Looks great blnewt!

I was considering vinyl for a while. It has it's advantages. But since I've never DIY'd vinyl I went this route instead.
https://g35driver.com/forums/6492660-post1737.html

 

Came out awesome, love that new look, nice aggressive touch. If you've never messed w/ vinyl before the grill probably isn't the best "starter project".
Your "new" G looks badas$ now

 

Nice work!
I thought aou this several times when I had my G.
Impressed @ your install time.

 

Thanks you sir, coming from a "true" g35 staffer means a lot

 

I like the look, nice job with it! Very unique

 

where did you buy the 3m Scotchprint 1080 carbon fiber auto wrap? I am looking to do this on my Blue G35xS.

 

Thanks for the kudos

Here you go~he's also on Ebay
http://autovinylsolutions.com/3M_1080/carbon_fiber
http://www.ebay.com/itm/3M-1080-Scot...fd1308&vxp=mtr

 

I have some 3M leftover from my other car so I plan on wrapping my grill. I painted my other car's grill and find that after a while it started to chip from road debris. My question is did you manage to wrap the entire grill with one piece or multiple pieces (edges/surround)?

 

It's one piece, you have to heat it pretty aggressively to push the vinyl between the slats to give you enough material to wrap the entire upper visible slat areas, the underside of each grill slat just needs about 1/8" under wrap. The very outer edges where all the slats turn forward and stack you'll need to push your straight edge in the crevice while heating to get good stretch, then you'll slice right on the underside of the crevice and wrap the underside into the crevice. That's about as good as I can explain it. I found it best (and I've wrapped a couple grills now) is to loosen the grill nuts a bit, lay the vinyl on the grill and get it placed and initially set with the front surfaces lightly tacked from top to bottom but DO NOT press down on the vinyl outside the grill area, you want to be able to remove the grill easily. Once you have the grill removed then go about heating and stretching the vinyl as I mentioned above. Having the grill removed will allow you to get to the backside of the grill to trim around the supports between the slats, heat seal the back edges, and also do a full wrap around the outside edges that go into the bumper. Take care when heating and stretching that you keep the plastic tabs sticking out from the grill from getting snapped. I never had a problem w/ this, just be aware of it when you're "bringing the heat"
HTHs

 

Thanks...I'm actually wrapping a 07 G35 Coupe so the grill is different...I have just enough carbon fiber to wrap it but may order more of the matte black ones. Don't want to mess what I have up without having backup.

 

Well at least you can just peel it off
Post pics when you get it done.

 

Sorry for bringing this back from the dead. First of all, OP, awesome job on the vinyl application. It looks flawless! I'd really like to do this on my coupe grill but hesitant since I've never worked with vinyl. I'm having a hard time picturing how you put that stuff on a grill even with your explanation provided. Do you just lay on sheet over the whole thing and cut slits where the vented slots are? Wish I could meet up with you and pay you to do mine lol

 

Here's another thread showing the vinyl laid out on a white sedan, this would be what you'd do to your coupe too. Lay it out, just adhere against the front of the grill slats, then work your way down while applying heat and running your finger along the warm vinyl to stretch it in the space between the slats. It takes some practice so if you get a 2x5ft piece you should have enough to do a couple re-dos.
http://www.myg37.com/forums/d-i-y-in...ing-grill.html

 

Nice, thanks a lot! That helps me get an idea for how to get it started. So the idea is the lay it over the entire grill while it's fixed to the car. From there do you cut around the grill to remov the excess? You mentioned taking your grill off the car completely after the first step, would that come next? Last question: besides a hair dryer, what other tools do you need? An X-acto knive?

 

You'd start w/ a piece already cut out just a bit bigger than the grill area (maybe an inch overlap in all directions). Loosen grill so just a couple of the nuts are loosely holding it down so it's easy to remove later. Lay vinyl down and tack just the front side of the slats, then remove grill. You will need an exacto type knife w/ a couple fresh blades.

Heat & stretch enough vinyl in the slat valleys to get enough coverage for the sides of the slats, I also use a very soft cloth (like a terry washcloth for babies) to put over my fingers when stretching the vinyl, it gets pretty hot and the cloth also keeps your fingers from scratching the vinyl.

Once the grill is wrapped and cut to size you heat seal all the edges byt using your dryer and firm force along all the edges.

G/L