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Hey everyone I am new here...obviously. My name is Geronimo but you can just call me Moe or Bronx whichever is easier for you. I live in Anniston Alabama. Originally from New York but I was raised in Florida. I am a US Army Vet with two deployments one combat deployment and one "combat" deployment (I just sat on my *** and did nothing). I currently work car sales for Honda but I am currently in the process of getting a Federal job. I just bought my first Honda yesterday and I chose the 2019 Civic Hatchback EX. I fell in love with it instantly. I named her Luna since the color of her is Lunar Silver Metallic, I felt it was relevant to the color. Anyways I am glad to be here and can't wait to meet some cool people.
The window trim is indeed chrome but I don't plan on keeping it that way as I am not a fan of the chrome either. I want to do exterior mods before I do any performance mods. I love cars but I don't really know much about modifications.
My roomie has an 18 EX-T coupe and I'm wrapping his chrome window trim in vinyl probably this weekend. My 18 Sport hatch luckily came with black window trim already, but I wasn't feeling the piano black door pillars, so those got wrapped in carbon fiber patterned vinyl. All of it was bought on Amazon for relatively cheap
pay no mind to any blemish you might find if you're looking hard enough. I need to redo a part.
If you want performance mods, KTuner or Hondata tunes are seriously great bang for buck. I don't condone street racing, but I can tell you that a Sport hatch CVT running a KTuner 21psi tune is faster than a stock Si coupe
That looks real nice, I found some nice things on amazon earlier that I might get. I just don't know what color I want. I like the red but I also like the carbon fiber look as well. Thanks for the info as well.
Because I'm a man of my word, here's an update on my roomie's chrome delete. I literally just finished it 10 minutes ago (had a slight measuring mishap and had to order an addition 5'x1' strip of vinyl). 3M 1080 matte black is a pretty close match to the factory matte black b pillars. It's just ever so slightly off, and only noticeable if you're looking for it.
and for reference, in the background, you can see the chrome trim on his civic in the background
I used 3M 1080 matte black vinyl. My roomie initially bought 5'x2' roll of the stuff to do the chrome trim on the windows and the front grille. I cut the piece for the front grille and then realized I didn't have enough for the rest of his windows, so he bought another 5'x1' roll. All of it was bought on Amazon. I think the 5x2 roll was $40 and the 5x1 roll was $20. On his coupe, the chrome above his door windows, I used a strip that was 5' x 2-3". I also took off his side view mirrors so I could cover the chrome that was behind them. The weather stripping was pretty easy to both remove and reinstall so I could get the vinyl behind it. Any excess was cut off with an exacto knife, and I used a plastic pry tool to press down any vinyl I couldn't fit my fingers onto as well as stuff the weather stripping into its channel
For the rear quarter windows, I think the strip I used was about 4' x 4-6". Due to the nature of the chrome trim around that window, everything was cut flush with the exacto.
To help protect it all, I had some 303 Aerospace Protectant (made for both interior and exterior).
Here in Vegas, it's hot as *****, so I didn't need to use a heat gun. In colder climates, I'd have probably employed my heat gun to make the vinyl more pliable. If you want to practice, buy a 12" x 12" piece of whatever pattern you want on Amazon and wrap some small interior stuff. The first thing I did was the shifter trim in my car with carbon fiber pattern. That 12" x 12" piece was all of $5 shipped (amazon prime)
After realizing how forgiving the stuff was, I went all out and started vinyl wrapping everything I wanted to change colors. lol. Check out the "look how she's growing" link in my signature and you'll see everything I've wrapped. The quick and dirty of everything I've vinyl wrapped: exterior B/C pillars, black shifter trim, silver shifter trim, dash trim (was that fake carbon fiber. wrapped it with other fake carbon fiber to match), silver dash trim, the little "T" shape trim on the steering wheel, the silver door trim, and the hood thingamajigger above the instrument cluster. If it was silver before, I wrapped it in metallic red. Only thing I'm yet to wrape that was silver is the steering wheel trim, but it will get done eventually. Everything else was done in carbon fiber pattern.
tl;dr
Tools you'll need for vinyl wrapping:
heat gun (depending on what it is and how hot it is wherever you're wrapping stuff)
exacto knife
maybe a pair of scissors
some tool to press down on vinyl where your fingers don't fit (imagine a plastic flathead screwdriver. basically the tool I used)
probably a screwdriver, depending on what you're wrapping
a microfiber polishing rag helps a lot to distribute pressure a bit more evenly when you're wrapping large items, but not completely necessary. The heel of your palm can work, too. They also sell felt-lined squeegees for the very same purpose, but I don't quite find that necessary.
a crap ton of patience
Materials you'll need:
Vinyl of your choice. My current vinyl of choice is the 3M 1080 line which you can find for relatively inexpensive on Amazon
