Venture Clear Bra Installation

What is the best film?

 

The following are some good inputs I have obtained from Wilson, of Premier Protective Films Installations (NoCal), and Sean of Ultimate Shield (SoCal):

• Ultimate Shield -

  • we offer Venture, 3m Avery and Clearshield,

  • all have pluses and minuses,

  • Llumar is no good, 

  • Venture is a good product.  It does scratch a bit easy but it is the most optically clear.

•  Premier Protective Films -

  • Llumar's film is a non clearcoated film, which will leading to a hazing effect (aka "fading") that is permanent if the film is not  washed and waxed once a week,

  • we do not recommend usage of this film for its poor durability, 

  • as for the question regarding film removal, as long as the paint shop is good at prepping and painting, the clearcoat will not be tripped if the film comes off, 

  • new paint does have to wait 30 days for it to cure before film can be applied. 

• Based on Wilson's recommendation, I have used Ultimate Shield and the Venture film.  The following are ball park quotes from Sean, as of December 2007:

  • roughly $1300 for:

    • partial hood/ fenders,

    • mirrors headlight covers, and

    • full wrap custom bumper, 

  • add about $600 for full hood/ fenders (depending on film usage).

   

What was covered:

• I have decided to cover the following:

  • complete bumper,

  • complete hood,

  • fog and head lights, and

  • mirrors.

   

• Fenders will be next, once I have new paint on them.

 

Results

• Over all - it is an excellent installation, to the point that it is impossible to notice the shield on anywhere when standing next to the car (one has to look down about foot away to start noticing details),

• Sean did excellent job, considering how difficult Porsche 928 front bumper is:

  • film follows side beads, but is wrapped down and below the hood, in the center section of the bumper,

  • film wraps inside the fog lamp opening, down to the lamp lens plane,

  • film wraps over the grills, all the way to the back of the grills,

  • film wraps down to the sides of the bumper, and

  • all that is done out of a single film sheet!

• Hood's film warps under the hood, expect for no more that 1/32" of each corner, which is not visible while standing next to the car.

• Mirror's film is slightly wrapped around the upper edge so the film is completely invisible when looking at the car from the front or side.

• The only really minor imperfection is that the circle cutouts for headlight washer nozzles are not perfect circles:

  • Sean custom-wraps the entire bumper,

  • This means that circles need to be cut by hand after film is stretched over the nozzles and pulled down for proper wrap around, 

  • Computer generated pattern would result in a perfect cutouts but the pre-designed Porsche 928 pattern only covers top surfaces with no wraps around (such as fog light cavity or grills),

  • It is likely that even computer generated pattern, with perfect circular cutouts, would have resulted in a slightly elliptical opening once the film is pulled down and stretched for wrap around the bumper cover,  

  • Cutouts can only be noticed when looking at them from approximately a distance of one foot away, and therefore

  • This was very small tradeoff for having the entire bumper covered with a single sheet.

   

   

Pictures

 

• After few days, Sean's Ultimate Auto Care Team performed some minor follow-ups:

 

 

 

• Just a Few close-ups from pictures above:

 
 
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