I have a miata I am wishing to do this to, show me your pictures of yours and tell me how you did it, with what type of paint, or I have even heard people that have used vinyl and liked it.
Probably not much more than $100. I had a buddy of mine quote the work at $70, so take into account the buddy-buddy discount and that shuold be about it.
turbotim's ride in the front, black vinyl. The other reason you could tell it was vinyl is because he was covering up peeled paint and the surfaces were obviously smooth at those spots.
Small drawback from getting the windscreen surround painted with the windscreen in situ; I was forever touching up small areas as the rubber seal shifted.
I'd +1 for the vinyl...at least it will come off. Then again, my car has a singular paint color, so repainting original body panels is a no-no, even for me.
I remember some POS Eunos Roadster off the boat from Japan at Mototec in Dublin; the previous owner had blinged it up with KG Works rubbish, and then methodically covered the windscreen surround with black electrical tape. From a distance it looked ok, but close up, it looked like the worked of demented 16 year old.
Easy cheap and good looking mod IMHO.
One can do this simply with a Rustoleum satin black spray can for metals (about $3) and some very careful masking. This paint takes a little bit to cure but once it does its very durable and cleans easily unlike flat black. Satin black also looks better then either gloss or flat. The same paint is also good for the rocker panel area.
You know what's kind of annoying? I've never seen a black header on anything other than Mariner Blue, Classic Red, Velocity Red, either White color, or Black. I wonder what it looks like on other colors, when the contrast isn't as good.
The longest thing was masking and waiting between coats for it to dry. Costs were very minimal.
$10 for plastic sheeting (two big pieces)
$5 for masking tape
$6 for black rattle can paint from auto paint supply house
$6 for can of clear coat rattle can from same place
and approximately 1.5 hours of prep and paint time.
I also did my mirror housings so my car matches my Forza Motorsport Miatas.
edit: I also removed the rubber glass surround, I keep slacking on getting it re-installed.
I have to admit, i like how this looks so i did mine today with black vinyl as well. I have never used the stuff before, it's tricky around curves and stuff. I think it came out ok, definitely not a professional result, but I wanted to see what it looks like and right now I really like it. Here is a crappy cell phone pic:
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