Hey Guys,
So I've been looking into possibly either hydrodipping or vinyl wrapping my brushed aluminum interior trim pieces a high gloss black color. The quote I have from my local hydrographics purveyor is ~$200 (seems kinda high) with me doing the removal and intallation and I havent had a chance to contact anyone regarding cost of vinyl wrapping since Im still waiting on 3m to get back to me regarding samples. My question though, if anyone has experience with either vinyl or hydrodipping, would be which is better quality and more cost efficient? Also I have to consider the return to stock aspect. Thanks in advance.

 

Have no experience with hydrodipping but I do have a decent amount of experience with vinyl.

It is a very easy to mold material and you can honestly achieve a very good look. The interior trim pieces shouldn't be hard at all since they are relatively flat surfaces. Because of this air bubbles would probably be next to 0. Cutting would be the only hard part. Basically just try to get every flat surface entirely covered with the vinyl and heat the vinyl where the button cut outs so they stretch inward and then cut enough tuck behind the center console piece. As far as costs, a 1ftx5ft sheet of 3M 1080 gloss black vinyl ran me $18. A 4ftx5ft sheet cost me $50. With the 4ftx5ft sheet you'd have more than enough to do all of your interior trim pieces and potentially any pieces you'd want to do on the outside.

Just a tip. The 1080 vinyl won't give you a perfect piano black look if thats what you're going for. It'll give you the same appearance as the black b-pillars on the doors.

Goodluck with whatever you decide to do.

 

Thank you, that is exactly the information I was looking for regarding the vinyl and explains a lot!! Do you know of any vinyl that will give the piano black look? That is the effect I'm going for pretty much. Thanks for your help.

 

https://www.myg37.com/forums/body-in...rior-trim.html

Here's a thread I started about it. I ended up doing it myself in gloss black. $40 and 4 hours, very simple, just time consuming.

 

Much appreciated brother! Here I thought I was being semi-original lol... but honestly this makes me want to do it even more now, you did an amazing job!

 

I think hydrographics are OK for interior stuff, I had my mirrors and front chin spoiler hydro dipped and the spoiler didn't hold up well, mirrors are OK but still a little easy to chip the clear coat. The shop that did mine didn't have a lot of time working w/ the process so that may be to blame I think being out of the elements the hydro-graphed pieces would fare better.
FWIW I wrapped my interior trim pieces a while back and they still look as fresh as day 1.
Here's my thread on it with a few pointers that may help (maybe, lol)
https://www.myg37.com/forums/g37-sed...m-project.html
I think I'm going to do it again in brushed black machined vinyl, but that's kinda my theme
Also I'd get a few 99 cent samples from metrorestyling.com you might find a black that's the piano black that you're after.
Vinyl Samples

 

Thanks man! I almost went carbon fiber but I really like the black. Order good vinyl (*cough* *cough* autovinylsolutions.com) and take your time. The hardest part is the center console area and the shifter area. You spend most of your time disassembling everything.

 

Already ordered... from AVS ; )

 

Thank you as always blnewt. I definitely planned on tapping your DIY for inspiration, I ended up going with the 3m gloss black from AVS thanks to Thirty_Seven it looks pretty darn close to what I'm after and at a much more reasonable under $50 DIY price tag! Thanks again for the helpful advice guys!

 

I almost always use AVS too, but metrorestyling is THE place for samples, at least 99 cent ones, lol.
Look forward to seeing it come together

 

Got this done last night, definitely took more time than I anticipated but I'm happy with the turnout Thanks for the advice and the diy's

 

looks great. i hope to tackle this one day with no prior wrapping experience. how long did it take to do all the pieces?

 

Thanks man. Once you get the hang of the vinyl wrapping up the pieces doesn't take too long at all, although if you're a perfectionist/borderline ocd it'll take longer . Now taking off all the individual pieces and unassembling and reassembling them... thats a little different story lol. You have to pull your whole glovebox out just to get that one little trim piece above it out. Oh and of you're like me you'll want to change your cabin filter out while your at it and if you have an led bulb for your glove box light you mine as well knock that out to . Removing the console stack is fun too especially taking everything apart for the clock/radio panel
*pro tip* when taking apart the radio there is a screw in the middle where you wouldnt expect it holding the electronics to the trim panel so when your trying to figure out why everything is loose around the edges but the electronics panel and buttons won't come out, it's because that screw lol. You'll figure it out. Otherwise I enjoy ripping stuff apart and putting it back together so I enjoyed this little project.

 

Looks like an awesome job, and quite a dramatic transformation
Those radio screws was why I posted this pic just to show how many screws you need to remove (since there's so many you don't need to take off).

 

Thanks blnewt, I used your DIY also but most of overlooked that part lol... my excuse is it was late and I was tired but I figured it out without ripping all the screws out Thanks again for all the help! Now if only someone on here could help me study for my final exam in a week lol