I had my clear bra installed last weekend. I had the rockers, lights, front end, and mirrors covered. It cost $1000... . This is the second one I had installed. The first cost me $450 and left me with a scratched bonnet. That's a grand total of $1450. When I bought the car I had all these grand ideas for performance mods and what not. That money could have bought a pretty nice exhaust. Of course, this is just opinion, but I would not get a clear bra if I had it to do over again...or if anything, I would have just had it installed on the bumper. There are a lot of people on here that seem to live by these things. Bottom line, cars get rock chips. That's part of life. I might understand getting one for the bumper. It's not that visible. The bonnet is fairly visible, and it doesn't cover everything. It leaves areas around the lights, and bottem of the bonnet uncovered. (Which, from past experience seems to be the areas that receive the most damage on the other cars that I've had) My bra also has a few specs of dust under the bra on the bonnet. (This is pretty noticeable on an Astro Black car) I definitely don't think it was worth this amount of money. I could have had the bonnet and the bumper resprayed for that. I like kenchan's strategy (I think it was kenchan anyway). He has his bumper covered, but not the bonnet. If there was a kit that covered every inch of the front end, I might understand this product a little more. ...but since it doesn't cover the entire front end, you can still get rock chips. I have less than 3k on my Mini, and I already have 5 pretty nice nicks in the paint. (all happened with the bra installed...plus, I still have a couple of scratches from the previous install. I'm not sure if they'll ever come) I started looking at MINIs in parking lots and saw that most of them had the same number of chips as me. ...and I'm betting they had more miles than me too. Maybe it's just bad luck on my part. I won't really see the point in this product until it covers every inch of the front end. I would much rather spend the money on performance stuff. That's just my opinion...and everyone has one of those.

Oh yeah, I had my bra installed and was on my way home (a 3-hour drive) when a truck hauling gravel hit a bump and lost some of his load. I always keep my distance from trucks, but there was no missing this stuff. The next time I pulled over I did a quick check and found two big chips on the chrome above the grille.(which I'm pretty sure cannot be touched up) HAHA...oh, the irony of life.

 

If you got dirt under the clear bra, then your installer did lousy work. I have seen people demand the clearbra be reinstalled correctly.

You CAN get the complete bonnet covered, you just need to go to installer who knows what he is doing and can cut the pieces rather than depending upon precut kits

As to the rest, I refused to do it ... spending $1500 on a $25K, IMO, was insane. How much does it cost to repaint the plastic bumper cover?

 

or, you can spend $150 or something like me and install it yourself (well, aero bumper only). www.autopaintguard.com talk to Ryan.

 

Ken,

True, but for $1000 he has the ability to have it done over and over if it's not done right.

Your way for $150 and it's a one and done deal.

 

I really hemmed and hawed over my clear bra decision. My main issue was that there are literally dozens of installers in my area. But there was a horror story for each and every one of them. The only one I DIDN'T hear bad things about wanted $1100 for the job. I could have gotten it done for as little as $400.

The difference? The $1100 place puts a lifetime warranty on workmanship, and the workmanship was my #1 issue. So I talked them down to $800 and had them do it - still twice as much as I could have gotten it done for.

Was it perfect? No. One edge on the bumper was not sealed down all the way and it was evident in a day when dirt got behind the edge. But was it worth it? Absolutely - because I didn't have to deal with some punk kid or someone not willing to back up their work to get it fixed. They were completely willing to take the one piece off and repair it, on the spot when I brought it in.

Is a clear bra ever worth it? That strictly depends on the philosophy you decide to buy into. Some hate the look, some don't care. Some think $800 for a clear bra is a heck of a lot better than $800 for a repainted hood that you're probably going to want to wait for it to accumulate several chips before springing for a repaint, and some dont. Just depends on what you think about it.

I think your experience in particular has left you sour on the whole thing, and I don't blame you. But make your installer stand behind his work and fix his errors, at the very least.

 

We had ours done on our GP and it is flawless so far. It was incorporated into the price of the car (they usually charge $700), and the dealer installed it. The front of the bonnet, the mirrors, the grill, and the bumper are covered. The matte black on the bumper isn't covered but that doesn't really matter because it doesn't seem like it will easily chip. I didn't think MINI had it for the GP bumpers but they said it is the Invisishield.

We had it done because on our '04 Cooper the front is all chipped up. It is mostly the bumper but a few on the bonnet. After almost 600 miles and 480 of those on the highway the GP is completely fine.

 

I think you understand. Clear bra material is cheap. Its the skill of the installer that makes the difference. I refused to add it to the MCS because I thought the line of the hood looked terrible.

I had clearbra done on another car and watched while he did it. It took like 4 hours!. You got to get a quality installer. The job is perfect. He was so good, he could ad hoc make pieces where I told him to put some down (no precut kit). Now grant you, the place I went to is the place that teaches local dealers HOW to install. Go to the master. He also backs his work for lifetime ... forget the 3M warranty. If ever it looks bad, dings, cuts, whatever ... he replaces its.... free. Then again, most of his work was BMWs, MINIs, and high end cars.

On a $22K, $1400 is a huge investment. How much to repaint the hood? On a high end ... its worth every penny.

 

I would agree that $1400 is a huge investment. I would have demanded a refund from the first place, however.

 

well the title had me ....

 

now why would i want to redo it over and over again when i
applied it correctly the FIRST time?

 

Chows, did you go to Proform in Ellicott City ?