DIY - Steering wheel trim paint process w/pics

[e30cabrio]

I was using that for the style I meant. Mine is not metal.

[jljljl]

Originally Posted by upallnight

+1 haha

[four.8is]

Ok guys here is the second part of the DIY..I've sanded down the primer with 1000 grit sand paper(600 works too) and sprayed 4 light coats of flat black paint.I've used the same brand paint as the primer(you can find them at o'reilly's )but realized this particular dupli-color black had some brown in it which didn't go quite well with the rest of the flat black trim in the car(around the radio and HVAC unit)

I then switched to this flat black spray paint from Home Depot.


Here is how it turned out :



And here it is installed .In the second picture you'll notice an M sticker on the trim-not everyone's cup of tea but i kind of like it there..reminds me of my sport E39 steering wheel.

[four.8is]

Originally Posted by omodos

okay, now I tried this too, and whilst i was able to sand down fine, i could not for the life of me get the spray on correctly, i went through.... wait for it 5 cans of spray paint!

each time i got imperfections, damn dust particles settling or tiny fibres, so i hosed down the area,no joy, did it indoors in the spare bedroom and the whole place was coated by 'soot' still no go, got so fed up i that i accepted defeat and bought a new piece of trim....spent a good 7-8 hours on the failed attempts....jeez

Omodos, the key is to be patient and have lots of light on the subject you are trying to spray so you can see if you sprayed enough or too much.Too little will give you orange peel while too much runs and sags...Also set a sheet of plastic under it and make sure youre not walking around while the paint is drying...just leave the room...even tiny particles from you walking around the room will settle on the wet paint and ruin the job.Outdoors is worse..there will always be something in the air so indoors work best.

Maybe when this new one of yours will worn out you'll give it another try and im sure the outcome will be better than your previous experience.

[four.8is]

Originally Posted by e30cabrio

Looks great. Will this work on the sport wheel also?

Mine is worse than this, I hate it.

E30Cabrio- yes it will work on your wheel too but it's a pain that's for sure.I've done it on my E39.
For me, matching the bottom part perfectly with the top part was unsuccessful..After a few cans of flat black of different brands i gave up and took the top part out too...disassembled the buttons one by one which if you dont have patience, you'll ruin the entire thing or at least break some tabs on some of them and ofcourse you cant buy them separately...
Not saying its not possible, its just a lot more work vs the trim on my x5 where the controls are held together in a housing vs the old model trim where the buttons snap in the trim itself.
You might wanna try this rust-oleum flat black from HD first on your lower trim and see how you like it..Best of luck.

[e30cabrio]

It looks great!

Thanks for the tip, I really hate the scratching, maybe I'll try silver which I have seen on wheels on eBay.

Thanks!

[Ricky Bobby]

Fwiw the silver trim pieces are more readily found on eBay UK or eBay Germany for affordable prices. About 65 bucks give or tske

[e30cabrio]

Thanks, I'll look.

EDIT

Found an e39 M5 wheel w/o airbag or switches for 49 pounds. Asked if they will ship here.

EDIT AGAIN, the BP is down to 1.67! sweet.

Thanks!

[Ricky Bobby]

That would be an awesome find! Is it a facelift E39 wheel aka you can reuse your airbag and swap your switches over? As long as it has lower trim you're good!

49 gbp is nothing for that! Also if you search German eBay, I would search for "e46 or e39 lenkrad" as it's more likely to find pre facelift wheels for those cars than e53.

I got my steering wheel from eBay Germany for 250 shipped and I kept my old wheel.

[e30cabrio]

That is a great wheel congrats on the score!