Painted My Platinum Graphite Bumper BLUE - Thoughts?
 

Just kidding. I'm going on a little 400+ mile trip tomorrow and I don't have a clear bra so I made a blue bra (?) out of painter's tape. It looks lame but I just got laid off so the clear bra got knocked down on the priority list. Took me 15-30 minutes and cost 5 bucks. Just trying to dodge bugs/rocks since it'll be highway.

Do you guys think I should do a bit of the fenders as well?

http://s9.photobucket.com/albums/a55...d613/zblue.jpg

looks perfect! Its not like youre at a show. For all anyone knows, its the factory protection on a car being delivered?

haha, thanks. it does kinda look that way - if only it was white! i see you're in tampa. im actually driving up to o-town for hhn. it's almost party time...

I bought the leather bra for that same reason.

Long trip cross country. Eventually I'll get the clear bra but saving cash for some other mods.

Hahaha, nice job on the taping. Hope you taped from the middle of the hood down. I've seen some folks tape from the bumper up the hood and wind tore it off. :D

i wasn't thinking about that when i did it, but yeah, i did it from the top down. i heard some people also do it vertically but that sounds like more work with the shape of our bumper.

yah, I wouldn't do it vertically either.

Good job on the taping. :)

might be a good idea for my trip to deals gap. Do they make it in red? haha

Oh man, I miss HHN in O-town. I went to college in DB so it was just a short trip to get there. Good times! :D

I would tape further up the hood. I have a few stone chips higher than where you taped it.

lol, they have lime green...
looks like this: :roflpuke2:

good lookin out, spearfish. i'll probably add another 6 inches tomorrow. didn't want to go all the way to where the headlights start but we'll see how lazy i am.

MONTEREY BLUE...
http://s9.photobucket.com/albums/a55...613/zblue2.jpg

put some tape on the panel between the door and the rear wheel

You know you're a redneck when.... Just kidding, you do what you gotta do to protect the car...

the layout install is pretty good......... i would probably do the same for road trips...lol

are you serious? i dont think ive ever gotten bugs or anything on that section. but if youre serious, i'll do it. lol.:rofl2: im colombian but that was great.

bugs dont get smashed there.... rock chips smack that area

tape it, why not finish off the roll of tape...lol

Another PG guy want to be cool like Monterey Blue owners :shakes head: ..hahhahah just kidding :icon17: Looks GREAT :tup: if not , the BEST! Good luck on the trip. Let us know how things work out. HAVE a safe trip :hello:

PS: I'm assuming you used the 3M brand. Other brands tend to leave sticky residue.

LOL! :bowrofl:



Hey, you did a great job with that!
Enjoy the trip!

just trying to be like you, ak! actually, MB was my initial choice when I thought about getting the Z. but my last car was a similar blue so i wanted to switch it up.

trip was great, thanks. yea, it was 3m and worked like a charm. the coverage i used was PERFECT. the only place that got hit by bugs was the black plastic, windshield and headlights. fortunately no rocks flew my way, but it saves me the cleanup and ive seen bugs do nasty damage to paint.

no residue, peeled off easily - no one pointed and laughed (that i saw). overall a great temporary solution for someone without paint protection.

im also happy to report that i averaged approx 31 MPG on my trip. it was 437.02 miles and i used 3/4 tank (my calculations may be wrong but the mpg needle was constantly between 20 and 40). gotta love 7th gear...

You're kidding...

About what? The mpg? I filled the tank all the way the night before, drove 437 miles. The range says there's another 133 miles to go (570miles/19gallons=30mpg). I was going 60mph at 2k rpm in 7th for most of the trip...

Going ONLY 60 mph would give you some good gas mileage on straight highway miles. Cool!

I'll buy 31mpg at 2k RPM.

I get 23-24mpg on my daily commute at 3k RPM (75-80mph, typical fast-lane speed here), which is surprisingly good compared to my expectations.

But 400+ miles at 60mph, that had to be tough :icon14:

I admire your discipline :tiphat:

haha, it was painful! although the posted limit varied 55 to 65 so people weren't passing me all the time. my little sister was telling me to step on it most of the time (which is weird because she hates when i speed). plus, cops are known to be all over that highway so it kept me in check.

i was quite surprised with how well it did. i had never seen more than 18mpg on this car with the way i drive it daily (i usually take city roads).

on the way back i was going 70 for the most part. :happydance:

REPOST

http://www.the370z.com/exterior-inte...ck-camero.html

:)

What? No racing stripes!?!?!?!?! Nah just kidding, looks like you did great. Nice to hear that your trip was fun aswell.

-William

I have no problem believing this. Here a summary of my road trip taken earlier this year. I went almost 4,500 miles and got a tad over 28 MPG with no particular care taken to maximize the mileage.

You should tape every square inch of the car. That would look awesome.

Seriously, why not just drive the car and enjoy it? If it gets chips and dents, repair them. I think that's better than driving around with tape on your car, or even an ugly bra. Kind of destroys the reasons for getting a nice car doesn't it? You could buy a rust bucket and cover that with tape. Who would know?

...you throw it on for a long road trip dude, nothing more...

Yeah sorry that came out more obnoxious than I intended. It's something I wouldn't do, but I can understand the sentiment.

Yeah, I completely disagree. Like bobo said, I use that for long trips which happen probably once a year. Every other day the car is driven like it's meant to be driven. But I am careful not to park in tight spaces or next to minivans to avoid dents amongst other precautions. I don't let anyone lean on my car. I see nothing wrong with taking care of something I worked very hard for.

I'm sure I'd feel different if I had an old POS used Geo Metro or was some spoiled kid with rich parents. Not saying that's you at all, but I know a lot of people like that and they don't take care for their things.

I'm very particular about my 370 too, it's never been driven in the rain and I've owned it since January. It's never spent a night outside the garage either but I can tell you this based on a 5 year ownership of my previous 350. You are either going to get a clear bra or you are going to get a few chips and the paint on the front bumper is going to semi-sandblast itself thin after a year or so. Z's have a tendency to suck road debris up on the bumper, hood and leading edges of the fenders.

My point is it's probably NOT going to happen on an occasional interstate trip. All that's going to produce are a lot of dead bugs that you will have to wax out when you get back.

It will be interesting to see how you feel in a year or too when everything about your car is perfect and the front bumper and hood are toast. I'm not a fan of clear bras so I just ended up having my bumper repainted twice and the hood once, off the car of course, over that 5 year period. Save your tape money to have this done if you want your car to stay that perfect because you'll need it. Now at 10 months old my 370 is doing the same thing and none of it happened on my two road trips.

as opposed to a NEW Geo Metro?
:rofl2:
YouTube - New Geo Metro

I would of rented a car. Sorry you lost your job.
Will that prevent rock chips? I wouldn't think it would.

you'd better make sure your not running into any rain or water spray that tape won't last once it's wet. good luck on your trip..

I wouldve rented one too if I was still employed lol.

It rained overnight while my car was parke outside and it held up pretty well!

Guys, I'm not saying this is the best idea out there. In my situation, this is the best thing I came up with last minute that was cheap and effective. Just felt like sharing because some people mentioned they thought about it but weren't sure if it would screw up their paint or sun damage, whatever. This is for those people :)

Tons of people use painters tape on long trips. Mine prevented several chips, not to mention the ridiculous amount of bugs I hit in Pennsyltucky. It also rained on mine the night before my drive, and it held up fine during the trip.

I dont see the reason for anyone objecting over this, its not like its DAMAGING the car lol...

While you're at it you should do some racing stripes up the hood and across the roof or maybe some BRE Racing stripes down the side ;)

http://www.motorsportcollector.com/0...Z/BRE240Z.jpeg