Good luck telling the difference when its in the car from an actual distance.


You want something like this from ebay land or wherever


Super close up shot of the finished product

Thought I would just share this as I think it worked out pretty well. First of all don't waste your money on any of those so called chrome spray paints they are absolute rubbish every single one of them. They can't be touched to start of with and if you try to apply any kind of clear over it it just turns a dull grey on top of this you never get a proper chrome look even if you don't touch it. Learn from my mistakes and save yourself some money. After investigating a bunch of options I found that the best and cheapest solution is to just get some chrome vinyl wrap. It is a little fiddly but produces a decent result that no one will probably be able to tell a difference from factory apart from yourself. It is also really cheap I got a 30cmx30cm piece for $5. Just keep practicing till you get it. Where most people went wrong with this solution is they tried to wrap the little plastic piece that has lost it's chrome all around but that is impossible, just cut a piece slightly bigger than the plastic, stick it over the top, push the piece back in and then work it around until it looks good to you, use a hair drier if your having trouble moving it around, even a tiny bit of heat will greatly help you move everything. Here is a picture of the product and the end result, I think this is the best I've seen on the internet so far.

Also don't worry too much about stuffing it up you can try over and over again with the piece you buy, you literally could wrap 1000 of these with the small piece so just keep practicing.

 

At least based on these photos you are correct that it is the best solution I have seen. It might be more helpful if you gave the source for the small piece of wrap, and also maybe post a pic or two of your method. It's not clear from words what you did ("push the piece back in and work it around" is a little vague). I assume you laid a piece of wrap over the entire vent, when use something (what?) to push it in the cracks, then trimmed it somehow?

I have to say though, for as long as these are available new I will probably just buy new ones. I've only replaced one so far, and even from the dealer it was only about $65. There's only so much time I'm willing to spend fiddling and practicing to save $65. But they may not longer be available soon, so this is a good solution.

 

i just got the wrap from ebay. If you search for what i wrote you will easily find it theres heaps of sellers that have it. Im also in Australia so if gave you the exact seller it wouldnt be helpful.

Ill see if i can do some more photos next time i do it. You dont push anything behind. Take the little peeled plastic peace out. Cut out chrome about the same size width and length as the plastic piece and just put it back in its slot. You dont have to tuck anything in. I said to do the two edges at the end of the piece but its not necessary.

And yes the vent may be $65 in the us but here it would be probably $150 if mot more and if you have 3-4 vents plus center all pealing your looking at crazy money.

 

On mine, I peeled of the remaining chrome and painted it black. I used a matte black paint made for painting wheels on model cars. It even has a slight "soft touch" texture. Note that the plastic piece can be removed from the vent, so if you want to try to wrap the edges by heating up the vinyl, that might be do-able.

 

I know but I don't like that look I'm too **** lol
I did remove the plastic piece its too hard to wrap the chrome around for a novice like me. The problem is the shape its too curved around the ends so when you go to do the sides it just lifts up. Definitely doable but I assume most people wouldn't be able to pull it off. I did pull the pieces out to do this, just stuck it over and then pushed the piece back in, but looking back i could have just left it in and stuck the chrome over and again one could try to tuck in the edges, but it's just so damn small it would be hard to find a tool to push in the edges that would be thin enough and at the same time wont damage the chrome and it will probably not look any better for all that added stress.

 

Yeah, that piece is a PITA to work with. I've done just a little bit of vinyl wrap work and found the trick is to heat the vinyl. It will really stretch when warmed. When it cools, it holds that deformed shape. But working with such a small part is still a challenge. On my SL, is there is almost no chrome - most all of the brightwork is brushed stainless (or plastic painted to look like brushed stainless). So anything that chips or wears will be much easier to paint to match. My wife just bought a Cadillac XT5 and the brghtwork on it, even the exterior pieces are actual polished stainless. I've long been a lover of chrome, but I am warming up to the brushed or polished stainless look.

 

I tried heating it, although it helped i still couldn't get it to wrap around all the edges properly. I will take brushed aluminium any day over this peeling crap. I'm not sure what these air vents actually are because once it peels it actually just looks like another kind of wrap material , i would assume they were dipped into some sort of melted liquid but who knows.

 

I had another go at this and made it look even better here are my tips:
1. Pull peeled plastic peace out of vent and cleanup best you can with nails or whatever.
2. Cut a piece of chrome as close as you can to the actual width of the peace of the plastic and about 1cm over hang on each side for the length.
3. Stick the chrome over the plastic piece and tuck the two ends under.
4. Put the plastic piece back in the vent.
5. I then used the end of a chop stick to push the piece further in and to and make sure nothing is over hanging anywhere, by the end of this process it literally looks factory, there's no way anyone could tell a difference.

 

Awesome job!