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      09-14-2012, 06:14 PM   #1
jmh
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Drives: F97 X3MC / F80 M3 / F90 M5
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Under a rock in NH and BOS

iTrader: (5)

Changing the door handle silver inserts to black (or something else)

So I got bored and decided it's time to find out how I could approach getting rid of the last piece of chrome on my (soon to be) F10 M5 ....
for some reason BMW decided to make the door handle inserts chrome strips (plastic) and not match the exterior trim (ie Shadowline Gloss Black or Satin for the Individual Silver trim) . IND has great options to eliminate the silver from the side and front grills.

As I don't have not yet taken delivery of my M5 (up for ED on 10/1) I decided I'd just buy a door handle for R&D purpose.
You may not know (yet) but it turns out the door handles do actually come pre-painted from the factory and are not primed like most other trim/body parts. Ie you need to have the VIN/color code in order to get them.
I fully expected the handle to take a while as I have ordered an Individual color (Brilliant White) but to my surprise the handle arrived the next day at my dealer .

In looking at the handle itself it turns out the silver insert is just a plastic strip which is attached to the handle via double sided tape.

One could even remove the strip (being careful and using the right tools , it is easy to damage the paint on the handle itself and it's made of fairly soft plastic) without taken off the handles themselves .

Once the strip has been removed one could either paint them or using a vinyl overlay.
I decided on a vinyl overlay as painting didn't seem to work too well (likely would chip/flake over time).
Now folks can become creative regarding colors and/or finishes .....

I decided to go with gloss black just for trial on my R&D handle .

Once my car is state side I'll provide a more detailed write-up on the whole process etc

For now below are two pictures of the modified handle

View from top


View from the side


Enjoy,
Jan
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21 F97 X3MC Toronto Red/Black and more | 18 F80 M3 Tanzanite Blue/Amaro/CCB and more
15 F10 M5 Individual / Brilliant White / Extended/Full Cohiba Brown (Exec/Driver/B&O/20") / A few Euro add-ons / Stealth K40 / Upgraded B&O / ///M Performance Carbon Interior Trim / IND / Akrapovic Evolution Exhaust / HRE S107
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