It’s not that I don’t like modern trends like vinyl wrapping, its just that they don’t fit the 80’s style cars too well. Luckily we have the Hi C to carry out my modern trend ambitions on. Not so lucky for the Hi C is that I’m far from a professional wrapper, and I don’t get any practice before the C is under the knife!
First step was to redo the license plate backing piece that we did a while back. That vinyl was some cheap crap from Amazon and it was tough to stick and didn’t last very long. I picked up some new stuff from R Vinyl to try out.
If you want to take off your Prius C bumper, there ya go. Pop the 3 clips out on the top, remove the M6 screws underneath, and then you just have to pop it off of the clips under the headlights and in the fenders. Yes modern cars are just that easy. Oh yeah but don’t forget to unplug the lights.
To separate that piece from the bumper, in addition to about a million tabs there are a four screws. The two upper will allow the (T) badge to come off since it’s over the part we’re wrapping. The two in the middle will allow the center section to release. Again after you release the million tabs.
The new vinyl laid down much better and stuck in the not nooks and crannies of this piece far better than the Amazon stuff we tried last time. To be fair the Amazon stuff was substantially cheaper, and might work for something flat that you keep indoors, and never use. The bumps you see are actually in the paint under the vinyl. When this vinyl gets beat into submission by rock chips and road debris, I may have more faith in the vinyl next time and either order a new piece or give it a sand and paint to allow the vinyl to have something smooth to apply to. After the previous experience I was glad we didn’t do that though.
The headlights were also on the list to cover. I’ve tried and failed before but since I was ordering from R Vinyl anyway, I gave it another shot. The photos above show the 3 screws that need to be removed to release the headlights. Again there’s wiring that need to be unplugged as well.
Well I failed again, BUT not as badly as I first thought. The headlight was really kicking my ass until I figured out the headlight vinyl shipped with a cover on both top and bottom. I had pealed the protective cover off the top and for some reason the vinyl wasn’t stretching or sticking! Shocking I know! After I figured this out I pealed the sticky side and got the headlight mostly wrapped. It at least proves that it would have been possible had I not screwed up the vinyl in the first round.
You may have noticed in the lead shot that the fog lights and front turn signals did get the tint treatment. It went much better knowing that there was a protective layer on two sides. Might be something to mention in the instructions. Just sayin.
Speaking of the fog lights. While we had the bumper off it was time to for an upgrade The previous bulbs haven’t been bad in the C. The same brand in my parent’s 4Runner failed in a hurry though. Before I send them something else to try I wanted to at least give it a go myself. There is obviously no comparison in the looks department. The new Dragon LEDz are much beefier being designed with cooling in mind and outside of the housings they are much brighter than the other lights. I’m guessing they will be so much brighter that I won’t even notice the tint I just put over the lights.
I’ll update in about a week with more photos of the lights, and hopefully no photos of peeling vinyl!
BONUS INFO:
Some bonus info. For anyone wanting to upgrade their 2016 to 2017 specs and add the larger fog light bezels or front lip, the cut outs are marked on the back side. Those pieces are a little pricey from the dealer, but hey at least you don’t have to buy the bumper too!
