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If I were racing or auto crossing, I would definitely get a one-piece one. But for our daily driver, I like what others who have Tanabe's STB have posted and PM'd me.

Thank you @minsanity for your earlier detailed measurements and pictures on the pin hole spacing for the "Mazda" letters, for my GT badge will, as you predicted, just cover them. Now for its customization.

 

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Or if you don't want your suspension lower to the ground, do what I did and make the car appear to drop 2 inches with the OEM Aero Kit.

Exactly the plan. It will visually help lower the car some.

 

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Thank you @ADarkerBreed, @arathol and others for good lowering suggestions. Not in the cards at this time, but new decks come up every now and then.

I still have another 20 mods planned (many with parts already ordered) to finish.

As all modders know, never say never!"

 

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Just finished some more mods, e.g., installing OEM side skirts, doors sills and black locking/regular lug nuts. Specific info and pictures in items 11-12 in post # 1, and made more progress on other Appearance Package items (some being painted, others starting their mounting process). More changes with pics coming this Friday.

 

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Thank you. I LOVE modding my cars -- making each one our own. All have a two-color color theme. Our Corvette is Velocity Yellow and Carbon Flash Metallic Black; the WRX is Ice Silver Metallic and Black. As is obvious, our 3 is Mazda's Soul Red and Jet Black.

More color theme "surprises" coming.

 

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Slow progress due to illness at my body shop, but here is a sampling of what was accomplished. It is just 3" width -- just perfectly covers the OEM small holes into which the "Mazda letters" are mounted on the rear hatch. The badge started out as a chromed metal-n-black one for $4.96 shipped (details in post # 6).

It looks beyond terrific in real life. The black is Mazda Jet Black; the red is Soul Red Metallic.



Taking a detour from the shop on Monday for the front end SunTek Ultra wrapped and the windows tinted, and if no more sickness at the shop, will be finished with this body shop mod stage on Tuesday.

Very different mod will be done itomorrow.

 

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Thank you. My friend who owns the body shop, saw my badge plan three months ago, and did everything he could to talk me out of it, pointing out it would take many different painted layers (SR is a tri-coat), covering over the perimeter with a graphic shop's cut, reverse mask stencil, that his shop does not paint over chrome -- thus first requiring hand sanding, etc. He urged me to find an alternative, so I went back to eBay and spent days going over their 20 pages of badges/emblem, and could not find what I wanted. My wife laughed at me for my "badge mania hunt."

Even bought three different badges off of eBay to try them out, but kept coming back to this idea.

When I went into the shop yesterday, after his first apologizing for some of his staff being sick and delaying my car, the next words out of his mouth were, "the badge came out terrific -- just as you originally envisioned it, and I am glad you stuck to it." However, then he added, "we will never do another one due to the amount of work." Did it cost me $100+? I am sure it did, but haven't a clue for I asked him not to separately list the costs for the badge LOL.

I am a happy camper and he, who is not known to be effusive, said later he was excited at how it came out!

It meets the @Chazzy J test of looking OEM too.

 

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Whoops, a "slight change in plans." When climbing around the underside of the front, looked up and saw the chrome peeling off the "U" shaped upper grille surround. While it can not now be seen from above, only a matter of time for more peeling.

As that trim piece was originally going to be wrapped, as the front fascia now has to come completely off, what a wonderful excuse to get it painted. That will delay the front fascia being wrapped -- as no sense getting it wrapped, stressing the clear bra while removing it and replacing it.

As all know, John Lennon summarized it best in his song, "life is what happens while you are busy making other plans."

***

NEXT DAY UPDATE: NOTHING WRONG WITH THE CHROME -- AS DESCRIBED IN POST # 32.

 

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Just installed the Racing Beat exhaust. Another easy mod (if done by two). Many sound clips on YouTube, but this one is my favorite.

https://youtu.be/L2A4Jw2xp8o

 

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Hard to see from here, but that looks like some protective plastic over the top of chrome strip. Where is that at?

@BrianU, you were correct, it is a piece of black plastic that was covering the underside of the driver side of the "U" shaped front grille trim piece. It was so stuck to the chrome (as a protective covering), that in spite of several of us using a flashlight and a magnifying glass, we all thought, wrongly, that is was the chrome peeling off.

It took my detailer, who was installing the SunTek wrap, to use his heat gun and special tools to delicately remove it without scratching the chrome. As he said, "never run across anything that stuck so strongly as this piece of black plastic."

We all live and learn.

 

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Got the entire front end, everything in front of the doors, covered with SunTek Ultra clear urethane paint film. Easier to apply than XPEL, and most important, it is glossier and clearer than XPEL, 3M and all the other leading clear wraps. And SunTek Ultra has a 10 year warranty.

Impossible to show how clear and shiny it is, for one might as well look at any brand new Soul Red Mazda 3 for no visual difference. In fact, when I brought it back to the body shop for completion of installation of my customized Appearance Package components, several of them did not believe me that it had the clear urethane done already, for with all of its edges wrapped, near impossible to tell the difference from before.

Will soon be posting more pictures of what has also been done, but here is one showing the AP's rear, lower "under skirt"/diffuser just about completed, with the last few bolts needing to be tightened and then the "removal strings" on the two-sided 3M tape taken off.



Above pic is also the best one of my Racing Beat exhaust so far.

 

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The hatch "door"'s raw plastic pieces were painted, e.g., both upper, outer window trim "triangular" pieces and the two piece covering of the windshield wiper. Painted Mazda' Jet Black, code 41W.

Sorry for the dust on it, but still in the body shop:

 

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The customization at the body shop is finally finished. Here is the rear of the car. Other than window tinting, being done tomorrow, nothing else will be done on this end. The rear lower under skirt/diffuser, is, to the best of my knowledge, the only one in U.S. with this Soul Red horizontal trim piece (that is an OEM accessory in Japan, but only available here in silver or solid black).

 

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Yes, the triangles were taken off and then painted; BTW, Mazda officially calls those curved triangles "side spoilers." There is a caution in the directions as to which side must come off first, for otherwise they can delaminate. The directions state:

""The side spoilers consist of a two-ply. Hold the area shown in the picture to perform the procedures. If it is pulled from elsewhere, the welding may peel off."

I have posted the complete Mazda page-by-page directions and pictures of the hatch's entire rear roof (expanded/larger than stock) spoiler install here for those who are contemplating that entire install.

http://mazda3revolution.com/forums/...-mazda-3-skyactiv-how-guides/191610-oem-rear-roof-spoiler-diy-14-hatchback.html

And in that same how-to/DIY section of our forum, I also posted separate threads for the install of the front air dam/splitter, side skirts, and the lower rear fascia/diffuser.

 

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Thank you all and more than half the mods left to be done, starting with this picture of the front end (which definitely has one awaiting major visual mod -- hopefully next week).

I like the painted fog light light bezels, a small but nice touch. As is obvious, the Appearance Package's front air dam/splitter has its "blades" painted the same Soul Red as is a Japan accessory option (but we only get black or silver blades here). Thanks to my excellent body shop's painter, was able to create that, to me, special look. And the car now has the "invisible" SunTek clear bra paint protection -- with all of its edges underneath wrapped.

 

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I wish it would be black chrome. You guessed it, that that is the upcoming front mod I mentioned above that I still need to do.

However, I do not know about the skill level of "wrap specialists" where I live, for already one tried and failed, a second and then a third one said they could not do it. On the positive side, I have an appointment with a person next Thursday who has done this for decades, done window tinting for 30 years. He says he can and will do it only if I use one of his available "brand-products" he has experience with. And the closest I can come in his product line is "gloss black." Hence it will be that. He is not guaranteeing that he can do it, but we have agreed that if he fails, the wrinkled product and his labor are free.

If he fails, I might well resort to pulling off the front fascia, unscrewing the chrome grille pieces from the back side and getting them painted, for I truly want the chrome grille trim piece to become extinct. (Not going to do Plastidip.)

 

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I love the Evil M. How does it fit on a non flat surface?

The surface, on a hatch, only has a very gentle curve to it. The Evil M fit fine after gently warming it up some, something I indirectly learned from another member who put a ruler underneath its center, weighted down its two sides, and if I remember it correctly, let it stay that way overnight to get the final right, gentle curve to it.

I was not initially happy with the "glossy" black plastic one I bought on eBay, thought it looked cheap. Therefore after it was lightly sanded, it too went into the painting booth for a layer of Mazda's Jet Black (41W).

 

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The Appearance Package's "black door mirror caps" are now installed. Easy to do if one has the courage to reach in and "rip out" the door mirror glass from their retaining clips. More details on some model year compatibility issues in the OP. A low cost mod at less than $100 for both. And if someone were to want to paint them another color (they only come Jet Black Mica, 41W), nice way to really change the appearance of your car as an "accent piece."

 

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Window tint installed: Went with Llumar (because the previous window tinter installing another brand, who made three appointments with me, flaked out on all of them). Llumar installer did an outstanding job. 35 VLT tested, with certificate. Plenty dark due to dark interior. [Was another car parked next to it which had 20 VLT but as it had a very light tan interior, the 20 VLT only look a little darker from the outside.]

Happy with the quality and the "look."