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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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#106 ·
I forgot to take some before pictures of this car, but I am sure you guys can imagine what it might have looked like before/stock. The owner of this car had me vinyl wrap the roof of his white BMW E92 335i coupe with my gloss black material. In addition to his roof, I also wrapped his chrome / brushed aluminum window surround in my gloss black vinyl material as well to match the roof. Small changes, but it really made the car pop a lot more. I thought with the addition of the black roof and window trim, it really made the car a lot cleaner and everything flows nicely even with the contrasting roof. He drove out to me in Orange County / Anaheim Hills to get the work done. I believe the owner of the car was from around Los Angeles area/county or something like that.

















-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com
 
#107 ·
The owner of this brand new black Porsche Cayenne Hybrid had me vinyl wrap the chrome window trim/surround on his car with my gloss black vinyl material. We went with the gloss black to match the B pillars of his car, which were also already gloss black from the factory. It really changed the look of the car, especially with the tinted windows and black wheels that he had. The owner of this car was also in Orange County.

Before:






After:






-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com
 
#108 ·
The owner of this grey/gunmetal colored Mercedes Benz C63 AMG had me vinyl wrap the chrome / brushed aluminum window trim/surround on his car with my matte black vinyl material. The owner wanted the shadowline look. In addition to the window trim, I also vinyl wrapped the b pillars and trunk handle on his car with the 3M dinoc matte carbon fiber material. It's a nice little finishing touch on the car and I think it went well with the overall theme and color of the car.

Before:








After:










-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com
 
#109 ·
The owner of this car had me black out the chrome/brushed aluminum window trim on his brand new white Mercedes Benz E350. We went with the matte black finish for around the window trim area. In addition to the window trim, he also had me wrap the middle center section of his front bumper in my gloss black vinyl material. He drove out to me in Anaheim Hills/Orange County to have the vinyl work done.

Before:






After:










-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com
 
#110 ·
People usually ask me if they should go with gloss black or matte black for the window trim on their black cars, so here is an example of matte black on this brand new BMW F10 sapphire metallic 5 series sedan. With the black wheels on the car, it made the chrome window trim stand out even more. So you can see the differences of the before and after are quite drastic, even for such a small detail. The owner of this car was also around/from Orange County and drove out to my shop in Anaheim Hills. I liked the end results and how this car turned out with the black vinyl trim.

Before:




After:










-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com
 
#111 ·
For this car, I blacked out the chrome brushed aluminum window trim on the car with my black vinyl material and also lightly tinted / smoked the tail lights for this black Mercedes Benz C300 sedan. The owner of this car drove out to me in Orange County / Anaheim Hills to get the vinyl work done. We decided to go with the matte black finish to give the car some contrast still, over the gloss black vinyl finish for the window trim. Also, for the tail lights, we also went with the clear portion cut out to give it a little bit more of a contrast as well.

Before:




After:












Before:


After:




-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com
 
#112 · (Edited)
It's not often that I get a car that's not either black or white coming in to get some vinyl work done. However, the owner of this metallic red BMW E92 328 (or 335) coupe decided to bring their car in and have me vinyl wrap the chrome / brushed aluminum trim that came on their car. For this car I decided that we should go with my gloss black vinyl over the matte black, and I think it turned out great. As you can see, the black window trim can drastically change the look of any car and color. It's a fairly simple change/mod, but it goes a long way. The owner of this car brought their car to me from Los Angeles county area out to me in Orange County / Anaheim Hills.

Before:





After:












-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com
 
#113 ·
Here are some pictures of a black Mercedes Benz E63 AMG that I did on my most recent trip up to norcal / bay area. The owner of this car had me vinyl wrap the chrome / brushed aluminum trim on his car with my matte black vinyl material. I believe he originally was going to have me tint his lights as well, but he went ahead and had them painted instead before I made my trip up there. Unfortunately, he got pulled over the the tails being too dark. The advantage of vinyl in this case would have been that it would have been easy to reverse/pull off the tint film material and go back to stock if needed.

I didn't take any before pictures, as I didn't have much time between cars, so I only took pictures of the after results.









-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com
 
#114 ·
For this brand new black BMW F10 5 series, I blacked out the chrome/brushed aluminum window trim with my gloss black vinyl material. The owner of this car opted to go with the gloss black finish over the matte black to give it the look of the original BMW shadow line blacked out window trim that comes from the factory. Overall, I think it changed the look of the car dramatically, even for something as small/simple as just the chrome trimming around the windows. The owner of this car drove out to me in Orange County/Anaheim Hills to get the vinyl work done.













-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com
 
#115 ·
This is a returning customer of mine. The owner of this car previous has had me black out some chrome on his 5 series GT and also tint the tail lights on his X6 M before. I ended up doing this car at his house, since he happened to live down the street from me in Irvine, so it just worked out. We went with the matte black finish on this car to match the matte black B pillars that were already on the car. This was a brand new black BMW F10 528 sedan, and the slight change from chrome to black made quite a difference in the overall car's appearance.

Before:




After:






-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com
 
#116 ·
I blacked out the chrome/brush aluminum trim on this black Mercedes Benz CLS550 with my matte black vinyl material. We went with the matte black finish over the gloss black finish to give it some more contrast and a somewhat more of an aggressive look. I think it overall went fairly well with the look of the car. The owner of this car drove out to me in Anaheim Hills/Orange County to have the work done. In addition the window trim, I also did the rear trunk bar that was chrome, which tied in nicely with the blacked out badges/emblems that were on the trunk as well. Only other thing that I could have possibly suggested is to also lightly tint the clear portion of his tail lights.

Before:






After:








-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com
 
#117 ·
On a black car more than any other car color, the chrome finish stands out quite a bit. The owner of this new black BMW F10 5 series had me black out the chrome window trim on his car with my matte black vinyl material. If he wanted to complete the black out look, I could have also done the small strip on the door handles and also the front amber reflector in the same matte black vinyl material or my gloss black finish so that it'd blend in with the car better. The owner of this car drove out to me in Anaheim Hills/Orange County to have the work done.

Before:






After:






-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com
 
#118 ·
This is another old customer of mine that is had me do some vinyl work on his new car. I typically do not make house calls, but being that he was an old customer and also lived down the street from me in Irvine/Orange County, I made an exception. For his white E92 328i coupe, he had me vinyl wrap the roof of his car in my gloss black vinyl material and also black out the chrome/brushed aluminum window trimmings in gloss black as well to give it the shadow line look that's offered from the factory for BMW. The car was brand new and stock, but these two changes and modifications to the car really changed the look of the car without making it look out of place or too modified.

Before:




After:






















-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com
 
#119 ·
I think many would not think about it, but even this black Mercedes Benz S63 AMG looks good with the chrome blacked out. Even with the brighter colored/finished wheels, the blacked out chrome/brushed aluminum trim still goes with the look of the car very well and actually makes the car look very sleek imo. In addition to the window trim, I also blacked out the lower door chrome pieces that run the length of the car. I also tinted the headlights and turn signal reflectors with my light tint/smoke film. For this car, we went with my gloss black vinyl finish to match the already gloss black vertical pillars and overall the gloss black just suited this car better than matte black would have. The owner of this car brought his car up to me in Anaheim Hills/Orange County from San Diego to get the vinyl work done.

Before:






During (note driver side headlight and mirror turn signals are tinted, while passenger side is stock)


After:










-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com
 
#120 ·
I'm considering doing it myself on my e92, but i noticed towards the rear of the window trim it flares out a bit from the body. What technique do you use around that area? Do you wrap the backside, or just cut to fit the outter side of the trim? Any tip would be highly appreciated!
 
#126 ·
It's always a consideration, and I do not mind making travels to other places to do installs (I am actually current in norcal doing installs this week), as long as there is enough people interested that would be able to meet at a specific location. As you can imagine, traveling around to only do one car a day would not be practical for me.

-Don
 
#128 · (Edited)
Don I would love to get your vinyl on my car and rather you do the install for me. The previous owner put a cf vinyl wrap on the roof of my car and it does not look great in some areas. I would much rather have you put a gloss black wrap on my roof. If we could set something up in the atlanta area for all the people that wanted it I bet it would be worth your while.
 
#131 ·
Had a request to post some pictures of a white car with gloss black vinyl applied on the trim. The owner of this white Mercedes Benz C63 coupe had me vinyl wrap the chrome/brushed aluminum trim on his car with my gloss black vinyl materials. The owner of this car was in Irvine and drove out to me in Anaheim Hills/Orange County to have the work done. The black trim definitely gave the coupe a much sportier look and complemented the rest of the car fairly well.

Before:






After:










-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com
 
#132 ·
This specific car is not the typical case of a car coming in with chrome/brushed aluminum trim and wanting me to black out their trim with my vinyl materials. The owner of this BMW E30 M3 brought his car in to have me vinyl wrap the previously painted gloss black trim with my matte black vinyl. I know it may be a bit hard to tell, but if you look at the pictures side by side or back to back it may be easier to notice the differences between how matte black trim vs gloss black trim looks like on a car.

This is also good for those who have asked me in the past how well vinyl will cover up bumps/dents/etc. As you may see in some of the pictures, whoever did the paint job on the trim did not do that good of a job, which left the trim a bit lumpy/uneven. If you can***8217;t see or make it out in the pictures, any imperfections that are underneath the vinyl will show through, as the material is fairly thin and basically takes on the shape of the surface/pieces that they are being applied on over.

Before:






After:














-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com
 
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