Car bra for D4

[the_amors]

Anyone had any experiences with a carbra for D4

[Tombie]

Waste of cash

[Tombie]

To elaborate:

-Expensive.
-When dirt gets underneath they do mark your paint.
-Where the bra is will leave a different shade paint after a year of being fitted as the rest of the car 'ages' in the sun.
- Can restrict cooling flow
- ugly as sin

- in a few years time it's cheaper to have the front resprayed.

[rangieman]

To elaborate:

-Expensive.
-When dirt gets underneath they do mark your paint.
-Where the bra is will leave a different shade paint after a year of being fitted as the rest of the car 'ages' in the sun.
- Can restrict cooling flow
- ugly as sin

- in a few years time it's cheaper to have the front resprayed.
x2 , Wait till you see your paint work after its been on a while:censored: , Save your hard earned cash for something else ;)

[gghaggis]

Anyone had any experiences with a carbra for D4

Are you talking of a (permanent) one for stone protection, or a temporary one for water-crossings?

Cheers,

Gordon

[Talby]

Hi there,Have a look at a website called Clear-shield.com.au they fit a clear film over the front of the car, he has templates for mirrors, headlights, bonnet, front bumper, front guard flares, rear guard flares etc, it's not cheap but works and easy to clean off the bugs etc, it's also g,teed not to yellow!
It will stop the stone chips and is just about invisible and you don't have to worry about taking anything on and off or the dirt getting under it and marking the paint
I have it on my D4, if you email the guy he should be able to send you the photos he took after fitting it to our car.
Cheers,
Talby.

[kenl]

If she's sagging in the front end it may be time to consider a trade in...:twisted:

[Mudrunner]

C'mon lads, they don't look that ugly and protect the duco at the same time.
I have travelled with mine throughout Oz, through NT @ 140 KPH, for 4 hours straight in 41 degree heat - no temp rise and great for those bloody road trains!!
Cost under $500 and you can pick the design you want.
They rub a little but after about 20k of use you cant tell after a wash.:D

[Tombie]

No *apparent* temp increase...

Gauge is normalised and the cooling system is working harder to compensate. This can be seen using a Scan-gauge device.

Don't protect SFA from road trains - they don't cover the upper bonnet or windscreen - I have the chips there and on side windows too!

Makes a nice front end look like a D4 humped Hannibal Lector.

And they really do damage the underlying panel - not to mention the paint fade is very noticeable in about 12
Months... Even on white vehicles..

The $500.00 is better spent getting the paint touched up in about 3 years time...

[mattyg]

Spray the front of the car with plasti dip. Then peel it off after your trip.

[Mudrunner]

Good luck getting a spray for $500. There is no noticeable fade - How would you know if you haven't got one?? The Bra stays on for the trip and comes off straight after it doesn't stay on for life. Great for bug ridden northern Vic in summer.
This forum is for comments on experience and knowledge, we are learning from each other, don't comment on assumptions! :D

[Tombie]

Right...

This doesn't look horrible at all!

64276

Look at the air flow restriction!

And all those little gaps (wheel arch) to catch mud and abrasive debris.

[Mudrunner]

Each to their own brother! I'm sure mine will have better resale value for the strategies I have put in place. I travel 25k per year mostly on highways, it suits me, you can make your own decisions based on what you use yours for. Admittedly, it may look ugly if the missus is dropping the kids off at school.

[Tombie]

No assumptions mate...

Purchased a vehicle once that had one..

Swirls, scratches, rub marks, and a measured temperature increase.

Also have several connections in auto refinishing trade...

My bonnet leading edge, headlights etc have no noticeable damage but the upper section of the bonnet and windscreen do.

The bra will not stop a large rock on the light from doing damage.

For 9 months I was doing 1,800km on the Stuart highway a week, and about 1,000km offroad at reasonable speeds (80-120km/h) during the same period.

The common theme between all Car Bra owners in over 20 years is:
Post-purchase rationalisation :)

[strangy]

Never seen one that didn't do more damage than it was meant to have"saved"
Prominent dealer on Parramatta road ruled them never to be fitted on company vehicles.

Real world, no assumptions.

[discotwinturbo]

A number of years ago I had a car bra on a VY commodore. For some reason I had more cracked windscreens, which I put it down to the lip flicking up more stones.

Took it off, then no more cracks.

My VW Touareg has been hammered with stones on the black pearl paint....hundred of little stones chips. But I chose not to use a bra as I preferred a respray over windscreen cracks.

Brett....

[Tombie]

Interesting Mudrunner...

4 windscreens! And posts about wanting to fit a Sahara bar...
And then commenting about the resale of your vehicle vs mine...

Mine will likely be covered in offroad scratches, chips etc.
Because it will be used - not for domestic triangle duty, as you tried to elude to - but will spend over 70% of its time offroad.

At the end of its time, it will be polished up, detailed and sold... And will have a perfect service history and no scratches!

Like the other posts above, the bra does more damage, it's well known.

An aesthetically cleaner and more effective option that doesn't fade the paint is to wrap the front end in 3M performance film.

It can also be put on the leading edge of the rear flares - which will chip up worse over time than the front end.

[BMKal]

Right...

This doesn't look horrible at all!

64276

Look at the air flow restriction!

And all those little gaps (wheel arch) to catch mud and abrasive debris.

I reckon it looks stunning ..................... :wasntme:

Just trying to figure out how to stretch one over the bullbar. :angel:

Seriously though .............. my young bloke had one a while back on his souped up Honda (it was supplied with the vehicle by the car dealer :o). He usually took it off when at home and driving around Kal, and only used it on trips to Perth or Esperance (all bitumen road driving - a Honda doesn't work on dirt :p). After a few months, he sold it to an unsuspecting fool - the damage that it was doing to the paint on his bonnet and the leading edge of his guards was shocking. Fortunately he caught it in time that the scratches were able to be cut / polished out - then he hit a dunnydoor who drove through a red light and wrote it off. :(

I wouldn't put one of these things on any vehicle if you payed me to. Over time, they will cause way more damage than what you are trying to protect the vehicle against. Any of a number of clear film products will do a better job, with the 3M product having a pretty good reputation so I'm told. Personally though, I find that a plastic bonnet protector on the front and the occasional bit of polish and elbow grease keeps on top of the issues. And I do a lot of km on the highway dodging road trains too, plus a fair bit of high speed dirt road travelling.

As Tombie said - the leading edge of your rear wheel arches will show signs of paint chipping long before the front end of the vehicle (unless of course you have a habit of sitting right up the clacker of other vehicles on the highway and particularly on gravel roads).

[Mudrunner]

Yes mate, 3 windscreens in 3 years, onto the 4th. Only had the Bra for the last 12 months, 1st 2 screens were without the Bra. 3rd screen was with the Bra but I saw the stone of the wheel of the other vehicle and it was a direct windscreen hit - unfortunately:(, so I cant attribute any of my windscreen damage to the Bra. And yes, I would still love a Sahara bar if ARB were so kind to produce one, love the look with the LR chrome tubular rocksliders.
Anyway, food for thought for the initial poster!
Cheers.