ltc

A coworker has a friend who owns a car dealership (Honda) and they were talking about an alternative to 3M clear bras.

It is a spray on, permanent, clear coat product, 4-8 mils thick, can be sprayed on the entire car or masked and sprayed wherever desired.

Has anyone else heard of this?
http://armorcoat.armorauto.com/

I'm thinking of using my silver metallic 06 Ford Escape Hybrid as a guinea pig......

SilverSteel

I've never seen this on a car. I wonder if it's the spray on and peel off stuff that Griotsgarage sells. Theirs is black though.

ltc

No, this is sprayed on, like clearcoat, and baked on, must be done by a professional in a spray booth.
It looks just like a thick clearcoat.

ltc

Dropped the car off this morning, had the new spray on clear bra 'installed'.

It is sprayed on in 6 applications/layers, each about 1 mil thick, then baked on in the spray booth for ~ 6 hours.

FAR superior to the 3M style peel and stick bra.
Looks just like clearcoat, NO seams, MUCH smoother edges/transitions to the existing paint/clearcoat, can be wet sanded if bodywork/paintwork is ever needed.

All in all a good decision....even if the guinea pig was the Escape Hybrid and not one of the Porsches..

SilverSteel

How many greenbacks are we talking here? Also, can you post pics?

ltc

Since I was a guinea pig, I paid cost ($175). The dealer is trying it out on various cars before they switch completely over from 3M film protection systems.
Unfortunatley, my digital camera has died, so I'll have to buy another one.

It looks nicer than the 3M films, since it is clearcoat based, it is more like the clearcoat, more shine than the 3M film. NO seams, perfectly follows the body.

SpeedBump

So, how has this worked out for you?

Anthony Orosco

The one downside I have heard of this product is that it's permanent and cannot be removed once applied.

Now how that comes out in the final wash I have no idea as I have no personal experience with the product.

Anthony

Marine Blue

X2 I would also be interested in hearing how well it's performing. If chips appear are they noticeable? Any chance you can post a few pics now that you've had it on the car for a while?

Paladin

are interested in your experience so far. I'd love to get it on my black e63 if it's all that armorguard represents it to be.

Premier

That is correct - it is permanent. We had a customer several months back who to his new CarreraS into a high-end bodyshop to have this done to the hood only as a tester. It looked just fine outdoors, but when the car went indoors under fluorescent there were very visible flaws to the coating - shrinkage, fish eyes, oil pop, etc. He decided to take it back to them to have it corrected, but then found out the product is permanent. He decided to have it removed and it essentially costed him his OEM paint on the hood of his brand new 997 - they had to sand everything off and repaint the hood. he ended up having us cover his full hood, full fenders, front bumper, & full doors after this ordeal.

detailjohn

I too have seen problems with this film, as a customer of mine has it on his Acura. It was really badly abused after about 6 months of use.


John

Premier

We are actually talking about armorcoat, which is a permanent spray on clearcoat vs. paint protection film. The customer mentioned above had his armorcoat applied and had all sorts of issues, which required a complete sand down and repaint of a factory hood. Then the customer had us apply our paint protection film over the entire car instead of going with the armorcoat route.

gmblack3

Thanks for sharing the great info guys. I will advise my clients to stay away from this process.

Anthony Orosco

Film (PPF) in general is more expensive to install, especially the newer trend to have the entire front end wrapped BUT the great thing about the film is that it can be removed if needed and re-installed (not the same piece film of course) in case of damage or needed body work. Many installers give their clients a reduced re-install rate.

The film is expensive for the installer as they also pay template fees plus the man hours needed to install the film which is why the film installs (at least those who do it correctly) seem like a lot of money.

Anthony