I recently picked up the OLM carbon fiber fuel door cover for the A90 Supra and want to take you through the steps that I took to install this part.
Before we start, I want to share some thoughts on the product. Overall, the quality looks really good. I don’t see any obvious imperfections and that’s kind of surprising for a relatively cheap carbon part.
One thing that I will note though is that each strand of the carbon weave is thinner than I’m used to and in totality, the entire weave just looks smaller. This is something to think about if you have a lot of carbon in the near vicinity of the fuel door because the carbon weave of this part may stand out and not match.
Now, the carbon cover itself just installs with some double-sided tape and that’s fairly straightforward but I’m actually going to take the install process a lot further. One complaint that I often see with cheap carbon fiber parts that’s been clear coated is that the product tends to yellow. This is likely, the result of using a low-quality clear coat. I want to avoid this so I’m going to first wrap the cover in paint protection film, then I’m going to ceramic coat the film. I will be using XPEL Ultimate Plus PPF and that in itself offers UV protection so I can realistically stop there. XPEL offers a 10-year warranty on the film but if you want to get anywhere near that lifespan you really have to coat the film itself and that’s where the ceramic coating comes into play.
To start, I’m going to decontaminate the surface and for this, I’m using Meguiar’s Mild Professional Detailing Clay with Last Touch Spray Detailer as a lube. Although this is a new part, I would still recommend claying the surface because you just never know what the part has gone through prior to delivery. I for sure saw some contaminant specks on the surface of my cover so I knew that this was something that I had to do.
After decontaminating the surface, we can move on to actually applying the PPF. This begins by applying a slip solution to the surface of the cover. This will allow for easier repositioning of the film if necessary. Because this is a smaller part and I have it off of the vehicle, I’ve cut a big enough piece of PPF to allow me to completely engulf the cover. Once I’m happy with the position of the film, I squeegee some of the solution out towards the edges. As the surface dries out, the film gets tackier and sticks to the surface. For something like this, it’s just a matter of working from the center out. Then when we get to the edge, when can trim the excess, make things look pretty, and call it a day. Now, I’m by no means an expert at this. I’ve learned to do this on my own and am just taking what I think is the most logical approach for this product. This is actually only my second PPF project and something like this is perfect practice because the surface is rather flat. There isn’t too much to get good results. After some work, I was able to get the cover completely wrapped to the very edge. There are some bubbles but the XPEL PPF does allow for trapped water to evaporate so all those bubbles should be gone with some time.
The next day, most of the bubbles disappeared. Because the PPF is mostly dry, I’m going to move forward with ceramic coating. For this, I will be using Adam’s Graphene Ceramic Coating. I’ve applied this to all the XPEL PPF on the Supra and I know that it performs well on this material. First things first, I’m going to wipe the surface down with Adam’s Surface Prep. This is an isopropyl alcohol mixture that is used to clean up any remaining oils. This will leave the surface bare and ready for coating. Now, for the coating process. I’m just going to apply a few drops onto a microfiber towel and cover the surface of the cover with it. When the coating hits the surface, it flashes and creates a rainbow effect. When the rainbow disappears, I can wipe the coating off of the surface and that’s it. The instructions state to keep the coated surface away from water for the first 24 hours. Since this part is small and off the vehicle, I’m just going to keep it inside for the next day.
At this point, the cover can be installed but because I know that there’s some etched in water spots on my fuel door, I’m actually going to polish it and get a flawless finish prior to installing the cover. The is going a bit overboard considering that no one will ever know what I’ve done, but I just can’t stand the thought of water spots sitting under the cover and etching further into the surface, possibly for the rest of this Supra’s life since I don’t plan to take the carbon cover off any time soon.
After polishing, I’m going to finish up by wiping the surface with an isopropyl alcohol solution. For this, I’m using Chemical Guys Wipe Out. Again, IPA will strip the surface of any remaining oil and leave it completely bare.
Now that the fuel door is thoroughly clean, we can move on to installing the carbon covers. Again, it is held in place by double-sided tape. Normally, I would suggest pealing off a small piece of the backing, position the cover, then slowly peel the backing with the cover in place, but there are a lot of relief cuts on the perimeter backing. I tried this method and the backing broke on me pretty quick. Luckily the cover wasn’t really held in place at this point so I can still take it off. You really don’t want leftover backing behind the cover as that will make an improper seal and can let a lot of dirt and debris collect back there. So for this install, I would suggest taking all the backing off and just go for it. It’s extremely hard to mess up with positioning as the cover really only installs in one way. Once the cover is in place, apply some pressure to promote proper adhesion, and you’re good to go.
There you have it. A relatively simple install taken over the top. I’m pretty happy with the result. The cover looks so good on the car and really pops out against all the white. However, there is one thing that I want to note. I think the fitment of this fuel door cover could’ve been a bit better. On the far left and right edges of my cover, some of the PPF is actually lifting. This is because it rubs against the fuel door cavity as it opens and closes. The fuel door cover itself leaves very little room on these two sides. Looking at the cover from the inside, you’ll see that there is actually some extra material on both ends. This slight rubbing, actually makes it more difficult to open and close the fuel door. I have to actively focus and push down exactly where the locking pin is to open the door. I don’t think that this is the biggest of deal, but it is an annoyance. But on the bright side, the fuel door doesn’t annoyingly swing open anymore if I just slightly brush up against it.
To me, for the big visual upgrade that this carbon fiber fuel door cover provides, I’d gladly take the minor annoyances and can definitely recommend you going with a similar upgrade, whether with this OLM carbon cover or one from another manufacturer.
