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These panels seem to attract all debris coming off the road in my experience. No clear bra for me, as long as I rattle can these babies once a year I'm good. Seriously, no other chips on my car except on these panels. Not even the valance...weird.
On the 036 specifically, I've noticed the headlight wiper panels, and rear edge of the rocker panels (just in front of the rear tires) tend to get the most stone chips.
Leading edge of the hood/grille, some front bumper areas, and door mirrors are next. This also varies by type of paint used. Lower-end paints can chip much, much more easily than certain high-end paints.
Oh yeah - good point, Ace. See how long the paint mfr specifies for cure time before applying ANYTHING... clear film, ceramic sealant, or even wax. Generally can be 1-2 months.
If you are going to do a clear bra, consider doing the entire hood, fenders, and front bumper. Otherwise you may have a line where it ends when the clear bra is replaced down the road.
Here is a shop I use and their products. As written above, great stuff and the window film is great (what I purchased for the windscreen and the headlights on my C126)
I have 8mm Clear Bra on my lower fascia and the panels under the headlights with 20mm Lamin-X on my headlight lenses and 40mm on the fogs. It's done a great job protecting the front or my car. The installer I used could not put it on the lower grill work so it remains exposed.
NOTE: My only regret is waiting about a week or two for the paint to cure and carefully driving the car with no Clear Bra.
Even with being careful I got some chips that had to be touched up before the Clear Bra installation.
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