from that german site. Unfortunately noone domestic carries these things. (Chrome interior parts) Will keep you posted. Also, since their prices are in Euros it would be smart to wait for the euro to drop a bit, because during the conversion the price came out a bit high. The shipping was cheap though and no tax, we'll see when it gets here.

 

>>from that german site. Unfortunately noone domestic carries these things. (Chrome interior parts) Will keep you posted. Also, since their prices are in Euros it would be smart to wait for the euro to drop a bit, because during the conversion the price came out a bit high. The shipping was cheap though and no tax, we'll see when it gets here.

 

which site is this? can we have a link?

 

Woo-hooo!!!! It all came! I dont' have my digital camera here, but I'll take a pic with my phone:


:smile: Anyway, the rings are made of thin steel and are chromed. They come with some kind of silicone adhesive and they go on top of your existing parts. (I originally thought they are direct replacements).

I'll have to go install them now and post another pic when done!

(WAY too excited for such a silly thing, I know)

 

So here's a better pic of all the rings:




Close up of the adhesive (I got three of these):




OK, So, first the good stuff. As I tried to see how all of this fits, it looked pretty good, except for the door handles (more about it below)

I worked with silicone plenty before but their stuff was different. It didn't smell like silicone and it was black. (Though maybe some automotive silicones are like that, I wouldn't know)

I used rubbing alcohol to wipe all the plastic rings I was going to adhere the chrome to, and choose the first ring to apply to the shifter surround.

Now, there were NO INSTRUCTIONS, so I did a little test before susing that black stuff, to see how fast it would grip. it took about 10 minutes for a plastic (some Snapple drink) cap to adhere to a plastic (Snapple) bottle.

Here's how I applied the silicone to the rings:



Here's what it looked like when the rings were carefuly placed on the plastic parts and pressed:





Now the bad stuff:

Every ring fit perfectly and looks great except for the HANDLE/TWETER Rings.

On the first try the rings wouldn't fit (one end would match the other would stick up, and vice versa), so I had to take the plastic parts off the doors and see if I could do it that way.

Each side comes in two parts, the smaller rings are pretty obviously different, but the larger ones looked the same, so I thought I might have switched them by accident. I tried both ways, to no avail. They just wouldn't fit or when they did, they wouldn't allign with the smaller ring. It was a nightmare.

Here's where the black silicone became a problem. It would stick out a tad every time I tried to adjust the rings, and eventually got into the tweeter mesh. That was a pain to clean because of the nature of silicone, it smudges and leaves residue.

Eventually I used garbage ties to bend the steel into shape at least so it doesn't leave any huge gaping holes, but it still left a nasty gap (filled with black silicone) between the rings. At this point I was just going for the visible part quality, ignoring the what would be installed underside.

Basically it was a real pain and eventually didn't look right anyway. So, unless they improve, I would get all the other rings except for the handle/tweeter combo.

This is what it looks like now, I'll leave it overnight to make sure it bonded well enough not to snap back into it's bad shape:





The good:

- Looks great, cover the whole plastic ring.
- Cheaper than the other chrome stuff
- A breeze to install all rings except handle/tweeter set.
- Fast and relatively cheap delivery

The bad:

- The tweeter/handle set is a bad, bad fit.
- The silicone in clear would be much better, black is easier to see when you work with it, but also easier to see if it's visible between the rings (the dreaded T/H set)
- The company didn't notify me when they shipped the stuff, so I was a little worried.

I'll give it 4.5 stars out of 5 (no instructions and black silicone)
and won't count the tweeter/handle combo as you can purchase everythign separetly and omit this particular set.

Motor on!

PS. will post more/better pics when will have better conditions to take them.