# Digishield clear bra?



## cronimi (Dec 6, 2003)

Anyone heard of this product by Digicut Systems. Did a search and didn't find anything here, and not much elsewhere. A local detailer uses it. He claims it has a lifetime warranty, which it had better -- it is $300 more than the local Xpel (3M) quote. The guy I talked to didn't leave me with a good feeling -- he quoted me a price without even asking what kind of car I drive, and said the total install (hood, mirrors, bumper, door sills, gas tank door, etc.) would only take 1.5-2 hours. The Xpel quote for just the hood/bumper/mirrors was 4 hours.

Any info would be appreciated. I want to get it done next week, since I'm driving 1K miles over the 4th of July weekend.


----------



## ronh95 (Apr 20, 2004)

*A few thoughts/experience with the 3m clear bra...*

Just had an Invincishield kit installed by the fellow who does 100% of tint/clear bra installs for the biggest BMW in the US which happens to be my dealer here in Orange County (So Cal). I had purchased the Invincishield kit through a forum sponsor on roadfly.org so I already had the parts.

This guy installs Xpel and I was fascinated with the process and thought I'd pass along what I learned. As an Xpel dealer, he has web access to 100's of CAD patterns for all makes/models and even option pkgs. of cars. He has a computer, a cutting plotter with the 3M raw material in roll form on it. When a customer comes in, he just goes into his account, downloads the required kit patterns electronically (paying a fee for the privelege of course) and sends the 'kit' to the plotter where it is all cut out of the roll stock. Slick, huh?

Since I already had the Invincishield kit and only needed help installing the last few pieces (i.e. hood, front bumper and under headlights), he agreed to do it with my parts. What he claimed after he got started was that the patterns used by Invincishield were actually too big, not allowing enough stretch during install so as to fit well. He had to do a lot of trimming and here is where I'm going to shout a HUGE caveat!!!

Do not under any circumstances let an installer cut against your paint!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm almost certain that he cut against my paint on the ends of the hood piece and maybe other areas as well. If I look closely at the corner of the hood on each side, I see a 1/32" cut extending just beyond the edge of the material. Also, It looks like the top (long) edge of the hood was trimmed as well (hopefully not against the paint, but I don't hold out hope) and has a 'bump' in it. It's not a straight line or even a fair curve so I think it was trimmed badly. If he wasn't happy with the fit of my hood/bumper pieces, he should have let me know so he could have downloaded the Xpel equivalents and used them instead. I've not been able to get back over to have it fixed (I've also got two windows with a bubble and some crud under the tint film that I'm not happy about), and I'm not looking forward to the confrontation.

I ended up paying about $225 for the kit (he can download an entire Xpel kit at a cost of about $110 in fees/material he said) and charged me $275 to install the hood, bumper and the two strips under the headlights which should have allowed him leeway to download the parts he was comfortable using. I feel like I was raped, since I went to him on the recommendation of my salesperson (and fellow BMWCCA member). If I get any grief on re-doing the hood, I'm going back to my dealer 'friend' for backup. My tint job only has two windows that I consider well done, everything else has debris under it. I'm wishing I'd forgone the clear bra and had the windows tinted at the place that did my previous car.

Finally, let me say, that the clear bra just about dissappears on my silver gray 330i and does provide nice piece of mind knowing the front of the car is protected. I had already successfully installed the mirrors, front fenders and the areas behind the front and rear wheel openings myself and they are perfect. I just wish the install had been closer to flawless and if my paint's damaged, well, that kind of defeats the purpose of the bra to begin with doesn't it?


----------

