Category Archives: Graphics & Visual Mods

Carbon Fiber Wrapped Mirrors and Vinyl Graphics

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I don’t have lit mirrors like the Fancy-pants Dart Limited, so I decided to do some more carbon fiber trim, to tie things together. I haven’t had time to do the headlights, yet, so we’ll see how i fare on them. For now, I did a silly sticker on the front windshield, and did carbon fiber wrap on both mirrors. Let me tell you – total PITA! I actually did them 3X’s before getting them close to perfect, and they still aren’t quite right. Now I wish I had lit mirrors, too.

This is my pit crew (wife, sister-in-law & foster daughter) helping me with them over the Thanksgiving Holiday. If you are doing carbon fiber wrap, be sure to pre-stretch the material before you apply it. This will “train” the material to elongate, then when you apply heat as you install them, they will shrink back to shape, instead of stretching out. This is so they do not lift up on the edges after a few weeks, or after drastic temperature changes. You should start in the middle of the mirrors, then work your way out to the edges. Then I trimmed them slightly large to heat and fold the ends down and eliminate the color shining through.

Some battle scars from Wolverine! (vinyl wrap)

*edit: I later removed the battle scars, move over graphic, and has stripes, as they did not work so well with the new hood, and some commented it looked like a tiger theme…

Later, I got carried away with the extra carbon fibre wrap:

  1. I tried carbon fiber gas door. I’ll be honest, I really like the black Mopar fuel door, but I can’t justify the $140.00 price tag, seems a bit outrageous! I did the wrap with the same carbon fiber, instead, but ended up taking it off. I didn’t think it really worked with my graphics, but I don’t know. Maybe others will think it looks cool and I can redo it. I’ve gotten a bit better now applying the wrap, and I still have some leftover.
  2. Finally, I experimented with carbon fiber hood wrap, but couldn’t do it alone without the wrinkles. I’d have to hire someone if I really wanted to do it, but I’m not really sure it works with my other graphics, such as the hash stripes and center stripe. I’m going to pass on this one for now.


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Fender Flares / Mini Flares

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I’ve had multiple questions about my fender flares – not a big deal. ABS plastic strips molded and bent with heat. They have a carbon fiber look, and they are held on with 3M adhesive, so they can be removed when the fascia comes off. I tried to find them again online, and they are no longer available.

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Carbon Fiber Wrap

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Maybe not the first, but I installed carbon fiber (wrapped) side skirts, chin spoiler & door pillars.

This weekend, I got Dartlene ready to drive out to Ohio. Both mine and my wife’s families are from Ohio, so we’ve made this journey about 10,000 times. None of my Ohio buddies have seen the ride, yet, so I’d thought I’d do a few more mods:

Carbon fiber door pillars – I bought a large roll of carbon fiber, the thicker stuff (0.5mm instead of 0.2mm) and went wrap-crazy. I used paper to trace and cut templates of the door pillars. Once I had them right, I cut reverse them for the opposite side. I attempted to do the mirrors, but failed MISERABLY. I couldn’t figure out my problem, until I did more research and found out about the different thickness models. The thinner stuff will stretch further, and is good for interior trim & mirrors. The thicker stuff was perfect for these jobs.

Door pillars:

side skirts chin spoiler:

Here’s some close-ups of the carbon fiber side skirts and chin spoiler before I heated them and removed the wrinkles: (they look fine, now)

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Crosshair Delete / Custom Front Grille

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I received my Grille pieces from customcargrills.com – these pieces just showed up to the party!

Here is the link to my exact grille.  I used XXL Perforated Aluminum Mesh, and then painted it black (like the song.)

You have to remove the entire front fascia to do this – total PITA, but worth it!  Once you have the piece cut and bent, it fits into the area where the old plastic was.  I used a dremel tool to cut out the old plastic, leaving several tabs on the top and bottom.  These tabs were used as mounting points for the new piece.  Once the fitting is perfect, use black tie wraps to secure the new grille to the existing mounting tabs.  You cannot see the zip ties, and it is completely secure.

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I cut out the plastic grille mesh, but left the outer portion for support, and to have a place to attach the new mesh:
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and now cut & painted:20150814_225110

and bent:20150817_182544
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rough placement:

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This is the inside of the front fascia, needed for crosshair delete, in case anyone needs this pic:
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As you can see above, I left the border of the black plastic intact, then re-assembled it.  This have the structure more rigidity, and left me a solid foundation to add the new grille mesh.

(Re)painted the front fascia center piece: (plasti dip)20150820_003410

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The bottom half is covered up by the license plate, FYI.

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Finished bending and molding the grille last night. This pic is just a mockup, but afterwards, i attached the bottom piece using self tapping screws, and I will finish it up this evening. I also received my Unichip to USB cable, so I can backup my tuning map and make a few changes. I’m going to adjust the throttle response, and then re-use the second map for the higher throttle response and more boost. My AFR’s are good, so only minor changes needed, here!

Today:instagram

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Experimenting with Mockups (hood & fascia)

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  1. A little Photoshop action with the MPX Carbon Fibre Hood (My wife doesn’t like it) – what do you think? Seems like it works better on the red one below:
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    As is:
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    I know it would look better in person, and I didn’t spend much time editing the pics.

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Vanity License Plates

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That same day, my new plates arrived in the mail! Sweet! Even more ridiculousness! I also bought and installed the EZ Lip kit. Used 3 piece, and the remainder for small, tapered rear fascia fins. I later Plasti Dipped them black, and used Plasti Dip clear coat, just like I did on the front grill.

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Plasti Dip Door Handles and Fascia & EZ Lip

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  1. Plasti Dipped the crap out of my door handles. I used a brush and painted between the handle opening area, then sprayed the rest.
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    I should have taped it differently, but we live and learn. What do I know, I’m just a music producer!
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  2. yodamusic's Avatar

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    I had some Plasti Dip leftover, and I had been photoshopping the front grill/fascia black – I thought it would look ok, and boy did it ever! It turned out fabulous!  I also added the EZ Lip on the front and sides.  (Both the plasti dip and the EZ Lip were later removed / upgraded.)

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Racetrack Taillight Tint

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On a clear, sunny day, I popped out the RaceTrack tail lights. Things were about to happen!

I taped off the reverse lights and the center black strip.

I used VHT nightshades and did a few coats. Then I clear-coated and then wet sanded it. I had never done this before, so i had to adjust things as I went. It wasn’t perfect at first, so I fixed it. Took a while, but I learned all about wet sanding.

The tail lights weren’t quite perfect at first. I did a bit too much wet sanding – There were small white areas between the VHT and the original black. In the pics, they looked OK, but up close, they weren’t so special. I added another very thin layer of VHT, and then a shit ton of clear coat. Now it’s rockin’!

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De-badging

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Now Dodge didn’t pay me SHIT to drive it’s vehicles…did they pay you? Well, then I’m not in the mood to advertise them for free! I removed all of the Dodge badges for a cleaner look. The Multiair turbo badge was saved for later use inside. The 5 letters of D-O-D-G-E were replaced with those of my name: Y-O-D-E-R.

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