mkhuffman
Well-Known Member
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- #1
I have been following Rivan for years, as you can see from when I joined this forum. In fact, Rivian is the company that first got me interested in driving a BEV. I was blown away with 400+ miles of range and 0-60 in 4 seconds. Well, it took too long for Rivian to release from announcement, so I ended up purchasing my first BEV from Ford. Great car, but still. Rivian.
Anyway, I have never liked the front facade. The sides and rear are great, but the front? I get the marketing aspect: make it unique so people get to know your brand. Even though I wish RJ had been a little more conservative, the unique front end is a cool differentiator.
Since the reveal I have been watching those who have modified the front, and trying to figure out what I would do if I ever got one. Well, I got one.
My changes are very subtle. I think the distinctiveness of the front is important. But the oval headlights just look goofy. Sorry. Anyway, the changes I made, while subtle, take the goofy edge off. I love the Storm Blue color, absolutely love it, but it makes it more difficult for the mods I made to be apparent. They would look a lot better with a lighter color. Maybe Sand Dune?
I wanted to take advantage of the new Gen2 light bar design, and emphasize how it is cut. I noticed that it is hard to see the details of the design because the lightbar is made out of clear material. So I put black vinyl on the light bar, under when it angles down, so that the outline of the bar profile is more apparent.
I put a strip of vinyl on the painted surface above and below the light bar, between the headlights, to give it a more imposing appearance. It is hard to see on the darker paint color, but in the right light, it looks great.
The circled area is where I put another smaller strip of vinyl, to make the lightbar smaller. It works well, but when I tried to do it on the left and right sides of the headlights, it didn’t look good there. So I took it off. It is hard to appreciate in the photos, but that little strip above the bar does improve the appearance.
And finally, as you can see in the above photo, I put a little piece of black vinyl above the headlight, giving it a slight eyelid look. I thought about angling it in and covering more of the light assembly to make it look aggressive, but then it would be obvious I modified the headlight appearance. I wanted something subtle, that made the headlights look less like the eyes of a hippopotamus, and just more appealing. The slight eyelid cover achieves that, I think, without substantially changing the look that makes it a Rivian.
And finally, I added a yellow stripe to the side to tie the calipers into the Rivian yellow motif. I did something similar on my Mach-e with red, since the calipers were red, and I think this little stipe adds a little class to the side. I am still considering adding more yellow somewhere, like on the front tow hooks, but not sure if that is too much or not. What do you think?
Let me know if you have any questions about how I did this. I can share vinyl information, how I applied it, etc. Just let me know in this thread if you are interested.
Here are some pictures of what it looks like from various views, and with the headlights on and off.
Anyway, I have never liked the front facade. The sides and rear are great, but the front? I get the marketing aspect: make it unique so people get to know your brand. Even though I wish RJ had been a little more conservative, the unique front end is a cool differentiator.
Since the reveal I have been watching those who have modified the front, and trying to figure out what I would do if I ever got one. Well, I got one.
My changes are very subtle. I think the distinctiveness of the front is important. But the oval headlights just look goofy. Sorry. Anyway, the changes I made, while subtle, take the goofy edge off. I love the Storm Blue color, absolutely love it, but it makes it more difficult for the mods I made to be apparent. They would look a lot better with a lighter color. Maybe Sand Dune?
I wanted to take advantage of the new Gen2 light bar design, and emphasize how it is cut. I noticed that it is hard to see the details of the design because the lightbar is made out of clear material. So I put black vinyl on the light bar, under when it angles down, so that the outline of the bar profile is more apparent.
I put a strip of vinyl on the painted surface above and below the light bar, between the headlights, to give it a more imposing appearance. It is hard to see on the darker paint color, but in the right light, it looks great.
The circled area is where I put another smaller strip of vinyl, to make the lightbar smaller. It works well, but when I tried to do it on the left and right sides of the headlights, it didn’t look good there. So I took it off. It is hard to appreciate in the photos, but that little strip above the bar does improve the appearance.
And finally, as you can see in the above photo, I put a little piece of black vinyl above the headlight, giving it a slight eyelid look. I thought about angling it in and covering more of the light assembly to make it look aggressive, but then it would be obvious I modified the headlight appearance. I wanted something subtle, that made the headlights look less like the eyes of a hippopotamus, and just more appealing. The slight eyelid cover achieves that, I think, without substantially changing the look that makes it a Rivian.
And finally, I added a yellow stripe to the side to tie the calipers into the Rivian yellow motif. I did something similar on my Mach-e with red, since the calipers were red, and I think this little stipe adds a little class to the side. I am still considering adding more yellow somewhere, like on the front tow hooks, but not sure if that is too much or not. What do you think?
Let me know if you have any questions about how I did this. I can share vinyl information, how I applied it, etc. Just let me know in this thread if you are interested.
Here are some pictures of what it looks like from various views, and with the headlights on and off.
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