camaro_chic17

Can I put a clear bra on my car myself? Where would I get the materials?

shock6906

Camaro_chic + clear bra. I like where this is going.

camaro_chic17

Well my front bumper, front ground effects, and fenders all just got repainted and all the rock chips have been removed. It looks perfect.

I only know of one place to get a clear bra here in Omaha and it sounded like it'd probably be over $600 to get it done. I'm gonna have to bring it by sometime and get an estimate when I get the car back.. but I already know $500 or $600 is really too much for me.

Has anyone done this themselves?? I saw on ebay there's a clear bra kit for a 2010 Camaro but none for mine.

I'm considering getting a regular bra for it for an RS Camaro to protect it. Or putting a bunch of that blue tape (what kind of tape is that??) all over it which may be what I do for a month anyway since they said they don't put a clear bra on until 4 weeks after a car was painted.

I really wouldn't mind spending the time to do it myself if I knew how to do this. My money is more limited than my time.

Brangeta

I wanted to be the first to say something funny, but I couldn't think of anything. You win.

The blue tape is just painters tape you can buy at Target or Walmart as far as I know.

You'll probably want a professional to do the bra, so you don't get air bubbles. Honestly, I would probably just not drive the car on the highway if you can avoid it, instead of spending a lot of money on clear vinyl or whatever the material is.

Z28SORR

It the same as tint. It's a clear plastic with adhesive on one side. which means it needs to be cut to fit and stretched around the curves, etc. Freshly painted cars still need time for the paint to harden before putting anything sticky on it.

camaro_chic17

I found a pre-cut kit here:

http://www.invisiblemask.com/cgi-bin...T&model=CAMARO

This is the only website that I've found one for a Camaro! But idk if fascia is the same as front bumper?? I definitely want to cover my front bumper and front ground effect. I reallllly want to find a pre-cut kit to do it.

Not driving on the hwy isn't an option lol. Not driving it over the next month isn't an option either because I haven't been able to drive it for the past 2 1/2 months and I don't intend to go this whole year w/o it. The weather is already getting cold a lot of days. I will have to figure out some sort of temporary solution over the next month tho.. which may very well end up being covering it with tape on the weekends and only taking it out then. I don't really want to buy a regular bra just for a month but who knows.

Brangeta

Fascia usually means front bumper. The word "bumper" is a general term to describe the front fascia these days. 1970s and earlier cars had bumpers. Technically a 4th gen doesn't have a bumper, because it lacks a big chrome and rubber bumper.

camaro_chic17

That's good to know

I went ahead and ordered a CoverCraft bra for an RS Camaro.. but if it is not soft enough I will not put it on my car. Searched on here and it seems bras are relatively notorious for messing up the paint. Looked at a LeBra cover for a Z28 today and it was definitely not quality enough for my car. I don't think I want to use painter's tape because I have seen painter's tape tear off paint before (from walls).. idk I'm afraid to do anything to mess up the new paint I don't even want to drive it home from the paint shop until it's not rush hour which means I will have to drive to some nearby parking lot after I pick it up and sit around with it until later I do need to get it out of that paint shop ASAP tho they are continually trying to screw me over and I'm afraid they may have done something to it.

I think I might attempt to tint my Eclipse's side windows in order to practice using a film. My Eclipse has some slightly purple tint on it right now and the driver's side got ripped in the corner so it needs to be redone. I'm not overly confident that I will be good enough at working with tint/film to do my Camaro's bumper. Is any of the pre-cut tint good?

camaro_chic17

Well I got my Camaro back even tho cops had to get called.

I put a bunch of 3M painter's tape for delicate surfaces over the front end. Got a quote on the clear bra and I'm gonna go ahead and have it done I want it to look perfect so decided not to do it myself.

Rebelphotog96

I'm glad you decided on this. the 3M Clear Bra is the best there is from what I've seen and heard. Is that what the people local to you install? Tint/film/vinyl can be SUCH a pain when you're dealing with contoured surfaces.

And good luck getting the tint and glue off of your Eclipse (if you're still going to attempt that job anyway) I'd rather rip off my fingernails and eat them than try to remove window tint adhesive. I've yet to find anything that easily removes it.

camaro_chic17

Well nvm on the clear bra.. pulled the tape off and it pulled up a little bit of paint by one of the headlights (one area about the size of a quarter). I've been told that it was not prepped well enough right there and this very likely would have happened when they put the clear bra on. Very disappointed since the body shops I went to today both will only strip and repaint the whole bumper.

I sanded it to make it look smoother and the new paint came off.. it's down to the paint coat underneath.. not sure if I will leave it like this since right now the only thing noticeable is the line of differentiation between the two levels of paint around the edge (the color is the same at least). Or I might have this paint place mix a spray bottle up of Electron blue.. or get Electron blue touch up paint but I think it might look worse if I put either of those on than if I leave it as-is. idk what would be best to do?

Kevin Blown 95 TA

Maybe you could get paint from the place that painted so it would match and get some one with a touch up gun to put that and some clear on and see if they can save it. It might still be noticeable in certain light though. I paint the part of my front fascia that always takes a beating from time to time and I am able to blend it in quite well, but I wouldn't be able to get away with it on a big flat spot probably. If there's a bend or border or something near where you have to do, you might get away with it not being too noticeable.

Oh, and there's a couple different kinds of 3m clear bra and other makes that some consider better - but you can find out more about it on the exotic or high end car forums and Corvette forums where a lot of people have had it done. I've seen it on some Ferraris and if it's done right, it really looks good and works well. Some kinds are better for a really hard to do car, some stretch better, etc.

camaro_chic17

The place that I was gonna have put the clear bra on uses DuraShield. They do some reallllly nice cars. I am never going back to the place that painted my car as I had to call the cops to get my car back. He had my car for 2 months and 1 week.. starting 3 weeks after the accident.. basically the whole summer. The only reason he even painted the front bumper to get rid of the chips was because he ruined my Eclipse's windshield and I had to buy a new one. Too bad he did not do a very good job prepping the bumper, but I'm glad to have found out now instead of when they were putting the clear bra on.

I found a write-up on touching up paint and I'm going to try it.. dunno if the color match will be perfect but I have nothing to lose if the only option is to get it all repainted anyway:

you want to featheredge the damaged area (wet sanding works best for me, but dry will work too) then start off with your choice of primer in just the immediate area surrounding the damaged area. Now comes the tricky part, make a test panel. the test panel should be split once down the middle from top to bottom, then the rest sideways, so you have 2 columns of 6 squares. cover the whole thing in 1 coat.... mask off the first row, then another, mask off the 2nd row and so on. So the bottom row has 6 coats, and the first row has one.... then mask off 1 column and clear coat the other side. Then you have a panel you can put up to your car and figure out how many coats you need to color match the rest of the car. when you are sparying you need to fan the gun once you've past the damaged area when spraying base. and do the same with clear coat. dont forget you have to scuff outside the damaged area to give the paint something to adhere to before you spray base. and you're done

Edit: Someone recommended a place they thought would do a good job fixing that spot and they're going to fix it Monday.