[NGT2]

Originally Posted by Joe-BMW33

I think your car looks great. I agree on the bumper and side vent chrome. I kept mine as well and I like it. I do think you could do a little black if you wanted to. Wrap the windows, wrap that handle strip (it will look great and so what if it doesn't match the paint), black grill and a black spoiler. Looking at the rear wheels more closely, I think you are going to need a really wide spacer to get those flush. Probably because they aren't staggered.

Correct, wheels are not staggered. One guy on the Facebook page suggested only doing the rears. He felt like spacers on the front would increase chances the front tires throw debris that would harm the paint. I would probably start with something conservative on the back and see how I like it. If I want to go further, I could move those to the front and get bigger spacers for the back. No luck finding others with my wheels that have done it, so it would be blind exploration.

On the chrome delete/adding black, personally I'd want to stop with the windows and maybe door handles. I like black grills and spoilers on M sports. I don't want to do that on my particular car. At some point, it feels like I'm trying to turn a Luxury Line into an M Sport. My guiding principle is to enhance what the car is and not turn it into something else entirely.

New idea on the door handles, without buying new handles all together (which some have done and sent to IND to paint match). Several vendors sell door handle covers in black or carbon. Maybe I could buy a set of these and send to IND to paint match. I don't think they have that available on the site, but seems like they've been open to helping others with projects similar to that.

@ind-distribution can you help with that?

[Joe-BMW33]

Originally Posted by NGT2

Correct, wheels are not staggered. One guy on the Facebook page suggested only doing the rears. He felt like spacers on the front would increase chances the front tires throw debris that would harm the paint. I would probably start with something conservative on the back and see how I like it. If I want to go further, I could move those to the front and get bigger spacers for the back. No luck finding others with my wheels that have done it, so it would be blind exploration.

On the chrome delete/adding black, personally I'd want to stop with the windows and maybe door handles. I like black grills and spoilers on M sports. I don't want to do that on my particular car. At some point, it feels like I'm trying to turn a Luxury Line into an M Sport. My guiding principle is to enhance what the car is and not turn it into something else entirely.

New idea on the door handles, without buying new handles all together (which some have done and sent to IND to paint match). Several vendors sell door handle covers in black or carbon. Maybe I could buy a set of these and send to IND to paint match. I don't think they have that available on the site, but seems like they've been open to helping others with projects similar to that.

@ind-distribution can you help with that?

I have seen that argument on front spacers resulting in the front wheel pushing debris outside the wheel well onto the lower fender. I don't buy it unless you go beyond flush. I purposefully stay just shy of flush. I'm also not driving on loose gravel at 70 mph.

In terms of the door handles, I have seen the covers, they seem kind of hoaky to me. I would either wrap it completely in black or just the strip. 3M Wrap is $30 bucks on Amazon. May be a nice little inexpensive exploratory project to see how you like it, speaking to just the strip. You can always pull it off. Window trim is probably a DIY. Full door handle I would hire someone.

I agree on not doing too much. I get that, just offering up ideas. I think my last non-sport BMW was an E38 seven series and every time I saw one in a sport model with shadowline trim I wanted it. It's mostly about the window trim for me. I think about the grill differently than you. As long as it was an option, I would be comfortable with it. I am pretty sure even the luxury line can be ordered with a black grill. I know the M550 can be ordered with a black grill even though everything else is Cerium.

[iiwilsonii]

Originally Posted by NGT2

Nice. Well at least we know there are two pre-LCI non M Sport 540's in here!

Have you done wheel spacers by chance? I've been thinking about it, but haven't found anyone online that's done it on 19" wheels that aren't the 664 M Sport wheels. So I'm not sure what size would work best.

So far I've done window tint, put the painted IND reflectors on, and done a ceramic coating. Stuff I'm thinking about is Dinan axle back, wheel spacers, painting the calipers black, and getting a wheel off ceramic job done for the wheels. This is a picture of mine:

I have not done spacers, though I am looking into it. Those 19"s look great!

I have done tints and swapped bumper to an M-sport style. I'm looking to upgrade to bigger rims, lower on MST springs, and install the Dinan axle-back.

Here's mine:

[NGT2]

Originally Posted by iiwilsonii

I have not done spacers, though I am looking into it. Those 19"s look great!

I have done tints and swapped bumper to an M-sport style. I'm looking to upgrade to bigger rims, lower on MST springs, and install the Dinan axle-back.

Here's mine:

Bumper looks great! I think if I swapped the bumper I would be more apt to chrome delete the grill and/or side vents.

[NGT2]

Originally Posted by Joe-BMW33

I have seen that argument on front spacers resulting in the front wheel pushing debris outside the wheel well onto the lower fender. I don't buy it unless you go beyond flush. I purposefully stay just shy of flush. I'm also not driving on loose gravel at 70 mph.

In terms of the door handles, I have seen the covers, they seem kind of hoaky to me. I would either wrap it completely in black or just the strip. 3M Wrap is $30 bucks on Amazon. May be a nice little inexpensive exploratory project to see how you like it, speaking to just the strip. You can always pull it off. Window trim is probably a DIY. Full door handle I would hire someone.

I agree on not doing too much. I get that, just offering up ideas. I think my last non-sport BMW was an E38 seven series and every time I saw one in a sport model with shadowline trim I wanted it. It's mostly about the window trim for me. I think about the grill differently than you. As long as it was an option, I would be comfortable with it. I am pretty sure even the luxury line can be ordered with a black grill. I know the M550 can be ordered with a black grill even though everything else is Cerium.

I'd have to do some homework to find out for sure about 2018 order options, but I know that on the BMW site you cannot build a 540 with shadow line without adding M Sport package. Plus, I just like the chrome grill on the dark graphite.

Working with IND on the door handle solution. They're customer service is phenomenal. Before shipping it would be $395 to send them my handles for paint. It's only $595 to just have them order new handles and paint them. That's way better than I expected, to be honest. So I've got a new project to map out.