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My wife bought me a 2017 Grabber Blue GT! Whoo hooo

KevinG

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100 miles a month? Get that car out of the garage on nice days and enjoy it!
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Cardude99

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Best color choice congrats
 
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spacemarine83

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She bought it for you or just pushed you to buy it and contributed her miata to the deal? (presuming she has another vehicle?)
She signed on it as a gift for me. She wanted to get rid of her Miata. Nice car, but she didnt care for convertibles after owning one. And driving one here, well you get a few good months with one and back in the garage.

She considered it payback for the 2013 BRZ I bought her for her for her collegel graduation present a few years back. We ended trading it on a Forester XT for family use.
 
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spacemarine83

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100 miles a month? Get that car out of the garage on nice days and enjoy it!
I should correct myself. The total will be about 136. To and from work with occasional trips. :) It took me three years to get the 14GT to 14.6k and that was with two tips to visit my parents in CA. without those trips, the car would have had roughly 11K or slightly under on it in 3 years.

I drive very little
 

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Mustang8

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Man what a wife.
 

GTP

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I am hoping to get some good shots of the car today as well, but will most likely update with more pics once we get the clearbra put on on next Tuesday...the dealership is also doing the northwest protection package so I will be without "Skittles" for a few days.
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[MENTION=25709]spacemarine83[/MENTION]
What areas do you plan to cover with clear film? PM me for some free advice, or else invite me to comment publicly.
 
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spacemarine83

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@spacemarine83
What areas do you plan to cover with clear film? PM me for some free advice, or else invite me to comment publicly.
Please feel free to comment publicly. The film is set to go onto the frontbumper, part of hood, fenders, behind the wheels on the front fenders, door handle pockets, in front of the rear rear wheel wells, and also behind the wheel wells.

Any advice would be wonderful of course.
 

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Okay, thanks for the invitation.

First - and this is just my opinion - the basic non-metallic colors look best with graphics, such as Shelby stripes from BigWorm. I just think the primary colors (race red, yellow, grabber, orange, etc.) need to be broken up with something.

And since graphic vinyl is more delicate than your paint's clearcoat, I think it is best to cover the vinyl with the clear film. This is a very important decision. Because should the vinyl fade before the clear film needs replacing, then it is expensive to replace both. However, I ended up replacing some of my stripes soon after first applying them, because I battled Artillery Fungus in the spring, which adheres so strongly that I put some scratches in my stripes. But now I can scrub away because all my stripe sections are covered with film.

Now, the alternative is to protect your paint with clear film first, and then apply graphics on top of that. Don't like your graphics anymore? Or have they faded and become scratched? Just remove and/or replace them, and the clear film is not touched.

My plan is to try to limit the time the car spends in direct sunlight, since that is what fades vinyl over the years. I actually walk 1/4 mile from a covered parking spot to my office. But I have to say, clear over the stripes actually looks almost like a clear coat sprayed over them!

Which leads me to my second bit of advice. When choosing which areas to cover, consider that the upper horizontal surfaces are the ones that need protection more than the vertical surfaces. (With the obvious exception of the front bumper, of course.) In other words, spend your money on covering these surfaces, and put off protecting the sides of your car. Stuff falls on your car from above, and debris hits at a higher angle on your top surfaces. Think about it.

My third piece of advice is to add rock guards, like those from ZL1 (about $70) shown in my Garage. These are very effective, especially after you add wider wheels. I have yet to pick up any rock chips around my wheel wells and I have autocrossed twice.

My fourth piece of advice is to cover full panels out to their edges. In the beginning you conclude that the line going left to right across your hood is barely noticeable. But after I did that, I pulled it off and covered the full hood. It looks SO much better. Same for the roof. Also, I told my installer how to remove my hood vents. He did that on another Mustang first, and then on my car. Now you can't even see the edges bordering my vents! That's because they are under the vents. And he covered the entire vents, too, of course. (This is why you want him to have his own plotter - he can "stretch" the pattern extents so as to wrap under the edges of panels.)

My fifth piece of advice is to pick your installer carefully. This is a situation where the installer's experience and skill is more important than the brand of film he uses. Check around town for quotes, ask about the installer's experience, read online reviews, etc. Oh - one clue is to ask if he has his own film cutter machine - there's your guy!

My last bit of advice is that you can't install film too early, or apply too much. At my installer, some customers literally drive their new Porsches and Vettes from the dealer lot to his shop. So it is good that you have this covered. As for how much? Take your budget and consider doubling it - I'm not kidding.

Here is what is covered on my car (after learning some lessons and having some rework done):
Full front bumper and partial forward part of front fenders.
Headlights and fog lamps.
FULL hood.
FULL roof.
FULL trunk.
Rear black panel under the GT badge.
Partial rear bumper (to cover my stripes) and luggage lift area - all was one piece.
Mirror backs.
Door handle cups.
Gas cap.
Rocker panels that say 'MUSTANG'.
A pillars.​

In 9 months I have picked up two rock chips in areas not covered by film. The film has saved my paint when I hit debris on the freeway.

In conclusion, I recommend that you "move" some of the film from the sides to the top. That is, save on those areas, and spend more on full panel coverage on top.
 
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spacemarine83

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GTP,

WOW! Outstanding post. I am actually leaving the car in our garage right now as I am waiting to have the Clearbra installed. I am going to call the installer and talk to him about extra coverage based on what you described.

Also, I am ordering the ZL1 Rock Guards asap and will be installing them. I had no clue that such a thing existed for the Mustang.

As far as stripes, eh I am going to keep the car like it is for now...Stunning color really, but am not terribly interested in putting stripping down.
 
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None2Slow

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Definitely do clear behind the doors in front of the rear tires. These front tires kick up rocks and chip the paint bad. Not sure if this only happens to the cars with the performance pack Pirellis or all tires, but it has happened to those of us with the PP.
 

GTP

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GTP,

WOW! Outstanding post. I am actually leaving the car in our garage right now as I am waiting to have the Clearbra installed. I am going to call the installer and talk to him about extra coverage based on what you described.
Yeah, extending your film to full hood, roof, and trunk will run you several hundred dollars more. But full coverage of Xpel is $1100 per side!

Also, I am ordering the ZL1 Rock Guards asap and will be installing them. I had no clue that such a thing existed for the Mustang.

As far as stripes, eh I am going to keep the car like it is for now...Stunning color really, but am not terribly interested in putting striping down.
See my thread on installation instructions for the ZL1 Rock Guards.

Definitely do clear behind the doors in front of the rear tires. These front tires kick up rocks and chip the paint bad. Not sure if this only happens to the cars with the performance pack Pirellis or all tires, but it has happened to those of us with the PP.
In that same thread I show my wheels which are flush with the fenders (more flush than PP cars' wheels). Still no paint chips around my wheels, but in keeping with my clear film philosophy: You can't apply too much. :thumbsup:
 

Raven15

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Gorgeous car! Congratulations.

I've always been a fan of the Grabber Blue. I had a Grabber Orange '07 GT and loved the car - this newest generation is night and day soooooo much better yet.

Post more pics when you can.
 

ktodd1989

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Now you got two sweet rides man! ;) Congrats!
 

JamesinLittleSilver

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Nice congratulations!
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