So I caught a glimpse at the new Mountaineer JK's at the dealers ship the other day and the dark grey painted grille really caught my eye. At first I thought about painting my grille, but that seemed too permanent for me. My dad told me about this vinyl with a carbon fiber imprint on it and I was sold. It offered me that look of painting my grille without the permanence.

I ordered a roll of the carbon fiber vinyl from ebay. I got a 24" by 51" roll for $20.00. Those are the perfect dimensions, any smaller and you will not get a good finish (you'll see why).

Next step was to remove the grille. That was easy enough thanks to other write ups on the forum. It is just 6 plastic fasteners on top and a couple of metal clips on the bottom. Don't forget to unplug the indicator lights.

With the grille removed I used iso alcohol, windex, and some goo-gone to clean the front and back of the grille. This is important so that the glue on the vinyl will stick directly to the plastic.

After the cleaning the fun began. The process is slow and tedious and requires extreme patience. Slowly I worked my way from one end of the grille to the other. I used a hair dryer to help make the vinyl more malleable when it came to edges or corners. The good thing is that you can stick and unstick the vinyl several times so you just have to have patience.

KEY POINT: When doing this you want to wrap the vinyl around the back of the grille too. This gives it more strength so that it doesn't just lift off the edge.

Once the vinyl was laid flat on top of the grille I had to go about cutting and laying the vinyl into the lights and the grille vents. This was another huge PITA. My advice: GO SLOW AND USE HEAT. Use the heat and gently press down in the holes. Slowly the vinyl will expand and you will be able to stick it to the walls. For the headlights I cut out a hole to make it easier on myself but I think you can do it without. For the grille vents I sliced the vinyl down the middle of the vent to make it easier.

As for the JEEP logo, there were two route I could have gone. I could have removed the logo and them glued it back on on top of the vinyl (what I should have done). Or I could lay the vinyl over it and try to cut it out (what I did). The first one would have been better.

After everything was laid and done I trimmed the extra vinyl from the edges and used a hot needle to pop the little bubbles that were left.

The project was more of PITA than I thought it would be but I am happy with the results. Hope this is helpful.

 

I really like this carbon fiber trend for us Black Jeep owners that can't do much to differentiate the body shape. Nice work!

 

to each their own, but in my eyes, carbon fiber should never be on a jeep...

Belongs on a ghetto honda civic.

 

Like i said, to each their own and it never hurts to have more write-ups.

I definitely would fix the jeep emblem issue somehow though...

 

Yeah the bubbles are a pain/ I've been pooping them little by little, but laying vinyl that big is was impossible not to get them. Also I chose the carbon fiber because I liked the matte color to it and I just thought it looked cool.

 

Excellent write up Ricky! Looks great!!!!!

 

Picts a little small for me, but looks good! I'm sold on just the grill. Nother Guy, other thread, did his whole Jeep!

 

if you use i tiny bit of soap in water and put it down wet its much easier or get car wrap vinyl its much easier.

 

Kinda like window tint that way!

 

A nice mod! I'm always looking for ways to offset eventual wear. With age and mileage, the grill will begin to show wear, and this might be a good alternative to a re-paint.