Don Nguyen

Overview:
- Glocss black to black out chrome door handles

I do vinyl wraps that most other shops or craigslist wrappers would not want to try or would try unsuccessfully. I had previously blacked out all of the other chrome pieces and roof for this Maserati Quattroporte. However, the owner finally decided that the final remaining chrome door handles had to go as well. I don’t know why manufacturers still offer so much chrome on their cars, especially on an entire door handle like this, but that’s what I am here for. The owner of this car was in Irvine / Orange County, and I came out to him to do the work on his car.













-Don Nguyen

Don@WannabeRacer.com

Don Nguyen

Overview:
- Carbon fiber lower front bumper lip vinyl car wrap
- Carbon fiber grill surround vinyl wrap
- Plasti dip grill black out

A returning customer of mine brought his Mercedes Benz E class sedan to have me black out the chrome on the front and rear of his car. For the front, I vinyl wrapped the lower front bumper lip and also the grill surround in the 3M 1080 gloss carbon fiber vinyl material. However, the center of the front grill was plasti dipped a matte black finish. In addition the other front, I also wrapped the top center portion of the rear spoiler and also the chrome trunk bar in the same 3M 1080 gloss carbon fiber vinyl material. The owner of this car was from Beverly Hills Los Angeles and came out to me in Anaheim Hills / Orange County to have the vinyl work done on his car.

























-Don Nguyen

Don@WannabeRacer.com

Don Nguyen

It's that time again. I am making tentative plans on making a trip up to San Francisco/San Jose/Bay Area to do vinyl wraps again. Looking at possibly being up there possibly between January 1 - January 8th. I will make an official thread once the details are finalized.

Send me an e-mail at Don@WannabeRacer.com to get a quote for some vinyl work or plasti dip work!




-Don Nguyen

Don@WannabeRacer.com

Don Nguyen

Overview:
- Gloss black vinyl wrap over oxidized/faded carbon fiber

Commonly enough, carbon fiber pieces can start to fade and oxidize, leaving an ugly and less than desirable appearance. The owner of this black E46 325i sedan came by to have me vinyl wrap the top of his faded carbon fiber trunk in my gloss black vinyl material. The trunk had actually deteriorated enough that the top gel coat near the edge of the trunk actually had “fallen” off. I have quite a few people ask me how vinyl looks like when applied over a rough or uneven surface, so I think these pictures will really be able to show you guys how the resulting finished product looks like. The owner of this car was from Torrance / Los Angeles and came out to me in Orange County to have the vinyl wrap work done.















-Don Nguyen

Don@WannabeRacer.com

Don Nguyen

Overview:
- Gloss black window trim
- Gloss black rear trunk bar
- Tinted / smoked rear tail lights

For this black Mercedes Benz S550, I blacked out the chrome window trim, rear trunk bar, and also lightly tinted the rear tail lights. The changes to the car cleaned up the lines of the car greatly and really worked well with the tinted windows and black wheels. It was almost a must needed to do thing for this car. The car still maintained some of the factory chrome pieces, so that it still provided a good balance and contrast to the car. The owner of this car was from Los Angeles / Beverly Hills and came out to me in Anaheim Hills / Orange County to have the vinyl work done.













-Don

Don@WannabeRacer.com

Don Nguyen

Overview:
- Carbon fiber roof wrap
- Matte black window trim vinyl wrap
- Matte black door handle inserts vinyl wrap

I wrapped the roof of this car in carbon fiber and blacked out the chrome window trim and door handle inserts in matte black. The following set of pictures will be good for those who want to go with matte black for the window trim or were debating between gloss black or matte black on the window trim. To give the car a more aggressive look, we went with the carbon fiber finish on the roof top. Then to match and compliment the already matte black wheels, we went with matte black on the window trim and door handles. The owner of this car came out to me in Anaheim Hills / Orange County from Los Angeles / Glendale to have the vinyl work done.





















-Don

Don@WannabeRacer.com

Don Nguyen

Overview:
- 3M Di-noc matte carbon fiber vinyl front lip wrap

For this blue Lexus IS, I vinyl wrapped the front lower bumper lip in the 3M di-noc matte carbon fiber finish. The carbon fiber finish gives the lip a nice finished look, versus the black plasticky finish that the lip originally came as. It also adds a nice more aggressive look/finish to the lip and car overall. The owner of this car came out to me in Anaheim Hills / Orange County to get the vinyl work done.









-Don

Don@WannabeRacer.com

Don Nguyen

Overview:
- Gloss black roof rack rail vinyl wrap chrome delete
- Gloss black window trim vinyl wrap
- Gloss black door handle chrome delete
- Tinted / smoked rear tail lights
- Debadged rear trunk emblems

Quite a bit of work was done on this black Audi Q5 SUV. The large chrome roof rack rails that run along the length of the roof and the chrome window trim on both sides of the car make up a fairly good portion of the overall surface area on the car. By wrapping just these chrome pieces in my gloss black vinyl material alone completely cleaned up the lines of the car, making it look more aggressive and giving it a cleaner look as well. I also blacked out the chrome on the top of the door handles and rear trunk lid lower chrome bar. To finish things of in the rear, I lightly smoked / tinted the rear tail lights and debadged the emblems. The owner of this car was in Newport Beach / Orange County and came out to me in Anaheim Hills to get the vinyl work done.















-Don

Don@WannabeRacer.com

Don Nguyen

Overview:
- Gloss black roof vinyl wrap
- Gloss black chrome window trim delete vinyl wrap
- Gloss black lower side skirt vinyl wrap

I did a fair amount of vinyl work on this white Mercedes Benz CLA 250. To add some character to the car, we went with gloss black on the roof, for the side chrome window trim pieces, and finished it off with the lower side skirts. Even though quite a bit was done to the car, if someone were to look at the car, you may have thought the car came like this from the factory. The owner of this car came out to me in Anaheim Hills / Orange County from San Diego / Oceanside to get the vinyl work done on their car. Overall, the car turned out very nicely and will compliment any future mods they do or look good as is, even if nothing else is done to the car.























-Don

Don@WannabeRacer.com

Don Nguyen

Overview:
- Gloss black roof vinyl wrap

To change things up a bit, I took an “in progress” picture of the roof, kind of showing how the roof looks like before, during, and after the wrap. It’s a bit more work to take the in progress pictures, but if this is something people would be interested in seeing, I could consider doing it more often in the future.

For this white Audi A4 sedan, I wrapped the roof of the car in my gloss black vinyl material. The owner of this car was from downtown Los Angeles area and came out to me in Anaheim Hills / Orange County to get the vinyl wrap work done. The black roof went well with the black optics package that the car already had from the dealer.













-Don

Don@WannabeRacer.com

Don Nguyen

Overview:
- Matte black roof vinyl wrap

For this white Lotus Evora, the owner of the car wanted to go with my matte black vinyl wrap material on the roof of the car and also the lower side skirts/rockers of the car. The matte black roof wrap provided a nice contrast with the rest of the car and really provided the car with some more defined lines to show off the shape of the car. The owner of this car came out to me in Anaheim Hills / Orange County from Walnut to get the vinyl work done on his car.



















-Don

Don@WannabeRacer.com

Don Nguyen

Overview:
- Gloss black vinyl roof wrap

Lately I have gotten some more SUVs in to get vinyl work done. Probably a progression of those who modified their coupes/sedans before, but now had to get a bigger family car haha. The owner of this white Land Rover Range Rover had me wrap the entire roof his car in gloss black. Unlike most roofs, the roof on this Range Rover was made up of many separate sections, which made it quite a bit of work to wrap, but the end results looked good. The owner of this car was from Beverley Hills Los Angeles and came out to me in Anaheim Hills Orange County to get the vinyl work done.















-Don

Don@WannabeRacer.com

Don Nguyen

Overview:
- Gloss black vinyl roof wrap
- Plasti dip rear/side/front emblems

For this white Mercedes C63S coupe I plasti dipped the rear/side/front badges to black them out. However, for the rear S on the C63S portion, I left it chrome to give it some contrast still. I also blacked out the rear half of the roof to finish off the black roof look, filling in that large white area that Mercedes leaves body colored. Overall, fairly minor changes to the car, but sometimes you only need a few minor things done to really tie in and finish up the look of the car.

















-Don

Don@WannabeRacer.com

Don Nguyen

Overview:
- Gloss black window trim vinyl wrap

Simple things such as wrapping the chrome window trim on this Mercedes Benz C300 in gloss black vinyl can completely change the look of the car. I know vinyl wrapping isn't for everybody, especially with all of the different finishes/colors out there these days, but I am sure the majority of people can agree that black trim over chrome on most cars really cleans up the lines of the car. There may be a few who still favor chrome, but there's a reason why black trim comes as standard on most top level/tier cars from BMW, Mercedes, Audi, etc. The owner of this car was from Newport Beach and came out to me in Anaheim Hills / Orange County to have the vinyl wrap done on their car.











-Don

Don@WannabeRacer.com

Don Nguyen

Overview:
- Plasti dip grill
- Plasti dip front / rear badges
- Smoked tinted head / tail lights
- Blacked out lower front bumper / side panels / rear bumper silver trim line vinyl wrap
- Debadged rear trunk HSE emblem

For this black Land Rover Range Rover HSE, I think if most people saw only how the car looked like after I did all of the vinyl wrap and plasti dip work, most would probably have thought that the car came that way from the factory. However, the before/after pictures show everything. The black wrap, plasti dip, and light tinting done completely changed the look of the car to give it a sporty look and feel, while maintaining a very factory look. Some people describe this as an OEM+ type of look. The owner of the car was located in Beverly Hills Los Angeles and brought the car out to me in Anaheim Hills Orange County to have the vinyl wrap and plasti dip work done.





















-Don

Don@WannabeRacer.com

Don Nguyen

Overview:
- 3M di-noc matte carbon fiber spoiler wrap

For this blue Nissan R35 GTR, the owner of the car just wanted to add a simple carbon fiber accent to his rear spoiler. We went with the di-noc matte carbon fiber finish to match his other real dry carbon fiber pieces that were on the car. The owner of the car was in Westminster / Orange County and had me come out to him to do the vinyl wrap on his spoiler.









-Don

Don@WannabeRacer.com

Don Nguyen

Overview:
- Tinted / smoked tail lights

The owner of this black GLC 43 AMG brought his car by to have me lightly tint / smoke the rear tail lights on his car. The owner of this car is a returning customer who also had me lightly tint the tails on his other car. I took pictures of the progress outside, so you guys can see the subtle changes of the tint vinyl wrap that I use. The finish gives the tail lights a nice cherry finish, while still maintaining good light output from the lights and also keeping in line with a very factory / OEM+ type look. The owner of this car was from Pasadena Los Angeles and drove out to me in Anaheim Hills / Orange County to get the vinyl work done.















-Don

Don@WannabeRacer.com

Don Nguyen

Overview:
- Gloss black roof vinyl wrap
- M Performance side accent stripes
- M Performance lower rocker panel decal

Going with a more aggressive look on this BMW M235i coupe, the owner had me wrap the roof of his car in gloss black and install the M Performance side stripes and also the lower rocker panel decals. The rocker panel decals are more common than the side stripes, but the owner wanted to go with something more aggressive, so he decided to add on the side stripes with the red outline. The owner of this car was from Newport Beach Orange County and brought his car out to me in Anaheim Hills to do the vinyl wrap install.

















-Don

Don@WannabeRacer.com

Don Nguyen

Overview:
- Gloss black mirror vinyl wrap
- Gloss black side skirt vinyl wrap
- Gloss black door handles vinyl wrap

On this white Maserati Gran Turismo, the owner of the car wanted to add some simple accents to the car to make it look slightly more aggressive and give it some character. Starting out with some simple accents, we decided to go with wrapping the mirrors, door handles and side skirts in a gloss black vinyl finish. The gloss black finish went well with the already gloss black wheels.



























-Don

Don@WannabeRacer.com

Don Nguyen

Overview:
- Gloss black roof vinyl wrap
- Gloss black window trim black out vinyl wrap
- Plasti dip matte black rear and side badges

For this white Mercedes Benz C63 coupe, we vinyl wrapped both the roof and window trim in a gloss black vinyl wrap finish, which gave the car a finished panoramic look for the roof and matched the gloss black window trim that comes on the night packages from Mercedes. In addition to wrapping those pieces, we also blacked out the side fender badges and rear trunk badges, but leaving the rear star and front grill/hood star emblems chrome still. Instead of blacking everything out, some chrome accents were left over to provide some contrast still. The owner of this car was from Pasadena Los Angeles and came out to us in Anaheim Orange County to have the work done on their car.

















-Don

Don@WannabeRacer.com

Don Nguyen

Overview:
- Gloss carbon fiber 5D vinyl roof wrap

For those who have blue cars out there, typically a gloss black or similar roof wrap usually ends up being a more subtle touch to the car than how a black roof looks on a lighter colored car like white. In this case, the owner of this estoril blue M235i coupe wanted something that stood out just slightly more than a regular gloss black roof, so we went with the 5D gloss carbon fiber on the roof. The owner of this car was from long beach Los Angeles and came out to me in Anaheim Orange County to have the vinyl wrap work done.

Since a lot of people ask how my gloss carbon fiber finish compares with real carbon fiber finishes, I took a few pictures of my gloss carbon fiber material laid over the real carbon fiber rear spoiler that was on the car. For a vinyl wrap product, this material is going to get you very close to the real thing.

















-Don

Don@WannabeRacer.com

Don Nguyen

Overview:
- Gloss carbon fiber 5D front bumper lip vinyl wrap

Here is a white Mercedes Benz C63 sedan that I had worked on during one of my trips up to norcal / bay area to do wraps up there. The owner of this car simply wanted to add just a simple carbon fiber accent to the front bumper area of the car, so we ended up going with the 5D high gloss carbon fiber finish over the factory black painted portion. It's a subtle touch that is not always noticeable right away, but at the right angles and lighting, the carbon fiber weave shows up fairly nicely.













-Don

Don@WannabeRacer.com

Don Nguyen

Overview:
- Gloss black roof vinyl wrap
- Gloss black side skirt vinyl wrap
- Gloss black rear trunk license plate area vinyl wrap

The owner of this car was from norcal and had me do the vinyl wrap work on his car while he was down in socal. We went with gloss black for the roof, side skirts, and rear trunk license plate area. The side skirt design is based off of the motorsport graphic that is also offered from the factory by BMW. The rear license plate and side skirt wrap was a last minute decision, so those were done freehand. Overall, the additional gloss black accents tied in well with the other gloss black pieces on the car.













-Don

Don@WannabeRacer.com

Don Nguyen

Overview:
- 3M 1080 anthracite gloss carbon fiber interior trim vinyl wrap

For this 2016 Audi A7 sedan, we wrapped over the original wood trim pieces with the 3M 1080 CFS201 anthracite carbon fiber vinyl material. Getting rid of the wood look on the interior trim really upgraded the look of the overall interior, giving it a sportier look and feel. I especially liked the way the carbon fiber wrap worked with the aluminum metal trimming that were already on the wood pieces, giving it a nice balance of carbon fiber and metal.

























-Don

Don@WannabeRacer.com

Don Nguyen

Overview:
- Gloss black window/mirror trim chrome delete vinyl wrap
- Gloss black door handles vinyl wrap
- Matte black front/rear badges chrome delete
- Matte black side markers chrome delete


I've been doing quite a few Teslas lately, with them becoming more an more common. The chrome on the Teslas are generally more tricky/tedious to do, but I've managed a good system to get good results consistently for these cars now. The owner of this Tesla Model 3 wanted to black out all of the exterior chrome pieces on the car. Blacking out all of the chrome pieces on the car really gives the Tesla a sportier look and feel. We did a mixture of matte black and gloss black on various areas of the car, depending on what matched and worked best for those pieces. The owner of this car was in Irvine Orange County and I came out to them to do the chrome delete vinyl wrap on their car.






























-Don

Don@WannabeRacer.com