Installed Stoneguard today . . .

[tantal]

I really wanted to have stoneguard on my RX-8 because, well, you know, I don't want paint chips. Problem: I'm cheap. I asked around and it looks like its at least $550 in this area at a good shop, $800 at one place. But I can buy the hood, fender, mirror, and bumper kits (two kits) from stickercity.com for $240, this is 3M stoneguard. Hmm, sounds good, I'm handy, I'll go for it.

 

So I did. Thinking about doing it to my LGT, for the same price, and it should be a little easier. Got to get some paint chips filled first tho =\

 

I put the film on the car today, with help from my wife, in our garage with a space heater to keep the temp above 60 F in there. Real ghetto I know but I'm trying to save 300 bucks here. http://www.rx8club.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

 

So we do the mirrors first - they're small but not that easy since the surface curves. It worked okay. You mix some rubbing alcohol with water, spray the paint and back of the film to get it wet, then use a rubber squeegie to smooth it out. If you try this, take my advice and do not start installing without a squeegie; your hands will _not_ work. Another problem is that you need to have the film dry to tell if there are any bubbles - air you definately don't want, solvent bubbles should go away later, but really you want to try to avoid this.

 

Next up was the smallish fender pieces - I did this the same way but I wasnt happy with the result, so I pulled up the first one to re-lay it. You can make a big mistake this way if you're not careful. I didnt wait long and resprayed liberally with the alcohol. This technique was a life saver- it let me really lay the film down right, and not be afraid to pull up a section to redo it. Worked well.

 

Next was the hood, and it wasn't too bad, but it was big. you start in the middle, and work out. Tough getting things moving but then its fine. Had some trouble centering the film so there is about 1/8 in of uncovered hood on my drivers side. But you cant tell if you aren't looking for it.

 

Finally, the fender. Definately the hardest. You start from the middle again but the piece was not big enough and I had to stretch the material a lot. Had to relay both sides twice, and ended up pretty good in the end, with a little bit not quite covered. Then there are two more small pieces that go underneath the foglight area, these are way too short and needed to be stretched even more than I did, but I ended up less than about an inch off of open space there and its so low I dont think even I will ever notice.

 

I did have two problem areas where the film is buckled right at the edges. Very annoying but I didnt pick it back up in time to relay it properly.

 

If anyone does this, I'd recommend you do the hood, mirrors, and fenders in one day, and then tackle the bumper the next, or start early and give yourself a good long break in between, because since you've not done this before you need to take your time and develop the technique, and it gets frustrating. By the time I was nearly done with the bumper, I just wanted to finish the damn job, and that's not how you want to think while you're doing this.

 

Anyway, it came out great afaik. You really cant tell its there from 4 ft away, at least on my copper red with garage lighting, i.e., not quite full sun then.

 

We'll see how it looks in the next week or two but I think I just saved myself a good 300 bucks, and I may actually not regret it.

 

[sirsimon]

Great work, Tantal!

 

Do you they make a film for the rear bumper? I *hate* leaving my car parallel parked in the city because people always seem to park by "feel" around here. Do you think the film is sturdy enough to stand up to light bumper scrapes?

[zmarko]

Pics of it on the car?

[tantal]

Great work, Tantal!

 

Do you they make a film for the rear bumper? I *hate* leaving my car parallel parked in the city because people always seem to park by "feel" around here. Do you think the film is sturdy enough to stand up to light bumper scrapes?

 

Thanks!

 

I've taken pics- I'll get them up soon.

 

They DO make a rear bumper film. I believe it's another $140. I am really thinking about getting it, but I've spent a lot of car bux recently. I really do love my wife!

 

We've decided that in the late spring we are going to have the LGT in to the body shop to get a good touch up job on the nose, and put the 3M film on that car too.

 

Woohoo!

[drkayaker]

I had my Subie sprayed with Armor Guard, it's a very thick clear plastic, and is fairly new. I had it done first on my VW-R32 about a year ago and it was holding up well. The thing is you can get it to cover hard to protect painted area's(grill, joints on plastic bumper, etc.) account it is sprayed on.

[tantal]

So here are a few pics. Surprisingly, the car looks better in person than in the pics, even with the low lighting - good camera flash I suppose.

 

As you can see the lines are very difficult to see, and in person they are almost invisible. The camera has actually enhanced the visibility of the lines, not by a huge amount, but significantly.

 

Merry Christmas!!

 

(had to clean the camera out before morning =)