What did you do to your FX / QX70 today?

Alex Betancourt said:
It actually wasnt. Took me about 2 1/2 hours taking my time from start to finish. Thinking about doing them over in a matte black.


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Did you have to take the vents off? Thinking about doing them but don't know if I will try wrap or plastidip


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I did not have to take them off... i was thinking about plasti-dipping them as well. Along with the door handles and all the moldings including the rear ones


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Alex Betancourt said:
I did not have to take them off... i was thinking about plasti-dipping them as well. Along with the door handles and all the moldings including the rear ones
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Did you have previous experience with wrapping? I'm considering doing some external mods, and wrapping would be part of it... I keep hearing people saying, "Not as hard as I thought", but that could be the difference between someone with skills painting the Sistine Chapel ceiling, and me and my stick drawings...
 
No experience whatsoever... a lot of YouTube videos lol. Honestly the wrap wasn't expensive so why not try it. If i were to do it over again, i learned a few tricks. Might take me less time. By any means it isn't perfect, but it doesn't look bad for my first time. I did the vents first and then the front/back emblems and those were easier after just learning from the side vents. Im always willing to diy things. Ive been working on cars since i was 14 so am always trying to do things on my own... so from owning quite a few cars and never going to a mechanic for repairs... how hard could wrapping something be.


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Awesome! I'll look into it... Have you tried doing any interior panels? Thinking of dressing up the interior of my FX a bit too... a LOT of beige plastic in mine :P
 
I wouldn't wrap over any textured panels as the texture will show through - unless you're using a faux leather wrap or similar. Are all the beige panels textured?

Vinyl wise 3M, Hexis, Avery, Oracal are the bigger brands. There are others like Vvivid and so on but most of them aren't actual manufacturers and just source stuff from China. Nothing wrong with that but anything they sell you could get on your own directly for cheaper (I've bought individual rolls from Ali Express). My old BMW was wrapped in Hexis and it lasted 4 years without any fade or damage before I removed it for sale. I've also used 3M both exterior and interior without issues. No recent experience with Avery or Oracal.

A lot of the newer stuff like "4D" or "5D" carbon fiber vinyl is pretty much all Chinese made and I've used them without problems. Don't know how long they would last on the exterior but should be fine interior.

Vinyl wrapping isn't hard since all the current vinyls have air channels to prevent bubbles. Vinyl can be lifted and repositioned so it's relatively mistake proof. Just don't heat it or stretch it before you're sure of orientation. Interior pieces on the FX are really easy as there aren't too many weird shapes. I wrapped my aluminum trim in brushed titanium because I was tired of looking at the scratches and dings.
 
I haven't wrapped any interior panels. I don't mind the beige, just don't like the brown on top of them and on my dash. Make it look. Hideous in my opinion. If I was able to do something with the brown areas I would.


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shadow191 said:
I wouldn't wrap over any textured panels as the texture will show through - unless you're using a faux leather wrap or similar. Are all the beige panels textured?
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I was thinking of hitting some of the "hard plastic" parts in the interior, like the vents... They're somewhat textured, but I was kinda thinking if I go with a carbon fiber look, it probably wouldn't be easy to see the texture through the carbon fiber print...

shadow191 said:
Vinyl wrapping isn't hard since all the current vinyls have air channels to prevent bubbles. Vinyl can be lifted and repositioned so it's relatively mistake proof. Just don't heat it or stretch it before you're sure of orientation. Interior pieces on the FX are really easy as there aren't too many weird shapes. I wrapped my aluminum trim in brushed titanium because I was tired of looking at the scratches and dings.
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I was also thinking the same thing... The aluminum gets scratched SO easily... Thinking of going carbon fiber accents in the interior, but can you show me a pic of some of your brushed titanium? That would look classier than carbon fiber :P
 
Here's what it looked like during the wrap process. I also wrapped radio bezel in 4D carbon fiber. Gives you an idea of the process for interior pieces. I think wrapping the outside vents should be fine. I wasn't sure if you meant like the beige plastic parts of the dash.

0618171625a.jpg ConsoleWrap.jpg ConsoleWrap3.jpg 20140822_214921.jpg 20140822_231003.jpg 20140823_144257.jpg
 
Themechanic said:
Curious. You dont have the akebono sport brakes on that right? Because i love those wheels. & i didnt get em because they hit the calipers big time If theyre the vertini magic.
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No sport brakes :( and yea they are the magic's.
Wonder how much clearance I would need if I did go akebonos...
 
Depends on your offset, you may not need much. Just about any concave wheel will have clearance issues with the Akebono's as they are really thick calipers. Easiest thing to do is just put on the calipers and see how much clearance you need. On my FX, my STR 607 wheels contacted the caliper (barely) at +35 offset. Spacer fixed it.

aceifeR said:
No sport brakes :( and yea they are the magic's.
Wonder how much clearance I would need if I did go akebonos...
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