jacksonking

I thought I should chime in since I have recent experience with Invinca-sheild. I needed to replace my stone guards at the leading edge of the rear fender flares. I went with the 3M product from these guys becasause it was 1/4 the price of stone guards from P-car dealer.

Great kit, video, installation guide, etc. The rear pieces were larger than OEM and there are multiple curves and bends in three dimensions back there. I had some problems with air bubles and the squeegee thingy that they sent left some faint scratch marks on the new 3M plastic. I deifinitely screwed up my first one and had to take it off. A hair dryer did not loosen the glue enough and I had to buy a heat gun. That did a good job, but the material tears so it cam off about 2 sq in at a time and left behind a lot of adhesive that came off with Goof Off. The total time to install one stone guard was about 20 minutes. The total time to remove and clean was about 1.25 hours. After it was throughly removed it did not leave any mark on the paint.

I called the company and Debbie was very nice and had another piece (only what I needed) and sent it to me. She only charged me a prorated price and no shipping. I felt that was really considerate of my screw up. Unfortunately that piece did not match the original and now she's sending me another at no cost.

In summary, this project is not a no-brainer. If a large piece of material bends in multiple directions it is very possible to stretch it too much of have unsightly bubles that even after puncturing to remove air -- are visible. You -- like me -- may not be able to achieve perfection. It depends on your need for it to look truly invisible. I think this next time around it will be fine, but I don't expect it to look as perfect at the factory stoneguards.

Use lots of solution. Use the practice strips they send you. Have someone (with wet hands) hold the larger pieces free ends out of the way while you work so it does not bend on itself or adhere in the wrong place. Take your time.

After working with the stuff I have mixed feelings whether I would do a large curved bumper cover without professional help.

Good luck and I hope it turns out great.

<img src="graemlins/r.gif" border="0" alt="[king]" />

neunelf

[quote]Originally posted by mike cap:
<strong>Brad: Call Debbie at customer service at Invinca-Shield. They will make up custom pieces and may have the pattern you need, just not shown in their on-line catalog.</strong><hr></blockquote>

That gives me some hope.
I have an email into them, but will call Debbie now.
Thanks!

A.J. - 95 993

I'm also riding the fence on this one. I know I'm going to get it, but am not sure which product version to go with, and if I'm going to attempt it myself or not. After 3 poor jobs I've done installing tint on past vehicles, I'm a little more inclined to let someone else to do it. But to pay $400+ for the material, then another few hundred for installation, it gets away from being cost effective.

The following is a quote that I pulled off the Armourfend website. It's supposedly a testimonial from a satisfied customer.

[quote]After talking with the people at Stonegard, XPel, Armourfend, and my installer (Matt Zakarian at Detailing Dynamics in LI, NY), I decided to use the Armourfend product. I made the decision based on a few factors:

1. Armourfend leaves extra material on their kits to allow the installer to pull/stretch the material over the car's body parts without leaving lots of finger prints or marks on it.

2. The Armourfend hood piece is wrapped around the the hood in front and on the sides which should provide better protection and also look better.

3. The Armourfend hood piece was custom made to my specs so it goes up the hood (towards the windshield) farther than the Stonegard or Xpel products which offers better protection.

4. The material offered by Armourfend is a special version of the 3M ScotchCal product which is imported from Europe and as a result is both thicker and glossier than the similar offerings from Xpel or Stonegard.

5. Matt Zakarian was highly recommended to me by the people at XPel and at Stonegard and I had a very good experience with him. If you are in the NorthEast and want to have 3M ScotchCal installed I highly recommend him. Just let him know that you were referred by me (Andy S.) so that he can give you a special deal for Maxima owners. Matt uses a special bay, with a lift, for installing the product. His bay has about 10-12 eight foot flourescent fixtures all around. These lights help him and the other installers really "see" what they are doing as the clear material is installed on their customer's cars. Just to give you an idea of the level of quality Matt provides, while I was at the shop, I saw at least 4 Porsche owners come in to pick-up/drop-off their cars for various work including the installation of ScotchCal.

<hr></blockquote>
My thoughts:
#1 sounds like more like a downside rather than a benefit.

#2 sounds like a good idea. Does Invinci-Shield do this?

#4 sounds a little hokey. Any truth to it?

How'd'jya keep the bubbles out?? Was it an issue, or were their instructions that good? How much orange peel is there in the surface of the vinyl? My new bumper cover is the Euro TT - I have a link at home that I can't find right now, but one of these company's web site says they will be coming out with a Euro Turbo kit soon.

Thanks a lot for the post. One last question - is it the consensus that a month is sufficient time to allow fresh paint to cure before applying this stuff?

neunelf

I talked to Debbie and they don't make the pieces to cover the narrow body aero kit splitters. (they do make them for 996 w/the aero kit)

She did say I was welcome to make a pattern that they could cut from.
Later today, time permitting, I am going to make my own template and send it to them to have these pieces made.
Now if I can get this template made well....

mike cap

Brad and AJ:

AJ: I would have liked to have someone do the install on the invinca-shield kit, but there was no one in this area or even close. With practice you definitely get better at it. Of course, individual parts for the kit are inexpensive, so you can always try again.

Brad: The best material to use for a template is the heavy brown wrapping paper like the butcher's use to wrap meat in. If you can't get that, get a bunch of old style paper grocery store bags and cut the seams to make sheets. This brown paper is heavy enough and perfect for templates.

M. Cap

neunelf

Mike,
Thanks for the idea on the brown kraft paper. I have large rolls of that in my stores so while I'm out today I'll be sure to grab some.
I had only contemplated using masking tape but I'll experiment with both to determine which yields the best result.

Pete Lech

[quote]Originally posted by Abbott:
<strong>... I plan to run the Porsche at the track this week and found out they do not sell a Bra for Turbo S bumper...</strong><hr></blockquote>

For the trip to the Parade, I also found out there was no bra except for the very pricy Speed Lingerie bra, so I cut some vinyl from an old bra, and had the local shoe repair shop stitch it on the bottow. I sewed on some elastic straps and "S" hooks from Home Depot - Voila, a bra that fits the Turbo S splitter. You still need blue tape on top of the fenders, as there is a design flaw in the Colgan bar and it will scratch there.