dreadful1

hello tristan!

Getting someone else to vinyl wrap your car isnt going to be the best bang for buck because you spend about 3K to get someone else to do it and the average life expected for vinyl in NZ is about 3 years or so before they start fading.

Also Matte vinyl wrap is HORRIBLE in terms of fingerprints... if you have oily fingers and touch it, its going to mark it and there is nothing you can do to get rid of it.

Doing it yourself takes ALOT of time... and you need a friend that will help.

I did the E46 and it took me 2 weeks and did a panel here and there after work but it saved me quite abit of money.

Yongxi

His name is Jasmit! Not too sure what his forum name is though... you can facebook him, Jasmit Singh

haha! luckily I didn't have to go far, only down the road, picked the table up at a garage sale!

bit of a wee update:

I have now moved down to Queenstown to fly the Pitts Special for a job for a while and drove the car down with me:

and who says I don't use my roof racks

FINALLY TIM! hahaha this car has been in the hiding far too long!

this is fantastic! I love what you've done with it!

Looking forward to the lowering

I've had 24p on the rears for 19x9.5 and tire size was 235/35/19 which was just the legal limit for stretch and it rubbed even with pumped guards+slight flare.

At the moment I have 19x9.5 38p and 265/30/19 and its fine with no rubbing but its on the borderline of clearance.

I would say 30p would be a safe option if you want the low offset look + legal tires and a little stretch and no rubbing!

Saw Yonxi's E46 in Hastings of all places. If it wasn't yours then there is another vinyl wrapped 330 with red wheels going round.

Yep was at Hastings doing abit of flying! Will be down again this weekend But not in the car

Apparently this car kracker thing is old school to you Josh?

I heard from ray that you designed something like this awhile ago haha!

Hey guys,

I was just browsing around sites and I found this little device to be quite interesting and it would be quite useful to some I suppose!

Being able to remap buttons is just so awesome!

http://www.instructables.com/id/Hack-Your-Car/

thinking about getting one for the e46..

Here is it built if you want to buy a plug and play option:

click here

Got the car back from Rays from getting some headers fitted. Sound's alot more free flowing during full throttle and pulls through the rev range alot easier than before

I love that lip!

Does anyone know anywhere in auckland that I can get some extended lug bolts and in the BMW cone seat?

Thanks!

I've had a read up on these too and apparently it's just the same if you drive around with your foot a bit heavier, not worth the money IMO.

Just get some europlates printed at Demon graphics, They make the same font and size as a normal europlate and you can stick it just on a piece of PVC and its like a real plate. Would take photo but car is at HELLBM.

I wouldn't say it would make the vinyl look sh*t because you can only tell if you go about 10-20cm away.

TBH, I have some little bits of debris I couldn't get off with my claybar and it shows up in the vinyl as a little dot but I don't exactly have a dust free enviroment in my garage!

I thought it would be less prep work, sanding etc.

What prep is needed other than making sure the exisiting paint is clean?

In terms of prep work you need to clean the surface of ANY dirt or dust and all around the edges then claybar the crap out of it to make sure there are no bumps at all (sometimes its impossible to get them all out) then I use quick detailer once more to make sure nothing is on it then quickly lay the vinyl on.

The prep work isn't the part that takes the time, its the application of the vinyl, When I started I took 3 hours to do 1 door but now I've done it so many times that it only takes 15 min to do.

seems like wrapping a car is cheaper / easyier than repainting a car. yeah ?

cheaper yes but easier no I would say haha. It took me and a mate 2.5 weeks to do my sedan on my days off work which was about 3-4 days a week.

Tints on front window different to rear...? I like the front

Yeah when I got the car the tints in the rear came with it so I went to Car Folie and got the 3M ones on the front and they were the closest matching! Car was a Jap import so the rears are slightly darker than 35%!

Didn't realise there was accomadation at the airport here?

Staying in one of the hangers at the airport working on a plane so thats why im down there haha

Good job on the vinyl, looks flawless!

How much did the vinyl set you back? How many metres did you use?

I used about 16M of it due to redo-ing the rear bumper and the roof but 14M could do a e46 sedan if no mistakes were made! but it surely is hard to not make a mistake when you are doing this for the first time!

I'll just say it was less than $1000

EDIT: also will be in Hastings over the weekend and will be staying at the airport so the car will be seen around there

Spotted M5 V8 on manukau road in epsom nice indeed!

If its just the clear coat then take it to GT refinishers in penrose and they should be able to sort you out. They should be able to sand back the clear and spray another layer on.

I got my wheels painted with them for 400 a set so I'm guessing just clear would be at least half the price.

Went out today with Byron (e34play) and he took some snaps for me, thanks so much for the photos man!

and off to Rays on tuesday to get some headers fitted

Looking good mate! Is that an OEM BMW colour or just a random one? And out of interest where do you get the sticker plates made up?

It's a colour called "storm grey" There are only a selected colours I can choose for the vinyl so no OEM

If you go to any signwriters they should do it for you, I went to Demon Graphics and they sorted me out haha