and will not affect or attack plastic, paint and does not leave a residue like rubbing alcohol. I strongly reccomend that if you are going to use any type of chemicals (Alcohol, Adhesive cleaner, etc) try it out first in an area that will not be exposed just in case it would affect the surface. Use a light cloth on a dark car or a dark cloth on a light colored car and check to see if there are any color tranfered to the cloth - first sign of trouble.

To get rid of the wax line with a clear bra, a clean buffing towel, some elbow grease and a little bit of patience will work wonders.

Best regards from Montreal, Canada

Fenchnew

GQS

It is a clear plastic film made by 3M applied to the front of the vehicle to protect the paint from stone chipping. Another name you'll hear is Xpel.

I had the bumper, front section of the hood and fenders done, some people also do the mirrors.
It's virtually invisible on most colours, there is a slight line at the transition.

Search is your friend...Read more here
here

Hawhyen51

Paint Protection Film (PPF), i.e. ClearBra, InvincaSheild, Xpel, etc. is a film (urethane with a clearcoat and about 8mm thick) applied to the front of vehicles such as bumpers, hoods and fenders. This application was designed as a protection against road debris, stone chips, bug damage, abrasion and weathering. PPF is now used as an option to the old full frontal or partial nose masks. The film can be wash and waxed the same manner as your vehicle and is warranted against yellowing, cracking and peeling.

There are several manufacturers of PPF with 3M being one of the more popular and most used brands by resellers. Most kits sold by resellers are precut to fit the areas of the vehicle and ease of installation. The installation is basically the same as window film using a soapy solution to manuever the film and using a squegee to remove bubbles and excess solution. Here is a link for 3M Clear Bra Test. One of our members, Rockblocker, is an authorzed vendor and Mark 3M Bra Man is an installer in St. Louis. You can tap them for more info.

daniel1113

8mm thick? I don't think so. Perhaps 0.8mm, if even.

TOGWT

8-12Mil

TOGWT

Question - what is the difference between denatured alcohol and
rubbing alcohol?
------------------------------------------------
Denatured alcohol is ethanol to which poisonous and foul-tasting chamicals
have been added to make it unfit for drinking. There is more than one
recipe for denaturing alcohol; some add methanol or isopropanol, some
gasoline, and so on.

Rubbing alcohol is an alcohol intended to be rubbed on the skin. Frequently
70% iso-propyl alcohol / 30% water is used; sometimes ethanol with added
iso-propyl alcohol is used. You don't want to use denatured alcohol that is
made with anything that shouldn't be placed on the skin, such as gasoline!

So, some, but not all, kinds of denatured alcohol can be used as rubbing
alcohol. Rubbing alcohol may also not contain any ethanol at all, which
would disqualify it from being "denatured". So, some but not all kinds of
rubbing alcohol are denatured alcohol, and some but not all kinds of
denatured alcohol can be rubbing alcohol.

Richard E. Barrans Jr., Ph.D.
Assistant Director
PG Research Foundation, Darien, Illinois

Hawhyen51

Good catch, my mistake - 8 mil

Thank you for the correction .....

RubberBand

Hey you guys let's not forget that all of this takes elbow grease so be tough but, be careful. We do thousands of these clear bra kits here every year and there just is no substitute for smart, hard work. If you wax away from the film and into the paint it really helps quite a bit. Any questions on the vehicle protection film let me know.

Jer
AutoGardUSA