[StealYourFace]

Sounds like a lame fix and it's only short term, but a little Adams In and Out spray makes it look great. I found out by accident while treating the black rubber and trim.

[Malbolge]

Originally Posted by StealYourFace

Sounds like a lame fix and it's only short term, but a little Adams In and Out spray makes it look great. I found out by accident while treating the black rubber and trim.

isn't this thing banned as aerosol?

[Miami]

Originally Posted by bmcgarry84

I polished mine 8 months ago and they still look good after winter. They are aluminum, how is that cheap material? Have you ever polished aluminum?

soda cans are made of aluminum, its cheap. they sealed it like crap and oxidizes no matter what.

[yakev724]

Here's what I did with mine: sanded, masked, primed, sanded, painted, cleared. Paint is BMW 397 Black Anthracite Metallic

Polished + installed photos will be up later. Metallic color contrasts really well with jet black.

[Malbolge]

that above looks great!

[yakev724]

Originally Posted by research

that above looks great!

Thanks! It took longer than I'd care to admit. Very happy with the result, the clear is also perfectly smooth after 30 mins with a polisher.

I'll be having my wheels painted to match, will shoot some photos after.

[Brian_TII]

I just hit mine with a buffer and light polish followed by bfwd. I haven't had any problems since.

[toicy4ya]

Originally Posted by yakev724

Here's what I did with mine: sanded, masked, primed, sanded, painted, cleared. Paint is BMW 397 Black Anthracite Metallic

Polished + installed photos will be up later. Metallic color contrasts really well with jet Black

Nice job. How difficult was it to remove the trim? What DIY did you follow? I need to do the same with my car.

[swc945]

according to my panel beater/auto body mech, he suggested i use Autosol Aluminium polish. apparently its a much finer grit and works a treat on his past applications... So i'm going to give it a try this weekend

[toicy4ya]

Sounds interesting, post back with the results.

[techy1]

Originally Posted by research

I'm on the fence regarding how good the wrap will hold in our -25C winters, 5 months of salts on roads, ice rain and what have you.

I think I'd rather have it painted though I'm unsure if the surface will take paint. In past i've painted only plastic parts on my previous car (door handles) and that held for 5 years so I have hopes, but this is metal and I'm a bit unsure. At least one body shop told me it won't hold well and will peel off in few years.

Also, I don't want to wrap it matte black. It looks cheap, my old car again had matte black. If you do gloss black, you have to do the pillars and mirror trim too to get shadowline look, otherwise it won't match in full.

plasti-dip is your solution... if it doesn't hold... peel off easy and reapply.

but I don't see the vinyl to be a problem ether way.

imo black trim always looks better.

[swc945]

So I finally got around to getting the Autosol Aluminium Polish.
I'm in Australia and bought it from Autobarn for AU$10 for a 75ml tube (and I would guess I've only used 10ml for this application only).

So the result is good.
Easy to use... Application is like any other polish. Using a cloth and a small amount of the polish, work in circular motion to polish the aluminium trim.
The instructions that came with the polish states to continue to polish until the residue starts to turn a grey/black colour - but i polished and polished and never got to this grey/black coloured residue...

After polishing the 'white cloudy' effect was removed and returned the aluminium back to an even finish. It was still a dull finish but I applied some wax polish to seal it and give it some extra shine.

I still cant achieve a super shiny finish on it, but its definitely better than before. I'd have to rate the result as 7/10.

But for the sake of only $10 and 10mins of effort, I'd rate this overall as a 9/10.


So this is the UNtreated side...



And this is the side Treated with the Autosol Aluminium Polish

[vaughnairforce]

Might be hard to see in this picture but plastidipped my window trim with the matte black and a couple of coats of clear plastidip. Looks good and when I get tired of it, I can just peels it off

[Meeni]

Originally Posted by zanth119

I used BlueMagic to clean up the chrome on my old Harley. Haven't tried it on the Bimmer trim, but can vouch worked great on the bike.

http://www.amazon.com/BlueMagic-400-.../dp/B000BO8Z9I

I used bluemagic as well on the trim. It was really bad (lots of watermarks, dull, faded). A lot of elbow grease later, it sparkled like new. The "new" look lasted for only 2/3 month, but it is still looking "good enough", not the eyesore it had become after 6 years.