Being in NY city and parallel parking alot, I decided to get my bumpers coated with the 3M material, before the bumpers start lookiing like hell (which happened with my '94 Probe GT.) Other drivers and garages always seem to damage plastic bumpers. That was my main concern, not rock chips necessarily.

Xpel has a custom cut kit for the RX8 - one for the front nose and one for the fenders/hood/sideview mirrors.

I also head them do the thicker 12mm thickness 3M on the rear bumper, (front was standard 9mm) wrapping around fully to the seam where it meets the rear quarter panel.

They also threw in door edge guards strips for the front doors.

I have to say the installation looks great. The only place it is at all visible is the line across the hood and front fenders (which should be visible in one of the pics)

The rest of the places just looks great even from a few inches away. I will report back, but I'm not sure how long it will take to get any evidence of it saving me from a bumper tap.

I may have gone a little overboard getting everything done, since it was close to $800, (a very good price compared with other companies I talked with) and it did take 2 men several hours to do the work. The material is pretty expensive, and was developed to protect helicopter rotor blades that were being ripped up in Dessert Storm.

This is the shop that did the work here in NY, but x-pel seems to have installers across the country. WWW.xpel.com is just one company that sells the 3M material, but they are the only ones I found that have an RX8 template already.

Monster Coatings
contact Lazlo
Garfield, NJ
973-983-7662

feel free to say Richard with the RX8 sent you.

 

this is the hood and fender kit loosly placed on. Once it has been placed and stretched, it is unnoticable, except at an edge- which is clearly visible here. The front nose looks great and has no seams that show.

 

4

 

5

 

the finished car

 

close ups

 

6

 

Looks good... how much did it all set you back (labor and parts?)

 

I asked them to wrap the 3M all the way around the bumper, so there end the the material comes where a natural seam in the car lies. It really looks great. There is a line that is visible across the bumper top, but not very noticable, and of ciurse much better than most of the cars I see in the city that have all the paint flaking off the bumpers from careless parkers.

 

Here is the only place you can really see anything. Notice the faint line across the hood and fenders, when looking towards the front of the car ---NOTE I posted these pics from my mac, which dsiplays brighter than seeing it on a PC- it is more noticable in real life than in this pic)

 

9

 

here is the first pic posted larger, so you can see the front nose kit. As I posted parts and labor were a bit under $800. They have a cover for the headlights too, but I passed on that one, since I was getting low on $$$.

 

one more...

 

thanks for the pics..

question --

the front bumper piece is one whole flat piece??

is the stuff *that* flexible, that it can stretch and wrap that deeply into the where the foglights sit?

or are there cuts there so that it can go inward??

I just want to know if they're using little pieces here and there or if it is really one solid piece that is super flexible...

 

I had this done on my Yellow one a few weeks ago. The front bumper is one BIG piece, with no relief cuts, the hood is a piece, the top of each fender is a piece, and the back of each mirror is a piece. Pics on my yellow can be seen HERE

 

here is a pic of the outline of the mask from xpel's site

 

this is an outline of the hood and fender mask, also from xpel's site. BTW I have no affiliation with them or any car related company.

 

Thank you emailists,

Great info, pics and I will call them as delivery of my RX8 approaches (Oct/Nov).

I too ordered the Titanium 6MT GT Black/Chaparral with strakes and mud guards, fore & aft.

Since you are in NYC, perhaps we should meet this Winter in the city and cruise about town.

Do you think the big apple could stand to see 2 **** about town

Claude H.

BTW: as the weeks go by, perhaps you could update this post with long term impressions of the 3M durability???

 

I had the 3M XPEL kit applied to my 8 at the end of July (posted details and costs here at that time). Since then, I did a 4000 mi road trip to California and back, so I've got about 5000 miles on the car with the clear bra in place. It has held up very well, made cleaning bugs off the nose easy without worrying about scratching paint, etc. I also see one spot on a fender where the 3M Scotchcal film is stretched a bit from a rock hit (like a slightly raised spot), but there's no underlying damage to the paint. Perfect job!

The only downside is that when the car is dusty or dirty, the edge of the film across the hood is more visible. I had someone at Laguna Seca ask me how I got that scratch all the way across my hood, and I had to get them to show me what they meant - fortunately, it was the rear edge of the 3M film, not my car having been keyed!!

Regards,
Gordon

 

Thanks Gordon,

I have been concerned about how well this product would hold up over time. I realize that 5K miles ain't exactly an endurance test but it seems to be a good indicator.

Claude H.

 

I think it will pay to get some quotes from different installers. I went to the Xpel web site and pulled up a list of different installers in my area. For the 4 kits available I received quotes from $600-$1000 for parts and labor. It also seems that the dealers who cut the 3M material from bulk that they buy using the Xpel software are cheaper. I was also informed by the guy who was closer to a grand (who buys his material from Xpel already die cut) that when he receives the material it also contains the material around the cut-out, which he could use these pieces in other area's (door handles, back of fenders, etc). Still I had a hard time with a 30% bump for that. I will go with a $685 quote and install next week. My first trip to Palm Springs this weekend left about 4 small pocks on the front bumper.

 

WOW .. I've never even heard of this process before... hmmm.. must do some research on this.. any suggested reading ???

 

I have my sights set on getting an aftermarket frnt bumper/spoiler. Is it possible to do a custom job? Alocal installer told me he would only work with pre-cut patterns.

My Yellow is already at 25+ chips with 3200mi. I won't even mess with it until I get a new bumper.

 

I would look at the XPEL.com website and talk to different installers. I would assume that there is more that just the one in a place as large as Houston. I had 4 factory certified reps just in my area alone. Some of them worked with the die cut outs from the factory and others used buld 3m material that they die cut at their place of business and bring out. I would think that they could use bulk material and cut to match your situation. I will say though that all the installers that I got quotes from were familiar with the intracacy of our front ends. It rates 5 out of 5 for difficulty to put on. got to go, my BLACK RX8 has to be cleaned again. :D

 

For the price, couldn't you just paint the car?