As I promised, I'm showing you pictures of the "clear bra" I had installed on my 2014 F150 Platinum. But, there's not a lot to see, because it's essentially invisible!

The film covers the entire painted surface on the front end, and it extends about 1/3 of the way back on the hood and down the fenders from that to include the fender flairs. It also covers the headlights and fog lights. Not shown are the edge guards on all the doors and protection over the "door cups" inside the door handles to protect against scratches from rings and so on.

The color's not too exciting, because there was a high thin overcast when I took the pictures that filtered out much of the sun.









In the last picture, a closeup of the fender, you can see the line marking the end of the film that covers the forward part of the fender and flairs.

This stuff is STRONG! I had it applied to my daily driver a little over a year ago, and about 6,000 miles later, much of it at highway speeds, there are NO rock damage chips on the car's front - period.

For those of you in the Phoenix area, I had this done at North Scottsdale Auto Service by Steve Hank. They do all kinds of work on all models of vehicles, including periodic maintenance, repairs, body work, and appearance products like window tinting, and paint protection film. They have a loyal clientele with some expensive vehicles. When I was there, there was a Jaguar, Land Rover and Corvette in the garage with my F150.

Before Steve applied the film, he let my truck sit for about an hour to cool off from the 90 mile drive I took to get there. Then, he washed my truck, completely and clayed the areas where film was to be applied so that there would be no imperfections. This was not a quick job. He took all morning to do it and I was able to watch the process.

Steve owns a beautiful dark green Corvette in their showroom that he has TOTALLY wrapped in paint protection film and a Black Cadillac SUV that is about 1/2 wrapped. Also, in the showroom is a Fisker Karma http://www.autoblog.com/2011/02/21/2...iew-road-test/ that has the film applied and is perfect. Out front with the Caddie is an Aston Martin and a Bentley.

It's worth a visit just to look at the vehicles!

- Jack

 

Very nice, Jack. Came out perfect.. Great idea for someone who is planning to keep there truck long term.

I would have loved to do this to my bumper, bumper cover, heads and fogs when I purchased my truck, but was it even avail in 2004?

-Tony

 

Thanks, Tony. I don't know when it became available. I learned about it early in 2014, and had it applied to my car because I was starting to get paint chips on the front bumper and one on the hood. I really didn't want to go with one of those "tie-on" bras, because I don't like their looks and suspect the constant contact with something that can move slightly, and let dust get underneath, could damage the paint too.

This seemed a good alternative.

- Jack

 

Looks Great. My Front bumper was done by the dealer, but I need to do the rest of the front. After doing the door sills myself, I think I'm going to give it a shot by myself.

 

Good on ya! I tried applying paint protection film to my old truck, an it was a disaster. This surprised me, because I'd applied window film to a couple previous vehicles and the results were very good - I'd go so far as to call them "professional". No bubbles at all and the tinting looked perfect for the several years that I owned them.

So, it was a complete surprise that I had such miserable results with the paint protection film. Looking back on it, I suspect I didn't have enough detergent in the water, and, I think I probably didn't wet the surface of the vehicle enough.

You'll save a bunch if you do it yourself. Post pictures when you get it done.

- Jack

 

Looks great! Or not...cause you can hardly tell its there...

I remember when that stuff first came out when I was a painter...it's tricky to apply! 3M had a universal kit that we would cut misc. pieces to replace small OEM pieces...Porsche used to have a huge clear protector in front of the rear wheel on the 911's that was a pia...one little bubble or piece of dust ruined the whole piece...

Should keep ya looking new for quite some time!

Regards!

 

Nice choice Jack! I'll be doing my new car as well soon enough and my truck after I get the front end mods done.

 

From the year's worth of experience with the film on my car, I think it's worth it! But, it has to be done right.

Steve was telling me about some shops that will have you in and out in an hour. Don't go to those kinds of installers. It might not be a bad idea to ask a potential installer how he preps the vehicle for the job, and, how long the process will take. Also, find out how long the warranty is.

- Jack

 

I forgot to add these, Here is my example of why I was glad to have the film installed. I caught the garage door guide rail backing in for the night. There would be considerable paint damage if the film wasn't there.

No the only problem is I have to pay for another piece of film!



After a little bit of a clean up, no paint damage (the left side is just the film)