Here is a black Mercedes W204 C300 or C350, I don't remember, since it was debaged. I vinyl wrapped the chrome or brushed aluminum window trims with my gloss black vinyl material to give it that shadowline blacked out look. For this car, we went with the gloss black material over the matte black material. We did this so that the window trim would blend in with the car more, since his tail lights were tinted fairly dark (making then look like gloss black) and his wheels had some gloss black accents on it as well. I also blacked out the chrome trunk handle in the rear to complete the entire chrome blacking our look/process.

In addition to the window trim, I also did the top half portion of the side mirror blinkers in gloss black. I basically covered the reflector portion and left the actual indicator portion visible/clear.

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After:


















-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com

 

I've had a few people ask me what a gloss black vinyl wrapped roof would look like on a more stock/factory looking car. I vinyl wrapped the roof of this white BMW E46 325i sedan in my gloss black vinyl material. For this particular car, if the owner of this car was to have keep this car as is, without doing too many other mods, gloss black would definitely be the correct choice over matte black or carbon fiber, etc. Those finishes would be too aggressive for the car. Don't mind the pink emblems. This car was owned by a girl. The owner of this car drove out to me from Irvine/Orange County.

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After:








-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com

 

Tinted / smoked the headlights on this new white C250 Mercedes sedan with the new lighter shade of tint that I have been using. The darkness of this tint is about half of other tint shade that I used to use. This shade of tint is light enough to still allow a good amount of light through it, so that not too much light output is reduced, but it is still dark enough that it still tones down the head lights / tail lights that it is being applied to. The owner of this car came out to me from around Corona to Orange County / Anaheim Hills to get the vinyl work done. I also blacked out the chrome and the roof on this same car.

Before - Untinted/unsmoked on passenger side, tinted/smoked on driver side:


Untinted/unsmoked:


Tinted/smoked:


After:






-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com

 

Here is an imola red BMW E46 M3 that had me vinyl wrap his roof with the 3M 1080 gloss carbon fiber material. I tried to take more pictures to try and help show the differences between carbon fiber weaves in the 3M 1080 vs the 3M di-noc material. I believe the owner of this car was from San Diego and came up to me in Orange County to have the vinyl work done. The weave in the 1080 material is a lot smaller/finer, and due to the nature of the material, it comes out wavier than the dinoc material.

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After:
















-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com

 

Who said you couldn't modify wagons? Here is a brand new white Mercedes E63 AMG wagon that I vinyl wrapped the factory chrome or brushed aluminum window trim with my matte black vinyl material. In addition to the chrome window trim, I also blacked out the rear chrome trunk handle piece to complete the look. The owner of this car was local to me in Orange County. It made a big difference as you can see from the before/after pictures. Getting rid of the chrome made the car look a lot more solid and really pulled the car together. Completely changed the look/stance of the car in my opinion.

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After:











-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com

 

Brand new alpine white BMW 550i F10 sedan, less than a week old. The owner of this car had me vinyl wrap the roof of his F10 in gloss black including the side roof rails on his car. The antenna was painted gloss jet black to match the roof. This car came out to me to from Buena Park area to Anaheim Hills/Orange County to get the work done. I think the gloss black roof really suited this bigger body car very well, especially with the black trunk spoiler and darker gunmetal wheels. The car came with the sport package factory shadowline trim from the factory already, so that match fairly well with the roof as well. You can find some more pictures of this car on the Vorsteiner site/facebook.



















-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com

 

Somewhat more recently, I had this titanium silver BMW E46 330i ZHP sedan come by to have me vinyl wrap the roof of his car with the 3M di-noc matte carbon fiber vinyl material for him. I think this is the first E46 or even BMW in general that I have worked on that did not have a sunroof, which was pretty cool. As you can see in the pictures, both the side roof rails were wrapped along with the roof for this car. The owner of this car was from around the Los Angeles county and came out to me in Orange County / Anaheim Hills to get it done.

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After:












-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com

 

Again, this is the new lighter shade of tint/smoke film that I am using. This is not regular normal window tint. This material is designed to be used on the exteriors of cars. I tinted / smoked the tail lights on this darker gray gunmetal colored new E350 sedan. We decided to go with covering the entire tail light to give it a consistent finish over the whole tail light versus just tinting the clear or red section on this car. The owner of this car was from around Newport Beach area and came out to me in Anaheim Hills to get the work done. It's not often that I get non white cars, so this will help out those who have similar colored cars and were thinking about getting their tails smoked or tinted and how it'd look. I also took some pictures inside and outside, to show the differences of how the shade looks in different lighting conditions.

Before:




Driver side tinted/smoked - Passenger side untinted/unsmoked.


After:






-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com

 

The owner of this silver F10 528i sedan drove down from norcal / San Francisco to me in Orange County to have his window trim vinyl wrapped with my gloss black vinyl. Similar to what the shadowline trim would have looked like from the BMW factory. I took more close up pictures around the edges, corners, etc this time to show you guys in more detail of how the finished product looks.

















-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com

 

Not exactly sure the name of the color of this 370z, but the color looked silver. Either way, I vinyl wrapped the roof of this car in my gloss black material. The owner drove from Los Angeles county to me in Orange County to the roof wrapped. The curves of the roof really help make the gloss black roof pop and stand out a bit more. The owner of this car plastidip his antenna in the matte black finish. So this is good for those who wanted to get gloss black roofs and wanted to plastidip their antennas. I believe plastidip has a gloss black version out now that'd probably work better.











Some of the plastidip peeled off/up a bit when installing the vinyl. Tip of advice, plastidip the antenna after the roof is wrapped, instead of plastidipping i tbeforehand.


-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com

 

I had a new silver Lexus CT200h come by to have me vinyl wrap his roof with the 3M di-noc matte carbon fiber material. The owner of this car was also from Irvine / Orange County. Took some close up pictures around the antenna area and side rails, just to show you the extent of the vinyl coverage and it looks up close. I think the roof accented the silver color of the car fairly well, especially since this carbon fiber finish has somewhat of a silver/gray tone to it, even though it is the black carbon fiber finish. The owner of this car also wants me to wrap his hood with the 3M dinoc carbon fiber material and tint his tails as well, so once I do those, I'll post some more pictures.

















-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com

 

The owner of this blue VW Mk4 Jetta contacted me regarding the clear coat/paint issues that he has been having on his roof. The original plan was to wrap the trunk, roof, and hood, to cover up and prevent any further oxidizing of the paint. However, I told him to just go with the roof first, to test it out and see how that turns out first before continuing with the rest.

Vinyl is only an alternative to paint, it is not a replacement. However, in this case, it was a cheaper option and better than leaving the roof to oxidize further. The better condition the roof is in, the better the final results of the vinyl wrap will be. The vinyl material is very thin, about the same thickness as the car's paint, so it is by no means a body filler. Luckily for the owner of this car, even though the roof was in pretty bad condition, the vinyl was able to hide/cover up most of the oxidation without showing through the vinyl itself.

We went with the gloss black vinyl finish for the roof to give it a more factory look, versus going with the matte black finish or carbon fiber finishes.

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After:








-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com

 

This isomething a little different. It isn't a roof, but I did vinyl wrap the roof of this silver Lexus ISF with the 3M dinoc carbon fiber material a couple of months prior. The owner of this car ended up coming back to have me vinyl wrap the center of his hood with the matte black material and wrap the two sides of the hood in the 3M di-noc matte carbon fiber material. We were originally going to only do the center in matte black, but the owner decided to do this after seeing it on another car. The owner of this car came from San Diego up to me in Orange County / Anaheim Hills to get the work done. I think it really filled in the hood nicely and gave it a pretty cool look.











-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com

 

The owner of this white Mercedes E550 coupe contacted me to lightly tint / smoke the tail lights on their car. The owner of this car was also from Orange County and came over to my shop in Anaheim Hills to get the work done. This is the new shade that I am using for tail lights, which give a very light factory smoke look. I tried to take some more before/after pictures so you guys can better see/visualize the differences and how this shade of smoke / tint looks like. I am not really into blacking out tail lights or dark tail lights, so this shade is perfect to me imo.

Before:


Right - Passenger side tinted / smoked:


Before - Untinted / unsmoked:


After:












-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com

 

I had posted pictures of this same car that I also tinted the tail lights on. However, I had also blacked out the chrome / brushed aluminum window trim for him as well to give it that shadowline look. Unlike BMW, Mercedes does not have the shadowline option from the factory, so the only way to get rid of it is to vinyl wrap it.

We went with matte black instead of gloss black for this car. Everything turned out really nicely with the matte black finish. I personally think getting rid of the chrome is one of the biggest changes you can do with the car, especially if you are blacking or or getting rid of the chrome on the rest of the car. The black window trim really gives it a sportier look. In addition to the window trim, I also blacked out the chrome on the back trunk handle. The owner of this car drove out to me in Anaheim Hills from Newport Beach / Orange County to have the work done.











-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com

 

Sorry if I have not responded to PMs or e-mails as fast/quickly over the last week or so. I had a friend pass away. His name was Jonathan Pham. He was the person who got me into doing vinyl and the reason why I do vinyl wrapping today, so I had been busy attending to his passing.

I had this white Mercedes Benz C63 AMG sedan come by to have me vinyl wrap the roof of their car in my gloss black material to give it the panoramic roof look. I believe the owner of this car was from Los Angeles and drove out to me in Orange County / Anaheim Hills to have the work done. I also did the side front bumper slats in the matte 3M carbon fiber di-noc material, which was a bit tricky to cut, since it had to be done freehand and there were no real lines/curves to follow. I forgot to take the before pictures, but I am sure you can imagine what a white roof would have looked like on this car before I vinyl wrapped the roof black.

Blacking out the chrome in either gloss or matte black vinyl to give it the shadowline look would really complete the look of this car imo and give it an aggressive look/stance.













-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com

 

The owner of this car came out to me in Orange County from the Los Angeles area to have me lightly smoke / tint the tail lights on his black Mercedes Benz CLK55. In addition to the tail lights I also smoked / tinted the headlights and the side blinkers on the mirrors of his car. This light smoke / tint shade is nice, because it is not too dark and won't block out too much of the light output from the head/tail lights. Also, since this film material has a gloss finish to it, it'll give a shine to your headlights or tail lights again if they are a bit dull from age/wear.

Before:


Tinted / smoked inner smaller passenger side headlight:


After:












-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com

 

Had this new body black Mercedes Benz CLS63 come by to have me black out the chrome / aluminum trim around the windows and back rear trunk handle chrome piece. We went with matte black finish material so that the trim pieces still accented the car and did not disappear completely into the body of the car. You can notice it when I take the pictures, the trim pieces still pop out a little bit in the pictures. It gives it a nice contrast if that's what you are trying to go for. The owner of this car was also from Orange County.

By blacking out the chrome it really makes the red calipers and other parts of the car pop more.

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After:










-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com

 

How many car washes would it take for this to start peeling off?

 

That's like asking how many licks it takes to get to the center of a tootsie pop.

 

so how do you clean it after install?

 

The owner of this blue F10 BMW 550i contacted me to see if I could vinyl wrap the diffuser on his car with the 3M 1080 gloss carbon fiber material. He brought his car out to me in Orange County from around Riverside, for me do to the work on his car. Usually a lot of diffusers are not very practical to wrap due to their shapes/curves, which makes it hard for the vinyl to stick and stay conformed to over time. However, this one was fairly flat and there wasn't too much heat from around the exhaust areas on this car so that was a good thing as well.

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After:










-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com

 

The owner of this car wanted to have me wrap both the roof and the two side pillar pieces that run front the bottom of the front windshield to the back of the roof with my gloss black vinyl wrap material to give it the panoramic look. The gloss black vinyl wrap makes the roof continue and flow with the front/rear windshields pretty well. The owner of this car was from Irvine / Orange County also and brought his car over to me in Anaheim Hills to have the roof done. The tail lights were previously tinted / smoked by him beforehand, so that's not something I did.

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After:















-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com

 

I know I don't post this often, but I also do clear headlight film protection as well. I just never really take pictures of it, since you can never really see or tell the difference of a before and after

In this picture the driver side has already been done and the passenger side has been applied, just waiting to be trimmed. You can see everything is custom fitted, since I do not use pre cut materials. This allows me to cover more of the headlights than pre cut pieces do and also get a closer/better fit to the pieces that I am covering/applying the material to.

Clear headlight protective film is good if you have glass headlights, so it'll prevent rocks from cracking it or chipping it. This can also be applied to fog lights, which are more prone to cracking, since they're lower/closer to the ground. Even if your headlights are plastic, the film will help prevent nicks and chips in the plastic lenses. It'll also help protect/prevent against oxidation better. If your headlights are already oxidized/faded, I can clear/clean those up for you before putting on the clear film.





I know clear bras / clear headlight protection films aren't very exciting, so I figured I'd post pictures of this gray / silver Mercedes Benz E55 AMG's tail lights that I tinted as well. This is my lighter shade that I used for this cars tail lights. Unlike a lot of the other tail lights that I have posted recently, I only tinted the clear portions on this car's tail lights versus tinting the whole thing. So these pictures will be good to help show those who were interested in something similar for their cars and were wondering how just the clear portion would look like tinted / smoked, only slightly darkening the clear parts of the tail light.

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After:


Before:


After:












-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com

 

I think I work on more AMG cars than non AMG cars when it comes to Mercedes, haha. I blacked out the chrome / aluminum window trim on this black Mercedes Benz C63 AMG with my matte black vinyl material to give it the shadowline look. Owner came out to me in Orange County / Anaheim Hills to have the work done. I took some more detailed pictures of the corners and edges for those who were interested and asking me for them.

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After:














-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com