viperdoc

Hi All. new to the forum. It's been a while since I owned a car that people were actually excited to drive. Had an infiniti G35 6MT years ago, but my daughter kept throwing up in the back seat. So had to drive a nissan murano for the last 4 years. Nice car, dependable, but not exactly a vehicle that people were too excited about.

Anyway, I am picking up my F sport (Claret Mica) on Saturday and am planning on doing the clear bra up front, including mirrors. My quesiton, for those of you who have had this done, is how far back on the hood did you go? Is it worth doing the whole hood so you don't see the line? I know the line is faint, but definitely noticeable when up next to the car. I can't recall if the clear bra'd section has a different sheen than the non-covered part of the paint. I don't want to do the whole hood only to have the whole hood look different than the adjacent body panels that have no film on them.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Bayman

Welcome to the forum and congratulations on your RX. Doing the whole hood increases the price significantly. In some instances, It costs twice as much to go with the full hood. My installer recommended that I do half the hood and save money because the vehicle sits higher, since its an SUV, and therefore won't get as many rock chips flying towards the upper half. I don't regret doing half the hood and the line doesn't bother me much. If cost isn't an issue then do the full hood. Good luck with whatever you choose!

kitlz

Congrats viperdoc. I went with full hood and probably paid more, but I also added the A pillars which had to be custom cut. I should have added the area above the windshield just before the moon roof. I've got a nick or two there. Anything facing forward is fair game so the more protection the better. Lines won't be an issue too.

viperdoc

Thanks for the info guys. I think I may go full hood with front fender. Cost is always an issue, but when I look at my current car, which I have kept a fabric full nose bra on religiously, there are numerous rock chips all over the uncovered portion of the hood. I lived in Texas for the last 5 years, and there was tons of crap on the roads. Now I live in colorado, where salt and dirt are spread on the ground regularly when it snows.

I can finance the cost of it with the car, and since I have only a 1.5% interest rate, it may be worth to do the whole hood since I am paying almost no interest. The other question- did you guys go with venture sheild? Or another 3 M product? I am not sure what the dealer here uses.

RXSF

I did the full hood. Try to find an installer that will actually wrap the bra around the edges of the hood panel so that you don't get any edge whatsoever.

Droid13

Mine is done about 1/3 of the way and about 1/4 of the front of each fender (came that way, not my doing). Not sure why the front part of the fenders was done, I don't really see any impacts there. As for the hood, I'd say 95% of the crap hits the wrapped area, but I do have 1 small chip past it.

What actually surprises me is how many chips occur on the side and top edge of the windshield. The windshield is kind of inset a bit so these areas seem to take more of a beating that I've seen on other vehicles where the windshield is more flush.

darkoozy

Make sure to do the entire bumper as well and the section between the 2 grills. The bumper gets a lot of road rash and gets beat up a lot.

I had the 1/3 of the hood done, 1/4 fenders, side mirrors, and the whole front bumper done.

vlad_a

I bought 18x60" bulk roll of 3M 8-mil film. So, I have about 17.5" of coverage on the hood, starting from the bottom. All of edges are wrapped, except the top. The transition on top looks really good, much better than the pre-cut stuff I see at the Lexus dealer. It was a bit of pain to install, but can't beat the cost of $70.

mac12

That's what I got. My product is by 3M called Aerogard.