mattxb

I bought this not to long ago and just installed yesterday. In the instrucionts under the Customer Care Information section it states the following:

Both car and mask must me completely dry. If moisture is present under mask, and is allowed to dry on the vehicle, it may cause the paint to cloud. If mask gets wet, remove and allow to dry completely before reinstalling.

Now, I got this to protect the paint inf the first place. I recieved a lot of dings due to winter new england road conditions. A lot of salt/sand etc was causing dings etc...
i touched them up with touch up paint from the dealership and then installed. However, do you really have to take off and let dry everytime it rains/snows? Seems like an awful lot of trouble.

Bluerobin

If you are talking about the Colgan Bra then I recommend what I do in the rain. Remove the hood portion only and leave the front end one on. The hood seems to be the only one that clouds from the water or snow. That happens only because the hood piece has no place for the water from the hood to drain. It stacks up in the bra. Other than that it works great. I remove mine once a week and wash the car and brush off the inside of the bra and reinstall it. I have no dings on the front of the car and I plan to keep it that way.

mattxb

Actually, its the front end mask that scion offers. It only protects the hood portion.
But you have answered my question. Living in New England with all this rain and snow we have been getting, sometimes I don't have an opportunity to wash every week. It kills me that I bought this thing for protection and if I don't keep up with it, it could end up doing more harm then good.

Bluerobin

Theres one thing also, you can leave it on, if your hood clouds, it will go away within a few days, I have had it happen and so has my husband. If you leave it in the sun and/or drive a while and warm up the hood the cloudiness will go away, it is not permanent at all. I would suggest you look at the Colgan full front bra to protect the rest of the front though, it gets more abuse than the hood does in the long run.

TheScionicMan

Taking care of your car requires some time and effort, there's no easy fixes. It's like the diet pill that says you don't need to move or exercise, do you really believe looking good is easy?

I would try making a wire rack you can hang it on when you remove it. so it'll dry quickly. Get some Meguiar's Quik Detail or the equivalent, some microfiber towels and make it a habit to remove it and wipe down the hood edge regularly...

mattxb

I know, I know. I was waiting for someone to chime in with a response such as this.
Got to keep up with the maint. right.

Another question:
If I do as you suggest and use the meguiar's quick detailer and microfiber towels, that in itself won't scratch the paint?

If what bluerobin says is true....that the cloudiness is not at all perminent, why would I even bother?

I would imagine that if you just left the thing on, dust etc... would gather underneath and scratch the paint.

hmmm, to leave it on an maintain or be lazy and just take it off???

I like the idea of this. Pretty expensive.

http://www.xpel.com/products/default.asp

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Bluerobin

The microfiber towels will not scratch the paint, and the quick detail will lubricate any dust and lift it off the paint. I did say that the cloudiness is not permanent but you don't want to leave the mask on all the time. It does require maintenance and you will need to clean around where it sits. Leaving the mask on all the time will scratch your paint worse from the dust and sand and whatever gets on your car that gets caught in the edges.

You have the option of the clear bras, but depending what color car you have you will get the dirt line around the edges of that also. The darker colors will hide that but you still need to keep the wax and cleaning up on that also. You just don't remove it in the rain.