Paint protection while offroading

[codemonkey]

My rover is beyond dirty at this point - I've done some pretty narrow trails through trees the past couple of weekends and have started to scratch up the side panels pretty good. Last weekend it wasn't too bad, and a friend of mine and I were joking that I should just have clearbra plastered all down the side.

Today I did some really tight stuff with lots of trees and scraping, and got quite a few scratches. I think most will buff out, with one exception. After I take care of those I'm thinking more seriously about the clearbra solution - anyone have any other suggestions? The terrain being what it is in Colorado, I have not seen the last of tight trails with scratch potential.

Here it is - that white line down the side appears to be through to the primer:

Full gallery here, it was a fun day aside from the body damage.

http://grendel.smugmug.com/gallery/5415276_6XChy#331134448_sHmye

 

[bgsntth]

I have the same issues on our CA Coastal Ranch. I carry some serious clippers and an axe for preventive trimming. I have found that using a griot's Random Orbital and Polish #1 followed by Polish #3, followed by their Sealant or Meguiar's NXT wax, will get rid of the marks. For deep scratches, as long as it is not down to the primer, you can grind it down to where it is really not noticeable -- some freaking self-righteous anti-SUV type keyed my beast and left a your "destroying the universe" ticket in front of REI. For scratches down to the primer, I use the Langka kit.

http://www.griotsgarage.com/product...ishing+tools/griot's+garage+random+orbital.do

 

[joey]

Other than the clearbra suggestion you have already made or clearing the trail prior to having fun, I can't think of anything that will prevent scratching of this magnitude.

Light stuff I would say a real heavy coat of wax...

 

[richpike]

I believe you can buy rolls of 3M clear bra very cheap, and it is *very* easy to install. I've bought two kits off of eBay - one for our LR3 and one for a friend's A4. Both went on super easy (although the LR3 one didn't have cutouts for the hood letters). If you just get the roll itself, you can cut it to cover your doors, etc and it will be really easy to install (flat panels are by far the easiest). The stuff is actually cheap enough that you could almost do it every time you offroad (put it on, take it off, put it on, take it off).

Simple instructions:

Get a squegee and a spray bottle filled with a 5% solution of water and baby shampoo. Make sure the car is super clean (use dawn to wash it) and then spray everything down with the solution - make sure to use lots of it. Then position the piece (it will move easily with all the soapy water) and squegee out the water from in between. If you get small air bubbles, you can try to work them out with the squegee, or do it the simple way - with a hair dryer. Park it in the sun for a few hours and it will be perfect.

-Rich

 

[Houm_WA]

rich,

Is this stuff just in rolls like Saran Wrap or custom made for the shape of each vehicle? I think that it's a good idea...something that is very disposable and cheap that just sticks on and comes off. I've thought about that somewhat, but didn't really pursue it.

I may try to find more info on this.

 

[codemonkey]

richpike, thanks for the info. I think I'll look into a roll or two of that stuff. If I don't do a great job and it looks so-so, that's not a big deal to me - I'm less concerned about immediate appearance than I am about more permanent damage.

bgsntth, that's exactly the stuff & buffer I've used for a number of years - good to know the #1 will take care of most of this stuff.

 

[richpike]

rich,

Is this stuff just in rolls like Saran Wrap or custom made for the shape of each vehicle? I think that it's a good idea...something that is very disposable and cheap that just sticks on and comes off. I've thought about that somewhat, but didn't really pursue it.

I may try to find more info on this.

It comes both ways - I've done the precut stuff like this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/_Car...hash=item350077816061&_trksid=p3756.m14.l1318

But you can also just get it in sheets like this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/12-x...020QQitemZ300240438013QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW

I was shocked by how easy it was to do it - it makes paying someone $500 to install a clear bra seem crazy.

-Rich

 

[richpike]

richpike, thanks for the info. I think I'll look into a roll or two of that stuff. If I don't do a great job and it looks so-so, that's not a big deal to me - I'm less concerned about immediate appearance than I am about more permanent damage.

Yep - and it is pretty easy to remove should you get tired of it.

BTW - nice pics. I'm not sure if you have ever seen this website:

www.traildamage.com

but they have TONS of info on Colorado offroad trails. I looked up Moon Gulch on it - looks like a fun trail, but like you said it appears to be extremely tight. What I like most about that website is it rates the trails on different things like water crossings, altitude changes, rocks, etc. Pretty cool.

-Rich

 

[codemonkey]

Yep - and it is pretty easy to remove should you get tired of it.

BTW - nice pics. I'm not sure if you have ever seen this website:

www.traildamage.com

but they have TONS of info on Colorado offroad trails. I looked up Moon Gulch on it - looks like a fun trail, but like you said it appears to be extremely tight. What I like most about that website is it rates the trails on different things like water crossings, altitude changes, rocks, etc. Pretty cool.

-Rich

Thanks. I usually check traildamage a lot, along with a few decent guide books. There are a number of trails near me along the Front Range, I think the trailhead for Moon Gulch was less than 45 minutes away. So, we tend to just take off on a random afternoon without doing much research, and sometimes don't quite pay attention to all the details (like the narrowness).

We also got "lost", or at least off the intended track, and went through some much narrower stuff. If it was an all-day trip I probably would have taken the time to enter some waypoints and stay on track. But for this we just ended up screwing around for a few hours. We kept running into a family in a 4-runner - they never really got on track either, we all just did circles on various spurs in a 2-mile square area.

But with the snow melting in the high country, most passes are now open so I'll probably start doing all-day stuff farther away. Are you in Colorado?

 

[richpike]

Are you in Colorado?

Colorado Springs. And I keep telling myself that I'm going to take our LR3 offroad, but it spends more time in baby duty right now (2 month old).

The current plan is to buy a RRS for my wife in a couple years and I'll drive the LR3 as my DD - our little guy will start to be old enough to really enjoy some offroading/camping/fishing/etc, so it will get lots more use then (and lots more scratches ).

-Rich