There was a question thrown up on this sub forum last week about the application of a Clear Bra. As I'd stated there I'd helped with the install of one before, had one put on by a professional and seen others that were done by the car owner. It's not all that hard as long as your patient. Yesterday Reichler and I put Clear Bra material on the headlights of my new company car, a 2013 Chevy Malibu. The product I purchased was from a company named Headlight Armor.
If you're thinking of a Clear Bra and trying the installation yourself, why not start small by doing a set of headlights first?
We had three spray bottles; one with about 1/3oz of Adam's Car Shampoo, one with plain water, and one with a 50/50% mix of ipa and water.
The Car Shampoo is used to keep the film and your fingers slippery and able to reposition prior to tacking firmly into any specific location. We started by tacking the edge closest to the grille. The ipa water mixture is to pull the soap solution out from between the film and the headlight. This really works well and helps to secure the film where you want it. The plain water solution was used when we needed more moisture to the soap solution that was already on the film, headlight and our fingers. Things would dry out as we'd go and needed reactivated. If your fingers went dry against the film dry you took a good chance of putting finger prints into the adhesive backing.
We worked inside a garage so we weren't batteling the sun, or any breeze that might throw up dust.
A hair dryer was used to warm the film up as we came to contours and curves the flat film didn't want to conform to. The film comes as two flat sheets and these headlights are pretty funky in their shape. Also, the film came mailed tightly rolled up. I had laid them flat on a hard surface for several days with some books on top of them to flatten them out.
Right side done:
There are still a couple small bubbles visable and a bit of cloudyness. This will go away over time. The film is able to breath and sun and heat will dissipate these marks. The main difference between this and a professional job is his ability to get almost all these bubbles and cloudyness out before he calls it done.
Right side seam:
Notice the seam of the Clear Bra material doesn't come all the way out to the far edge of the headlight. This was the best we could accomplish. With all the contours, curves and angles this much extra material ended up hanging off the top edge and needed cut off. I was more than fine with that since it's way past where any debris could hit the headlamp and isn't visable unless you're this close with the material I purchased being clear.
Left side done:
This is a top view looking down on the right side headlight. The cloudyness is visable above the upper flat edge. Again, that's going to go away with a bit of time.
$69.95 for the film shipped to my house and a couple hours with a friend and a few good beers, what better way to spend a Sunday afternoon?
Question
BRZN
There was a question thrown up on this sub forum last week about the application of a Clear Bra. As I'd stated there I'd helped with the install of one before, had one put on by a professional and seen others that were done by the car owner. It's not all that hard as long as your patient. Yesterday Reichler and I put Clear Bra material on the headlights of my new company car, a 2013 Chevy Malibu. The product I purchased was from a company named Headlight Armor.
If you're thinking of a Clear Bra and trying the installation yourself, why not start small by doing a set of headlights first?
We had three spray bottles; one with about 1/3oz of Adam's Car Shampoo, one with plain water, and one with a 50/50% mix of ipa and water.
The Car Shampoo is used to keep the film and your fingers slippery and able to reposition prior to tacking firmly into any specific location. We started by tacking the edge closest to the grille. The ipa water mixture is to pull the soap solution out from between the film and the headlight. This really works well and helps to secure the film where you want it. The plain water solution was used when we needed more moisture to the soap solution that was already on the film, headlight and our fingers. Things would dry out as we'd go and needed reactivated. If your fingers went dry against the film dry you took a good chance of putting finger prints into the adhesive backing.
We worked inside a garage so we weren't batteling the sun, or any breeze that might throw up dust.
A hair dryer was used to warm the film up as we came to contours and curves the flat film didn't want to conform to. The film comes as two flat sheets and these headlights are pretty funky in their shape. Also, the film came mailed tightly rolled up. I had laid them flat on a hard surface for several days with some books on top of them to flatten them out.
Right side done:
There are still a couple small bubbles visable and a bit of cloudyness. This will go away over time. The film is able to breath and sun and heat will dissipate these marks. The main difference between this and a professional job is his ability to get almost all these bubbles and cloudyness out before he calls it done.
Right side seam:
Notice the seam of the Clear Bra material doesn't come all the way out to the far edge of the headlight. This was the best we could accomplish. With all the contours, curves and angles this much extra material ended up hanging off the top edge and needed cut off. I was more than fine with that since it's way past where any debris could hit the headlamp and isn't visable unless you're this close with the material I purchased being clear.
Left side done:
This is a top view looking down on the right side headlight. The cloudyness is visable above the upper flat edge. Again, that's going to go away with a bit of time.
$69.95 for the film shipped to my house and a couple hours with a friend and a few good beers, what better way to spend a Sunday afternoon?
Edited by BRZNLink to comment
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