So I was debating whether or not to order painted rear reflectors that matched the diffuser. Was about to start washing my car and realized I had a few cans of plastidip around my garage so decided to give it a go.
This was done on a 2013 335i M-sport Xdrive.
It is extremely easy, difficulty would be rated as a 1/10. You don't need any tools, removal can be done in 1 minute. Lengthy part is the paint process with the waiting in between the coats.
Unfortunately those are pics off an iPhone. Enjoy and feel free to reply or PM me if you have any questions.
Overall happy with the result. It isn't a perfect match, but it looks better than the red IMO. However the matched reflectors would look better than plastidip to me. I think I will stick with this as it cost me pretty much nothing !
1) Drive the car up on ramps, helps the process but is not necessary.
2) Passenger side first, fit your hand through this hole. There is one red pin you have to push down then out.
3) This is the pin. As you can see all you have to do is push this pin in and push the reflector out slightly.
4) The middle of the reflector is sticking out a little. Now grab it from the middle and pull it right out. There is enough flex in the reflector for it to come out easily, without breaking.
5) Now for the driver side. Fit your hand through this hole.
6) Push the pin in, just like the other side, push the pin and and the reflector out. Pull it out from the middle.
Now for the plastidip.
7) After they have been cleaned, lay them flat and use a little something to hold them up a little better.
8) Apply a few coats until they are properly covered. Start off with light coats and work your way up to slightly thicker coats. I did a total of
4 coats.
For better visibility and to slightly accelerate the drying process
9) My final coat is slightly thicker than the others so that it dries nice and smooth. Let fully dry according to instructions (they recommend 4 hours).
10) Reinstall the reflectors by inserting the outside clip first then gently push the clips back in.
11) Enjoy the final results !
