hey guys i just got my 04 wrx, and im trying to decide on clear bra. can you guys give me some upsides/downsides. personal experiences? they say it has a lifetime warranty, but hows that work? what if i get a chip? what if someone backs into my car? any other what ifs? can you guys help me cuz ineed to decide before noon tommorow. i know we got some night owl i-clubbers. thanks for the help you guys!! also whats the price range you guys are hearing, cuz these clear bras are ungodly expensive for whats "not" being seen.

 

had mine installed a month after i bought my wrx 2 yrs ago. after a few highway trips, i got tired of having to use touch up paint. i haven't worried since the clear bra application.

upside: no worries about having a speckled front section from knicks & chips; people trip out when they see it
downside: clear bra needs to be replaced if front end is damaged in accident; installation is a PITA (pay someone to do it!)

i asked my insurance provider (21st century) about the clear bra in the event of an accident...they said that it would be covered ($1k in aftermarket parts) and replaced if it is damaged.

there was this one instance that i feel clearly illustrates how useful the clear bra is. i was driving up to tahoe last year and started hearing knicks from gravel hitting my front bumper. i kept driving, only to see a gravel truck in the right lane, "spilling" gravel as it moved. you could see gravel dropping off the truck, hitting the road, and "bouncing"....creating what is literally a "cloud" of gravel that other cars had to drive through. it was painful to hear all the knicks that the car sustained as i approached and passed the truck. when i inspected the car the next day, there were only a few chips on the hood where the clear bra did not cover!

i'm sure i went through a cloud of a few hundred pebbles...it was like driving through heavy rain, where you can hear the drops hitting your windshield/paint. getting only a few knicks/chips from that "pebble storm" justified my purchase.

 

doughboy thanks for your reply! so does your clear bra have tons of knicks and cuts in it then? does it EVER get penetrated by rocks at all?

 

there are places where the clear bra was knicked..meaning that you can see that something hit it pretty hard. those marks are fairly small and not really noticeable unless you're looking for them....i can only imagine what those marks would be like if the clear bra wasn't there. as for rocks chipping pieces off of the clear bra, i haven't had any yet. my car has 45k miles so far, with 8+ tahoe trips each year from the bay area.

the other downside i forgot to mention is that you should go to someplace reputable when you have it installed...you don't want a crooked install, bubbles, creases, etc.

springer body & paint on brokaw street (SJ) applied the clear bra...they did a great job.

if you're in the SJ area, let me know...you can come check out the clear bra after 45k miles.

 

well im currently talking to jeremy who i found through the forums, i think hes a member. sorry jeremy if i cant put your name with your i-club handle. i read that he does good work. im jsut very torn between spending the money cuz its a lot of money. i guess im just looking for someone to make the decision for me.

and thanks for the offer to let me see it, but i live a good hour away from SJ. =P]

can i ask you how much your bra and install cost?

 

had to dig out receipts since it was so long ago! i bought the clear bra from invinca-shield for 300-ish. install costed $225. i have no idea what it costs to buy/install nowadays since the wrx kit/template was fairly new back then.

if you do decide to go to springer paint & body, PM me and i'll send you my info. i might be able to get you a discount on the install.

 

Make sure you shop around, don't go just anywhere.

I got a clear bra put on my car a week after I bought it. My friend's brother owned a tint/clear bra shop and they offered to tint my windows and isntall the clear bra for $280. I asked them to do the hood, bumper and mirrors, but they said that they could only do the hood and mirrors, but I wasn't about to argue since they were doing it for such a good price. When I got the car back, it was already peeling off, and the bra on the mirrors was creased and looked AWFUL. I brought my car back to them, and they claimed that it was normal and not to worry about it, but it still bothered me. Finally after the whole thing turned yellow and started peeling (white car), I removed it myself. I suppose it protected half of my hood for a good 7 or 8 months, but my bumper is so chipped and dented that it really wasn't worth it.

Moral of the story: go to a shop with a good reputation. The shop I went to went out of business a few months after I had everything installed, so the "lifetime warranty" was useless.

 

which kit did you buy? i've heard of stories where the clear bra turned yellow...i haven't noticed this on mine.

 

dough boy you have a pm. also, i think krinkov/jeremy said hes using llumar film. thats good stuff right? man i shulda asked jeremy when it wasnt the butt crack of night.

 

I had Jeremy at Invisiguard install a complete front end kit. Jeremy was great and had a very fair price. It has been one of the best things I have ever done to my car. No more little chips in the paint. I have had it for about 6 months and the biggest complaint I have is that the clear bra can pick up little imperfections from all the rocks that strike it. It isnt really noticeable until you get really close though. I would also say that it isn't complete protection against idiots who don't know how to parallel park because I have been bumped into several times and the clear bra provides some help, but I still lost paint under the bra once.

 

Go through Jeremy (AKA Krinkov). I've seen his work first hand. Grade A job.

 

I have no idea what kit it was. The guy who installed it claimed that when the bra gets hit my rocks, after it sits in the heat, it repairs itself.

Of course the clear bra isn't going to provide complete protection, it's not like there's a forcefield that surrounds it and vaporizes anything that comes within 3 inches of your car. I got hit by some bolts that flew off the back of a car, and they went right through the clear bra and chipped the paint/dented my hood, but I can only imagine how much more damage would have been done had it not been for the clear bra. They aren't perfect, but they're definitely helpful.

 

jeremy (krinkov) did my clear bra. Great service. Great guy. Great price. I'd go to him again if I had to do it over again and I highly recommend him.

I am very very pleased with my clearbra. It's one of the best non performance modifications I have ever purchased for a car. And considering how bad our paint is I'd do it as soon as you can. I did with mine. I mean in a matter or weeks I had a couple chips on the front of my car...I've heard of people getting them on the drive home from the dealership.

Basically, I've got probably 10k or so on my clear bra and it shows no wear at all. It's perfect. I got the headlights covered as well and they look great still too. I had mine through the winter and had many of gravel/sand storms from the back of some 4x4 suburban with no flaps blasting my car and it's fine. The bra is also good for bugs. makes removing them a snap. It's also good for say..parking in the city. I am really careful but I know someone has and will bump my car while parking..happens all the time. Well usually it's not hard enough to do anything but let those screws or sharp edges scratch your paint. clear bra will minimize that.


so yeah...2 thumbs up for the bra idea and 2 thumbs for krinkov.

 

yeah 2 thumbs for krinkov/jeremy, i had him do it for me after all, and he does good work. he's also awesome to chat with. hopefully he doesnt think im some idiot who kept getting in the way of his work. haha, but when he came we had 3 silver imprezas at my house in my driveway. ppl were driving by and gawking. if anyone wants to see the picture i have it. jeremy's a cool guy. A+ from me.