You might check for body shops that cater to the Corvette community, they will have plenty of experience applying paint over fiberglass and carbon fiber.The shop that wrapped our 2019 i3 is swamped with full vehicle wrap jobs and isn't interested in special-ordering gloss white aluminum film for such a small job as ours. They referred me to another shop that claims that the quality of the film and adhesive, including 3M and Avery, has decreased so much since the pandemic that they no longer favor wrapping. The current film can be so thin that the underlying paint color can change the appearance of the film. The current adhesive becomes hard and brittle making removing the film difficult. The adhesive can also damage the underlying paint.
This shop favors painting the roof Galvanic Gold Metallic. That would be OK with me because that's a light enough color that it should make the cabin cooler when the roof is exposed to strong sunlight. The problem is that the shop has no experience painting CFRP. They promised to contact their paint supplier and other local paint shops for suggestions.
This thread discusses painting an i3's roof, but there aren't enough details to know how to do it. I plan to ask the shop that painted an i3's roof for details. The process doesn't seem similar to painting metal. Painting would be up to 3 times as expensive as wrapping, so I don't want a shoddy job that would start peeling or degrading prematurely. A good paint job should last much longer than vinyl film.
My BMW dealer referred me to its 2 local certified body shops. Neither would paint the roof which they claim would jeopardize their BMW certification because BMW does not approve painting a CFRP roof. Sounds bogus to me.
So I'm kind of stuck now. I'd prefer paint but had good luck with the wrap job on our previous 2019 i3. However, that had "older" vinyl film that might be higher quality than current film. What's a mere mortal to do?
Wrapping Roof with Vinyl Film
- Thread starter alohart
- Start date
Help Support BMW i3 Forum:
I did exactly that. I hope it works out.
So I purchased a 2021 Mineral grey I3S REX last week. Delivery this week. I plan on putting color tinted PPF. 12 year warranty. I will update on the cost in a few days.
robthebold
Well-known member
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- May 11, 2019
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I checked the math and physics and it's not worth it on the roof of a car. (Just don't tell an Aptera fanboi, because them's fighting words.)
Much better return if one can mount solar on top of whatever the car shelters under.
An update: So The PPF I am getting is clear. It has UV protection and a 12 year warranty. I hope this is enough, they are telling me it is. I guess time will tell. I hope they are in business in 12 years. I will post pictures when it's done.
That should be good for the protection of the CFRP clear coat but if it doesn't block IR radiation, the cabin would continue to heat up in direct sunlight. That's a problem here in the tropics but maybe not in many other locations. I could feel the difference after the roof of our 2019 i3 was wrapped in light gray vinyl film and after the roof of our 2021 i3 was painted Galvanic Gold Metallic which reflects more IR radiation than black CFRP. Even with the A/C on, I could feel IR radiation radiating down on the top of my head, but not now.
