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So, as all here know, the leading side of our hoods present a near vertical surface that is near 6 feet wide and 6-8 inches high, it's where bugs go to die, it's where laser guided pee gravel launched from other vehicles and their tires are programmed to hit with hopes of paint chips. I haven't incurred any paint chips yet, but I do collect bugs. I do not follow other vehicles with my '77, but I do get passed and occasionally I hear something hit the truck somewhere. I know my hood had a fair number of chips prior to last year's work.
Back in the '80s, I had a bug shield on it, it had one on it that was red when purchased, I replaced the red with clear in time, but it never had air flow from the vents when those were in place. I have a couple I picked up at a flea market last year, they were $5 each. They are both smoke.
In the earl 2000s, we bought a Gold Wing Trike. for a while I used some 5% VLT Static Cling window tint on the trike fenders front to hopefully prevent chips from stones kicked up by the front tire, was easy to squeegee in place and remove to clean and reapply as needed, but I just cleaned, and waxed it, in place. Later I replaced it with a heavily textured black pebble grained sticky back vynil, it was great.
I have a really white truck, it has a bit of black accenting. I'm in no real state of desire for the "old school" bug shield on brackets extending out over the grille.
I'm thinking I might do the 5% window tint to add a bra across this wide expanse. I have the tint, and if I don't like it, I can easily undo it.
Maybe I should just "do it" and then ask, but while I'm thinking ... I thought some of you might know of other alternatives not yet obvious to me.
The leading surface of the rear fender has the 5% tint in this picture, though I'm sure it'll look not quite as dark on a white hood.
Below was just my playing with "Paint" program.
I don't know how much the white will show through the 5% tint, so I just drew it black.
The shadow with sun from the back here and it showed the shape of the hood front.pretty well..
If I did the vinyl, it'd be in essence, "permanent", but the 5% tint is a simple pull off, it's just "static cling" .... you just wet it and gently squeegee it in place. It is not going to ever blow off, I've washed it on the trike, even waxed it, then after a couple years I just pulled it off to look, then I just put it back on. Eventually I put the vinyl on the trike though..
Thank You .... I thought about that, but I recalled some trike buddies using it, made by 3M, it yellowed and the edges sometimes developed small pockets when the adhesive dried out ... pockets collected wax that one couldn't buff. Our trike did that too in 2004, it had the 3M stuff on it, but after it aged I used a heat gun and removed it in 2006, then I used the 5% tint that is static cling. If I find the clear in a static cling, that might would work. Maybe they make it now?
I tried a small square of the 5% static cling on the white in the sun, it still looked pretty black ... I thought I had more but my stash is 35% or lighter. 35% looks like a blue grey on white, I wasn't so happy with the look.
X2 on talk to a body shop or business that does automotive "vinyl wraps" about getting just the leading edge of the hood done. Or get some race car front bumper overlay vinyl, I believe it is clear.
I forgot about "Track Armor", looks interesting, intended for short term. If a fellow used 6 feet at a time, a fellow would get about 16 applications from a 6"x100' roll.
I'd see if a vinyl wrap place can match the color and do a color matched piece across the front instead of clear. We used to mix flex additive, something that's normally put into paint for plastic/rubber parts, into the paint that went on big flat leading edges like that. It makes the paint pliable so those little stones, etc. just mush the paint a little and don't chip it. You'll still eventually end up with a cratered looking paint finish, but there will be significantly less chips that go down below the paint and it will still look decent at 20ft. You could always see about getting someone to spray the leading edge like that, but they may want to do the whole hood so there isn't an obvious blend line.
The new stuff is much more durable and doesn’t yellow like the old stuff. I have the vulnerable parts of our Viper done with Xpel and it does the job. Trust me, between the shape and stance of that car, combined with the fact that we live in Michigan where every road is literally disintegrating… if it works for me, it will work for you.
The new stuff is much more durable and doesn’t yellow like the old stuff. I have the vulnerable parts of our Viper done with Xpel and it does the job. Trust me, between the shape and stance of that car, combined with the fact that we live in Michigan where every road is literally disintegrating… if it works for me, it will work for you.
Sorry about the roads .... but I do appreciate the input. I only ever had experience with the 3M clear ... and that was near 20 years ago.
Yeah, give it a try. I've had good results and so have some friends of mine.
Nothing to be done about the roads. Nobody seems to genuinely want to fix them. It's a political football that just keeps getting kicked around. My long term solution? Move back to Georgia one day. Try to keep the Viper in good shape until we can do so.
A lot of those Political Footballs around, but we do have pretty nice roads here, but local city has been replacing old water lines, it's a mine field through there.
I run up on this too, it's either black or white ... and has a slight pebble grain on the outer side it looks like. Might order a piece of it too, along with the Xpel, it's so cheap and there's enough to do two.
White vs Black
Threw that away, but I learned. Today, I went to work, cleaned the front of the hood, it was spotless. I mixed my solution, pulled the front of the truck in out of the sun. Cleaned the hood again. I cut my roll of Xpel clear to 72" long, tapered the ends, had it well in hand. After pulling the backing off and as I sprayed more solution on the hood and the sticky side, it sucked in some specs out of the air I guess. but It fit perfectly, I was really proud of the fit, But damn it, those dirt specs showed up and if I pulled the Xpel up to remove a spec, I then had another set of bubbles, wrinkles, and there would be another spec or four. Finally, after screwing with it for like an hour, I gently pulled it off and balled it up and I pitched it. On a dark hood, I'd have called it good and left it after getting all the bubbles out, but those sprcs on white, not so cool.
I think the product is good, and two experienced people would have likely done OK.
I'll just use the static cling 5% window tint, it'll look black on the white, and I know it's easy to remove and put back time after time.
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But damn it, those dirt specs showed up and if I pulled the Xpel up to remove a spec, I then had another set of bubbles, wrinkles, and there would be another spec or four. Finally, after screwing with it for like an hour, I gently pulled it off and balled it up and I pitched it. On a dark hood, I'd have called it good and left it after getting all the bubbles out, but those sprcs on white, not so cool. 
