This beautiful BMW M3 was scheduled for a new car prep and custom clear bra install to get it off on the right track. The owner specifically told the dealership NOT to prep the car before delivery, in fear that they would inflict damage to the paint (which dealerships are famous for). I started by giving the exterior an extensive wash. I noticed the paint was beading water, which usually means there is some sort of protection present. In order to properly prep the paint for the clear bra install, I washed the exterior with a degreaser to strip and protection that was present. Notice the difference from the left (water beading) and the right (sheeting water). When the water stops beading, it is a pretty good indicator that there is no protection present. After the wash, I gave the exterior a claybar treatment to remove any bonded contaminants from the paint surface. All wheels and tires were extensively cleaned, and the engine compartment was given a quick once over. Even though this car is brand new, the owner wanted to have the exterior polished to ensure the paint was as perfect as possible. I buffed the complete exterior with Menzerna Power Finish using an orange pad via Griots DA polisher. After the polishing, I wiped down the complete exterior with alcohol to remove any polishing oils and ensure a perfect surface for the film to adhere to. I inspected the paint carefully under halogen lighting to make sure there weren’t any defects present before the clear film install. Our plans for the film install was to wrap the complete front-end (full hood, full fenders, front bumper & mirrors), as well as the rocker panels and a rear splash guard behind the rear wheels. Because of the complex curves of the bumper, we decided to go with a precut piece of film instead of custom cut, but I wasn’t satisfied with the coverage. The film didn’t wrap over the edges and some of the openings for the reflectors and headlight washers just didn’t look right. So what now? Take it off! After removing the film on the bumper that we had just installed, I decided to take things a step further and remove as many little pieces as possible to avoid having seams around them. This included the headlight washers, reflectors, kidney grills, fender inserts and hood inserts. By having these little pieces removed, we would be able to cover the entire paint surface with film and avoid having gaps around them for a 99% seamless install. Here are some pictures during the install. We used bulk film instead of precut in order to wrap all the edges over to avoid seams. The install came out great and we were able to make the hood and fenders 99.9% seamless with all the edges wrapped over. Taking the extra time to remove the little pieces really made a HUGE difference in the final results. You would never know there was film on the car, besides some of the relief cuts on the front bumper (these are necessary due to the extreme curves of the bumper). Here are the final results!! Thanks for looking!
Incredible work, great choice on removing all the little pieces, the install came out top-notch. -Kody-
Great Job Rick, Have you now started to do all of your clear wrap install, it looks great; if you dont mind, what degreaser product did you use to strip the paint in the beggining, it seemed to work great.
Thanks! I have an installer that does most of the work, but I have been playing around more and more... The degreaser used was by Meguiar's (the green stuff). Loving the avatar!
Rick - How HARD are you ya'll using when you squeegee out...or is it a matter of going hard on it to get the air pockets out and getting the film flat....and then you do a slight polish on the film afterwards. This is a semi loaded question but what are your thoughts on film appearance after 2+ years. Don't get me wrong. I love and understand the protection aspect. I just hate that all film is porous...and it's easily attestable when you remove it off the car and compare it to new film and see the coloration difference.
Any close ups of the relief cuts? I'm curious what those look like. Great work! I love checking out these wrap jobs.
Good to see you post Rick, Ryan called the other day and I have been busy and forgot to call him back............................car is "Certified tightness".
Thanks everyone! Yes, Ventureshield was used on this install... chefwong: The film is pretty strong and we use quite a bit of pressure to squeegee out the film. We spray the film with a lubricant (soapy water) when squeegeeing to protect the film from scratching. As far as the film is concerned, it continues to get better year after year and some the newer films on the market have a clearcoat topcoat, which means they can polished. The better you maintain the film (keep it clean of bugs, tree sap, bird mess, etc...) and keep it protected, the better it will stay. I recommend polishing it once or twice a year to keep it looking its best. It's pretty much like paint. The better you maintain it, the better it will look for years to come.
