Whew!! That was a big pain in the ****. I just installed the Mini invisishield on my 04 MCS. The Mini has quite a few tricky curves that make this difficult for a beginner. Unfortunately, the bonnet piece was lost to battle (over-stretched). It probably would have been ok, but I am a bit of a perfectionist. The other pieces were a piece of cake. Gonna have to order another bonnet kit for a second try.

Would I recommend this to other DIYers? I would say yes, however, my advice would be to start with the bumper piece to get familiar with the process. Get a six-pack of Guiness or Fat Tire and plan on 4+ hours.

End result for what made it on the car is great! Barely noticeable!

 

invisishield for the front bumper has many pieces or one big piece
like my Xpel?

 

my tip would be to find out the biggest spray bottle as you can, and to top it off with solution mix, or better yet prepare two bottles. With plenty of spray in hand, you can always undo and redo it.

 

Kenchan:
Invisishield is pretty much identical to Xpel. Same 3M adhesive, same thickness, same cut.

Hong:
I agree, I had a butt load of solution. My problem...I did the left side first and then proceeded to the right. By the time I finished the right side, I realized that there were some rather large bubbles in the left side (right side looked great). Because the left side had sat for a while, I think the adhesive had a little more time to cure and when I tried to release it, I stretched it. So much that I just wanted to give it another try from scratch. I think another problem was that my engine was still warm and the heat was radiating through the bonnet.....made everything dry a bit faster.

Did either of you do your own application?

 

Great thread! This might inspire me to try this myself.

 

matt- good job.

 

I did once on an Acura MDX, which is piece of cake since the hood is mostly flat. Mini is my second experience, and it didn't come out as good. If you buy the film from autopaintguard, they will send you a DVD with a guy doing demo on a MCS, at amazing speed, don't remember exactly but seems he finishes the whole hood under 10 minutes, and he squeezes the bottle like crazy. I regret for not watching it carefully enough, I think it's extremely helpful.
The video may be downloadble from their web site, http://autopaintguard.com/installation.html, not sure if it's for a Mini.

 

again, it doesn't matter how fast you finish this. pro's do it all the time
and even they will take a couple of hours to do a great job.

 

I applied AccuGuard's clear bra to my new MCS. I bought all pre-cut pieces and applied them to the front bumper, spot lamps, blinkers, head lamps, grill, hood scoop, bonnet, mirrors, top 4 inches of the windshield, and top of rear bumper.

Even though it was my first attempt, it was not difficult for me to do. I'd rate it at 8.5 out of 10 with 10 being easy. I planned it out, watched two install videos, talked to the guy twice that sold the stuff to me, and bought extra supplies (like mulitple spray bottles because they tend to fail for me and did). This approach probably best insures success for neophytes. A large dose of patience is very helpful. So is a very bright work lamp.

I learned as long as you keep the material wet, you have a lot of freedom to work the stuff successfully. The first headlamp was giving me some trouble. I guessed there was a trick to it and wanted to talk to the material vendor. It was a Sunday so there was no chance for that. To keep material fresh I sprayed it and the backing it came on heavily with the soap water, sprayed them heavily again once again, placed them in a zip lock bag, sprayed the interior of the bag heavily with the soap water, placed a folded water saturated paper towel in the bag, sealed the bag, and put the bag in the refrigerator for 28 hours.

The vendor told me the tricks for installing the headlamp pieces. When I had the time, I removed the bag from the refrigerator to let it warm up to ambient temperature (78 degrees F). The install went smoothly (almost like magic) and the vinyl was completely clear despite having been temporarily stored. The other headlamp sticker went on even faster.

The only hard part for me was the hood scoop. The vendor told me this is hard, explained why, and how to deal with it.

Would I do it again? Yes and without hesitation.