Today I decided to tackle a cosmetic issue that seems to plague a lot of F chassis M cars:
The faded off 'M' on the front calipers
After lots of searching I arrived at two conclusions:
- I order some on eBay from an international seller, wait 2-3 weeks for them to arrive with no guarantee that the size or color will be a match
- I have a local shop print them and charge me $75 for two tiny stickers
Since I'm impatient and have enough sense to not pay $75 for two tiny decals, I decided to see what I had available to make my own.
In her retirement, my mom has taken up arts and crafts as a hobby, and she has a simple Cricut Maker that cuts decals. She happened to have some nice heat resistant Oracal 751 on hand in #090 Silver Grey that couldn't have been more perfect for the application
This vinyl had a satin finish to it with a subtle shine in it to recreate the missing 'M' letter, while being able to sustain high heat. I poked around online, found an ///M logo, and in a few minutes I trimmed it down to a clean hi-res .png file of just the 'M' to import into Cricut's design space application. I then asked nicely if I could borrow mom's decal cutter (important step
) being a BMW fan since she once owned a 6MT E92 335i, she was excited to be able to help.
After the initial print was a fraction too small, I dialed in the sizing almost perfectly (0.66" tall exactly). I prepped the caliper with an alcohol solution, lined it up to the colored stripes and stuck it on.
For a home made decal I'm pretty happy with the result! In the future I think I might order the corresponding colors for the stripes and refresh those as well given how well this turned out.
Additionally, even though I didn't take any before/after photos, I did touch up some light oxidation (hardly noticeable unless you really looked - but I knew it was there so it had to go) on the drivers side B&O speaker grilles, potentially from some rain splatter. Since these grilles are aluminum, some white vinegar and a soft bristle brush took the oxidation off effortlessly. Wiped them clean and they are looking flawless
