SITE OVERVIEW
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Page 1 - Exterior Shots
Page 2 - Interior Shots
Page 3 - 3M Clear Bra - Invinca-Shield Installation
Page 4 - Bose Deck rattle fix
Page 5 - Chrome Gauge Rings Install
Page 6 - Sunroof windnoise fix
Page 7 - PIAA H3 Super Plasma Fog & Polarg M-4 Clearance Install
Page 8 - Detailing Gear and Fluids
Page 9 - Umnitza DDE Lightning Angel Eyes
Page 10 - Redline MT-90 Manual Tranny Fluid Swap
Page 11 - 1997 Maxima SE

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After reading many positive reviews by Maxima.org members on the 3M Clear Bra, I purchased a pre-cut clear bra from invinca-shield.com. They were offering a 10% off offer at the time, so my total came to around $260 for the following pieces:
- hood
- bumper
- front fender
- behind the headlight
- mirrors

I installed the kit myself with the help of a friend (highly recommended). Below are pictures of the install on 11-11-03.

A few lessons learned:
1. Trim the film with the paper backing attached if at all possible. Actually, you shouldn't have to trim the material at all since it's supposed to be cut to fit, but you have to get it postioned perfectly to avoid having to trim...your call.
2. Hire a professional if you plan to do the bumper in one piece. It is a bear and I had to cut it into four pieces to get it on smooth. Extra seams are a disappointment, but thankfully, nearly invisible. Nice trick: If you use the 2 piece technique (my kit actually came cut this way, though I understand it's normally sent as one piece) a front plate will cover the seam. Read below on more details on the bumper piece.
3. Do NOT attempt to trim the film by hand with scissors. Use a ruler to draw a straight line on the paper as a guide and use an xacto knife. Scissors tend to bunch and wrinkle the edge of the material and produce jagged results.

The fearless install team:

Step 1: Collect your tools.
Provided with the kit:
- Spray bottle (filled full with water and a capful of soap)
- Soap mix
- Vinyl squeegee
- Lint free towel

Necessary, but not provided:
- Second spray bottle (filled with 50/50 rubbing alcohol and water - about 10 fl. ozs should be plenty) This solution helps "tack down" edges that don't want to stay down.
- X-acto knife
- 3M Adhesive remover (available at most autoparts stores)

Step 2: Sweep your garage. A dust free environment is important since anything that gets under the bra will be visible.

Step 3: Wash and dry car.

Step 4: Clean parts of car where bra will be applied with 3M Adhesive Remover.

Step 5: Place the material on the car to assure you have the right piece and it a proper fit. Keep in mind that the adhesive side with paper attached is the side that will actually be attached to the vehicle. Therefore, test fitment of driver's side pieces on the passenger side and vice versa.

Step 6: Wash hands thoroughly. The material fingerprints easily and clean hands won't fingerprint.

Step 7: Spray hands with Soap solution. Keep hands wet during all steps of the install to further protect from fingerprints.

Step 8: Pull away the backing on the film and spray with soap solution as you're removing the backing. Spray the part of the car where you're applying the film with the soap solution as well.

Step 9: Place film on the vehicle and position within 1/8" of the edge of the part.

Step 10: Squeegee out bubbles and excess soap with lint free towel wrapped around squeegee to protect film from scratching.

Step 11: Tack down edges with 50/50 solution if necessary

Step 12: Clean area with 50/50 solution.

Step 13: Dry off with soft terry cloth towel.

Step 14: Enjoy the results, which are hopefully nearly invisible.

I recommend using your windshield as a shelf for the pieces to keep them flat.

Completed hood piece:

The hood piece is by far the easiest piece to work with. We had it down, squeegeed and bubble free in well under 5 minutes. Now the bumper was a different story...

Fighting bubbles:

Here is a shot of the finished job. I hope it becomes a little more invisible after some polishing. You can wax the bra just like your paint. There are some artifacts in the picture that my look like bubbles. They're not, I just had some soapy water on my lens in this shot. I'll post better pictures soon.

Bumper issues:
We wrestled with stretching the bumper piece to fit around the corner for over an hour but couldn't resolve bunching issues on the corner. It's as though the factory slit in the film was a little too far back on the fender. As resolution, you can see in the picture above the section on the corner of the bumper I decided to cut out due to fitment issues.

It recently hit me why the bumper didn't fit properly. I believe I may have switched the sides. If you switch the sides the slit that helps the piece fit around the corner of the bumper faces the wrong direction. It's really easy to do since the pieces are just mirror images and aren't marked. What you have to keep in mind is the side that has the backing is the side that should be attached to the car. Nonetheless, again, if you plan to do the bumper in one piece, I'd recommend hiring a professional. If you don't mind cutting it into four pieces and exposing a small corner of your bumper, then it's pretty easy. However, I think this is ghetto and wish I would have been more patient in retrospect.

The bumper piece is created to be long enough to wrap underneath the bumper but I had difficulties getting it to stick (even with the 50/50 alcohol mixture) so I trimmed the film with scissors. If you look close you can see the jagged cut...Lesson learned the hard way. Do as I say, not as I do!

I recommend toughing this piece out and wrapping it underneath. Hopefully you'll have better luck then I did. They say you can't use too much soap, but I say don't overdo it, it only makes it more difficult to get the piece to wrap around the corner.

The bra is a little more visible than I expected but I'm hoping a little polishing will help. I'll post pics after polishing to see if I can make it disappear.