I was at 3M today morning, for more CF wrap work. I've tried to give it a somewhat Abarth Evo look from the front, by using just CF wraps, but added some design variations of my own. It was done purely on experimental basis, and might change after some months.
Here's a sneak peek, before getting to the nitty-gritties
. The gloss is thanks to the detailing work due to my frequent visits to 3M :
When I walked in to 3M today, I had two things on my mind -
1. Get rid of abrupt color changes, and reduce the overload of black from the side profile. The OEM decals just had to go, since they obviously looked odd with all the other modifications.
2. Make the front something different from the rest of the Puntos on the road, preferably something resembling the Punto Abarth Evo.
The first part was easy - it was just about ripping the OEM decal off the sides. The sides look cleaner now, correctly mentioned by Nileshch. I have retained the 'Sport' decal at the back though.
The second part had me thinking - what is the best way to ensure a continuous flowing black layout on the front which takes it close to an Abarth Evo? I had CF at my disposal with the 3M guys, but it was the only thing I had. I just replaced my front upper and lower grills to black variants, but there was an upside-down T-shape black layout in the Abarth Evo which I was eyeing (picture in my previous post).
The bumper and grill are shaped differently in the Evo version, so I couldn't copy that 100%. Mine is the Grande Punto version, not the Evo, so no luck there. Then I noticed that the fog lamps and the lower grill are set in the same body line flow, and the upper and lower grill are part of the same 'trapezium' shape layout, with the number plate (red) area in between. The simplest way for me to get an all black single layout at the front was to merge the 2 grill areas by adding CF in between, and then extending the CF wrap area from the fog lamps to join this trapezium in the centre. Enough of me blabbering, over to the pictures now :
A 'Before' picture. Notice the red body flow areas between the grills, and from the fogs to the lower grill which were selected as 'targets'
The Carbon fibre wrap work begins to fill the gap area between the upper and lower grills
Then the gap area is filled from the fog lamps to the grill trapezoid
The OEM decals are stripped, the sticker area was then cleaned and detailed to perfection
The view after finishing what I had in mind for them. Looks somewhat like a 'toothless grin'
The work done on the centre panel
Extending the fog lamp bezels to get integrated into the centre black layout
A closer look at the other side
Meanwhile, the out-of-place chrome handles got the CF treatment too, while the surrounding OEM decals were being stripped off
Lets have some Before / After pictures now :
Left side view (Before) :
Left side view (After):
Right side view (Before) :
Right side view (After) :
Front view (Before) :
Front view (After) :
The Punto outside my home, with the elder sibling under the car cover in the background (seen inside the portico)
The overall transformation to the car's looks with the filth (OEM decals) removed
Before I left the 3M store, as always, a
detailed detailing session to provide some extra gloss and sheen *lol*
It was a pleasure to meet (by chance) BHPian @speed_kills and see his superbly modified Grey hound Polo 1.6 at 3M. He was there for a wash I believe, and stayed for a while to help with some inputs during the CF application process. Thanks a lot dude!
Super thanks to Sidhu and team at 3M car care. The artistic talent of the CF guy here is seriously impressive too! You simply have to check him out in action if you are getting something done here. Outstanding quality of work and finish!
P.S - next target - headlamp / taillamp smoke tint application, via DIY. The parcel should be here in a month I guess.