Last weekend I CF vinyl wrapped my dash and door panels,





I had a lot of vinyl left and the interior went so well I decided to change my stripes. Today I removed my old stripes and installed CF vinyl bonnet & boot stripes,







My old stripes were 5" wide the new stripes are 6" wide

 

How easy is that stuff to work with? It looks really good on the dash. Seems to stretch into the nooks and around the curves quite well.

 

Nabeshin,
It's nice stuff to work with, pretty hefty vinyl. I stretches real well with a little heat but takes a little practice so make sure you buy some extra. I had to do two sections of the dash twice to get them right because of deep draws. The vent pieces are the hardest but they are fairly small so you don't waste a lot of material if you have to do it a couple times. The big thing is work on it when you have lots of time, so you are not rushing. You will have to remove the dash pieces to do it right but they are not hard to remove.

I was originally going to use the 3M DI-NOC but it pretty expensive. I found this stuff on eBay and it's really comparable to the 3M but much cheaper.

http://stores.ebay.com/ORBI-Vinyl-Su...id=p4340.l2563

 

Looks nice, but I have a question about the exhaust
What brand is it, I would really like an oval end-tip like that. Hope I can get it without having to buy the resonators too

 

I'm impressed, that looks fantastic! Really clean job. How long did it take for just the interior, mess ups/redos and all?

 

The exhaust tip is home made, bought a stainless steel oval tip and modified it to mount on the stock MCS exhaust. I can change back and forth between the stock beer can tips and this one in a matter of ~2 minute because the exhaust system isn't modified and the new tip mounts with set screws just like the stock tips. Total cost was ~ $20.

 

Zero,
The interior took about 8 or 9 hour to complete, but I did the dash, door panels, down tubes, seat heater panel, the door window vents on the top of the dash and even the removable panels on both sides of the dash. To do the dash panels you have to remove them, but pretty easy and doesn't take a lot of time.

The Bonnet and boot stripes were faster, only about 5 hours for them.

 

Nice work

 

I was just thinking today about doing this same thing. It looks great so I'll probably try to do it in the next couple weeks.

Do you have any recommendations for the amount of wrap I should order? I'm going to measure it all out but how much waste did you have from the odd shapes of the parts?

 

Jooks,
I bought my vinyl from Orbi Vinyl on eBay.
http://stores.ebay.com/ORBI-Vinyl-Su...id=p4340.l2563
I bought "Black 3D Twill Weave Carbon Fiber Vinyl 24" X 33 Feet" (66 sq ft.) because I was planning on doing both my interior (dash, down tubes and doors) and bonnet & boot stripes plus it wasn't very expensive. Even with my "re-do's" and waste I still have ~ 1/3 of the roll left. I don't know how much you are planning on wrapping, but if you are just doing the dash you will probably need ~ 16 sq ft. because you end up with waste due to keeping the weave going all the same direction.

 

Did you clear coat over that at all to give it that kinda glossy look?

 

No clear coat, vinyl was just applied as purchased. It really isn't that shiny, more of a matte finish. This picture of my matching boot stripe shows the true surface finish better.

 

Wow. That is brilliant!!

 

looks good, I really like the dash.

 

In my experience, these things take me more time and material than it does for other people so I bought 20 square feet.

Was there a DIY you used? If there isn't one already maybe I'll take a crack at making one...

 

The only DIY I used was one I found for removing the dash panels so I could do a real good job wrapping them. I was a little leary about the airbag panel but it's really easier than I thought once I read teh DIY. Really pretty easy overall. I was a little tentative at first when I read you have to remove the top dash pad, but it turns out it's only 4 screws and the dash pad pops right off, less than 5 minutes.

 

Can you link us the DIY you used? My interior will be wrapped the same color as the car but I didn't find very good DIY to remove the interior bits.

Cheers

 

The DIY I used I found @ MINI2.com, this is the link;
http://www.mini2.com/forum/first-gen...moval-diy.html

 

If you popped the dash panels off why did you have to remove the top dash pad??

 

You can get most of the panels off w/o removing the dash pad but the air bag cover has restraining straps that you have to unbolt to get that panel off. Taking the dash pad off also makes it easier for the rest of them and you only have to remove 4 screws to take it off. Look though the DIY and you will see what I mean about the air bag cover restraints. If you follow that DIY you will have no problems.

 

 

I'll be interested to see how it holds up long term but it looks great! Does the pattern shift like true CF? That'd be asking a lot I know.

 

what is the best way to cut straight uniform stripes?

 

I know this an old thread and the OP might not even be on here much anymore, but I'd love to know all about that fabricated oval exhaust tip. It's awesome! If you are around (or if anyone else has done this) what tip did you start with and what mods were necessary to get it to fit over the existing pipes? I love reversible mods because I'm leasing and while I'm going to do some mods, I will keep the OEM parts in a box and set aside a day before I turn it in to "re-OEM" it. Very nice work on the wrapping too, BTW.

 

chaswyck: Was it my oval-tip mod you were looking for? I've posted about it before, it takes a little cutting & welding but clamps onto the stock tips with set screws like the OEM tips. Took me about an hour to fab up. I can send detailed info if this is what you are looking for. This is the tip I started with:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Exhaust-Tip-...#ht_2814wt_935