Trim Swap & Result

[AzNMpower32]

Cool. New mod! Sort of.

Thanks to a very nice man on this forum (Mr. Crisp, I don't know your screen name!), both of us were able to swap out our interior trim into something we both wanted. He wanted my Dark Sycamore wood, I wanted an Aluminium trim. The exchange went smoothly, and I just finished installing the trim yesterday.

Dang, this is like an early Christmas present. Here's a couple mediocre pics, since it's been raining the last 3 days.





Although one could be surprised by the fact taking apart the dash is simply a matter of prying off the vents and climate control panel, I was impressed that BMW still screwed the trim in on the centre console. In the E90, most of the trim pieces are just simply pieces with pins which you pry off. The E83 is definitely built pretty solidly, with screws in many places. The AT lever and panel posed the biggest annoyance actually; I recommend putting the shift lever in N and removing the shift knob.

Amazingly, I didn't lose any screws or metal clips

[UCrewX5]

[ncx]

Glad it worked out for both of you.

[rayxi]

I like!

[Ishniknork]

Looks great AzNM! Same trim I have. IMO the aluminum trim is the only way to go with light grey interior. Even the lighter wood trim just doesn't look right. When I ordered my X3 the sales rep said they had never had that combination before. Once he saw it he thought it looked great.

Now all you need are the door handles.

[AzNMpower32]

Thanks for the comments, folks.

I don't want to bother with the door handles; the new ones are simply painted plastic like on my mom's E90 that will inevitably peel off. I was tempted to change the shifter knob since I had it out during the installation, but decided that the stock plastic shifter works best. I don't like the painted silver on the '06+ models, once again, because of experience from the 325i.

This is just one of a few projects in the "X3 Future Improvements" plan. Next, will be the Wide-angle aspheric mirror (if it ever arrives from Germany). CD Changer and if lucky, rear-foglamps will come in the future as well.

[mikebX3]

VERY VERY NICE, makes me want to exchange out my wood trip for the aluminum too.

[trapdoor]

Not wishing to 'rain on your parade' but I had the Alu trim in my X3 when I bought it - the 'one careful woman owner' had scratched and dinged the drivers door pull really badly, presumably with her rings (or nails!). Also the centre cubby flap was scratched and there were lesser but noticeable scratches on all the others too. To be honest it looked really shoddy. It does seem to scratch quite easily as the aluminium veneer is quite soft.

I replaced it with a brand new Titanium-colour which actually seems to complement the grey better and is much more hard wearing. But each to his own.

I really do hate the black door openers though and wonder how hard it would be to get the shiny chrome ones like I used to have on my 330i