Cavero

Finally, my first mod in over a year!

I was looking up interior upgrades for my DD ('13 Focus) and ran across a thread on a Focus forum. This guy vinyl-wrapped his interior, which I thought..uh ok...this guy's wrapping his panels in fake leather. But taking a closer look I saw it was actually a metal-grain vinyl wrap. Did a search on amazon and found 3M Scotchprint 1080 vinyl. They typically use it for exterior wraps, but it works just fine inside too. Comes in all kinds colors and finishes, including gloss, metal flake, flat, and brushed: aluminum, steel, titanium (that's what I'm using on the FoFo), and what I'm using on the Mustang --brushed black metallic. I wanted to give the car a higher-end feel without radically changing the look of the interior.

You can order samples for $1 a piece and try out different styles. Added bonus: you can use the samples as practice, which you WILL need. It's a slow and tedious processes. You need to be very methodical about it. The vinyl has air channels imprinted on the backside to allow air pockets to escape, and that helps. But as you apply it over the surface, you can get wrinkles, which can get to be a PITA to remove. You really need to think about how you're going to apply and stretch the vinyl over the surface. It can be stretched by hand to a certain extent, and then you can persuade it with a heat gun. Be warned--it'll only stretch to a certain extent before it starts tearing. I'll get into that later.

Here's the center console in work:

stupidgenius36

Subscribed to see the finished product. Looks good so far.

Cavero

Here's the finished product

Cavero

You can see here it doesn't drastically change things:

stupidgenius36

I like that a lot. It really looks like brushed metal.

Cavero

The hardest part of the whole thing was the center console --by FAR. You wouldn't think it with all the straight edges, but especially getting it to conform around the ebrake handle was just abount impossible. In fact, I couldn't do it. I had to cut out around the handle and then patch it back in. Definitely need to go back in w/ an Xacto knife and clean up the overlap.

laserred38

I love it! I have been thinking about this same exact vinyl for my interior. In fact, I plan to do the silver dash panels, and all of the chrome trim too. Amazon yeah? Awesome. I have prime

lowblustang00

That looks fantastic :-). Makes me want to try it.

Cavero

Thanks! Great thing is, if you don't like it, just peel it off and it's back to normal

06blackvertstang

That looks great. The inside of your car looks really nice

YZFMax

I like it, that looks awesome.

houtex

Thank you. I am stealing this idea. I have new dash panels and a Plan(tm), but this... this is beyond. Sweet.

GrnT

It looks really nice. That must take allot of patience which I don't have much of.

houtex

It does take patience. When I did my dash panels in the regular fabric vinyl?

Good. Grief. I almost quit... like... I dunno... 17 times?

Glad I didn't though.

swervo

That looks pretty good.

VGMStudios

LOL I did this with my side mirrors using the same stuff. Its a ***** to work it esp when its windy out. Youve done a nice job on it!
I want to plasti-dip my center console but the color is not turning out well.

Jazzman442

Looks great. Where did you get your red Piping?

Cavero

Yep, I had to peel it back like a hundred times to get it to lay just right. Nice thing is if it gets a little too warped, just hit it lightly with the heat gun and it seems to shrink right back. I got almost completely done w/ the center console but it kept wrinkling in one place. I was about to give up but decided to hit it with the heat gun and managed to save it. Took another 10 min just to get that corner.

Cavero

Thanks! Interesting idea. Got any pics? I dunno if it'd stick to my mirrors, I've detailed the hell out of them. I'm willing to bet I've got about 1/4 bottle of Back to Black permanently soaked into the plastic.

Cavero

I got it from a member that used to be here (Travelers). Ran into him up at Tillman Speed outside Philly and he had some extra. I don't remember where he got it from...it was one of those fevers that was hitting the forums around '07. Everyone had to get welting and there was this one vendor most people were getting it from. Can't remember