Avus Autosport
Results 1 to 14 of 14

Thread: Don Nguyen | Norcal / Bay Area Vinyl Wrapping Tour - August 2012

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    Irvine, CA
    Posts
    17,555
    My Cars
    97' M3 Coupe

    Don Nguyen | Norcal / Bay Area Vinyl Wrapping Tour - August 2012

    Looking to make one more trip up to norcal / Bay Area again to do some vinyl wrapping for the cars that I were not able to get to the last time. Once again, I will be doing the vinyl wraps in San Jose. This may be the last trip for a while, since I am going to be fairly busy for the next couple of months / rest of the year for other events such as SEMA, etc.

    Here was my previous norcal trip thread:
    http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthr...186&highlight=

    Just a reminder. E-mail (donathon@gmail.com) me to schedule/reserve your appointment slots. Everything is a first come first serve basis. I may have an available time slot one minute and it may be taken the next (this has happened before), so the sooner you can figure out your availability and confirm it with me the better. People who e-mailed me in the past get priority, so if we can't schedule something for you this time, still e-mail me and I will keep you on my priority contact list for the next time I make a trip up to norcal / Bay Area.

    Here are links to pictures of some of the things that I can do, separated a bit to help you view them easier. I am not limited to only what's seen/shown below. So feel free to ask if there is something you don't see but are interested in getting done.

    Gloss / matte black roof wraps - http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthr...705158&page=16
    3M Di - Noc / 1080 carbon fiber roof wraps - http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthr...704966&page=13
    Blacked out window trim - http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthr...=734930&page=5
    Smoked / tinted tail light pictures - http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthr...=705594&page=7

    Tuesday 21st - 1 appointment slots available
    Wednesday 22nd - 1 appointment slot available (Maybe)*
    Thursday 23rd - 2 appointment slots available
    Friday - Completely booked.



    thanks.

    -Don Nguyen

    donathon@gmail.com

    This is one of the cars that I did some vinyl work on last month when I was up in norcal / Bay Area for vinyl wrapping. The owner of this car had me black out the chrome / aluminum window trim on his black E63 wagon. In addition to that, I also tinted his tail lights with my smoke film. Instead of tinting the entire tail light, I cut out the clear portion of the tail lights so that only the red is tinted / smoked. At first I wasn't sure how it'd look, but the contrast it ends up creating is pretty nice and I must say I like it. We also went with the matte black over the gloss black for the window trim, to provide some contrast to the gloss black paint and allow the trim pieces to still accent the car.

    Before:








    Driver (left) side stock - Passenger (right) side tinted / smoked before clear portion was trimmed out:


    After:




    Tinted / smoked tail lights WITH clear portion trimmed out now:












    -Don Nguyen

    donathon@gmail.com
    Last edited by Don Nguyen; 08-20-2012 at 09:39 AM. Reason: Automerged Doublepost

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jan 2003
    Location
    Bay Area, California
    Posts
    27
    My Cars
    98 M3, 04 745, 07 s2000
    I've email you already. Please count me in for the 24th. any time works.
    G-M3

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    Irvine, CA
    Posts
    17,555
    My Cars
    97' M3 Coupe
    E-mail replied to.

    The owner of this blue E90 335i sedan originally had his roof painted black and his carbon fiber hood painted gloss black in the center and body color on the sides. However, the condition of the black paint was no longer as nice as it once was when it was originally painted, so he had me vinyl wrap over it. Instead of just going with the gloss black again, he had me use the 3M 1080 gloss carbon fiber material, to change up the look a bit. I ended up just doing the center of the hood in carbon, essentially just covering up the pieces/parts that were painted gloss black. He also originally had his window trim wrapped in gloss black, but the job wasn't that great, so I redid that for him. I believe the owner of this car was from Long Beach and drove out to me in Anaheim Hills / Orange County. You can see that this material is a lot glossier than the 3M di-noc matte carbon fiber vinyl, but you will still never get the depth that real carbon fiber pieces have, since those parts/pieces have a thick gel coat on top of the carbon to provide that look.

    You can see that the

    Before:






    After:
























    -Don Nguyen

    donathon@gmail.com

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    Irvine, CA
    Posts
    17,555
    My Cars
    97' M3 Coupe
    The headlights of this white E-class had become a little pitted and slightly faded over the years. So to freshen it up a bit and change up the look at the same time, I used my lightly smoked / tinted film that I also normally use on the tail lights for these head lights. The film covers up any rock chips, provides a glossy shine, and protects the headlights at the same time. A clear film could provide the same thing, but the owner wanted me to use the smoke / tint film for his car. It's a fairly light shade, so light output isn't really affected, which is a good thing. The owner of this car was from south orange county in Mission Viejo or so and drove out to me in Anaheim Hills to get the work done.

    I took some in progress pictures to show you how it looks like from stock to tinted and I also took some pictures of how it looks inside in darker lighting and outside in brighter lighting, to show the differences between the two.

    Before:




    During: Passenger (left) stock - Driver (right) smoked / tinted




    After:










    -Don Nguyen

    donathon@gmail.com

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Dec 2003
    Location
    San Jose, CA
    Posts
    2,558
    My Cars
    E90 M3, S54 Clown shoe
    Can you do a sunroof on an M z coupe? I hate that the sun is beating down on my head all the time.

    "If you go backwards through the Pearly Gates in a giant fireball, that's a cool way to die." -Richard Hammond

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    Irvine, CA
    Posts
    17,555
    My Cars
    97' M3 Coupe
    I can do that. It'd be fairly straight forward on your M coupe. Shoot me an e-mail.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Dec 2003
    Location
    San Jose, CA
    Posts
    2,558
    My Cars
    E90 M3, S54 Clown shoe
    and email sent

    "If you go backwards through the Pearly Gates in a giant fireball, that's a cool way to die." -Richard Hammond

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    Irvine, CA
    Posts
    17,555
    My Cars
    97' M3 Coupe
    Replied.

    I have filled most of my available slots. I do have a handful more available. I'll update the thread tomorrow with what time slots I still have for each of those days.

    This is a return customer. He's had me do a couple of his cars in the past before as well. For this car, I blacked out the chrome / brushed aluminum window trim that goes around the windows for this black Mercedes CL600 v12. We went with a matte black finish for this car. It's a fairly big car for a two door, so the window trim actually covers over a large area of the car. In addition to the window trim, I also blacked out the chrome trunk handle piece in the rear. In this photo set I included a lot more up close pictures around the edges, ends and around where the rubber weather stripping areas are.

    Before:




    After:




















    -Don Nguyen

    donathon@gmail.com

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    Irvine, CA
    Posts
    17,555
    My Cars
    97' M3 Coupe
    Even as much as I have seen it, I still think black roofs on white or lighter colored cars always looks great. Provides great contrast and in this case, it goes fairly well with the black wheels on the car. The owner of this white Subaru STI sedan brought his car to me to have the roof wrapped with my gloss black vinyl material. The owner of this car was also from around San Jose / Bay area, so he was fairly close to where I was doing the vinyl installs at while up in norcal. Subarus are one of those cars that could pull off the matte black or gloss black look fairly well. So even if the owner had decided to go with my matte black vinyl material, I think it would have looked just as good.

    Before:




    After:














    -Don Nguyen

    donathon@gmail.com

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    Irvine, CA
    Posts
    17,555
    My Cars
    97' M3 Coupe
    Going to be heading out to head up north soon. I had some appointments change their schedules, so this is now what I have left.

    Today is most likely the last official day I will take appointments, since once I start working, I won't have much time to check/reply to my e-mails anymore.

    Tuesday 21st - 1 appointment slots available
    Wednesday 22nd - 1 appointment slot available (Maybe)*
    Thursday 23rd - 2 appointment slots available
    Friday - Completely booked.

    -Don

    donathon@gmail.com

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    Irvine, CA
    Posts
    17,555
    My Cars
    97' M3 Coupe
    Here's one of the cars that I did some vinyl work on the other day up here in norcal / Bay Area / San Jose. The owner of this white E46 325i sedan brought his car by to have me vinyl wrap his roof with my matte black vinyl material. It's not as often that BMW or Euro guys in general go with the matte black finish, so this is a good example for those who were thinking or considering getting it done on your cars. The roof was plastidip before, but the vinyl provides a much smoother end result and finish, and is just as easily reversible.













    -Don Nguyen

    donathon@gmail.com

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    Irvine, CA
    Posts
    17,555
    My Cars
    97' M3 Coupe
    Today is my last day for my August trip up here in norcal / Bay Area. I had this white Mercedes Benz C300 sedan come by earlier this week to have me do some vinyl work on it for him. He drove down from Napa to me in San Jose to get the work done. The owner of this car had me vinyl wrap the roof and the side door pillars in the 3M di noc matte carbon fiber and also had me black out the chrome on his window trim and rear trunk handle piece with my matte black finish vinyl material. In the darker lighting and from further away, you can't really make out the carbon fiber weave too much in the pictures. Matte black along the window trim went well with the matte carbon finish. The carbon pillars turned out pretty nice too.

    Before:




    After:



















    -Don Nguyen

    donathon@gmail.com

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Aug 2012
    Location
    Sac
    Posts
    37
    My Cars
    1997 BMW 328i
    Can't believe I missed out. Do you know when you'll be coming up next?

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    Irvine, CA
    Posts
    17,555
    My Cars
    97' M3 Coupe
    No ETA at the moment. If you want, shoot me an e-mail and I'll keep it on tab/note so I know to contact you if/when I figure out I'll be up there again.

    thanks.

    -Don

    donathon@gmail.com

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •