Plastic Shield

[charlesebrownjr]

Hey Jerry, I don't have a BRA and gave my Bug Shield away but if having both of them on my coach would create a serious amount of gossip on this site, I will get the shield back pronto!!!!!!!!!!!

I kind of like traveling topless
Also, I see from some of the post you may be doing a little better. Good luck and recover very soon.

[Ledo]

I to am growing tired of dealing with the front shield. How do the 3M masks work out?

[phorner]

Every 3M mask that I have seen has a useful life of 3 - 5 years before the scratches and cracks are so bad it looks terrible.

Unless there is something new that is a substantial improvement over what has been applied in the past, I would not put it on my bus....

[BoaterAl]

I too grew tired of the plastic shield and defended it on this forum. As it aged it was becoming cloudy, as predicted. After doing the headlight up-grade it just was time to come off.

If anyone needs shield parts I have lots as one of the storage tenants left his shield in the building when he sold the coach.

[merle&louise]

I watched 2 workers removing a 3M mask; it took them 2 days to get it all off! I would just live without it.

Consider the scratches and dents as adding "character" to your bus!

[BoaterAl]

A Marathon salesperson told me the standard practice of the 3M shield being put on is no more. Front ends painted, 3M shield... owners choice now.

Just way to many problems with the 3M shield.

[Reagan Sirmons]

Somebody needs to get a life. I will be at the Oct POG event and will have the dreaded "shield" on the front of my coach. I thought about removing it because of what I had heard particularly from our favorite OSU Cowboy and our favorite government employee but instead I worked on it and returned it back to the original crystal clear condition. When you look at the coach, the shield is not noticeable. That is the way they were designed. I can imagine it might look better to see the stainless and paint without the shield but in reality, with the shield clear and shiny, it looks fine. I would not keep the shield if the stainless and paint behind it were not refinished and like new. A part of this is that with Pete Petree's direction, I spent 9 hours refinishing the stainless on the entire coach obviously including the front. I don't know about the noise level but I can not understand the reasoning that without the shield, it would be louder.
Besides, I need the shield to protect my coach from all of the cow poop that gets flung off of Loc's coach when he parks next to me in the warehouse at night.
He's still into doing wheelies in his corral with his Millie Millenium.
Pres

[truk4u]

Pres,

I kinda like the shields, but never had one. How do you clean the bug juice and crap that gets down behind it? I wash down the front of mine after each day and would think dealing with the shield would be a pain unless it's on a hinge and can be easily moved for cleaning. Or do you have a Porter that handles that like Loc!

PS - Where's your signature, are you hiding the Converter or have you already traded again?

[Sawbonz]

Ok, cancelled the 3M. I don't think I can handle the razzing of a shield. Will just have to paint it when the time comes.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

I know the reason for the plastic shield is to prevent the front from getting dings. I get that.

But the downside is to prevent dings an owner has almost twice the maintenance on the front of the coach than a coach without it. The plastic clouds up or crazes. So from time to time it has to be buffed out to restore the appearance. Every time the bus is needing to be cleaned the shield needs to be cleaned, then the shield needs to be lowered so the front of the bus behind the shield and the back of the shield can be cleaned effectively doubling the effort to keep the front looking good.

In the meantime the next owner of the bus thanks you for the considerable effort to keep the coach ding free.

As to the appearance, this may be only my personal preference, but I would rather see the stone dings in the front of my bus than the shield which not only looks ugly, but represents a lot of extra work keeping its ugliness to a minimum. Usually owners either obsess over keeping the shield looking as good as possible, or the shield ends up looking like a cloudy, cracked plastic bug catcher.

This of course is a throuw back to when my parents bought furniture or a car and then proceeded to cover the seats with clear plastic. The plastic looked like hell and the next owner of the car or sofa ended up with like new seating while we had to sit on plastic that was hot and sticky in the summer and cold and crinkly in the winter.

I'm pretty sure JDUB may offer his opinion if we can get him to get past his shyness when discussing plastic shields.