Invinca-Shield Kit

Invinca-Shield face sheet.  This document shows you what parts of the car each piece covers.  

Invinca-Shield now offers a new kit design that alleviates the problems I had with the third piece.  The piece is subdivided into 3 pieces.  This new kit is depicted in the new face sheet above as well as if you order Invinca-Shield you will get the NEW kit that will be easier to install.

Here is a picture of the kit which includes the invinca-shield, application solution, spray bottle, brochures and an instructional videotape.  I recommend watching the tape!

First step, remove the Toyota Emblem if you are switching to the Japanese MR2 emblem, if not, skip these steps and make sure you order the kit with the oval cut-out for the factory emblem.

Here I have peeled back the logo to expose the two pin holes and the sticky tape used to mount the emblem.

Emblem removed, residue still present. At this point I simply rub this stuff off with my finger so as not to scratch the paint.

Sticky stuff all gone!

Very important to clean the whole front of the car, so I gave the car a bath and removed all bugs, tar, etc. I had previously touched up a rock chip a few days before (separate photos on this website)

Here I am laying out the first piece of the invinca-shield, although it is still on its backing, I like to size up each piece and get an understanding of how it fits before I apply it.  I thought I'd start with the easiest piece, which is on a relatively flat surface.  Angela was shooting the pictures now.

I wet down the surface of the car with a solution that is provided in the kit.  You mix 1 to 2 capfuls of solution to 32oz of water.  The spray bottle is included in the kit as well.  Make sure the surface stays wet!

Here I am separating the first piece from the backing.  Be sure to spray the piece as you peel it back to keep the piece wet as well.  The wetter you keep things, the easier it is to work with.

Here is am positioning the piece on the car, trying to line it up even on all sides and continue to keep the piece wet.

Using the included squeegee tool, smooth the piece from center to edges to drive out the fluid underneath and smooth out any air bubbles.

Continuing to smooth out the piece working from center to end from middle to sides.  The video included in the kit explains this pretty well.

Here we go, first piece applied. Do you see it? I don't!

Here we are from another angle, you'd have to look very hard to spot the edge of the piece.

Sizing up the next piece.  I had to make some small modification cuts to this piece to fit around the side marker lights.  I think Invinca-shield needs to re-evaluate their dimensions on this piece slightly, or I needed to stretch the piece more!

Here I am laying the next piece out, again work from the center to the edges, and align the piece carefully before using the squeegee.

A particularly difficult curve here, probably took 15 minutes per side just for these curves, again I think a slight modification to the piece in this area by Invinca-Shield would make it easier.

They say never cut on the car! Ok, well I think you can if you do it with scissors and do it carefully!  The piece didn't quite fit around the side marker light on either side so a bit of trimming was necessary.

Here we are first two pieces installed! At this point the kit was fairly easy, the fit good, no spots too difficult, but that was about to change with the 3rd piece!

Here I am beginning to size up the third piece.  I cannot imagine how it would be possible to combine the 2nd piece and the 3rd piece into one solid piece as the Stonguard kit does. I don't think it would go on the car!

Beginning to lay the 3rd piece.

Here are the difficult areas, at the bottom where the body is curving in multiple directions at the same time.  Although a couple of relief cuts were provided I think the relief cuts needed to be bigger and in fact I ended up making them bigger to get the piece to lay down better.

Here we are with this side finished, you can't see them in the picture but there are a couple of places where there are some imperfections. I also had to use a hairdryer to heat up the piece, it was getting late and cooler outside and the piece was stiffening up.

Here I am working on the bottom right hand side.  In the mean time Angela has put on the center bottom piece that runs along the bottom strip. It was pretty much flat and not very difficult to put on.

Peeling back the film to expose the tape on the back of the new front emblem.

Here is the emblem on the car, I think it looks pretty good!

Here we are, the finished car!  All in all about 3 hours from start to finish.