Greetings guys and gals ... i just picked up an RC-F (White/Red) back on 11/22 and have been loving it so far ... one of the things I was concerned with is scuffs occurring on the door sill or the door panel itself given the layout of the entry. Not so much me hitting the but someone else (service visit, friends, etc.) If your like me, once you get a scuff or scratch it will drive you nuts...

This past weekend i had an idea and was very pleased on how it turned out that i decided to share for those who may have the same anxiety. Forgive me if this has already been discussed.

I had some matte black vinyl left over and decided to cut strips to cover my entry sill as well as good portion of the door itself. Idea being that it could get scuffed and I can just replace the vinyl at will. Something reassuring about the fact that I can just pull it off at a moments notice and have brand new panels underneath.

for the sill I cut 4" wide strips and tucked it under the weather stripping and it turned out great. For the door I cut a little more contour into the piece so that work around the curve of the speaker grill. Obviously there are many different sizes and shapes you could cut to archive the purpose.

the seam is obvious in a couple photos but in person you really have to look for it. I did both sides even though its the drivers side that takes more of a beating.

 

Fantastic idea! I have the same worries every time I see the scuff marks..and I got my car on Saturday!

Definitely will be doing this later

 

RetroGame: What an ingenious idea! Where do you purchase this type of vinyl?

 

I've always purchased from AVS (Auto Vinyl Solutions) online. It is the 3M 1080 style in matte black

www.autovinylsolutions.com

 

Thanks for the link!

 

I love it. Thanks for sharing. I'm telling everyone to watch the sill as they get in the car, but feel funny having to say something. So this will eliminate the awkwardness.

 

Back in the day, nicer cars had carpeted lower door panels as a way to avoid these scuffs. This is a great solution but I would be all for carpet back on the bottoms of door panels.

 

Bump for you new owners... this has turned out to be a great preventative measure.

 

This is a great idea. I was thinking about doing something similar before reading this post! You should make tempaltes for the doors and sell them.

 

Awesome idea RetroGame!

Which roll dimension of the 3M 1080 do you recommend purchasing?

 

any other places to buy the vinyl? The link doesn't seem to work.

 

http://www.metrorestyling.com/3M-108...tte1080m12.htm

Metro Restyling has the 3M 1080 matte black

 

Ahh, thanks for the link! The vinyl won't mess up the leather over time will it?

 

Highly unlikely

 

Wanted to add a "thanks" and a "me too" to this thread. Here are a few details for anyone else considering doing this. I'd never tried using vinyl wrap before, and my RC is still really new, so I was afraid of screwing something up, but it was super easy. I ordered 60" x 24" of matte black 3M 1080 vinyl wrap at Metrorestyling.com ($24.55 shipped).

For the scuff sills, you don't need a template. It's easy to pop the sill off the car by hand. No trim tools needed. Be careful where it connects near the rear, you need to angle it out, but overall it's a tough piece made of flexible plastic and you shouldn't have to worry too much about breaking tabs. Start popping it off along the front sides, finish at the rear.

The piece is longer than 24", so you'll need to cut a rectangle large enough to overlap the wide end of the part by a couple inches. Apply the vinyl, wrapping it all the way around the edges and trimming to fit so the over-wrap around the back of the part is just short of the clips. On the curved end parts, you will need some relief cuts to make the curve. I'm sure a better vinyl installer would cringe at my technique, but since it's matte black on matte black, you don't really see the tiny gaps. Go to youtube and search for 3m 1080 interior for install videos for some tips.

I used my cheap heat gun to tighten up everything and get rid of a couple small wrinkles near the curved ends. The texture of the part actually shows through the vinyl wrap, and it looks good. Finally, just snap the parts back in place, starting at the rear, and you're ready to go.

In bright sunlight, the color is not a 100% perfect match (the wrap is just a touch more brown, or the trim a touch more blue), but if you wrap the whole part, it's damn near invisible.