Removing 17 yr old clear bra
06-13-2014, 03:58 PM
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Removing 17 yr old clear bra
I bought my car not too long ago and it had a clear bra installed on the bumper and approx. 10 inches of the hood. I wanted to replace it with a full front Xpel film. I looked at some Youtube videos and it looked pretty straightforward...
So I jacked up the car and thought that I would be done peeling this thing off in a jiffy. No. NO
It ended up taking countless painful hours (I'm estimating 12) to get the whole thing off...so I thought I'd share some lessons learned:
1. The film needs to be heated. I tried a heat gun, but found that the best tool for the job was the I found in the laundry room :-)
2. I tried all sorts of scrapers to get the film to come off. The best thing I found was With the steamer and blades, I could get very short strips off (instead of tiny bits when I used other techniques).
3. Removing the film took a LOT of patience. I think it probably took 4-5 hours.
4. Once the film was off, I tried many things to remove the glue...Goo-Gone, All Sol, applying a plastic film over the product to let it penetrate, etc...nothing worked. I finally got a can of 3M adhesive remover. This last product brought back the task to something that was possible. After wasting many hours with previous products/techniques, it took about 3 hours to get everything off with the 3M product.
Hopefully, these tips will allow someone to save a few hours of his life while remaining calm and sane.
So I jacked up the car and thought that I would be done peeling this thing off in a jiffy. No. NO
It ended up taking countless painful hours (I'm estimating 12) to get the whole thing off...so I thought I'd share some lessons learned:1. The film needs to be heated. I tried a heat gun, but found that the best tool for the job was the I found in the laundry room :-)
2. I tried all sorts of scrapers to get the film to come off. The best thing I found was With the steamer and blades, I could get very short strips off (instead of tiny bits when I used other techniques).
3. Removing the film took a LOT of patience. I think it probably took 4-5 hours.
4. Once the film was off, I tried many things to remove the glue...Goo-Gone, All Sol, applying a plastic film over the product to let it penetrate, etc...nothing worked. I finally got a can of 3M adhesive remover. This last product brought back the task to something that was possible. After wasting many hours with previous products/techniques, it took about 3 hours to get everything off with the 3M product.
Hopefully, these tips will allow someone to save a few hours of his life while remaining calm and sane.
06-15-2014, 08:31 AM
#3
Yes, I've learned from removing stone guards that the clothes steamer works better than heat gun or hair dryer as a heat source. Sounds like your whole front bra ended up being a bear of a job though... glad you were able to sort it out in the end.
06-15-2014, 10:45 AM
#4
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Months ago I did remove the front clear bra on my SL55, it took me at least 8 hours which included polishing the front area.
06-16-2014, 11:48 AM
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Warning:
I almost forgot the most important thing...make sure that you either fill up with gas or at least top up your windshield washer fluid before starting the procedure.
Giving her a drink before you remove her bra is the polite thing to do...
I almost forgot the most important thing...make sure that you either fill up with gas or at least top up your windshield washer fluid before starting the procedure.
Giving her a drink before you remove her bra is the polite thing to do...
