PGODFAT

Having A black car, shadow line is now very appealing.... Anyone replaced their door trim before? My dealer says that it is very difficult and very expensive... he tells me that they may break the door doing it, and that I would be responsible for the repair costs...

I find that hard to believe... I was messing around with the trim and noticed that it is pretty easy to remove (I did not remove it all the way, but it peels right off). How hard could it be to put the new trim on? Any ideas?

All feedback is welcome

Thanks!

ScorpioBMW1

I replaced the trim on my previous BMW 540. I had a local bodyshop do it. They charged me $250. It was about 3 hours work. The parts cost me about $350 for the '99 540. Hope this helps.

PGODFAT

Thank you for the reply...Did you buy your parts from a dealer? If so, maybe my dealer is trying to rip me off... They want $700 for the parts! I need to find a good tuning/body shop for Euro cars, but there arent many here in Vegas....

John W

I replaced the trim on my E39 540. The trim around the windows and at the top of the door, below the windows. It was much harder than you'd think, and I'm pretty good at this stuff. The trim across the top of the door at the bottom of the window has a folt/flocked liner in it. This was impossible to remove from the original trim piece without destroying it. So, I had to reorder that. Then, aligning that piece on the edge of the door was harder than it looks, too. there are cut-outs in the rubber that go around the pillar between the windows. If you misalign it, and have to move it, forget it. Getting this trim off without damage is really tough.

If I did it again, I'd pay the dealer, just to avoid paying 2 -3 X for the tirm I damaged.

ScorpioBMW1

I did buy my parts from a BMW dealer. There is a chance the shadowline trim for the e60 is costlier than the e39. I suggest you price around. Hope this helps.