I dropped my car off to have the 3M applied

[Roadstergal]

I finally decided to have the 3M installed on my car. I had it on my other z4's but thought the car would look better without it until I got two small stone chips on the front bumper in less than 200 miles.
There is so much sand here on the roads due to recent snow storms, that will most likely be here into April or May.

They will be touching up the chips today and applying the 3M in the morning.
I think I will have more peace of mind driving the car when I get it back with the 3M applied.

[Vintage]

good call - my wife's new new Z4 goes in next week right after delivery to us for the same treatment by an awesome local installer that did my X5 35d

[alan64]

how much are they charging to have it installed? Also where exactly are you having it applied to? Are you doing the wheel wells also, etc?

[lrc454]

What he said....new Z4 owner. Cost and where do they apply it? Who installs?

Googled a review:

http://www.roadfly.com/features/pain...tion-film.html

[Memphis1]

how come they don't come up with one for the whole body???

[Roadstergal]

Originally Posted by alan64

how much are they charging to have it installed? Also where exactly are you having it applied to? Are you doing the wheel wells also, etc?

I am having my BMW dealer install it. They have one guy that does all their 3M applications and does an awesome job. The price is $695 for the bumper, 1/4 of the hood and the backs of the mirrors. I don't think that this includes behind the rear wheel well, at least it didn't on my last Z4.

I was only going to get the bumper done because of the line on the hood, but they reminded me how easily stones bounce on the hood closest to the bumper. My last Z4 was Monaco blue and you could barely see the line. My new Z4 is a light color so it will be less noticeable. I was concerned with dirt accumulating where the 3M ends on the hood, but it can easily be cleaned or the detailing department can remove it if it becomes noticeable. It is a far better alternative to a bunch of stone chips.

The beauty of it is that it can easily be removed and you have a front end paint job that is like brand new if removed. These cars are so low and the paint that BMW uses easily chips that it is well worth getting this done. I wish I had it done before taking delivery.

[Vintage]

similar price at installer here in Texas - awesome product and all my cars will have it from now on

[EandS]

Originally Posted by Roadstergal

the paint that BMW uses easily chips

Couldn't agree more! We've never owned a car which seems to have the paint chip so easily and we've had plenty of low to the ground ones. We're at slightly over 2k miles on our 2010 s35i and are amazed at the tiny chips appearing. It never goes out in bad weather and certainly not on any bad roads and we most definitely don't closely follow other vehicles. Very frustrating. Guess we're also going to have to investigate the clear film.

Best regards,
Ed

[Memphis1]

that's weird.... i drive on every sort of road, and usually do 80 on the highway, and don't have a single chip.

[BarrowJon]

Am good here as well, over 2k on my 2010 and not a single chip.

[Jay Zone]

Originally Posted by EandS

Couldn't agree more! We've never owned a car which seems to have the paint chip so easily and we've had plenty of low to the ground ones. We're at slightly over 2k miles on our 2010 s35i and are amazed at the tiny chips appearing. It never goes out in bad weather and certainly not on any bad roads and we most definitely don't closely follow other vehicles. Very frustrating. Guess we're also going to have to investigate the clear film.

Best regards,
Ed

I've been using this for years to repair stone chips flawlessly. When your done you won't even know it was there.

Highly recommended.

JZ

http://www.langka.com/

[Roadstergal]

Originally Posted by memphis2012

that's weird.... i drive on every sort of road, and usually do 80 on the highway, and don't have a single chip.

Wow! Consider yourself lucky! I had tons of stone chips on my Z3 and my Sterling gray Z4. When I went with the '06 Monaco Blue, I knew that I had to have the 3M installed. Besides having first hand experience with the paint on Bmw's, I have read about it time and time again.

Like I stated on a previous post, with less than one hundred miles on my new Orion Silver, I already got two pinhead size chips on the bumper. Knowing what I already knew, I am mad at myself for not having it installed before taking delivery.

I am careful about staying away from large trucks that kick up stones, and am conscious of bad roads, etc.

[MDLFCS]

The thing about the film, especially on the hood, is that the leading edge cannot be completely covered. I asked about having the film to go under the hood a bit. This was not possible because the hood lip is not smooth enough to seal out the dirt/moisture that can collect under the film. I believe it is like 1-2 mm off the edge that is not covered. So, there is a small potential of chips there...

There is a full body film that is customized, but I heard for my Z4 can go high as $6K!

The film also have scratches much like clearcoat does. Not as crystal clear as I had hoped because of orange-peel like appearance also if you look really, really close.

[Roadstergal]

Originally Posted by MDLFCS

The thing about the film, especially on the hood, is that the leading edge cannot be completely covered. I asked about having the film to go under the hood a bit. This was not possible because the hood lip is not smooth enough to seal out the dirt/moisture that can collect under the film. I believe it is like 1-2 mm off the edge that is not covered. So, there is a small potential of chips there...

There is a full body film that is customized, but I heard for my Z4 can go high as $6K!

The film also have scratches much like clearcoat does. Not as crystal clear as I had hoped because of orange-peel like appearance also if you look really, really close.

Well as far as I am concerned, a far better alternative to a bunch of pock marks. I had it on my dark colored Monaco Blue and after 3 1/2 years, it still looked good. I did not have any scratch marks or anything collecting under that edge nor did I get any chips on that miniscule strip. I have a much lighter color now so I believe if I found it more than satisfactory on the dark blue, I should be okay. I have also learned that they have a special tool that can remove dirt build up on that edge.

[SHADOW4]

Hi, I am going to take delivery week 15 and there will be a lot of sand on the roads here in Sweden.
My car is saphire black, anyone know if its gonna show much if I put on the film? I have never seen this in real life..............

Thanks

[alan64]

Originally Posted by SHADOW4

Hi, I am going to take delivery week 15 and there will be a lot of sand on the roads here in Sweden.
My car is saphire black, anyone know if its gonna show much if I put on the film? I have never seen this in real life..............

Thanks

I have saphire black and had it installed. You can see a line part way up the hood, but it doesnt bother me at all. Its way better than getting all those stone chips, and on black it looks very bad, so im glad I had mine done. I also had the back corners , the wheel wheels and the lower parts of the sides of the car done.. in most cases you cant even notice it unless you look very close.

[deepseabluez]

So my wife and I had initially intended on putting up a post on the 3M wrap for our car but there didn't seem to be very much interest in it. I guess we were wrong. Regarding some of the comments above, I've heard that paints chips are somewhat a function of how close you drive to another car. The closer you drive to the next car, the more likely you are to get paint chips.

That said, we didn't like the idea of having a line on the hood and opted to have the entire car covered. We initially thought this was rather excessive but after considering our location and where we would typically take the car (into NYC), we didn't want to run the risk of having people walk by or lean on the car and leave scratches on the car. The hood still got covered in 3 panels, but our guy did a great job in blending it into the lines of the car. If there is interest, we can try to get some pictures up for you guys.

[Vintage]

note the line on the hood from the 3m - this is more visible than normal because I just washed and waxed the car (so wax builds up on the transition line)

if the product is applied well, you cannot notice it except for the hood line within 5 feet - you should ALL have it installed

[bobbydog]

WOW...you covered half the hood!

[Vintage]

Originally Posted by bobbydog

WOW...you covered half the hood!

Sort of, the 3m comes 24 inches up from the front of the hood, covers the entire front bumper/clip, entire lower kick panels under the doors, and the rear view mirrors. You cannot see it AT ALL but for the hood line at about five feet and at the right angle. I will always use this product from now on because it will keep the car looking new for a very long time - if the 3m ever gets too beat up you just remove it and reapply. My installer, Invisibra in Dallas, is fantastic and he uses large pieces that he custom cuts as he applies so that seems are nonexistent for your particular application (it takes a solid 8 hours to do it right so forget these websites that encourage you to do it yourself with their DVD instruction and kits - ridiculous unless you want your car to look like a five year old tried to apply clear tint to it).

This ran me about $1,000 US but it is priceless in my opinion - have you ever really looked at your front bumper and hood after 2 or 3 years??? It will be beat to heck. So, since we tend to own our cars for 5+ years this is a great investment for us.

[juhap]

Originally Posted by VintageBMW

This ran me about $1,000 US but it is priceless in my opinion - have you ever really looked at your front bumper and hood after 2 or 3 years??? It will be beat to heck.

I've had my E85 in daily use for 3 years now, and to my untrained eye the hood still looks brand new. I just checked the local 3M site and I couldn't even find a product that was meant for this purpose, which makes me wonder if for some reason it is less of an issue here. I've certainly never heard of anyone using such protection here.

Oh, forgot to mention that my E85 is silver gray, so maybe it's more forgiving also in that department.

[SHADOW4]

Originally Posted by VintageBMW

note the line on the hood from the 3m - this is more visible than normal because I just washed and waxed the car (so wax builds up on the transition line)

if the product is applied well, you cannot notice it except for the hood line within 5 feet - you should ALL have it installed

That looks good!

Come to think about it.......I actually have some small parts of "film" on my e36 320i touring -1999. On the lower parts of the wheel wells. Starting to get loose now.........Have had the car since new.

Juhap, I also looked for 3M, didn´t find anything.......Found something called "Clear Shield" by some smaller shops. No prices.

Ditec sweden also say they have the stuff....no prices maby have to use the phone and call around..............only 5 more weeks of waiting