Details here.

 

hey, it looks great and i'll bet it'll stay that way for a long time.

so you ordered x-pel for the lights. which one did you use for the hood, bumpers, pillars, etc? i know on the web site, they have a clear bra section and a x-pel section. that's what you did, clear bra by the installer and x-pel the other parts? how come you didn't x-pel the whole thing from the beginning?

i got a mcs brg/w coming in oct. it's also got the bonnet stripes. do you know if that will adversely affect this application?

please post pics of post-intall.

thanks

 

I haven't had a chance to put the X-pel kit on the lights yet. I'll post some pics when I do it.

The rest of the car was done by the installer. They all use the same 3M film - I guess the only difference is the cutting of the kits. I'm not even sure where the installer got the kit - I just trusted him to do the job right. The kit only covered the bonnet, bumper, and side mirrors. All the other custom pieces came from big sheets of 3M film stock that he brought with him.

He would cut a piece from the sheet that was roughly the size he needed, apply it, and then trim the excess with a razor knife. In a few of the pictures, you can see the excess hanging off. When he made cuts on top of paint, that was a little scary. He had a very light touch - when he needed to cut on top of paint, he would cut almost through the film and then tear the excess off (but the torn edge wasn't rough).

I don't have stripes, but I asked him about how he did MINIs with them. He said the film goes over the stripes but he has to really adhere the film right next to the stripe very carefully or there will be a very small air gap on the edge of the stripe. The gap wouldn't easily be noticed, but dirt and wax could work its way in there on the trailing edge of the film.

I actually told him about an idea I had about stripes. The bulk rolls of 3M film lack the width to cover the entire bonnet, but if someone was going to have stripes put on, they could cover the entire bonnet with 3 pieces of film such that the seams would fall right under where the stripes would later be installed. No visible seams, and your whole bonnet would be protected.

He thought it was an interesting idea.