I'm taking delivery of an '03 M3 in a couple of months and would like to here from those you have purchased the clear 3M-style paint protection. I've seen some that don't even come close to covering vital exposed areas and heard of others that wrap around leading edges. Who's have you used and did you have it professionally installed or did you install it yourself? What did you pay for the kit and the installation? Thanks in advance for your knowledge:95

My bro has an E46 M3 and has the paint protection on the front bumper, nose piece and part of the hood. To see the products, go to www.xpel.com. We had ours (I have it on the front bumper of my E36 M3) professionally installed because its a bitch to get perfect. If you want a big kit like my bro has, expect to pay around 700 installed. May seem like a lot but it has prevented the paint from chipping. Mine cost around 340 cause I just have the lower bumper done. Hope this helps. Its well worth it. You can even polish it and wax it like ordinary paint.

Why not try Stonguard from Apexcone or Umnitza Inc. or something.

Thanks for the info. Luckily, I have some time to research it. I had an Imola Red '01 M3 and the paint seemed very delicate and chipped very easy, so I'll definitely go with protection this time.

m3ltw98- Has that faded or bubbled at all? Is it removable?

It has NOT faded or bubbled one bit. The xpel products come w/ a $1000 paint protection warranty. It is removable if you ever want to take it off. The guy who installed it had it on his vette and a re-tread from a tractor trailer came flying off and hit the front of the vette where he had the protection. He got back home and took it off and there was NO damage at all to the paint. The stuff is extremely durable. Hope this helps. Later

If you pick your car up at the Performance Center, contact Mike Messer in Atlanta. A nice 2 hour jaunt down the road and he does the install overnight, with transportation to/from your hotel.

He does full wrap jobs and is a true artist with the clear protectant.

IMHO, its not worth doing,

I think it looks like crap. I've seen a lot of cars with it, and tere is always some wavyness in the plastic, and that line that looks like a huge scratch across your hood, YUK.

The thing about it that I dont understand, is, it DOES show up, you CAN see it, does it look any worse than a few chips? I think that either, a few chips, or the paint protector both look equally bad. Who are you doing the protection for? You'll most likely end up taking it off to sell it. In this cae, I hope I buy your car, so I can take it off and have a perfect front end.
I'd rather have a few chips, than that ugly plastic crap on my car.
YMO, YMMV

Steve

Originally posted by SJJ28
IMHO, its not worth doing,

I think it looks like crap. I've seen a lot of cars with it, and tere is always some wavyness in the plastic, and that line that looks like a huge scratch across your hood, YUK.

The thing about it that I dont understand, is, it DOES show up, you CAN see it, does it look any worse than a few chips? I think that either, a few chips, or the paint protector both look equally bad. Who are you doing the protection for? You'll most likely end up taking it off to sell it. In this cae, I hope I buy your car, so I can take it off and have a perfect front end.
I'd rather have a few chips, than that ugly plastic crap on my car.
YMO, YMMV

Steve

Plus, if some of that stuff costs $1k, you might as welll just repaint your bumper..

Well, it's your right to an opinion, but this is the third car I've owned with the clear bra, so I think I have some opinions as wellI think it looks like crap. I've seen a lot of cars with it, and tere is always some wavyness in the plastic, and that line that looks like a huge scratch across your hood, YUK.

Done right, it doesn't have the wavyness you mentioned, second I can't stand chips, depending on where and how you drive you are either prone to them or not. Many people are not, I am. When I stare at what looks like hundreds of chips, I can't stand it. This was the case with my previous cars without the clear bra. Now, with clear bras there is just the line where the bra ends. I have to point it out 9 times out of 10.

And no, I've never removed it to sell the car, it looks as good after five years as when it was installed.

To be fair, doesn't look good on lighter, particularly white cars, but looks great on dark cars (virtually disappears).