3M Venture Shield

Just put my CX-5 in to have 3M Venture Shield installed. Looking forward to seeing results.
http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/Scotchgard_Paint_Protection/Film/Products/VentureShield/

Anyone else had this installed or interested in results?

Having it installed by:
http://www.completesurfacesystems.com.au/

They have a You Tube channel you might find interesting.

interesting, do you know how this compares to the paint shield that is offered as a option by Mazda?


I also wonder how good/thick the paint is on the Mazda's. I know German cars for example my VW Jetta had quite a thick coat of clearcoat that kept the rocks chips at bay.

JTNY said:

interesting, do you know how this compares to the paint shield that is offered as a option by Mazda?

I also wonder how good/thick the paint is on the Mazda's. I know German cars for example my VW Jetta had quite a thick coat of clearcoat that kept the rocks chips at bay.

Click to expand...

Really depends on that the paint shield is. The Venture Shield is a physical covering that is cut to shape and placed over a cleaned surface. The demonstration of the material was impressive.

This video gives a fairly good idea of the product:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCoPhj1Rd3Q

VentureShield has NO association with 3M. I used to install it and its great stuff.

Maxx Mazda said:

VentureShield has NO association with 3M. I used to install it and its great stuff.

Click to expand...

Correction... they "used" to have no association with 3M.
http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/Scotchgard_Paint_Protection/Film/Products/VentureShield/

When 3M found out that another company made a better product, they bought VentureShield.

Got my vehicle back. Very, very impressed!!

JTNY said:

interesting, do you know how this compares to the paint shield that is offered as a option by Mazda?

I also wonder how good/thick the paint is on the Mazda's. I know German cars for example my VW Jetta had quite a thick coat of clearcoat that kept the rocks chips at bay.

Click to expand...

The Venture Shield is a plastic coating that arrives in large rolls. It's cut to fit a panel using software and measurements of the panel. This material has a sticky side and is applied as strangely as it sounds, with Johnson and Johnson baby shampoo, which is then squeegeed onto the surface.

I have a sample on my desk at work and my mate and I have taken to it will all sorts of sharp objects (short of a blade) to try to damage it as if it were the panel of a car. It's resisted so much abuse.

When applied to the surface of the car, it feels like a recently waxed painted surface and is hard to detect unless you look at the edges of each panel.
It's far more affective than a thick clearcoat against scratches.

In Sydney recently a lot of vandals have been scratching the windows and a similar product has been applied to new windows to avoid future damage.

This is a video show application of film from the installer that did my vehicle:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JQ0rRgH0Gk

Images now on their Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.330973616957285.79207.140334719354510

our dealer parts rep actually didnt advice the clear bra. Instead suggested getting an additional clear coat like protection. He said the once you get some good marks on the clear bra they may stay there perm and over time you will start to notice the color difference between protection and not protected areas more and more. I am going to skip the clear bra and put on a product called opti-coat which is a perm synthetic sealant on all plastics, rims, and painted areas. Its only $60 to do it yourself, and detailing places charge $500+ for it (that includes a lot of prep work for assumed damaged paint that needs a bit of polishing before sealing)

hollis said:

our dealer parts rep actually didnt advice the clear bra. Instead suggested getting an additional clear coat like protection. He said the once you get some good marks on the clear bra they may stay there perm and over time you will start to notice the color difference between protection and not protected areas more and more. I am going to skip the clear bra and put on a product called opti-coat which is a perm synthetic sealant on all plastics, rims, and painted areas. Its only $60 to do it yourself, and detailing places charge $500+ for it (that includes a lot of prep work for assumed damaged paint that needs a bit of polishing before sealing)

Click to expand...

Opti-Coat is a load of bulls***.

hollis said:

our dealer parts rep actually didnt advice the clear bra. Instead suggested getting an additional clear coat like protection. He said the once you get some good marks on the clear bra they may stay there perm and over time you will start to notice the color difference between protection and not protected areas more and more. I am going to skip the clear bra and put on a product called opti-coat which is a perm synthetic sealant on all plastics, rims, and painted areas. Its only $60 to do it yourself, and detailing places charge $500+ for it (that includes a lot of prep work for assumed damaged paint that needs a bit of polishing before sealing)

Click to expand...

I've seen both. Don't believe the coating over the clear bra at all.
There is absolutely no comparison. But you pay for what you get. The Venture Shield is costly.

I've been extremely impressed with the car and the Venture Shield. It's costly, but it really does a fantastic job.
Regarding colouring, the coating itself is very clear and of course will be affected by sun over time. But so will the paint.

The protection has one goal for me: preventing stone chips, shopping trolley scratches, car door scratches and anything that might affect the paintwork.

A coating that goes onto the paint *won't* stop that. But the VentureShield certainly will.

I have a sample on my desk at work. I've done simulated abuse scratching with keys, scissors, pens, anything sharp really. I've tried to destroy the film in a way that I hardly expect the car to go through. The one thing I was amazed with was how the material resists change. All the scratches that *should* be there, aren't there. And when you stab hard enough to make the film deform, it simply goes back to the original shape as if nothing happened.

What you might find is that your dealer would get more profit from installing a coating over Venture Shield. One is cheap to source and quick to install. The other requires a lot of prep work, and many hours of installation. Furthermore, installing Venture Shield (or similar) requires a lot of training and careful application. A terrible installation leads to a terrible result.

inodes, how much of the car did you cover?

hooked said:

inodes, how much of the car did you cover?

Click to expand...

All panels except the roof and rear. The front is the most intricate to get right. But the rear 3/4's are big pieces as well. They go from just above the wing mirror all the way back to the rear 3/4.

They did an awesome job and I'm extremely happy.

My wife parks in a shopping centre (US=Mall) all week. It needed to be protected from abuse.

Maxx Mazda said:

Opti-Coat is a load of bulls***.

Click to expand...

I have not read one single negative review by anyone on Opti-Coat 2.0, can you elaborate a tad more. Its meant to protect the paint and from only minor things like acin rain, bird droppings, asphalt, body acid from squashed inspects, but not rocks or other larger debris on the roads. OC is more of a permanent sealant (aka synthetic wax) thats 1-2 microns thick.

My theory is, given the high cost of the clear bra ($1000 from dealer) I can have a body shop repaint my hood as needed for much cheaper and better looking over time.