When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
I have been unable to get in touch with the thread author and obtain the SVG, but I found something similar on AliExpress.
It appears to precut to the gen 2 q5's, and appears to be similar to the carbon fiber pattern that was used in the initial pictures posted on this thread. I'm going to place an order now.
When I had my PPF installed on my vehicle, the guys covered the piano black center console part with a scrap piece of satin PPF. Took them about 5 minutes to cute the piece on their cutter and about 5 minutes to install it. They didn't even charge me for it. I'm so glad to have this finger print magnet taken care of.
For anyone interested in a physical replacement, there is a Genuine Trim Replacement compatible with the B9.5 Q5/SQ5 models, that is a complete drop in solution, with a matte finish.
I'm looking to protect the piano black and carbon fiber surrounds under the shifter. My plan is to remove both pieces and cover each in a regular gloss (not matte) 3M PPF.
Is there any reason I shouldn't do gloss for this? I see a lot of people doing matte here so I'm not sure if I'm missing some reason gloss is a bad idea. Thanks!
I think the primary reason people avoid glossy trims is the glare, second, it's less prone to visible scratches.
Originally Posted by utahphunk
I'm looking to protect the piano black and carbon fiber surrounds under the shifter. My plan is to remove both pieces and cover each in a regular gloss (not matte) 3M PPF.
Is there any reason I shouldn't do gloss for this? I see a lot of people doing matte here so I'm not sure if I'm missing some reason gloss is a bad idea. Thanks!
I ended up taking my console apart to remove the part, and wrapped it out of the car, all edges tucked in, turned out great. I HATE glossy plastic. The car barely has 9,000 miles on it and the gloss was already so scratched.
I love my 2021 Q5e ... with the exception of that Piano Black trim around the shifter. Dust magnet, fingerprint magnet, and at some point prone to scratching.
We recently had all of the chrome exterior bits wrapped in satin black vinyl (the black optics package wasn't available on the '21) - and that gave me the idea to wrap the piano black interior trim.
Rather that have the shop do that small piece (in in the San Francisco area where shops that do vinyl wrap installs are very over-priced), I decided to go solo. Being an engineer, I also decided to over-complicate the solution.
First, the before & after pics.
I decided that my approach would be to use a Cricut machine to cut out the vinyl using a pattern that I made and rendered into an SVG file. I did this vs just using an x-acto knife and sheet of vinyl because:
I didn't want to worry about damaging the leather or chrome-ish trim around the piano black with a knife
I wanted to have the option to easily swap to a different color (maybe brushed aluminum) if I got tired of the carbon fiber
Option to replace the carbon fiber vinyl if it started to discolor (e.g. from oil from our skin)
I was looking for a good excuse to buy a Cricut for other Maker projects ... and they were pretty inexpensive on sale at Christmas :-)
I'm really happy with the result. The vinyl is VViViD XPO Black Carbon Fiber Car Wrap Vinyl from Amazon - looks good and have a slight texture to it, but nothing too heavy.
Wanted to share the photos in case anyone else if looking for ideas on how to ditch the dust & fingerprint magnet piano black interior pieces.
10-11-2023, 12:25 PM
