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Don Nguyen | Blacked Out Window Trim - Vinyl

120K views 176 replies 43 participants last post by  Don Nguyen 
#1 · (Edited)
Recently I have been getting people asking me if I can do window trim as well, and the answer to that is yes! Not all of the cars I do are E46s, but hopefully it'll give you a general idea of how blacked out trims looks like on various and different colored cars. All of these cars are cars that I worked on personally, but if you aren't a local and just need materials, I can supply the necessary materials needed as well.

Just recently started taking pictures of the cars that I've done window trim on, and here's one of the first of them. I must say, it was a very very nice car.

E63 AMG:











If you guys are looking for any vinyl materials to cover your roof, window trim, etc, shoot me a PM with what you need or post up any questions you might have.

-Don
 
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#84 · (Edited)
I had posted pictures of this same car that I also tinted the tail lights on. However, I had also blacked out the chrome / brushed aluminum window trim for him as well to give it that shadowline look. Unlike BMW, Mercedes does not have the shadowline option from the factory, so the only way to get rid of it is to vinyl wrap it.

We went with matte black instead of gloss black for this car. Everything turned out really nicely with the matte black finish. I personally think getting rid of the chrome is one of the biggest changes you can do with the car, especially if you are blacking or or getting rid of the chrome on the rest of the car. The black window trim really gives it a sportier look. In addition to the window trim, I also blacked out the chrome on the back trunk handle. The owner of this car drove out to me in Anaheim Hills from Newport Beach / Orange County to have the work done.











-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com
 
#85 ·
Had this new body black Mercedes Benz CLS63 come by to have me black out the chrome / aluminum trim around the windows and back rear trunk handle chrome piece. We went with matte black finish material so that the trim pieces still accented the car and did not disappear completely into the body of the car. You can notice it when I take the pictures, the trim pieces still pop out a little bit in the pictures. It gives it a nice contrast if that's what you are trying to go for. The owner of this car was also from Orange County.

By blacking out the chrome it really makes the red calipers and other parts of the car pop more.

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-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com
 
#86 ·
I think I work on more AMG cars than non AMG cars when it comes to Mercedes, haha. I blacked out the chrome / aluminum window trim on this black Mercedes Benz C63 AMG with my matte black vinyl material to give it the shadowline look. Owner came out to me in Orange County / Anaheim Hills to have the work done. I took some more detailed pictures of the corners and edges for those who were interested and asking me for them.

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-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com
 
#88 ·
PM sent.

Took a while for the owner of this car and for me to figure/find out a time for him to be able to bring his car by to get the chrome / aluminum window trim wrapped in my gloss black vinyl material to give it that shadowline look. The owner of this car was from Los Angeles and brought his car out to me in Anaheim Hills / Orange County. He went with the gloss black over the matte black finish to get more of that factory BMW sport package look. I have seen cars come with the window trim in matte black as well, but I don't know what package those come with or are offered with.

Everything is wrapped seamlessly and tucked in where ever possible, to provide the longest lasting results.

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-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com
 
#90 ·
Even on a more stock-ish car, blacking out the chrome / aluminum window trim can change the dynamics of the car's looks greatly. It won't necessarily give it a modified/aftermarket look, but it definitely adds to the car's look, while still looking factory. The owner of this car drove out to me in Orange County / Anaheim Hills to get the wrap done. Everything is done seamlessly and in one piece to retain that factory look and without making it seem like a wrap job. We went with the matte black on this car to still give it some contrast and accent the trim pieces, instead of going with gloss black which would have made it kind of disappear into the car's black paint.

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-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com
 
#91 ·
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.

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-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com
 
#92 · (Edited)
Seems like there are a lot of fans of wagons, so here are pictures of a blue E46 325i wagon / touring that I worked on recently. The owner of this car actually lived down the street from me in Irvine / Orange County, so I dropped by their house to do the vinyl wrap. The owner wanted me to black out his chrome / aluminum window trim. I went with the matte black to give it more of an aggressive look and it went well with all of the other matte black weather rubber pieces that lined the window trim and the overall look of the car.

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-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com
 
#93 ·
Another car I did on my most recent trip up to norcal / Bay Area to do vinyl wrapping. I liked this car, because it was a unique color and different from the black or white cars that I am usually working on, so it's a nice change of pace. I believe it was a BMW E90 330i or 328i sedan, and I don't know the exact name of the color of this car, but it was almost greenish/silverish/blueish in different lightings. For this car, we went with the matte black vinyl for his window trim over the gloss black to match the rubber around the window trim and his B pillars, which were also matte black already. I think the final results turned out great. Everything is done seamlessly without any awkward seam lines in random places and everything gets tucked in underneath the weather stripping.

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-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com
 
#94 ·
Although white cars may look the best with the gloss black roofs, black cars definitely benefit one of the most when it comes to getting their chrome / brushed aluminum window trims blacked out. I believe the owner of this car is also on this forum. The owner of this car brought their jet black E46 325i (or it was a 330i) coupe to have me wrap his window trim in my matte black vinyl material to give it that shadowline look. We went with the matte black to get that slight contrast. Overall, I think it turned out great and changed the look of the car dramatically. Even on a more stock-ish car, doing this still benefits and changes the overall look of the car quite a bit.

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-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com
 
#95 ·
The chrome / brushed aluminum on the window trims of this silver BMW E46 325i sedan was starting to fade/oxidize. So instead of buying replacement trim pieces or trying to paint them, the owner of this car had me vinyl wrap them with my matte black vinyl instead. This was a quicker, simpler, and overall better solution. We went with the matte black to match the matte finish on the wheels. I did this car while I was out over at my friend's shop in Huntington Beach / Orange County.

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-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com
 
#96 ·
Some of you may notice, I don't necessarily post pictures in any particular order. I just go through what I have and pick from random unless requested otherwise by the owners of the cars or people who want to see something specific.

I worked on this car when I was up in norcal / Bay Area last time. This grey / silver Mercedes Benz came by to have me wrap the chrome / brushed aluminum window trim and rear trunk handle piece with my gloss black vinyl material. In addition to the window trim, I also tinted / smoked the tail lights lightly with my film specifically made/designed for use on exteriors. The lighting kind of makes it hard to really notice the gloss finish on the window trim, but hopefully you can still make it out and get an idea of how it looks like.

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Driver side (left) stock - Passenger side (right) tinted / smoked


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-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com
 
#97 ·
Here is a brand new white Audi B8 A4 that I blacked out the chrome / brushed aluminum window trim with my gloss black material. The owner of this car went with gloss black over the matte black so it'd blend in with his tinted windows. The chrome is a small detail, but even on a lighter colored car like this white Audi, it still makes an immense difference in the overall look of the car. I believe the owner of this car was from around Orange County or Los Angeles. The gloss black window trim makes the car look sportier and classy at the same time, without ruining the factory look.

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-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com
 
#99 ·
Thanks.

Here is a silver E92 328i coupe that I blacked out the chrome / brushed aluminum window trim with my matte black vinyl material. The car was relatively stock, but getting rid of the chrome still made a big difference on the overall look of the car. We went with the matte black over the gloss black to match the other matte pieces that were already around the window trim. The owner of this car drove out to me from around Long beach to Anaheim Hills.

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-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com
 
#100 · (Edited)
This black Audi A4 B8 came by to have me black out the chrome / brushed aluminum window trim that came with his car. The owner of this car was also around in Orange County and came out to me in Anaheim Hills to get the work done. In the before pictures, you can see my X5 in the background with black window trim, so that may also kind of give you an idea of how chrome and non chrome window trim looks like side by side on black cars. For this car, we went with my gloss black vinyl material over the matte black material and I think it turned out fairly nice. The car had a metallic finish to it, so the gloss black still stood out against it even though it was gloss black as well.

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-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com
 
#101 ·
The owner of this new black BMW F10 528i sedan wanted me to complete the black out look for his car. I vinyl wrapped the chrome / brushed aluminum window trim on his car with my matte black material. We went with matte black over the gloss black since it matched the B pillars and it stood out a bit more than the gloss black would have. Overall, it makes a big difference, especially on a car that is as blacked out already as this one was. The owner of this car was from Orange County also and drove out to me in Anaheim Hills to get the work done.

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-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com
 
#102 ·
I can't believe it's already been almost half a year since I've been up to norcal to do my vinyl wraps up there in the bay area. Anyways, I still have a ton of pictures from my last trip that I haven't posted up yet. Here is a silver / gray Infinity G37 sedan that came by to have me vinyl wrap the chrome window trim on his car with my gloss black material. We went with the gloss black over the matte black finish for this car and I think it turned out great. The car was fairly stock, but even with just the window trim done, it completely changed the look of the car while maintaining a nice classy factory look.

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-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com
 
#104 ·
It comes down to preference really. Also, other mods on the car can dictate what you should go with.

This is not exactly what I normally post, but for some reason I had two cars come in on the same day to have me do the same thing on both cars. Both cars had roof rails that were starting to corrode / fake / peel, and they wanted me to wrap them in vinyl to cover up the imperfections and give the pieces a consistent finish again. Ideally, the pieces should be smooth for the best results, but worse comes to worse, even if they aren't smooth, at least they are one color/finish again after being wrapped.

First car had silver / chrome roof rails and they wanted me to wrap it in gloss black. Second car had factory matte black roof rails, and they wanted me to just rewrap them in my matte black vinyl finish. The pictures aren't the best, since I was fairly busy that day and I wasn't even sure if I was going to be using these pictures later on as well.

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-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com
 
#105 ·
I had this brand new white BMW F30 335i sedan come by to have me vinyl wrap their car's roof in my gloss black vinyl material. I think this is the first mod that the owner of this car did. Just goes to show that getting a black roof done looks good by itself or as finishing touches to a car that already has other modifications done to it. I believe the owner of this car was around Orange County as well and drove out to me in Anaheim Hills to get the work done. We went with gloss black on this car to match his already factory gloss black mirrors and window trim pieces.

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-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com
 
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