I know many people here have thought about clear bras however have avoided due to the high costs or have been skeptical of ebay knock offs. I made myself the guinea pig and purchased/installed from a very highly recommended ebay seller.

Seller link: Xtremecity


I figured for between 25-35$ shipped what do I have to loose. Basically I think this guy bought the real 3M computer cut film and copied it with his own 3m type film. Either way the fitment on the s2000 is EXCELLENT. I have never installed any sort of tint or film before but after a few hours and a bit of patients the front of my car is totally protected. I bought some bondo spreaders, a spray bottle with baby shampoo + water and obviously the film to complete the install.

The key is to use lots of heat to make it flexible and make it shrink or grow where you need it to. I had a 60,000 BTU electric forced air heater blowing at it the whole time and used a hair dryer to heat up specific areas. You basically just soak it with your spray bottle and keep working the bubbles out with the bondo spreaders. I may take it off in the summer but because I winter drive my car I wanted to protect the front end from all the winter sand and dirt.

Anyways, here are the pics of my results. Note: I think our car is easier to do than other cars with more complex turns and curves. (all the the more reason for other s2kers to tackle this job)


Bondo Spreaders used for working out all those bubbles






Fender protection - the fitment around the lights was flawless.






You can barely see the seam on the hood






Look at the shine on that plastic covered bumper!






Just finished my first Optimum no rinse wash while temperature was in the negatives....looks good to me.

 

i assume you clay bar'd first?

I picked up some small buts of plastic from griots garage and put behind the wheels and that's been pretty nice but this looks like the real deal. Time to invest methinks.

 

one other question - did it include material for oem front lip? I see you don't have one but was the material part of the kit?

Here's a link -
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/_Car-Truck-...%3A1|240%3A1318

 

I actually do have a front lip but i take it off for winter. It does NOT include material for the front lip. Perhaps you could get that from a different seller or make some sort of custom wrap yourself with some spare material. I can tell you that once you are comfortable with heating it up and lubing it up, its not that difficult. So many people talk about how you should never in a million years attempt this and it will look horrible no matter what. I personally go with the attitude that if someone else can do it, so can I! Dont let others scare you, if you have patients its no problem. Just remember that i had zero experience before this.

 

clear bra is the best investment. wont have to worry about your new bumper or lip at all! first mod i did after i got my front end repainted and CR lip added

 

how many miles did you have on the car before you applied the clear bra? just curious

 

Looks good..., nice bit of work.

 

Wow, that's a bargain. I have a clear bra on my GLI but it cost a hell of a lot more than $30. When I finally get an S2000 and it's not chipped up already I'll try my hand at this.

How thick did the material feel? Let us know how it holds up to age, coloring, peeling, pitting, etc. All I know is I've seen non-3m clear bras before and they've turned yellow, which is the biggest concern.

 

It has some sort of warranty I believe but with ebay, who knows what what would happen if you tried to take advantage of it. I researched the guy very well and found even those that had his bras on their cars for longer periods of time were still very pleased. At these prices and ease of install you could even re-apply every 2 years or so and still be way ahead. Even the 3m after a couple of years will start to look all chipped up from rocks. This way I get to install a fresh looking good one all the time.

 

First of you should not need any heat to apply a clear bra at all it is meant to stretch and using to much heat can distort the film. The only time to use heat is to maybe seal the edges. I would also recommend a different squeege either a yellow teflon type or black depending on who's film you are using.

Not bad for a first time sepecially on black but I can see some small grab marks in the pictures or bubbles not sure hard to tell.

Swiftoy