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Hi,

I had visited the 3M car care in Santhome, and I must say i was really impressed with the way I was received. The one glitch that one may find there is parking space obviously because of the place where it is located, however the staff were more than happy to help me park the car and in fact took the car out of the parking space inside the office premise as well.

Now, coming to the core issue as to why I am making a post here is, after one year of happy driving (touch wood), I felt, I may want to look at some options to make some external mod (in terms of its external appearance, limited to Vinyl wraps only). I spoke to Vijay and he was talking to me about what I had in my mind, however there was a major stumbling block.

The color of my car is dark metallic grey and Vijay and I felt we didn't have much options left out. Both of us felt blackening the top (not sure if that is how it is called) might not really look good as dark grey and black are not contrasting enough. Vijay had also suggested coloring the door pillars with carbon vinyl wraps which I felt was not a major difference in the look.

Finally he had given me another option in which he said may be we could do a Vinyl wrap on the hood and may be the cowl below that as well and then see if we can take it up to the roof if we felt ok with it. However I have a feeling that it would make the car look like it is stickin its tongue out.

I had asked him if i could completely change the color of the car by repainting it and Vijay felt that the service painting houses (unlike the factory painting houses) would do a neat job for what they would charge me. I am left clueless now not knowing what to do now.

Would the experts and the enthusiasts please let me know what could be done on a dark metallic grey car ? Does anyone own an I20 with the same color who has done any such thing to his/her car?

Please do let me know your thoughts.

P.S: I must mention Vijay was very patient and helpful in letting me know the options that were before us. It never looked like he was rushing me or something to get me to spend money. Kudos to that.. !!! :-)

First one question, why do you want to spend on Vinyl wrap for external beautification considering the color that you have? You can look at other options like smoked taillights, spoiler, alloys etc.

I would suggest you to drop any such idea on an already good looking car. Go for other options as motomaverick said. A black vinyl won't suit your car (considering the color) and they usually look good on cars having sharp edges(refer Mustang, Figo or Kizashi) and not the curvy ones (For Ex Swift, i20 or Duster) IMO.
Moreso, if you are really inclined on the vinyl, take photoshop, paint those areas where you feel like, with matt finish colors and get a visual idea on how it looks.

Keep the thread updated on what was your ultimate decision.

-Shiv

Please do not change the colour of your car. If you're really in the mood to give the car a better look I'd suggest you get a sticker job. A pair of white/ light gray racing stripes would give it a sporty look. Get a good set of alloys, preferably chrome, if you don't already have them.

Maybe not relevent to this thread - But can you change the colour of your car at will ? Atleast in Kerala the vehicle registration card mentions the color of the vehicle so if you need to change it, you have to ideally get it updated in the RC.

The minute you repaint your entire car, consider a serious dent on the resale value of the vehicle. IMO, the Dark Metallic Gray is a handsome color for the i20.

If there is any external mod you want to make, try using a contrasting color on the roof and/or hood. But avoid repainting the whole car. You could try the full body vinyl wraps too. Easy to install, easy to remove, and won't hamper the original paint.

If you really want to do it, then yes its a good cosmetic upgrade for your car. Be prepared to convince the cops if they are to verify the colour of your car against the RC records if you are going for a colour that is too different from grey. The good thing about Vinyls, you can get your original paint back and in all good shape when you want to sell your car. :thumbs up

How much is 3M quoting for the complete vinyl job?

If you are really worried about the color of your car not being mod friendly, just sell your car and buy your favorite car in your favorite color. That would save you from all the trouble.

But please don't even think of repainting your brand new car. You'll regret for life!

If I were you, I would spend that money on a good set of Alloys, ICE, Projector Lamps, performance mods etc.,

BTW... you own a two door i20?

Hey Maverick, well it was just a thought and I was thinkin on those lines only then.But thanks,yeah I am really thinkin on other terms as well now. Ideally, I am looking to gift my car some additional bhp (dieseltronic, may be :D). this external modification was something which i thought would do apart from adding BHPs.


Thanks Shiv. I dont know i saw this white I20 with a black roof and I started thinkin of it for my car as well. IMHO, i liked that one. Somewhere i thought even the red polo with black roof was simply mind blowing was what I felt. Lets see, I am changing my mind slowly towards not messing up with the roof.

Now stickering, that's a nice idea. I didnt think of it at all. I was so into Vinyl wraps, in fact i was thinkin of black racing stripes on the grey car. Though it didnt look hideous or appalling, neither was it strikingly good. Vijay (3M guy) he showed what it would look like on his ipad. And no, my I20 doesn't sport chromes yet.

Kutts, yes you have to have it reaffirmed with your local RTO if you would want to change the color of the car. I had discussed about this to Vijay and he said the dealer that i bought my car from would be able to help me with it.

Iceman, Like I quoted on my original post, Vijay was very helpful and we had an hour long discussion. He says a complete Vinyl wrap is absolutely possible, however for Indian conditions it might not really be all that helpful. And even if I go for a complete Vinyl wrap, 3M as of now comes up only with Black (Matte and CF) only. And what he told me made sense because if there is small scratch or anything that could pretty much happen in Chennai's traffic, or if some miscreant in a mall or some place ends up engraving his initials on my car, then all my money is down the drain. Also because of dust and the general loss in quality over time, the car could look really dull, if it is going to be black.

We never actually considered a complete Vinyl wrap considering the odds that I have mentioned above, So i dont really know how much it would cost. But only for the roof he said it could cost me between 8k to 9k I guess. Convincing the cops, well, again we had discussed the options and we HAVE to get it endorsed by the RTO. So that would take care of the cops. The one thing that i cant agree more is the resale value.agree: It would bring it down pretty drastically, I understand.

Warwithwheels, well, selling my car is too much of a far stretch and a straight no. I understand the drawbacks with repainting the car from a service paint house perspective (unlike the factory paint house) as the finish of the painting could really be messy. Vijay had warned me on that already. Excepting for ICE, the rest of the mods are on my list but they would take time to be welcomed in my car due to Vitamin M.

No, I dont own a two door i20. Wonder what made you ask me that.

Mate, you already have a good looking shade, why spoil it?.

If you need to enhance the looks try LEDs, projector headlamps spoilers and add a great looking alloys. Something like this


Source - Google Baba

Thanks Arup. Let me see. I have kick started my thinking process once again. LIke one of the members here mentioned, I am really thinkin of a contrasting color racing strip or may be just a spoiler. :-) I actually like the idea of a spoiler which I just saw in the sport version.

I also have a grey colored i20. I would strictly advice against changing its color. However, instead of blackening, I would recommend applying the carbon fibre vinyl on the roof and on the pillars. Also, you can put the money in buying some nice alloy wheels to increase the sportiness of the car.

This is the Brabus edition of the i20. Are these alloys commercially available?

The one in your display pic!

Ravan , Yeah i was told about the carbon fibre for the pillars, but I dont know why, but i am not a great fan of it on the pillars. Even if it had to be on the pillars, I would like them to be Glossy plain finish ones but not the matte though. But have you done the CF vinyl on roof? If you have, could you please post some pics of your car?

Lol. No WWW, I dont have them, it was my laziness to click a pic of my car, i just pulled out some random pic online. Actually right after i posted that question back to you, i noticed that it was a two door I 20 that I have as my display pic. :D

You can go for white alloys with white vinyl covering on wing mirrors.