Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

Clear bra questions - how much to do?

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.
Visited two shops regarding clear bra to protect against rock chips, etc. (I can't afford a full car wrap.) One would do front, nose cone, full frunk lid, headlights, fenders and side mirrors, the other suggests saving money by not doing fenders, since there is only a narrow front-facing surface above the outer corners of the headlights.

Has anyone here omitted the fenders? If so, was it a good idea? Can you see a difference in apparent color or gloss between frunk lid and adjacent fender?

Do you have SunTek? Both shops say that Xpel is a tougher film than Suntek but less clear. I could see "leather grain" looking across an Xpel surface but straight on it wasn't so noticeable.

I've heard that clear films yellow over time, what have you seen on your cars?

Both shops suggested that clear film on the back bumper can mitigate parking lot damage from shopping carts and the occasional glancing blow from a next-stall driver with minimal skills.

Thanks
 
I have Sun Tek. The installer I went to preferred it and I had heard good things from others. It, too, looked clearer than Xpel to me. I covered the entire front of the car, to the windshield, including nosecone, hood, and front fenders. I also covered the mirrors, the A pillars, and the roof. Finally, I covered the flat, trailing edge of the rear wheel wells that are likely to be the target of debris thrown up by the rear wheels. I would have like to have covered the entire car but doing what I did cost $3500 instead of $7000.
 
I did the full car broken down in pieces. I initially delayed getting the film in the front and was really surprised that the paint and aluminum hood were so soft. We have a lot of quarries in San Antonio and one drive on the highway, without noticing any specific impacts I was able to find a couple of rock dings that I had touched up prior to putting the film on. I thought the sides were important to me because there are a whole lot of pickup trucks here in Texas, and no matter how far away you seem to park from a store entrance the MS seems like a magnet for people to want to park next to. I did XPEL and couldn't be happier with the clarity on dark grey. No one notices it is filmed.
 
I just had full front (including fenders) and the luggage area Xpel'ed and it comes with a 7 year manufacturers warranty against yellowing, cracking or peeling. That a pretty solid guarantee. My install shop said 10 years but it says 7 on Xpels website so I'll have to check on that variance. Either way I'm happy with it.

Will be getting all four doors done soon too, and maybe the back bumper/fenders. I absolutely love the finish and there virtually no way to tell that you even have the film on the car. Zero orange peel/leather texture, mine is as smooth as glass and looks identical to the adjacent untreated paint in terms of color and reflection. I would argue that it looks better than the original paint since it seems to resist finger prints to an extent.

Highly recommend.
 
When you apply the clear bra to the trunk, does it destroy the badges, or are they reusable?

For me, and I think others as well, when I said trunk I meant the ledge or the top part of the bumper that's exposed when the hatch is open. The area that would be prone to scratching when you put luggage in the back. It was just the top part of the rear bumper basically.

For or the badge, if you did the actual hatch itself, they would probably go around it. I would imagine the piece has a cutout exactly around the badge itself. That's how it worked on my front fender around the blinker light below/in front of the side mirrors. Then they put a small piece over that as well.
 
I've decided that doing the whole front clip, including fenders is the right way.

One of the shops quotes a higher price than the other for the same film, but they say they remove chrome and lights in order to wrap under instead of cutting around them. I saw a car at the service center the other day that had been done by cutting around obstacles, but I had to look closely to detect it.

What do you guys think, is it worth having parts pulled and replaced over film?
 
If its a lease and you have mixed intentions of buying it then do not spend the money to put s clear bra on it. If you were planning ownership for like 4-5 years than I would definitely suggest it, a clear bra not only protects your car but like others said it makes maintenance of the cars' appearance easier.

I haven't checked prices in my area but my Porsche was $1700-ish for a full-front, side mirrors, rocker panels, door handles. The MS is much bigger than that car so I expect it to cost more but I plan to do the full front and maybe trunk/hatch right after delivery. Depending on how much that will go for will determine how much time in between passes when I decide to the doors. I plan on keeping my MS for at least 4-5 years.

I'm trying to decide if I should give in to my OCD tendencies and do the bra or skip it since it's a lease... hmmmm
 
Suntek on mine and its invisible. For what its worth, I've heard Suntek has a better clear coat finish and Xpel can have some orange peel type of finish. However, I'm sure both are great.

I've had one failure and one rescue by my film. The failure was on the front hood. It must have been a huge jagged rock, because it took two swipes into it. The first one looks like it saved the paint, the next one looks like it got all the way through down to the paint.

The rescue was a large stick thrown up into my driver's side door that caused a pretty good gash (about 6 inches long). It peeled back the film and cut it. The impact was hard enough to cause some mini dents at the point of impact. While my car was in the body shop for unrelated repairs, I had them peel off the film and check to see if it need to be repainted. Nope, it saved the door and all they had to do was get a paintless dent repair guy to pop out the tiny dents.

I've got my totally wrapped except for the rear lift gate and the pillars. Cquartz on top of everything. So far I love it. Since I drive 25-30k miles per year, I know that I will love being able to go in every 2-3 years and peel off the old one and put a new one down, and have a brand new looking car each time.
 
Suntek on mine and its invisible. For what its worth, I've heard Suntek has a better clear coat finish and Xpel can have some orange peel type of finish. However, I'm sure both are great.

I've had one failure and one rescue by my film. The failure was on the front hood. It must have been a huge jagged rock, because it took two swipes into it. The first one looks like it saved the paint, the next one looks like it got all the way through down to the paint.

The rescue was a large stick thrown up into my driver's side door that caused a pretty good gash (about 6 inches long). It peeled back the film and cut it. The impact was hard enough to cause some mini dents at the point of impact. While my car was in the body shop for unrelated repairs, I had them peel off the film and check to see if it need to be repainted. Nope, it saved the door and all they had to do was get a paintless dent repair guy to pop out the tiny dents.

I've got my totally wrapped except for the rear lift gate and the pillars. Cquartz on top of everything. So far I love it. Since I drive 25-30k miles per year, I know that I will love being able to go in every 2-3 years and peel off the old one and put a new one down, and have a brand new looking car each time.

So the stuff lasts just 2-3 years?