dhchin

Hey guys,
I made some eyelids and vinyled my Mazda emblem last night what do ya think? I also bought some of those rain gutter guards to make a new grill, but I saved that for tonight. I can't believe how cheap those gutter guards are. I bought two at $1.17 each at Home Depot. I can't believe that some custom grills cost up to $200 for the same look.

Anyways, the vinyl was cheap too. I paid $15 for it at a sign shop, did the sun strip at the top of my windshield, the eyelids, the emblem, and still have like 3 square feet left over! I highly recommend getting it from a sign shop too because they can match the color of your paint. They had about 20 different shades of red to choose from. Feel free to ask me some questions.

viral_override

I think it looks great! When you vinyled, that is the sticker stuff right? Sorry haven't done too much. The customer grill stuff....what is made of?

dhchin

Vinyl is a sort of thin plastic material that has smooth color on one side, and is like sticky tape on the other. It comes in large rolls, and then you cut off how much you want to use. If you ever see a professional sign done on plastic, then that is usually vinyl. You might already have some vinyl on your car. Dealerships sometimes use vinyl to put their logo on the back of the cars they sell. That is always the first vinyl I peel off though.

I hope this is helpful, it's kind of a hard thing to describe.

Wingman21

How do you cut the vinyl ? Do you put it on the light first and then cut it ? If so, would not it scratch your light ?

Thanks

Identity_X

also.......how does it look with the lights on /??

dhchin

A sign shop is any place that specializes in making signs. I'm sure that if you look in the yellow pages under signs, you might be able to find something.

It was very easy to do.

FIRST-- WHEN APPLYING VINYL, YOUSHOULD SPRAY DOWN THE BACK OF THE VINYL & THE AREA TO BE APPLIE DWITH A SOLUTION OF WATER MIXED WITH A LITTLE DISHWASHING DETERGENT. tHEN SQUEGEE OUT THE WATER AFTER APPLYING THE VINYL. IT SHOULD TAKE ABOUT A DAY TO DRY.

For the sun visor strip, I just slapped it on there, making sure that it was the same length from the top of the winshield on both sides, and then used an exacto blade to trip around the top and side edges. (pic of sun visor not included) - will post with the new grill

For the eyebrows -
I opened the hood, taped saran wrap to the light with scotch tape
used a perminant marker to trace the edge of the eyebrow that I wanted, took off the saran wrap, taped the marked saran wrap to a piece of cardboard, used a thumb tack to pierce the saran wrap through the traced lines and the cardboard, after the complete eyebrow is traceed with the thumb tack, take off the saran wrap and then cut out the pin hole template for the eyebrow.
Now you have a stencil for tracing onto the vinyl. I used a dry erase marker to trace the outline onto the vinyl because after I cut out the eyebrow with scissors, I could easily wipe off the left over marker.

The emblem-
I used a butter knife to pry the embelem away from the black grill
Then I used small pieces of vinyl in the shape of the emblem to wrap around the embelem. Use a hobby or exacto blade to help make the small incisions.

Have Fun!


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dhchin

Ot looks really mean with the lights on. One person on protege5.com said it looked like a pissed off protege

mnkyboy

So where are the pics with the lights on?! LOL

tttP5

how would u remove the vinyl afterwards? like if I wanted to sell the car?

redrims

just peel it off.

ShyutanSan

That is sooo freakin' cool with the vinyl... too bad my protege isn't a primary color!!! boooooooo.... damn you all with primary color cars! Damn you all to hell!!



My protege that i just got is a sand tan color! booo i can't seem to find vinyl that matches that. Any suggestions? Use black? or something?

-Peace

dhchin

I'm sure that if you go to a good sign store they could match the color. The one I went to had about 10 shades of red that I could choose from. They had tons of colors. However, I don't know if I would like tan eyebrows. I think the black would look pretty sweet though. Try messing around with photoshop to see what you like. There is also a vinyl out that looks like carbon fiber, which would look pretty kick *** too.

Just my 2 Cents

Here is a pic of the whole car

ShyutanSan

Thanks man, i never really thought of dinking around with photoshop. Thats a really good idea.

And yeah... i had some fishy feelings about tan too for eyelids... i'll dink around with black.

Peace-
"I'm a democrat when I'm optamistic and poor... I'm a republican when i'm jaded and wealthy"

mnkyboy

Looks nice.

Remember, stickers dont last forever.