moufassa
13-01-2008, 04:54 PM
G'day everyone,
Over the Christmas break I converted a standard TH grille into a look-alike Altera LS grille, which is a big improvement given my half-silver front bar. Then a guy at work was telling me about his mate who did something similar to his Kickadoor but with chrome film, so after talking about what I could use it for I got intrigued and bought some.
I decided to stick to the front end of the car for now and start with the Mitsu emblem in the grille; after eight years largely in the sun, the stock red plastic is looking so faded even my Dad noticed it:
http://howard1.homedns.org/images/red_emblem.jpg[/URL]
So I collected the following items:
http://howard1.homedns.org/images/what_you_need.jpg (http://howard1.homedns.org/images/red_emblem.jpg)
The shiny roll is the chrome film, which is actually one metre of "mirror-finish" vinyl that I bought from a signwriting supplies shop (Q1 Media in Mitchell Park) for $30 a metre. It is designed to stay shiny for 5 years, so I shouldn't need to reapply any time soon.
The little white bottle on the left is glasses lens cleaner - optional but recommended for lazy sods like myself who couldn't be bothered washing the entire car. If you take this option you'll want a rag as well.
All I did after this is to cut out a piece of vinyl that was slightly bigger than the emblem, apply it and rub it so that you can see the outline of the emblem in the vinyl:
http://howard1.homedns.org/images/mirror_film_applied.jpg
Make sure you press hard on the bit that is over the emblem itself as we don't want it sliding around.
Once you've done this, you'll need a narrow object to score the outline so that it's more defined. I thought I had a box of toothpicks but it turned out I was mistaken, so I used my thumbnail which got me through. A toothpick would have done a better job tho...
Now you need to take up your Stanley knife and cut into the outlines you defined with the toothpick, being very careful to get a straight edge and to cut as close to the grille surround as you possibly can; this makes the finished product look more like a stock item and less like ... well, a sticker! Also be very certain you haven't left any sides or corners still attached, as the vinyl will tear easily when you remove the excess.
Once you're satisfied, carefully pull away the excess. I recommend doing all four corners separately and meeting in the middle, just in case there is still an attached bit.
We can now tidy it up a bit; this means tucking the edges of the vinyl into the space between the grille surround and the emblem itself. Again, I would have used a toothpick for this but in the absence of one I had to settle for cutting out an old birthday card, which didn't work well as it bent very easily, but it did the job eventually.
So, the finished product looks like this:
http://howard1.homedns.org/images/chrome_emblem_closeup.jpg (http://howard1.homedns.org/images/mirror_film_applied.jpg)
http://howard1.homedns.org/images/chrome_emblem_from_afar.jpg[URL="http://howard1.homedns.org/images/chrome_emblem_from_afar.jpg"]
Quite fetching, eh?
I reckon it really sets the mock-Altera grille off as well...
Over the Christmas break I converted a standard TH grille into a look-alike Altera LS grille, which is a big improvement given my half-silver front bar. Then a guy at work was telling me about his mate who did something similar to his Kickadoor but with chrome film, so after talking about what I could use it for I got intrigued and bought some.
I decided to stick to the front end of the car for now and start with the Mitsu emblem in the grille; after eight years largely in the sun, the stock red plastic is looking so faded even my Dad noticed it:
http://howard1.homedns.org/images/red_emblem.jpg[/URL]
So I collected the following items:
http://howard1.homedns.org/images/what_you_need.jpg (http://howard1.homedns.org/images/red_emblem.jpg)
The shiny roll is the chrome film, which is actually one metre of "mirror-finish" vinyl that I bought from a signwriting supplies shop (Q1 Media in Mitchell Park) for $30 a metre. It is designed to stay shiny for 5 years, so I shouldn't need to reapply any time soon.
The little white bottle on the left is glasses lens cleaner - optional but recommended for lazy sods like myself who couldn't be bothered washing the entire car. If you take this option you'll want a rag as well.
All I did after this is to cut out a piece of vinyl that was slightly bigger than the emblem, apply it and rub it so that you can see the outline of the emblem in the vinyl:
http://howard1.homedns.org/images/mirror_film_applied.jpg
Make sure you press hard on the bit that is over the emblem itself as we don't want it sliding around.
Once you've done this, you'll need a narrow object to score the outline so that it's more defined. I thought I had a box of toothpicks but it turned out I was mistaken, so I used my thumbnail which got me through. A toothpick would have done a better job tho...
Now you need to take up your Stanley knife and cut into the outlines you defined with the toothpick, being very careful to get a straight edge and to cut as close to the grille surround as you possibly can; this makes the finished product look more like a stock item and less like ... well, a sticker! Also be very certain you haven't left any sides or corners still attached, as the vinyl will tear easily when you remove the excess.
Once you're satisfied, carefully pull away the excess. I recommend doing all four corners separately and meeting in the middle, just in case there is still an attached bit.
We can now tidy it up a bit; this means tucking the edges of the vinyl into the space between the grille surround and the emblem itself. Again, I would have used a toothpick for this but in the absence of one I had to settle for cutting out an old birthday card, which didn't work well as it bent very easily, but it did the job eventually.
So, the finished product looks like this:
http://howard1.homedns.org/images/chrome_emblem_closeup.jpg (http://howard1.homedns.org/images/mirror_film_applied.jpg)
http://howard1.homedns.org/images/chrome_emblem_from_afar.jpg[URL="http://howard1.homedns.org/images/chrome_emblem_from_afar.jpg"]
Quite fetching, eh?
I reckon it really sets the mock-Altera grille off as well...