DD_545i

Required for the job:

One tin of Matt Black spray paint. The one I got says Acrylic on it. I don't know if that's good or not. Cost me about $5.
One roll of masking tape (quality stuff, not a cheap brand that won't come off so easily).
A newspaper.
A bit of light sanding paper.
A cloth of some kind.

Time Required:

About 60-90 minutes to mask it up real nice.
A minute per coat of paint. I gave it three coats, with half an hour of drying time minimum per coat. My final (third) coat was actually the next morning.

I've been told by people here and by a local car repair shop that specializes in respraying cars, that this is a bad idea. The general consensus is that the paint might not hold so well. I'm prepared to live with that. It's one of the cheapest ways possible to achieve "the blackness" (even cheaper than the vinyl tape on ebay). If it needs the occasional repair job here and there, I can live with that. I already have ready a repair mask. I cut out a 1/2" by 15" hole from the piece of card at the back of a large calendar as a floating mask. I can just hold it against the car revealing only a bit of the chrome trim and give it a quick blast of paint should the need arise.

nick1970

It looks good. But i might peel.
I would also add one flat clear coat.

DD_545i

I did consider that, but (a) I couldn't find a clear lacquer at my local car spares shop and (b) after finishing the third coat and seeing how perfectly the finish matched the B-pillar black parts - it really looked like it was OEM shadowline and I didn't want to risk giving it an overly shiny finish that ended up looking less matched.

ITNurse

Hard to see how consistent the paint is, but if it looks good at 3 - 5 ft - bravo!
Shadowline will cost you about $200 shipped...not sure how much more shipping would
cost to Canada. Easy to install.

Garry @ Newport BMW in Rhode Island is the best!

radzM

it worked out well!

kscarrol

Wow, you are braver than I am!! No way I would take a can of spray paint near my car like that.

Does look good though. Hopefully the peeling is not an issue. I assume you sanded the chrome before spraying on the black...

Uzzle

Looks good bro.







Now do I wanna try it? Hmmmmm.....

DD_545i

Sure did. Cleaned again with the cloth after sanding. Just realized I didn't mention that in the OP.

I did this to my BMW 735 in the mid 90s and kept the car another 18 months and never had a single problem. If I do get a problem I'll come back to this thread and report it.

Ghostteck

Looks good man! Good Job, I can't see any mess ups or anything like that. Let me know how it is in a couple of months but it looks great!

alpinewhite

Sorry but this is GHETTO.