E30 Zone

Since the rather faded chrome/plastic trim to the door/window surrounds is not responding to any restoration efforts at all, I reluctantly decided to look at replacing it with black trim. I've heard a few horror stories about the trim falling off so I thought I'd see how much new pieces would cost from the local BMW dealership. I got a bit of a shock when it amounted to 116.00+VAT per side! Since the stuff is supposedly so difficult to remove and refit, I think I'll have to try and respray it on the car. Anyone done this?

Go gte yourself a roll of insulation tape. Not exactly technical but if it works then who cares

There you go my friend, might be doing it aswell.

Have a read.

http://www.pelicanparts.com/bmw/techart ... Series.htm

Cant be that hard to spray

A pal who owns a body shop in town is going to sort the dings and slight rusting on the wheel arches for me in the New Year. He agrees it is better to leave the trim in place and paint it in-situ so he's going to do that at the same time.

If you've got a 2-door, then the rear window strips will need to be sprayed on the car anyway as it's all one part on the rear windows.

The issue comes in the way that you remove the trim. I made the mistake of taking the top part off first, and they bends the trim slightly. If you remove from the front of the car (i.e. near the wing mirrors) first, then they'll come off without any problems.

You can spray tehm in situ, but it'll be easier to prep them off the car...however having done the rear bits on the car, i see no reason why it can't all be done on the car....just mask up, and away you go!

can anything be done to stop it flaking as I saw a sport not too long ago which looked like a bag of sh*t because bits of the trim were chrome and some black as it had flaked off badly

Just fit the proper dechrome trim
not that hard to get hold of and not difficult to fit either!

If you're going to spray them and don't want them flaking, then you could lacquer over the top of the black paint that you use.

You can use either normal or matt lacquer, and that should give it some protection, and prevent it from flaking too easily!

Also, the prep is very important...most of them flake because they weren't 'keyed' well enough before spraying them.

snoops wrote:can anything be done to stop it flaking as I saw a sport not too long ago which looked like a bag of sh*t because bits of the trim were chrome and some black as it had flaked off badly

100% guaranteed to flake off. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow but it will, no matter how well prepped and keyed will flake off.

The cost and effort of a professional or home job will easily come to the cost of new parts.

Get the new parts. Leave it chromed until you can stomach the bill.

Some things should never be DIY'ed...

Shit, you could BUY a whole de-chromed E30 for £150 and rob that!

Anything but the dreaded home de-chrome.

Don't do it.

theres no reason it will flake off if done with the corect primer unless the chrome underneath corrodes.