Posted by greghill on August 26, 2000 at 18:44:52:
In Reply to: Shadowline trim posted by trubey on August 26, 2000 at 13:36:36:
welcome demian,
in the amount of time it will take to make the modification, you could learn photoshop and 'see' how it will look. i recommend this over just winging it. Ryan's electrical tape method sounds effective also.
concerning the appearance:
it is only fair to tell you that i am a fan of the chromed finish, however, anything can be done well. I feel that if you finish the chrome pieces in the lime color, the car will look larger and the hard german edges will be de-emphasized. I don't think you will want to paint the black rubber trim, so you would still have that continuous black line.
If you choose to paint grey, the closer the shade is to the lime, the most subtle the edge condition... this grey will have to be very carefully chosen. The closer to black, the stronger the edge. With grey, I would recommend against painting the aluminum on the bumpers.
In my opinion, on that color, black would emphasize the punctures (windows) in the sheet metal and reduce the variation of color on the car and draw attention to the edges. I think this could have a strong end result. I think that painting the aluminum bumpers will de-emphasize their protrusion and will anchor the waist-line more to the ground.
These are things I have considered for mine, which is this sandy tan (don't know the name).
As for removing trim:
the body moulding unscrews from the back,
the bumpers come off easily,
i don't know if the trim around the door windows comes off,
the front and rear windows have to be removed to get at their trim,
and if you can figure out how to get that raingutter channel off please let me know. I was told once to use an old-fashioned churchkey and take it slow. But my attention span will only last an hour at the most for this task.
I hope you show us when you're done,
greghill
79 528i