Hey all,
Long time Bimmer owner, first time posting on the X3 page. Picked up a 'new to me' 2015 X3 35i back in 2018, Space Grey with the M Sport and Tech packages. When I was searching I really wanted either a red or blue one, but there are only so many on the market and the Space Grey had everything I was looking for as far as options go at a killer price so I pulled the trigger.
With Covid happening I'm on reduced hours/working from home so I've got some time to kill. Having taken care of a ton of house work, caught up on some vehicle maintenance, and generally getting low on my to-do list, I decided it was time to have some fun. And why not learn how to wrap a car... I am fortunate to have a great friend who does this for a living and loaned me some tools/gave tons of advice. Youtube was also great for learning, and after going through my colour swatch book of 3M 1080 I picked up years back when I wrapped some interior trim on my E82, I ordered 1 yard of 3M 1080 Cosmic Blue Metallic, and 1 yard of Dragon Fire Red Metallic as samples from ND Graphics, a Canadian company who receives product direct from 3M.
Comparing the two, the answer was clear to go with Cosmic Blue; it has tons of depth and the Dragon Fire Red ends up being very 'flat' by comparison, not in the gloss vs satin sense, but rather it doesn't have the same level of highlights the blue did.
After placing the order, the wait was on to receive the shipment... and once it arrived I got busy taking off all the exterior bits, washing and clay barring them, and other general prep.
What I initially thought I could do in a weekend (wayyyy too optimistic) ended up taking 13 days over two weeks (one rest day), of only work/eat/sleep/wrap. About half way through I was really questioning my decision but I powered through and absolutely love the results. The early panels took way longer and have more mistakes but by the end I'm happy to say I was a well oiled machine.
I also was not happy using the one-time-use plastic trim rivets in the wheel wells, so I replaced all 32 of them with 8mm screws and metal retainers from BMW - they are the same ones on all the E chassis vehicles in this spot as far back as the E30 or E46, and with some minor modification in a couple places worked perfectly. Glad I did this as I had to pull some of the wheel arch trim off afterwards to replace broken retaining pins with new ones I grabbed a week later from my local dealer. FWIW, cost of the new screws/clips was around $90 CAD with a discount from my dealer (I am often able to get reduced pricing with them), and the cost of 32 new pins was around $110 CAD, again at reduced cost. List was around $4/ea CAD, so $140ish at full price. Clips and screws also worked out close to the same ($4/set) at full price.
Without any further delay... the results.
Body: 3M 1080 Cosmic Blue
Roof/Mirrors/Trim: 3M 2080 Gloss Black
Rear emblem: Satin Black paint
Rear roundel edge: Black plasti-dip
Front grilles: Black plasti-dip, done previously
Before Shots:
In Progress Shots:
Final result:
