jeffbebe

If you're Russian mafia or a pimp... Or both.

I liked the woodgrain in my 528i - it was mint - but the trim in the 540i was pretty sorry. I was waiting for someone to put their hand up to redo the trims for me! My hand's up now, I like the red but know a pro could finish it much better. Brushed ali would be nice too!!

Ha! Don't like the colour or my methodology?

The walnut trim in my E39 was looking pretty ragged with a few cracks in the lacquer and plenty of sun damage to the wood. I thought about sanding the lacquer off and refinishing the wood but even as a DIY job it would have cost more than buying a good set secondhand so I opted for a re-colour to give the car a bit of a new look. 1) At the start it looked like this. 2) You'll need some dry sandpaper (I used 250 grit) and some fine wet and dry (1500 grit), a trigger for spray cans, meths, a microfibre rag, primer, paint and lacquer (if you decide to go for a gloss finish). You'll need a small phillips head screwdriver to remove the centre trim and ashtray lid pieces from the plastic console trim. 3) I removed all the trim using plastic tools so as not to damage (very easy job) and got my sander to work. 4) Unscrew the centre trim piece from the back, it has 8 screws. The ashtray lid has 4 screws. You only need to unscrew 2 to slide it off the plastic lid, but need to unscrew the other 2 before you paint. The main centre piece just unlocks like this once the screws are removed (make sure your sander doesn't sanding the black plastic trim... ahem): 5) Sand everything consistently all over to get a nice surface for the paint to cling to. It doesn't need to be (and nor do you want it to be) visibly rough. Just a good sand with fairly fine sandpaper (250 grit) will do the job. It should look something like this when done: 6) Wipe the sanded pieces down with a rag and some meths to clean the surface and get rid of the dust and mask the ashtray push button with some painters tape (cover the whole button with a large piece then cut carefully around the button with a sharp knife). Give it two or three light coats of primer (follow the instructions on the paint you use). I used a grey (because I had some left over) then a rust colour to prime for the top coat of maroon. 7) Once the primer's dry start painting with the top coat. In the end I did 4 light coats which used to cans of paint. After the second, I noticed a few imperfections so let it dry for a day then wet sanded with 1500 grit before painting the last 2 coats. Using the trigger for the spray can makes it much easier to apply. In hindsight I think it would be significantly better to get a thicker, tougher finish using a proper spray gun and more paint (but more expensive probably). Apply the coats within 15-20 minutes of each other. 8) Then let the paint cure (recommend 5-7 days) so that it gets properly hard. If you're applying a lacquer do that before the curing process when the paint is adequately dry. 9) Finally wet sand it (and polish if you want a gloss finish). I soaked the 1500 grit paper in a water and washing up liquid solution and very lightly sanded using a sponge pad as a sanding block. Be careful not to over sand on the edges or you'll go through to the primer. If it's a lacquer follow the same instructions but finish with a cutting compound to bring out the shine. I left mine with a matte/satin finish. 10) Reinstall the trim. The centre piece is always a bit of a wrestle as it's a tight fit. Unfortunately I wasn't careful enough and chipped my painted trim very slightly (hardly visible but I don't like imperfections). If you've lacquered your finish will probably be a bit tougher than mine. I also decided to paint the monitor board trim satin black as I thought it would look a bit more stylish than red. The finished product should looks like this: Overall, I'm happy with the finish especially on the door trim but it could be a touch better on the larger pieces so I may look to do those again.

Overall very happy with the finish but am going to have to redo the centre console piece as I chipped it re-installing. The plastic trim underneath is really brittle too and a couple of important fixings have cracked or broken so it no longer snaps into place perfectly. Will repaint the trim when I can find a good centre console piece to replace the old one. Until then... It looks pretty good:

Finished the trim... Pleased with the finish. It looks good in the car but too dark to photograph adequately. Here's a teaser. The colour's pretty faithful in this pic: All the trim went back in smoothly except this piece which is a bit of a fiddle and annoyingly, I chipped it very slightly so going to have to try and touch up as it'll be too much of PITA to take it out and completely repaint and sand. Will take better pics and post DIY over the weekend.

Can't tell you much more really as I haven't used them. Bought them from the UK but had to replace the old plugs before the NGK ones turned up when my new 540i started misfiring (the old plugs were shot). I've got BKR6EQUP which are excellent and the BKR6EIX is the recommended upgrade to those.Try Googling... Seems to be plenty of good feedback about them. Sorry to hijack your thread, Martin. EDIT: US$60 for a full set of plugs is great, does that include shipping!! Where from?!

It's going to be a fairly nasty hooker with the change from a pod filter after you've paid for the coke.

What Graham says... Dinan will probably do a good CAI kit but to get any appreciable benefit you'll need their Stage 1/2 engine tune so you're looking at around NZ$1000+ shipping and you'll have to do without your car for a few weeks while you send your ECU to the states for the tune. Trust me, I've done a lot of research on this for my E39!

If you're interested I've got a surplus set of 8 NGK Iridium IX BKR6EIX (recommended plug upgrade for E39 540 and M5). Darren (M5V8) put some in his M5 and said they are excellent. These retail for around $25-35 each in NZ you can have them for $175 all up. PM if interested.

Battery will be disconnected when/if I do it to ensure nothing like that goes amiss!

Apparently sake's the go then... Lose weight and get p*ssed. Gonna study up on the pixel fix and make a decision about my competence after that. If I decide it's a bridge too far I might drop you a line!Did a quick test wet sand on the trim pieces last night and Tony's absolutely right. Not much paint to play with from the cans. Not convinced I'll be able to get the quality of finish I'm hoping for without a lacquer so may have to go for a glossier look than I'd intended unless I can find a decent matte lacquer somewhere.

Drive shaft coupling I think and yes, pretty common after 100kms+. I got a brand new one for my 528i from Milland for about $80 delivered.

Haha! We've got a 2005 Mazda 6 wagon and it's a workhorse. Nothing's ever gone wrong. The new one photographs better than it looks in the flesh IMO. Looks a bit cheap close up.... But then, I suppose, they are pretty cheap. Fair point. The commy wagon is pretty tidy. The black grille on the XF wagon looks a lot better than the giant silver grilles they normally have.

Haha... In the sense that it doesn't stand out in a good or bad way... Just a bit ordinary, really.

Perhaps I should take a drive up to Whangarei and get you to do it, Allan! Do you accept beers as payment?

What do folks think of this? I'm a wagon fan and I quite like this but can't help thinking it doesn't look that much different from a new Commodore. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/motoring/news/ar...jectid=10888286

If you buy it can you help me paint my valve box covers, Tom? I'll buy the coffees (and the paint, of course!!)

You only need to recalibrate if you actually take the needles off (i.e. if you want to change the gauges themselves or the needles), hence why I prefer to repaint the white needles on the cluster rather than replacing. The pixel fix is a bit more of a drama; to avoid removing the gauges - and therefore having to recalibrate - you have to drill some small holes (which are out of sight) to get at some torx screws underneath. Debating whether to do it myself or spend $150-200 at Robinson Instruments and get them to do it.

Good advice, thanks Tony. Why do you think I ensured his manacles are out of shot?!

Assuming all goes to plan I'll finish off the trim and reinstall this weekend. Will post pics and a DIY then though the I have to admit, I did have pro help with the sanding: Got this to do soon as well - chrome instrument gauge rings, red needle paint and pixel strip replacement to fix a few dead pixels. Gauge rings and needle painting's a cinch and will look good when finished but the pixel repair instructions look like a bit of a mission, so I've been putting that job off...

Paint has a pretty flat finish but I want to get rid of the texture from the spray paint (can) so it feels smooth. Did a pretty good job so no orange peel it just has a rough finish. Would I be better to use a cutting compound just to get rid of the very top layer of paint 'dust' to smooth it off rather than wet sanding? If it's okay on the beast then it's okay on mine!!

That's not all you'll catch if you use it for that sort of thing.

The pic I posted with red trim is actually leather. I'm trying to a similar matte/satin finish without the expense of an auto trimmer... I maybe dreaming.

Sounds painful... And hell to clean. I'd just use it for the gears personally.