E46 Wood Facia/Trim/Gear knob replacement

[mikey-r]

Great car but hate the trim - I've been quoted by the local stealer £800+vat+fitting to replace the wood trim with a brushed aluminium type.

Anyone specialise in this or know where I could get it supplied and fitted cheaper? I'm based in mid Essex.

BTW it's an '02 330d Sport Saloon.


Thanks.

[mpm1987]

Ebay for bits, and fit them yourself, very easy to change.

Think the trim parts are about £150 if I remember rightly on Ebay!

[LMC]

Well yes you can fit them yourself, but to say its an easy job is stretching it a bit. I do not work in the motor industry but I can follow a Haynes manual like the best of them !

Its a simple 5 minute job changing the dashboard trim. Then it all goes downhill....

The trim on the bottom half of the steering wheel is held on by about 9 bolts, all of which are only accessible once the airbag is removed.

And don't get me started on the inner door trims ! The entire door cards need to come off because no bolts for the handle are visible from the outside.

I've got the coupe, and the rear side cards need to come off to change the grab trim. I believe the seat needs to come out first. The inside of my car is a lovely 2 tone effect; purely because I've still not changed the old rear ones....

[kds keltec]

mikey-r said:

Great car but hate the trim - I've been quoted by the local stealer £800+vat+fitting to replace the wood trim with a brushed aluminium type.

Anyone specialise in this or know where I could get it supplied and fitted cheaper? I'm based in mid Essex.

BTW it's an '02 330d Sport Saloon.


Thanks.

I have done a few of these trim change over to audi's and Bmw's .
The cost would vary slightly depending on the parts to be supplied as orignal equipment fits easier than copies and carbon trim which can be bought from tuners , as normally the non standard carbon trim needs some trimming etc to get it to fit the same as factory .

Biggest job i have ever had to do was change an Audi A8 to look like a later audi S8 , this included all the body panels painted and fitted , wheels easy , mirrors , interior and trim , exhaust system , headlights which had to be modifed to make them work correctly to the older sytle wiring loom , owner even wanted the lights fitted and wired for under the mirrors and door handles when he locked and unlocked the car !
Dont want to be doing that type of job again in a hurry !

I even had the local Audi manager visit to see what i was doing after ordering half An A8 over a few months!

Anyway as said on the last post not really that bad a job to change your trim from wood to alloy etc!

I must confess never had to change a gear knob on a E46 as been smg only M3's!

[mikey-r]

Cheers for the responses chaps.

Steering wheels' not an issue as it already had the 'M-tech' one. I'm not in the least bit technically minded but it sounds as if the job is do-able so I'll keep an eye out for a trim kit but if anyone does know where I could get it done I'd be grateful.

Thanks