Anyone use a Bra/Front Cover for the Pathy? Being from WI the front of my car has lots of little chips, bugs, heavy dirt and such from heavy sanded/salted roads. Any recommendations would be appreciated.

thehumphries wrote:Anyone use a Bra/Front Cover for the Pathy? Being from WI the front of my car has lots of little chips, bugs, heavy dirt and such from heavy sanded/salted roads. Any recommendations would be appreciated.

I have chips from the bottom of my front license plate holder up to the front portion of the roof. While hopping in to drive home after work about 2 weeks ago, there was a 6" crack on my windshield that was not there when I drove to work earlier that day. The next day, that crack was about 18" long when I drove to work & ended up continuing the entire length of the windshield that day for a pleasant surprise when I left work. I had it replaced the next day, and when the guy came out to throw in the new one, it gave me a chance to see literally hundreds of chips and dings in the old windshield that I never really paid any attention to before.

This past summer/fall, I cleaned out as many of the chips off the front end, hood and roof that I could find. From simply getting rid of the sharp edges from around each ding to sanding out the rust inside of them. Primed the rusted spots & went crazy with touch up paint. The initial work took me an entire day, followed by more sanding, buffing & additional touch up paint for the next 3 weeks. The larger spots still look like crap to me, but the smaller ones blend in well.

My point for rambling on? A bra only covers a small portion of the front end. I'm not sure if paint has changed, but I remember seeing many cars that had mismatching paint when a bra was removed-more noticeable than if you fixed a few little dings.

If you already have a ton of chips, I'd go through and get them all fixed as best as possible. Then, I'd have a clearbra or 3M film installed. I'm going to have the dealer install the clearbra on our '11 Xterra in a few weeks, mostly because I can't handle dealing with only the Pathfinder, let alone another vehicle. It will cover the front bumper, most (if not all) of the hood, outside front wheelwells, etc. At $700.00, it isn't cheap, but certainly worth it IMO.

@ NVsteve...call around and price out the clear bra before you pull the trigger. I can get it done for $399 for the full front nose. The dealership marks up their price quite a bit.

As always though make sure you're dealing with a reputable vendor.

And now that I think about it the Xterra should be even less than that because you would only be doing the hood and fenders. (the front bumper and grille aren't painted so they wouldn't be installing the clear bra on them - make sure you clarify that) It really should be around $299 for your Xterra.

pawjr74 wrote:@ NVsteve...call around and price out the clear bra before you pull the trigger. I can get it done for $399 for the full front nose. The dealership marks up their price quite a bit.

As always though make sure you're dealing with a reputable vendor.

And now that I think about it the Xterra should be even less than that because you would only be doing the hood and fenders. (the front bumper and grille aren't painted so they wouldn't be installing the clear bra on them - make sure you clarify that) It really should be around $299 for your Xterra.

Thanks for the info. Basically, it is the Infinity dealer next door (same owner) that will install it. Not sure how long the warranty is for though. Supposedly, they have all the templates for the Nissan vehicles, so the finished product *should* be better than just a shop that installs it. Still, I'll price it out elsewhere also.

Most reputable shops doing the 3M clear bras have the templates and die cut it per vehicle application.

I would still inquire about whether or not they are going to do the front bumper and grille on your Xterra since they are not painted panels. If not are they willing to adjust the price?

To find a 3M clear bra installer near you...
http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/e ... _Consumer/

To find and Xpel (another great quality clear bra - the company I use preffers Xpel over 3m) instller near you...
http://www.xpel.com/

If you are looking for an "old school" removeable bra, look for a Colgan. I bought one from Autoanything.com about 4 years ago. I still have it. Colgan was the only manufacturer of one I could find at the time.