I've been thinking of re-doing a small portion. The clear bra has been on the MINI for about a year. Has anyone removed there's successfully? I was thinking about trying it years later when maybe the body might be showing some wear and tear that way if I accidentally pulled some paint off I could justify getting the car repainted.

 

I'll paraphrase a post from an installer that I read somewhere:

He said that sometimes when debris strikes the plastic, it bounces off as intended but the underlying paint chips. The plastic does a nice job of keeping the chip in place so you never know about it until you remove the plastic.

I don't think this happens very often. So you probably shouldn't worry about it...

 

I removed the clear bra from my Jetta after 2 years. Initially the color looked a little off, but once I washed and waxed it, the color (white) looked uniform again.

To lift up the clear bra, make sure it's warm (60+, the warmer the better) and then lift up a corner. The whole thing should come off pretty easily once you have that corner started.

 

>>I'll paraphrase a post from an installer that I read somewhere:
>>
>>He said that sometimes when debris strikes the plastic, it bounces off as intended but the underlying paint chips. The plastic does a nice job of keeping the chip in place so you never know about it until you remove the plastic.
>>
>>I don't think this happens very often. So you probably shouldn't worry about it...
>>
>>

This is exactly my concern with these products and I haven't been able to get a straight answer on the subject. I like the clearbra approach because it allows you to protect the car but at the same time keeping the beautiful front end "naked". However it seems to me that the main advantage of the black Vinyl bras is that due to the thickness of the material these things offer better protection when proyectile size rocks hit the bonnet area covered by the mask but avoid chipping and even denting of the sheetmetal. At least this has been my personal experience with the vinyl bras.

Anyone care to comment about this? I been debating spending $450 for a new X-Pel clearbra installed, versus $100 for a Colgan Custom Vinyl Bra. Sure the clearbra has many advantages specially from the "looks" point of view but my guess is that the plastic 3M film can only take so much....the Colgan bra is much cheaper but requires constant cleaning and maintenance and covers up the beautiful front end. the main advantage of the Colgan Custom vinyl bra is that is 3 times cheaper than the X-Pel solution and seems to offer better protection all around.


Am I wrong?




_________________
'02 Cooper CVT PW/B, MFSW, CD Boost, 15" 8-Spoke silver wheels.
'04 MCS CR/W, UJ Roof Flag, Aux Input, HK, Sport MFSW, Rain sensing, Auto dim mirror, 16" silver V-spoke wheels, Chrome grille, Chrome mirrors, OBC, front fogs. :???:

 

Cooper4us:

"Anyone care to comment about this?"

I prefer going au naturelle (well, my MCS anyway...).

I don't mind touching up paint chips every now and then. If it gets really bad (as in sand blasted), I'll just have it resprayed.

I think the plastic stuff looks tacky but I suspect most people don't find it objectionable.

I've heard the vinyl bra can chafe the paint because of the constant rubbing. But, apparently you've used it without any problems. Is that correct?

 

i would go all natural but, I drive about 80 miles a day....and most on the highway.....so if you don't get a clear bra to protect the front of your car then within 3 months you will probably have to repaint the front of your car. I have had my car for about 2 months and i have one big chip.......and many lil one...so I'm puttin the clear bra on.........................if I didn't do so much highway driving then I wouldn't get one...

tony

 

I have a 150 mile round trip commute almost all highway, so I got the clear bra installed immediately after purchase and I'm glad I did. If I didn't drive so many highway miles, I probably would have skipped it.

Anyway, my installer told me that while removing the bra, the same water/alcohol solution used for installation should be constantly sprayed on the exposed adhesive side to help loosen it's grip. I think doing it on a warm day would also help.

 

I had a clear bra installed on my car as well right after purchase. I drive about 70 miles a day to and from work and on my Mercedes SLK that I had before the Mini, I had so many rock chips after about a year or so that it was absolutely ridiculous. I tried touch up paint and it just made the situation worse. I am so happy to have the clear bra installed and have yet to have any significant rock chips on the front of my car now 6 months into ownership of Lil Mo.

 

If i was ready to take it off, I would use a heat gun and heat it up quite a bit
while I continue to pull all sections (not just the edge) since mine
is non-factory paint on the aero bumper.

If you have aftermarket paint, the clearbra is worth the investment.

 

I'm going to take it off, and get reapplied professionally.

I think that the rocks know that I have the clear bra so they all seem to aim for my windshield... ... I will have a fix for that soon though..

I need to remove the clear bra... before I get the new one installed... will be interesting..