ecub

I protected my entire car with the 3M Protection Film. The question is, what is the best way to protect/maintain the film?

The installer highly recommends Plexus. I understand that it contains butane, which I'm assuming is bad for the protection film. I Googled around and saw other products, such as DP Plex-All ($11/16oz), Zaino Z-CS Clear Seal clear bra ($20/16oz), XPEL PPF Sealant ($20/16oz), and PF1.

Out of all the searches, Plexus seems to be highly recommend, talked about, and used. So are there any other recommendations? I'm leaning towards Plex-All, since it's an cleaner, polisher, and protectant, which makes it easy to carry around in the car. Unfortunately, it looks similar to Plexus, which is made for hard plastics. Not sure how well it will do with polyurethane or whatever the 3M clear bra (and similar) are made of.

PTmobile

Zaino is a very good product for clear bras. I have recomended it to a lot of my past clients and they are all very happy with it. I hear the new Xpel sealant is good... I am abotu to order some and try it.

Just out of curiosity what color is your car?

Plexus has been shown to dry out the pores in the film and cause yellowing. Xpel did a nice test on the product recently and the results were pretty staggering. Unfortunately the word hasnt mad it out to most of the installers... and most do not really care anyway... so they havent stopped recomending Plexus. I would stay away from it especially after you just spent $5,000 getting film applied. That would be a waste of money if you ruined the film.

ecub

Thanks. My vehicle is Tungsten Pearl. I also ordered Xpel, seeing that they use it on their Protection film products. Plexus and Plex-All seem like they are made for plastic products only.

PTmobile

No problem. I think you made a wise choice as I have heard good things about the Xpel cleaner. I am going to be trying it out myself soon to see how good it is. But I know it will be better than applying Plexus.

ecub

I'm planning to sacrifice half of my hood and spray half with Xpel and the other half with Plexus to do a caparison test. I was thinking about spraying a small body panel, but it may not get the same exposure to sunlight. Plus the hood is the easiest to look at for any imperfections.

I'm just surprised there are not allot of other people chiming in, since the clear bra is a common option.

DunWkg

We'll chime in after your test. Thanks by the way for doing that.

PTmobile

Wow, your going to ruin an entire hood piece to test something out??? OK, since your going to do this understand that it is not going to yellow on first application. So use it often for a few months and you will see the difference. Sad to waste a piece of film especailly after you have spent so much money geting the car wrapped in the first place. Good luck...

ecub

I'll see how much it will cost to replace the hood. I'm assuming about $200 or so. I was also looking at the front pillar, which maybe a little easier and cheaper, since it's smaller and will still get exposed to the elements. But yeah, I understand it's not going to happen ASAP. I figure a few months or even years. But if yellowing does occur, it's still covered under warranty...

pjp98z

The golden rule for clear bra is not to use products containing petroleum distillates, like Kerosene, Zylene, Toluene, or Naptha. They will dry out urethane films, causing yellowing and/or haziness. As long as you are using natural products (i.e. carnuba waxes or purpose made products) you should be fine and your clear bra will look great for years to come.

In the interest of full disclosure, I work for a film company, but I am unable to post a picture of the results of accelerated weather testing of Plexus on urethane due to the size/detail of the photo.

DunWkg

Is it posted somewhere else and you can provide a link?