OTSe60

If you want to go the vinyl route, there are several different grades of electrical vinyl tape available at Lowes. The one that I purchased was the Super 88 by 3m I believe. Its pretty darn stretchy and suppose to be very durable. At the end end of the day, nothing beats the OEM shadowline trim, but this tape costed me $4 and I could probably vinyl wrap my trim about 5x. So if you mess up. Just re-do. If not, lol buy shadowline. My 2 cents I suppose.

Oh and also, I actually found the curve of the trim to be the easier to do. The ends were probably the most difficult for me.

tex_phil

I ordred the "vinyl trim" off ebay which is probably the same stuff, it got very furstrating around the curves so I just ripped it off and ordered trim. If you do go the trim route eventually, be VERY careful installing it. I used thick cloth and hit the pieces into place but some of them got damaged because the cloth didn't protect enough. There is one piece of trim I need to replace on the rear.

604nguyen

i ordered mine from http://www.bmwshadowline.com/

takes a bit of patience to work with the vinyl, once u get a hang of it, its a breeze.

balbs

BTW...for those of you that want to do the tape method, it's best to first remove the trim and then apply the tape with enough overlap that lets it wrap around the trim piece. The reason is if you install the tape while the trim is still on the car and use a sharp knife to cut off the excess right at the edge of the trim, over time and heat of the sun will shrink the tape a little. This shrinkage will then gradually expose the chrome trim.

Here's a link to taking the trim off:

https://5series.net/forums/topic/282...-line-upgrade/

Bill109

thanks for the link, i was just about to ask for a link.
i will certainly check it out before attempt an install

Bill109

im having problems contacting the company i ordered from, should of been here by now and cant seem to get a response back from them.. has anyone had any contact with them recently thats ordered this stuff?
However, i cannot wait to try this stuff out.

Bill109

i finally got my order, and wrapped the whole trim today. it came out really well.
once it settles in a little more ill go back and get out the last of the imperfections. for now, it looks good!
here are some pictures for now untill i can break out the real camera either saturday or sunday.

I installed it dry for the first piece and it went okay. second piece at the top of the door tried it again and it sucked. so i ripped it off and ended up using the windex trick and this made install much easier. overall the install was easy and went smooth.
the last pic is the first side i did. IMO this side came out slightly worse than the other side. i took the time to tuck all the vinyl into the back of the trim. for example, the rubber molding on the tops of the doors popped off,(pic one, note the molding is off the top..) tucked under and then the molding got placed back on to get smooth lines. Also i tucked the vinyl in between the backside of the trim and front edge of the rubber that the window glass slides down into.(pic 2, where the squeege is..) there is one pic of this if you can see it clearly enough.
anyways, here are some quick pics untill ihave daylight and a charged camera for some closer pics!

Bill109

my next step is to wrapp my roof

trying to decide between these options..

-gloss black
-Matte Gunmetal gray (i think gloss in this color wouldnt be noticeable.)
-matte black

i do want something noticeable but not over the top like a di noc CF wrap.
maybe ill look for some pics and start a poll

acefuture

Can you explain what the "windex trick" is?

I too am interested in applying the shadowline tape to my 528i.

Thanks

Bill109

sure no problem.
take a spray bottle of windex and dilute it with water. i do almost 50/50. all i do is spray the area your wrapping or the back of the vinyl and apply. it will seem like the vinyl is ruined and wont stick. however is it NOT. the water/soap will dry and it will stick.

using the windex, it allows the vinyl safely slide around and this way you can get out all the bubbles and any imperfections in the wrap. use a squeegee (sp?) and work the water out. once you get it where you want, use a heat gun to help speed up the drying process and work out all the water/bubbles at this time. =)
i have been using this process to graphic wrap snowmobiles every winter, works great!

i should have some detailed pics of my trim wrap up in the next few days if you care to take a look. patience is key with this. i started at noon.. took appropriate breaks and was done around 5...