[Lotus99]

After having added the necessary black touches to the front and the rear of the car, I moved to the side.

Debated a lot whether to go anthracite grey or black, and decided to maintain the black and white theme, and black plasti dipped the summer 19" wheels. They're black with a coat or two of silver metallizer (which sparkles different colors actually in the sun), then clear coated. Had it done at a shop.

Really happy with how they turned out, especially with the 12mm spacers up front and the 20mm in the rear. In case you are wondering, the other cosmetic stuff I've done which I noted in the two other threads I started, are:

FRONT: stealth turn signal bulbs, gloss black ECS Tuning grills, and black vinyl over the reflectors

REAR: plasti dipped X3 emblem, light smoked tinted tail lights, 3rd brake light and reflectors

Here are the pics.
.

[drewxnyc]

Very nice! approximately how much did you pay to get the wheels dipped? and how long did it take?

[Lotus99]

Thanks

The guy charged me $320 CDN, guessing it should be less for you guys, though most of the cost is probably in the labour. Since these were my 2nd set of wheels, I wasn't in a rush to pick them up, but I don't think they take more than a day to do as the coats seem to dry pretty quickly. I guess it's trickier If you only have one set of wheels.

Not sure how many coats, but guessing up to 10 possibly, based on what he had told me he would do.

The last pic might look grainy, but it's actually the sparkles from the metallic paint. With the clear coat on top, it is super smooth to the touch, almost like regular paint.

I was debating whether to have it clear coated or not, because I had read that if you do so while the durability of the dip increases, the downside is that it may be more difficult to remove it down the road, but he said that he hasn't had any issues doing so, so I went with it.

[honeybadgerch]

I don't quite understand.. why the black outline on the headlights?

[drewxnyc]

Originally Posted by Lotus99

Thanks

The guy charged me $320 CDN, guessing it should be less for you guys, though most of the cost is probably in the labour. Since these were my 2nd set of wheels, I wasn't in a rush to pick them up, but I don't think they take more than a day to do as the coats seem to dry pretty quickly. I guess it's trickier If you only have one set of wheels.

Not sure how many coats, but guessing up to 10 possibly, based on what he had told me he would do.

The last pic might look grainy, but it's actually the sparkles from the metallic paint. With the clear coat on top, it is super smooth to the touch, almost like regular paint.

I was debating whether to have it clear coated or not, because I had read that if you do so while the durability of the dip increases, the downside is that it may be more difficult to remove it down the road, but he said that he hasn't had any issues doing so, so I went with it.

Thanks for the info, Seems about right, I got quotes from 2 places for about 250 USD so thats about 320 Canadian, but one shop is busy and takes forever to get back to me, the other shop is a little far from me (1hr drive) and they said it takes 3-4 hrs, so not sure if I want to sit around and wait that long haha

[Lotus99]

Originally Posted by honeybadgerch

I don't quite understand.. why the black outline on the headlights?

Because I don't live in Europe like you, and we have the stupid, useless, and ugly orange reflectors in the headlamps here. That's my way of covering them up. On my 535, they were on the bumper, and it was easy to have them painted the body colour, but not with this car.

Instead of this beauty from the factory:



We get this uglyness:

[honeybadgerch]

My goodness, I don't blame you for doing this now. Is it not possible to order European model headlights and retrofit to eliminate that orange abortion?

Thanks for the pics and explanation. Nice looking machine nonetheless.

[Mingstar88]

hey, are you in Toronto/GTA, where/who did you get it done with? im interested as well. i have some DIY repaired curb rashes on the set im interested in applying the coat. i might just sand it off the excessive and let him apply the coat. was going to pm you but there are other GTAers here. thanks,

[Lotus99]

Originally Posted by honeybadgerch

My goodness, I don't blame you for doing this now. Is it not possible to order European model headlights and retrofit to eliminate that orange abortion?

Thanks for the pics and explanation. Nice looking machine nonetheless.

LOL. I prefer the European look in general. I often debadge the rear of the car also, for a cleaner look, and because I just hate chrome.

The two ways to go about it in this case would be to order Euro headlights (waaaay too expensive for a cosmetic mod), or a lot of times, people bake their headlights in an oven so that they can open up the outer lens, and then remove the reflector, but that's way too much work and risky, hence my route.

A vendor actually sells the reflector, but I didn't like how it looked cut off in the middle of the headlight, so I carried the band all the way across. I hate eyebrows on headlights, but this is the best option I had.

Originally Posted by Mingstar88

hey, are you in Toronto/GTA, where/who did you get it done with? im interested as well. i have some DIY repaired curb rashes on the set im interested in applying the coat. i might just sand it off the excessive and let him apply the coat. was going to pm you but there are other GTAers here. thanks,

Sorry, West Coast, but I'm sure there are tons of dip shops out there. You can even look on the dipyourcar site for their approved dealers.

One thing to look into I've just learned about for avoiding curb wheels, is this product called alloygator which looks pretty cool and that it would work.

[Peter_R]

Originally Posted by Lotus99

One thing to look into I've just learned about for avoiding curb wheels, is this product called alloygator which looks pretty cool and that it would work.

Yes. We also have them in the UK. I had them fitted to my F31 320d Sport. You can make them as cool as you wish with various colours, or, have them black as I did so that you cannot hardly see them. In black if you kerb them it is not noticeable.

[Renaud]

Perhaps it is my misperception, but, dark-colored wheels always look smaller. Not sure whether that is something I want (again, this is just my (mis)perception; not a judgment of the quality of the paint job).

[BigJake]

Oh boy..why did I look at this...lol

Looks fantastic!