Finally - A Finished Product
07-19-2010, 01:23 PM
#1
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I finally ended the body shop saga today after 2 hours dealing with the shop. First, the job is 99% perfect. There are 2 items which I thinkn could have been better, fitment of the rear bumper, which I will cover in a second and there is a very tiny less than 1 mm mark on the spoiler that was not perfect. The color and fit otherwise look great. The final bill was 1850 for installation and paint plus dent removal ($250) worth. I ended up paying him $1,100 cash and he considered me paid in full! With all that I went through, I felt like this was a fair price albeit a little more than some had to pay.
Here is my review of the kit from Trinity and experience.
1. Joe at Trinity is A++++ and I wish when i bought other things in my life Joe handled the transaction. The guy is glued to his phone, spoke to my body shop about fitment and just generally cares, which is nice for a change. Do business with him now, even if you do not need anything.
2. Forum support for this mod is awesome. This convinced me to do it and helped me negotiate my price. Great job fellas (and a few ladies).
3. Review of quality of fitment and parts - Front bumper, better than oem M5 and mtec. Fitment is perfect, paints well with no defects wtc. Side skirts are also perfect, maybe better. Rear is not quite perfect but very close. The rear seems to be a little different then the front. Still a great product and I am 99% happy with it, but for the price different I would buy the oem rear if I had to do it again. Reasoning for this is that it does not paint as well as the front. I am extremely picky and I know some will chime in and say that what I am explaining can be fixed at the body shop, and it can, but I want to post a fair review. Front bumper flawless, rear bumper has a few verticle style lines that are in the material. This can be fixed with a little extra time refinishing which I did not do, because you can only see it at an extreme angle. Also, the sides in the rear stick out about 2 mm and require some modification to fit right. This could just be my shop, but even though they are asshles, they are really good. With time this could be perfect too, just not out of the box like the front....Also, understand that you will most likely be changing your muffler in the rear after this mod due to your old ones (there are 2) sticking out funny. Not expensive to do, but a little bit of a pain.
3. RDS spoiler - I liked it in photos but in person it isn't quite as nice as I thought. Overall a great mod, but the fitment on the sides seems a little bulky and not quite oem..ish.....Overall, I am 90% pleased with this and 110% pleased when looking from the rear. Pictures follow.
4. M6 reps 19 with agressive setup....Very happy with this look and this quality for the price this is a great mod. Do it. get 33 offset on awd's.
5. Tint 20% - do this now or else suffer from sunlight....lol
6. kidney grilles in matteblack with chrome i nserts - judge for yourself, but for any car other than just black, this is the way to go in my opinion.
7. Updated Nav disc to 2010. worth the $20 you may pay for a backup...(not endorsing anything illegal, you should purchase a real copy from BMWNA)
Only thing left to do is the lighting.
Total cost without breaking down each price:
$4,000
I picked up my 2008535xi with sport, premium, cold weather and nav with 38,000 miles for 32,500. I add 4k and am now into car for 36,500 plus tax, so basically 38k. I know you cannot find an awd for this price that looks like this so I feel like my deal is fair. Pictures are below, tell me what you think of the transformation:
Thank you to everyone that helped.
Here is my review of the kit from Trinity and experience.
1. Joe at Trinity is A++++ and I wish when i bought other things in my life Joe handled the transaction. The guy is glued to his phone, spoke to my body shop about fitment and just generally cares, which is nice for a change. Do business with him now, even if you do not need anything.
2. Forum support for this mod is awesome. This convinced me to do it and helped me negotiate my price. Great job fellas (and a few ladies).
3. Review of quality of fitment and parts - Front bumper, better than oem M5 and mtec. Fitment is perfect, paints well with no defects wtc. Side skirts are also perfect, maybe better. Rear is not quite perfect but very close. The rear seems to be a little different then the front. Still a great product and I am 99% happy with it, but for the price different I would buy the oem rear if I had to do it again. Reasoning for this is that it does not paint as well as the front. I am extremely picky and I know some will chime in and say that what I am explaining can be fixed at the body shop, and it can, but I want to post a fair review. Front bumper flawless, rear bumper has a few verticle style lines that are in the material. This can be fixed with a little extra time refinishing which I did not do, because you can only see it at an extreme angle. Also, the sides in the rear stick out about 2 mm and require some modification to fit right. This could just be my shop, but even though they are asshles, they are really good. With time this could be perfect too, just not out of the box like the front....Also, understand that you will most likely be changing your muffler in the rear after this mod due to your old ones (there are 2) sticking out funny. Not expensive to do, but a little bit of a pain.
3. RDS spoiler - I liked it in photos but in person it isn't quite as nice as I thought. Overall a great mod, but the fitment on the sides seems a little bulky and not quite oem..ish.....Overall, I am 90% pleased with this and 110% pleased when looking from the rear. Pictures follow.
4. M6 reps 19 with agressive setup....Very happy with this look and this quality for the price this is a great mod. Do it. get 33 offset on awd's.
5. Tint 20% - do this now or else suffer from sunlight....lol
6. kidney grilles in matteblack with chrome i nserts - judge for yourself, but for any car other than just black, this is the way to go in my opinion.
7. Updated Nav disc to 2010. worth the $20 you may pay for a backup...(not endorsing anything illegal, you should purchase a real copy from BMWNA)
Only thing left to do is the lighting.
Total cost without breaking down each price:
$4,000
I picked up my 2008535xi with sport, premium, cold weather and nav with 38,000 miles for 32,500. I add 4k and am now into car for 36,500 plus tax, so basically 38k. I know you cannot find an awd for this price that looks like this so I feel like my deal is fair. Pictures are below, tell me what you think of the transformation:
Thank you to everyone that helped.
07-19-2010, 01:42 PM
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Undecided about the drop as pa turnpike roads are nasty....Its not cali over here or I would have bought an m5. Also, the 1100, was for everything without the dent removal...That was extra 250$ but i didnt include it in the figure because it was a separate company and really fair. He removed 55 hail dents.
07-19-2010, 01:45 PM
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My Ride: 2008 550I LOADED, all options except HUD and NV
Undecided about the drop as pa turnpike roads are nasty....Its not cali over here or I would have bought an m5. Also, the 1100, was for everything without the dent removal...That was extra 250$ but i didnt include it in the figure because it was a separate company and really fair. He removed 55 hail dents.
Holy crap!!!! 55 dents? Yeah, $250 is really fair for that!!!