Interior Wrap help

[clk320x]

As above I have an aftermarket unit fitted in place of my COMAND (brilliant unit by the way highly recommended and COMAND UK brilliant job fitting)

Anyway I was wondering if anyone knew of any wrap vinyl that similar to then Mercedes aluminium finish of the rest of the panels? Or if you think just a normal carbon wrap on that part would look better complementing the others. Or should I just leave it how it is?

Cheers

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

Either wrap the black surround and the other trim with the same wrap, or wrap the surround in gloss black so the head unit blends into it.

 

[clk320x]

Either wrap the black surround and the other trim with the same wrap, or wrap the surround in gloss black so the head unit blends into it.

Surely someone can digitally print matching vinyl?

 

[GLK]

That looks really good! Next item on my list is a head unit ...

As to the wrap - it would have to be either almost identical to the aluminium trim, or similar to some other parts of the interior (in my opinion, of course) - so perhaps a gloss black, like your gearshift?

Human eye always looks for repeated / supported colours and textures, to perceive a harmony, so unless the part in question is intentionally the centre of attention and plays on being a one-off, it works better when there's something to support it, visually.

PS Which Pioneer unit you went for, by the way?

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

Surely someone can digitally print matching vinyl?

Maybe, but I don't think it will match. The original trim is textured isn't it, that will be hard to replicate well enough to stand up to being right next to the 'real' thing, at close range like it would be in a car.

 

[clk320x]

That looks really good! Next item on my list is a head unit ...

As to the wrap - it would have to be either almost identical to the aluminium trim, or similar to some other parts of the interior (in my opinion, of course) - so perhaps a gloss black, like your gearshift?

Human eye always looks for repeated / supported colours and textures, to perceive a harmony, so unless the part in question is intentionally the centre of attention and plays on being a one-off, it works better when there's something to support it, visually.

PS Which Pioneer unit you went for, by the way?

It's the Pioneer SPH-DA120

Great unit, if you have an Apple iPhone it's amazing! Not sure if your familiar with carplay, basically you put your iPhone in glovebox / location of your choice where you have wired the lightning cable to and your phone screens is practically mirrored onto the radio for all apps supported by carplay (more and more being added) Spotify, Amazon music etc, as well as Maps, Phone, Text etc all controlled by Siri.. also has a brilliant 13 Band EQ and 4V Pre-amp out which is a must if you are adding an amp in future

Have a look if they make a 'pro-fitting kit' for your car, that way you don't need the little rectangle blanking plate between the fascia and the radio. It looks a lot neater. Weirdly they don't make one for the CLK so i have spoke to a custom fabrication shop about making one. See picture below for one in a SLK, looms perfect

Also COMAND UK are perfect for fitting, after going to multiple radio shops around Northampton trust me none of them knew what they were doing. In particular a place called 'Megans' who scratched the dash (if you look closely you can see some marks on the black fascia and on the climate control)

It was eventually fitted perfectly by COMAND UK for £50 which I thought was very reasonable and not too bad of a drive down.

As for the wrap I am thinking of approaching a custom vinyl printer, the type companies use to print vinyl for vans etc. I've been on Custom Sticker Printing & Printed Labels Buy Online UK Company and they want £9 for a 30cmx30cm block of vinyl with anything you want printed on it

Now all I need to do is to find a high res image of the MB design and then I can give it a shot, if not wrap in Gloss black as you mentioned do you think anyone on here could help me locate the image of the MB design?

If you have any questions on the install of the aftermarket radio from the required cables to retain steering controls, aerial adaptors etc feel free to PM anytime as I'm a bit of an expert on this now after spending months researching for mine

P.S having Ben round this Tuesday for the alloys :bannana:

Cheers
Abs

Ooh also, this Pioneer is one of a few which has the nicer style touch screen like an iPhone almost glass feeling, rather than those cheapish screens

 

[clk320x]

Maybe, but I don't think it will match. The original trim is textured isn't it, that will be hard to replicate well enough to stand up to being right next to the 'real' thing, at close range like it would be in a car.

Yeh that's very true, need to think long and hard about this one.. maybe gloss black like David suggested?

 

[clk320x]

How about this,

Seems worth a shot for £1.40 for 20x30cm

 

[GLK]

I'll definitely have a look at Pioneer SPH-DA120, thanks.

That's an excellent value for having the unit installed by the top guys in business. I'm going to Lightwater sometime soon to get UK mode deleted, and a few other bits, will do the HU at the same time

 

[GLK]

How about this

Go for it! You can always remove it, if not to your liking.

 

[clk320x]

I'll definitely have a look at Pioneer SPH-DA120, thanks.

That's an excellent value for having the unit installed by the top guys in business. I'm going to Lightwater sometime soon to get UK mode deleted, and a few other bits, will do the HU at the same time

Yeh I need to do the scme, as well as tell my car it not longer has COMAND lol , the thing won't let me change the clock now

Don't know why MB set up their cars this way, if it didn't have COMAND from factory you can change clock in cluster, but if it did you can't.. why not just leave it enabled? Seems like they put in extra effort to make things worse

Keep us updated on the HU

 

[clk320x]

Go for it! You can always remove it, if not to your liking.

Ordering it tonight haha watch out for pics :bannana:

 

[GLK]

You just reminded me to RTFM - I forgot how to change time

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

Yeh I need to do the scme, as well as tell my car it not longer has COMAND lol , the thing won't let me change the clock now

Don't know why MB set up their cars this way, if it didn't have COMAND from factory you can change clock in cluster, but if it did you can't.. why not just leave it enabled? Seems like they put in extra effort to make things worse

Keep us updated on the HU

Probably to ensure that both clocks remain the same.

 

[PobodY]

Probably to ensure that both clocks remain the same.

...and are automatically sync'd with UTC from the satellites.

 

[b1g1an]

How about this,

Seems worth a shot for £1.40 for 20x30cm

Will clash horribly, gloss black or leave it alone and as it's a touch screen the gloss will get tons of fingerprints so just leave it alone...won't cost you a penny.

 

[clk320x]

Will clash horribly, gloss black or leave it alone and as it's a touch screen the gloss will get tons of fingerprints so just leave it alone...won't cost you a penny.

Ended up not ordering it anyway haha

 

[jasonsmithuk]

You can decorate your car with internal and exterior car window stickers of Bade Newby Display.

 

[Abb]

I'll definitely have a look at Pioneer SPH-DA120, thanks.

That's an excellent value for having the unit installed by the top guys in business. I'm going to Lightwater sometime soon to get UK mode deleted, and a few other bits, will do the HU at the same time

David, I got my nephew the same unit for his CLK too, based on advice from Abs. I echo his thoughts, great bit of kit and excellent value for money. It's an absolute doddle to fit, just a few interconnecting looms. Definitely a DIY job (in the CLK at least), hence the cheap price Abs got it fitted for.

 

[GLK]

David, I got my nephew the same unit for his CLK too, based on advice from Abs. I echo his thoughts, great bit of kit and excellent value for money. It's an absolute doddle to fit, just a few interconnecting looms. Definitely a DIY job (in the CLK at least), hence the cheap price Abs got it fitted for.

Thanks Abb, I went for a model-specific HU in the end, as I didn't really want a fascia / frame, due to the way the central console is designed. I fitted everything myself, and it was pretty straightforward too. Everything works fine, including steering wheel controls and reversing camera. I realise, of course, it won't have reliability of a brand name unit, but it fits the bill for the time being. I also love the large 9" screen - freshen up the interior and goes well with the carbon fibre trim:

Since these pics were taken, I did actually go to Comandonline, and had the UK mode deleted (so no mo pesky km/h), and Mark also enabled a date display in the cluster for me