alpharabbit

I want to get the chrome trim blacked out so I requested a quote from a place locally. They quoted me $465 to do the window trim, trunk piece, and front grill star and the single grill fin. That seems really expensive to me, is this normal cost for something like this?

I can buy a sheet of vinyl off amazon for like $150 and DIY, but I can barely apply a sticker to a flat surface so I wanted to get it done by a professional hand.

Kriston

Its really quite simple! I did my trim front grill and chrome strip on the trunk myself. Spent 2 evenings taking my time with it.

I can understand that some do not want to try as it involves a sharp cutting tool near your cars paint. I wouldn't even trust the wrap with some pro's. Some of those guys just don't care.

I bought enough gloss black Vinyl to do my entire car and sold the rest locally.

Here's 2 pics of the side profile and a close up of the vinyl over the existing chrome trim. Looks more sleek compared to the chrome IMHO.

alpharabbit

Cool, thanks for the input. I was planning to remove the trim from the car anyways since its actually quite easy to do so I don't even need to worry about sharp stuff near the paint. My concern is I will buy a bunch of vinyl, mess up a bunch of times and then end up back at square one.

Kriston

Where are you located?

Window trims should be only 100 bucks. Front grill 100-125.

rediesel

I did the window trim, door handles, trunk peice, and emblems myself. The emblems I give a B- but everything else is A+. The window trim peices come off easily with a plastic $10 trim removal set.

The vinyl is easy to work with and quite forgiving. I paid $30 and have a little left over.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/60-x24-3M-1080-GLOSS-BLACK-METALLIC-Vinyl-Vehicle-Decal-Car-Wrap-Film-Sheet-/221263126980?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item33844f61c4#ht_2764wt_1314
This thread has pics after the wrap.
https://mbworld.org/forums/c63-amg-w...-c63-snow.html

alpharabbit

Is 60" enough to cover the whole length of the top window trim? I think I measured it to be quite a bit longer but I cant remember off the top of my head. I have the sedan, so I dont know how much different the length of the window trim is vs the coupe.

Faris63

I used this for the window trim and trunk piece way easier to apply

alpharabbit

I am located in central Indiana. The shop I asked I always trusted for this kind of stuff, but they changed owners at some point and the pricing these days seems really out of whack to me.

Kriston

You can also try plasti-dipping the trim. Remove them and plasti-dip them.

Should have good results too. If you are more comfortable with a spray can.

tofu-

for gloss: http://shadowlinetrim.com/purchase.html

seems wrapping the w204 trim will be a lot easier than the e9x. no extreme curves on the side port window to worry about. maybe buy the extra wide one so you can use it for the star too

rediesel

No there is a seam with about a 1/8" overlap. You have to look hard to see it - I made sure those cuts were straight and clean.

Autosport7

I did this on my BMW, it was a breeze taking the trim pieces off, putting them back on was and entirely different story! I have pulled engines and rebuilt them, but trying to get the trim back on was trying to say the least.
Is it the same with C63?

papashango

How hard/easy is it to take the trim off? I have my roof vinyl wrapped and want to wrap the chrome bits, including the front grille. If it's not hard, I would like to do it myself. Paid $300 plus taxes for the roof at a local shop.

alpharabbit

All seems pretty easy. Removing the star from the actual grill is probably the most involved. You would remove the grill and then have to pop out all the little tabs that hold the chrome bits to the black part of the grill.

As for window trim:

Kriston

You can definitely wrap the trim with these parts on your car. The Trim is raised from the body of the car by a few MM. Its more then enough room to neatly trim the excess vinyl.

I did mine on the car, it was fairy straight forward. Don't want to take apart my door / mirrors to get the trim off.

rediesel

Removing the trim and wrapping is easier than the video shows. Removing the side mirror is not necessary. I did not do it. I did remove the end peices from the door trim like the video, but I'm not sure that is required either. The big trim peice above the door/rear window on the coupe pulls down like the sedan in the video untill you get to the rear window then it pulls out away from the car. Coupe trim below rear window pulls up. Install in reverse (probably easier than removal). Here is a pic of mine. I included a close up of the overlap seam I have - it's just behind the door weather-stripping.

alpharabbit

Thanks for the pics! From the pics it looks like the trim on the coupe does not go past the side mirror. On the sedan the trim does go under the mirror housing, which is why it is required to remove it.

After everyone's input I am ordering some vinyl today to get this project done myself. I will probably try the shadowline tape approach first since its cheap. I will have to post up some pics when I get it done (unless I totally botch it)

rediesel

I see what you mean, it slides a couple inches into/under the mirror on the coupe, and is exposed under the mirror on the sedan

papashango

So is removing the side mirror on the sedan needed then or not? If not, then all it seems like is that just carefully pull the tabs off?

alpharabbit

Here is an update and some lessons for people wanting to tackle this on their own.

I bought a roll of gloss black vinyl from amazon for something like $80. It was an 8ft x 5ft sheet so I could wrap the long piece of trim on the top window without a seam and gave me enough material to make mistakes and try again. I also bought some plastic trim removal tools which were invaluable and I would HIGHLY recommend getting a set for this project. I removed all the trim from the car for wrapping, this was a tedious process and took me several hours to do. Now that I have done it I think I could do it faster, but I went slow so I didn't break anything.

On the sedan you DO need to remove the mirrors to remove the lower piece of trim on the door. This is a simple process so it's not that bad, just watch the video I posted. For some reason the lower trim around the windows was really tightly fit so it took me a long time wiggling with a trim tool and my fingers to even get it to lift up and out of the track. Important lesson here, tape the hell out of your car around where the trim ends are, it is WAY to easy to scratch the crap out of your paint with the sharp end of the trim.

Taking the grill out took some patience as you cannot see the tabs on the lower part of the grill so its hard to get them to back out without feeling like you are about to snap the grill in half. I also removed the trim around the trunk which requires complete removal of the trunk lid liner so that took some time.

As far as wrapping, I have never really wrapped anything before but I went slow, watched some tips on youtube and gave it my best shot. If there is one tip to take away it is USE HEAT, but CAUTIOUSLY. You develop a sense of how much heat to use to relax the material but not start melting it. All in all it took me several days coming home from work and devoting all my time to wrapping to get the job done, but the results look great!

Last pro tip, if you want to remove the door handle trim you will need a 6 inch t20 driver for the rear doors. I suggest buying one before you really need it, because no shop in my town even carries one; they only have 4 inch ones. If that's the case you get to make one these, buy welding a t20 bit to a screwdriver .



I should have some pics of the finished product soon.