jcfay

Hi all - did a bit of searching but wanted some C63 specific experience. I've got a black '14 C63 and I'd like to vinyl wrap the silver/chrome plastic trim in 3M 1080 black vinyl. I watched a bunch of videos (some great ones out there) and it doesn't look too hard, but not sure if I should remove the trim (if it's all removable?) or wrap it in place. On the coupe the chrome piece around the door/side windows is a long one, and it looks like it'd be tough to remove. Anyone with advice? Links? Thanks as always

alpharabbit

I removed all of my trim to wrap it. I did this because I wanted to wrap the vinyl behind the trim so there was no seam. I am also new at vinyl so I wanted to make it as easy as I could on myself. The trim around the door sits on these pop tabs. You can use a plastic pry tool or your fingers to pry off and it will pop out of place. To put it back you just pop it back on and it will snap back in.

here is my thread about this recently, it has a video on how to remove the trim around the door:

https://mbworld.org/forums/c63-amg-w...ml#post6023232

rediesel

It's best to remove the trim. I've done the coupe; it's probably easier than the sedan since you don't need to take the mirrors off to remove the door trim. For the large trim above the door/side window start at the side closest to the hood and use plastic trim removal tool to pull/pop the trim down - when you get to the rear side window the trim pulls out/away from the car (the trim under the side window pulls out as well).

jcfay

Thanks all, really helpful. I found a couple additional youtube vids but they're only moderately helpful. I think I'll remove the trim especially since it sounds easier on the coupe. I ordered a couple of swatches of gloss, satin, and matte (as well as a "brushed" black that's kind of interesting) but it looks like satin might be best to match the weather stripping around the door? Was the trunk trim easy to remove? I know I saw a thread on removing the grille, but consider it's shape I think it might be a bit more challenging to wrap well. Thanks again

Kriston

Fellas the wrap is a good cost effective way to wrap the chrome trim black. But have any of you considered removing the metal trim and have it powder coated?

I wrapped the chrome trims myself. Overall it looks good, but it just doesn't look OEM to me. Im thinking this may another way to get rid of the chrome trim. Powder coating isn't very expensive either.

alpharabbit

There are 2 I think t20 screws on the outside on either side of where the handle is. After that you need to remove the trunk liner buy popping out all the little plastic push pins and removing a few screws along the edge. The push pins are tough to get out at times and you have the potential to break them if you don't pull straight out. This is where my plastic pry tool kit really saved me as I had a puller tool included in my set.

After the liner is out there are 2 additional screws you need to remove from the inside of the trunk. After those are out you can just pull the trim piece along with the black plastic piece it sits on down from the trunk.

NOTE: Tape the holy crap out of your trunk along the edges where the trim is. If you don't you are guaranteed to scratch your paint when you pull the trim piece down, when it pops off it will most likely plow its sharp edge into your paint. I had 4 layers of tape on there and it still went through a bit.

Once that whole black piece with trim is off the car, you can pop the trim off that black piece by pushing the chrome trim tabs out. There might be some way to do this without removing everything, but honestly I did not want to break it. Hope that helps!

rediesel

I'd stay away from the brushed, anything with a pattern will be a PITA to do. I used 1080 gloss black.

I did the trunk peice on the car.

I like the wrap because it isn't permanent. (I have been thinking about getting new emblems for the back and having them painted gloss black.)

alpharabbit

I have considered both painting and powder coating. The problem is the chrome. Most places don't even want to mess with it because in the end when you paint or powder coat over chrome it will most likely chip. Powder coat will hold up better than paint, but you are still bonding the coating to the chrome surface. There are also integral rubber weather stripping elements inside the lower window trim pieces that (as far as I know) cannot be removed. I don't know how they would hold up through the powder coating process (mainly the bake).

jcfay

Really helpful. I've been reading the life expectancy for the vinyl is probably 5 years max, as well, as sun/heat will tear into it over time. I assume with the powder coating they'd have to really prep the pieces appropriately in order to guarantee longterm adhesion. Has anyone removed the vinyl? I would think one of the positives of the vinyl would be that if you don't like it, or it wears, it can be removed. From what I've read it shouldn't damage the trim pieces in any way, I just assume there'd be some gummy residue to remove, but that should be it I'd hope...

jcfay

Well, started the wrapping project this weekend. Got setup today and figured I'd start with an easy bit and wrap the chrome trunk piece. I took a decent look at it and it looked like it would be easier to wrap in place. It wasn't bad, considering it was my first time working with vinyl. Fortunately there are many videos on line that give a pretty good idea of how to approach it. I'm not sure how I'll do the windows yet, since the trim there is directly up against some rubber weather stripping. I may remove part and wrap the other bit in place. I still can't figure out if I'd need to remove the mirrors to remove the lower piece of trim - it looks like the trim piece runs underneath the mirror housing... Anyway, I'll upload some pics when complete. One thing I did notice is the gloss black isn't a perfect color match for the gloss black of the car. I'm going to do the window trim in satin as it may look better.

After the windows will be the grille, and since it's a 2014 (with the solid star) not sure how I'll do that. May wrap the chrome rays on the side and perhaps run some smoke/translucent vinyl over the star itself? Think I saw that somewhere else.

jcfay

Well, I removed the trim which was a bit of a pain. The lower front piece on the coupe runs under the mirrors about 1/2", and so you have to gradually lift the trim from the other side until only the inserted bit remains, and then slide that out carefully. The upper trim was also a pain. FYI, there are 7 pop tabs running front to back on the coupe (so you just pull that trim down and it pops off of those tabs), and then it converts to a track that just slides out. But the rubber rivet that holds in the 7th tab is superglued to the trim itself (on my '14 coupe), so make sure to take an exacto and cut that rivet free before pulling off the trim or you may damage the 7th pop tab.

Couple of other points - the top strip is over 8' long. I'm going to end up with a seam since I bought a 5' roll. Rediesel did this really well on the link above, hopefully mine will turn out as well. It's going to be a bear trying to slide in the front lower trim pieces after wrapping under the mirrors, so it might be smart to at least loosen them (but I'm going to wait on this).

Finally, the upper trim is smooth on the outside, but the entire lower edge (the widest piece, all 8' of it) is wavy on the bottom. Any tips on getting the vinyl to flow into those areas? I guess just heat and time spent?

alpharabbit

Heat and patience. Ultimately it will probably unstick from those ridges and be more smooth again so I wouldn't be too insane about it.

rediesel

Sounds like you are doing a good job of it. I used those wavy ridges as a transition point back to chrome since they are inside when the door is closed. I think I have two black grooves and the rest are chrome. This ensured a nice straight line too. I just used pressure (with a plastic tool/creditcard/fingernail) to get in the grooves then cut off the excess. When I did it I started by applying vinyl to that bottom side and wrapping it over onto the front face. I also made sure both the bottom and top of the overlap seam were cut nice and straight.

Sky Hye

This is a great thread. Very helpful. I settled on satin pearl white by 3M. When I get my car that will be the first Mod. I do followed by res. delete

jcfay

You probably made the right choice. There's no way to get any vinyl to stick into all of those grooves. The vinyl itself is only engineered to stretch a certain amount, and it has shape memory, so unless you could do it very gradually it will always pop back out. The good news is the 3' of the upper trim on the rear end of the vehicle is half buried anyway in the weather stripping, so those grooves aren't visible. And the other ones aren't visible either as you say unless the door is open and you're looking for it.

I was able to reinsert the trim pretty easily. Just be aware that the pressure tabs for the trim piece under the rear coupe window don't make any audible click when you've successfully re-seated the trim, unlike the other pieces that either click into place or slide firmly into place. So make sure you push good and hard to reseat that trim.

Overall it looks great. Took a day, + or -, and would take 1/2 as long again if that. The 1st time is the hardest, of course. But it looks TONS better, IMO. Next I gotta figure out what to do with the grille, since I've got distronic the grille is different and has RADAR behind it, so I'm not even sure I could black out the star. May try the other pieces of the grille but not sure how it will look with a chrome center star still in place.

Thanks for the help all - J