Hello all,

I have the parchment interior which comes with the wood instead of silver trim. Has anyone on here has ever repalced the wood with the silver trim by ordering the stock silver pieces and installing it in place of the wood? If not, any guesses on how hard this would be? Or any other ideas like covering it up with silver overlays or something?

I don't hate the wood, but if it wasn't cost prohibitive to do silver, I'd do it.

 

one of the main reasons i didnt buy an 05 PWP was because of the wood trim. i would think that it would not be that hard to install the silver trim. It looks like they are snapped into place.

 

I remember seeing a thread on this a while back. Try searching....

 

ummm.. about 1000000000000000000000000000 of them.

 

i thought the wood trim look really gaudy that's why i held out for ebony interior. couldnt be more happier.

 

btw, anyone have pictures of alum trim on parchment? i saw the combo on a bmw and it just look weird. yes, i did a search...

 

I have been on the opposite end of the table since like 2005
(my TSX is 2004 CG/Ebony/Navi)

For the center cole, you need to at least replace the FACE panel of the center console (Navi or non-navi), that is the hardest, most costly part.
Hardest meaning hardest to find, uninstalling it is easy.

I have been looking for someone to swap the pieces since 2005

 

Why not 2006? I personally think 06 has better trim set. It kind of gives you the carbon fiber ish look.

 

I didn't like the silver trim, so I had it coated, exoticwooddash in Scottsdale. They offer several coatings, including silver. See http://www.exoticwooddash.com/coating.asp - I sent it off to them - took a few weeks.

The coating is an immersion process - very permanent, won't chip or peel. $219 to do five dash pieces. I just painted the center piece myself - it's a big unit that (probably) cannot be immersed, and I didn't want to send it off for a few weeks (I would have had no AC, no radio/CD).

 

I priced replacement pieces at the dealer, and they added up to more than $500. They never did find the price for the piece in the center console - it's not a separate piece, even though it looks like it (at least, not on my '06 ebony/silver trim).

 

So....how do you like the result of the coating job ?
How did you paint the center piece ? with a brush ?
*looks* smooth in the pic.
You could likely have found OEM pieces from junkyards for less than $219

 

The coating is very high quality, but mine looks very plastic - not complaining; I knew what I was getting. They've got some coatings that look more wood-like, but I wanted to go as dark as possible. (They'll send samples, if you're interested).

Used masking tape on the center - really thoroughly protected it. Then spray painted with flat black after trying three or four types of paint. Plain old flat black ended up blending in really well.

 

does it cost that much because it's really wood? at the bmw dealer, they said that its REAL wood, which i find it a little hard to believe...

 

umm you know he's talking about TSX right ?
therefore 100% PLASTIC

 

Thanks for the responses. I didn't realize this was such a 'common' request.

If anyone wants to swap pieces with me, that would be fabulous. I have an '06 non-Navi.

Is there a guide somewhere that shows how to remove all these pieces in case I did get them sent off and coated instead?

Thanks in advance.

 

umm Not common. you misunderstood, they're just joking about the "10000000000000"

 

Looks good!

I've been toying with the idea of painting the dash trim (just the strip across the center, door to door) to match the PWP body color. On the ebony, I'm thinking it would look sweet...

Bleser: Have you considered just having it painted?

Matt-

 

No, not yet. I'm just really trying to see what all of my options are. It looks like painting it or getting it refinished as posted above is the better option. I need to find a guide on how to get the pieces off to see how much work we're talking about.

 

I was just wondering if you had a guide or some pointers about removing the interior trim pieces to get them coated like you did. Do you have any info for me?

 

I cheated and had the dealer do it. They told me that it would be $150 to remove them and reinstall them a few weeks later. I didn't get that in writing and ended up paying a bit more overall.
If you get the coating from exoticwooddash, you'll want to inspect and maybe drill out the holes for the temperature sensor (the round 1-inch little vent deal to just to the right of the steering column) before reinstalling that dash piece. The coating clogged it up a little and climate control didn't work as well as before, until I cleaned out the 25-30 little holes with a small drill bit.
The dealer pulled out the center console piece along with the other five silver trim pieces, but I painted that part myself and had them reinstall it while I awaited the other parts being returned from exoticwooddash. It would have been almost intolerable to wait and have all part reinstalled at the same time - no AC, heat, music until the whole center unit is reinstalled.
If you paint it, mask it up real good, trim around the buttons with an x-acto knife, and it will come out pretty good. I used flat black, and the fact that it's been painted is imperceptible; it matches the rest of the center unit real well.
P.S. I went through all of this because my saleperson assured me that a dash kit was available and it would be an easy job to turn silver into plood. I had my mind made up that I wasn't going to live with silver after choosing an ebony interior based on her misinformation. She wasn't intentionally misleading me, but damn.

 

This is not a bad idea.

 

Oh yeah, one other thing - I got six or seven different samples from the folks at Exoticwooddash. I'd get samples for any color/finish your considering. Some of the lighter ploods are pretty realistic looking, but I think all of the wood-looking ones will be very high gloss.

 

Thanks for the information. I guess I'll hunt around and try to find a guide or manual that can show me how hard it is to remove these pieces... I'd like them silver but don't want to spend any money on labor beyond the painting or coating (whichever route I go).

Thanks again.