does autozone carry vinyl and window tint and can i please see a picture of a mini with tinted head lights
thanks

 

i wouldnt reccomend tinted heads unless you have xenons and even then you will reduce the light drastically but either way here is a pic of my heads tinted and then when i did my joey mod ( open up the light housing and paint the inner housing black ) ...i believe most auto parts stores do have tinting film ( windows) but its cheap and i wouldnt waste the loot ....but if you look up online you can find laminate tinting film for lights thats rubbery and very durable ...

 

Thanks i wasnt sure about the light tint. I was more interested in a solid black vinyl for blacking out my chrome grill
Nick

 

Pep Boys has some that's pretty good....

 

thats what I heard but the closestone is over an hour away
does anyone know about autozone

 

Use black-out tape. I believe I used 1 3/8" strips. In my case, I did not know they made tape this wide, so I purchased a peice of matte black vinyl from D ick Blick art supply and cut it with an Exacto knife, but the idea's the same. The vinyl grille slats look great IMHO - it's one of my favorite MODs...

 

Black electrical tape has held up well for me.

 

whoa, you should take a look under the tape to see what all that goo is doing to the paint. i only say this because the adhesive used for electrical tape is not designed to be applied to painted surfaces, but only as electrical insulation.

 

doesnt matter to me, when this tape falls off i'll re-apply it, or replace the grill with one from a black MINI S.

 

gotcha

 

I just 1/2in Vinyl to black out my beltline. I found it at PepBoys along with a lot of other various tapes.

 

Your car was one of teh cars that made me want to do this mod
Also what is Black out tape and were can i get it?
I tried the electric tape but i couldnt get the job to look right and was woried about the goo under neith it so i removed it

 

Try an auto parts store (brick and morter or online) - I think bigger places like Pep Boys carry it. 1 3/8" gives you enough width to completely cover the slats and have enough to wrap around. Use a NEW (very important, or it will tear te material) Exacto blade to trim the blachout vinyl arounf the grille slat supports (you'll see them when you apply it). Use a spray bottle with water and 2-3 drops of dish soap to lubricate the vinyl - it makes putting it on w/o bubbles much easier.

Oh - and it's best to buy like 2X-3X more than you need, both to take off the stress to apply it right the first time as well as to re-apply it when it gets chipped - mine's been on for about a year and it has a few rock chips in the vinyl - I'm just about ready to replace 1-2 of the slat peices.

Good luck and take pics when its done!

 

Will it affect chrome the way it affects paint? I'm thinking of covering the chrome slats on my grill, if maybe temporarily.

Zip

 

Tape could definitely blemish the chrome. Vinyl shouldnt cause problems though

 

Does any one know a good online store I can get it from
NIck

 

No problems with the chrome so far with actual vinyl. I wouldn't use electrical tape - it gets sticky/sloppy in the heat and it's not its intended use.

 

I wish there was such a thing as chrome-out tape...

 

there is.....they make chrome vinyl just like they make black vinyl.....

they even make it in tape style...just like the blackout stuff

 

Holy *&^(!!!! My grille COULD look new again!!

 

A friend who has a vinyl sign/graphics business advised me against using chrome vinyl on anything on the front of the car. He said it is bad for showing creases, scratches and such that can easily appear while installing it and anything that hits it like bugs and road debris will do a number on it. Apparently the colored vinyl is thicker and holds up MUCH better. I was going to use some on a grille badge and he said just driving with it on the front a short time would probably ruin the chrome areas of the badge.

 

Bah.

I guess I'll just stick to my original plan of buying a new grille every year or so.

 

Where do you drive? Unpaved, gravel roads? Wow...

If you need grilles post on the Marketplace forums - plenty of people have then in their garages since they do things like Aero Kit upgrades...

 

Both the local Pepboys and Autozone had the 1 3/8" black vinyl "Blackout Tape" when I did mine a few weeks ago. Turned out well following the instructions posted by others here, such as ImagoX

 

Looks fantastic... The satin-finish vinyl is just SO nice looking, especially against PW. Nicely done!