Last weekend, I picked the film up from a local shop that sells on eBay. They had a nice shop out in Sherman Oaks called
Sticker City. The guy there who owns the yellow 911 turbo is very knowledgeable and helpful. I did the door sills and parts of the front on my 2008 xB. I've tinted before so I figured it would be a similar process.
The 6" wide 3M film cost me just over $40 for about 10 feet of it. I started with the door sills since they would be the least noticeable. I bought 2 spray bottles to hold the 2 liquids that I would be using. The first bottle holds a 25% solution of alcohol in water. The 2nd bottle was supposed to be a drop of baby shampoo in water, but I used a drop of Meguiars car wash instead. However, I really never used the soapy solution. You also need to have a good razor blade, they recommend those snap sliding blades. I bought the thin Kobalt one at Lowes. After doing some cutting, I could see why they recommend these blades, they are sharp and give you better control than an X-acto.
I used the alcohol solution to clean and prep the areas where I would put the film on. I used masking tape to measure out how long and how wide the pieces needed to be. Then I cut the pieces and began laying it down. You spray both the surface and the film with the alcohol solution. I used a bondo spreader to press it to the surface and almost immediately it sticks very tightly. I work from the middle out to the edges. Sometimes I had to peel back up to get rid of bubbles. But I think a small amount of bubbles is OK. It's a lot like tinting except it's harder IMO. On the parts where it was a very curved surface, I applied a lot of heat from the heatgun just to make sure it formed well. You don't want to spread or press out bubbles after heating because you will make wrinkles.
I made some mistakes, they are hardly noticeable. I had some water bubbles that I popped at the corners and made them bleed out. I think I could have left some of the water bubbles though because as an experiment I left one water bubble and it's gone now. When I got around to my hood, I wondered how the heck they cut the film to make it fit. But the thing is, you cut the film while on the car but without going through to the paint. The 3M film is good in this respect as you can cut it part way and pull it off. Stickercity sells another product called Venture Shield which they say is better but harder to cut. I was surprised how easy it was to cut if you were careful. You just have to go very slow and have a good grip on your blade (that's why those snap blade knives are so good for the job).
So next week, I am going to pick up some 2 feet wide to do the rest of my bumper. I'm not intimidated by the process anymore. Yes, it's not cheap but it's not ridiculously expensive either. I believe every installer, even the good ones, make minor mistakes here and there. But the benefit of the protective film far outweighs the little bubbles and wrinkles. You have to expect this film to take a beating in it's lifetime as well, rocks will dent it and it will get scratched. You just peel it off and remove the adhesive with a good adhesive remover.
I wouldn't try it if you've never tried tinting before or unless you can get a lot of practice with the film. Maybe practice on your other car. I wish I would have put this on the NSX from day 1 though.
