Anybody Have 3D Carbon Fender Vents?

[muscle96ss]

Hi, had my 3D carbon fender vents put on this week and after looking at some of the pictures of others I am unsure if they were done correctly. When I look at mine close up from the side or the top, it doesn't seem completely flush with the fender. In other words, because of the thickness of the 3M tape, you can see the tape if you are looking for it. When looking at otrhers pictures they look really flush with the fender. For those that have these, when you look closely can you see the tape as well or is there something you did that made it look more flush?

[OHIOSS]

I have mine installed at a local body shop and I think they did a perfect job. They fit completely flush and no tape or anything else is visible. You may want to post some pics, easier to tell if they were done right with a pic than explaining it.

Here is mine.

[bumblebeecamaro]

I added my 3D vents to my ZL1 a few months ago. They're great. You can't see any tape on mine.

[muscle96ss]

Mine look fine in a normal photograph, its when you get up real look close and look into the seam directly from the top or the side. Going to try and post a pic.

[muscle96ss]

Here are a couple photos looking directly over the top of it, one is a close up where I zoomed in.

[muscle96ss]

Not sure if that is the way they are supposed to look like or if I am being too anal. The body shop that did the install does really good work. They said that if I wasn't satisfied they would take them off an redo them. They said they couldn't gaurantee that they would come out better because: 1.) the curves of the fender are just a tad different then the curves of the vent. 2.) the thickness of the tape is going to make the seam standout a tad. Please let me know what you guys think.

[CamaroI]

They are not suppose to look that way. They should be flush with no tape showing. I had one arrive that was slightly bent. When installed it didn't sit flush and had to be replaced. 3d carbon sent another one out and body shop replaced. Hopefully you have a body shop that will help you out if wanting replaced.

FYI also my gap started out small like yours and once it got we it became worse sine water getting under tape. Really needs to be re done.

Addition----just read what you said about body shop redoing for you. That is good. Take better close up pics and contact 3d carbon. They took good care of me and should sit flush as others do

[OHIOSS]

I 2nd that they don't look right. The body shop that did mine said it took some time after they cut the hole to get the vents to fit just right. I'm assuming they had to maybe bend the fender metal slightly to get everything to fit. I can't tell from the picture but it looks like they didn't paint the edge enough.

[CamaroI]

It doesn't look to do with being painted correctly. This is the tape not sticking properly. Could be do to 3d carbon being ever so slightly bent or just not tapping correctly. Tape could also just not be sticky enough in that area. If installing with cold weather could be a factor as we'll.

IMO it's definitely showing tape not properly adhering. Once warms up and water underneath going to get worse if not replaced.
As stated this happen to me and looked very similar.

The vents should look the same all around the fender. From your photo the outer edges look nice and flush. The middle should appear to be the same

[angie7]

I installed mine myself a few months ago and can't see the tape. There's a groove on the inside that the tape is suppose to fit into which hides it from being seen on the edges. Looks like whoever did yours didnt put the tape into this groove.

[muscle96ss]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I just sent an e-mail to 3D Carbon with pics and will update when I get a reply. I live in AZ and it was around 80 degrees when first installed last week so temperature shouldn't be an issue. To me it looks like the curves of the vents just don't match up to the curves of the fender and that is why the tape is coming up. Its like there is too much bend in the vents. There is once concern. I still have the receipt from purchase; but they were purchased 1 year ago. They were supposed to be installed shortly thereafter; I got an estimate and was ready to go. However I was having my defective spoiler from a vendor on here replaced and decided to wait until I got my replacement and have that painted and replaced at the same time. Well, to make a long story short, I just received the new spoiler a couple weeks ago. So they have been sitting on a coffee table in my home office for the past year waiting patiently. Hopefully that is not an issue.

[muscle96ss]

Well I received a response from 3D Carbon and they think that the installation is off and they need to be re-installed(they sent pics and explained what was off). So they are sending a re-installation kit and the rep said he would be happy to talk to the body shop to better explain if necessary. I forwarded the e-mail to the body shop and asked that when we do the re-install that they call the rep first so that we can make sure they are done right this time. The whole reason I had a body shop do it is because I always screw things up the first time I do them and didn't want to mess up on my ZL1. Oh well, guess I should have just done it myself.

[CamaroI]

Don't beat your self up over it. They come off easy and body shop can easily fix. Never had an issue once I had other one replaced.

I would have been nervous wreck cutting into the fender so better a shop do it than me

[angie7]

At least its getting fixed. They are easy to take off and won't hurt your car. I'm the opposite, I dont trust others to touch my car so I do all my own work or I'm there to assist, lol. My dad cut the holes for the vents but I watched the entire time. Hes the only one I'd trust to do it. Hes built countless cars so he was like "cut holes in your car, sure thats easy" grabbed the saw and started cutting haha!!