[Cliff330i]

Gentlemen (and ladies),

I noticed a while ago that my 330i came with black head light inserts instead of the titanium color inserts. Anyway, I heard that some people painted them silver. I was wondering if someone could assist me in taking out the insert because I am unfamilar with it. There must be an infinate number of different silvers out there so how do I know what to get. Also, what kind of paint do I buy? Any help or suggestions are welcome! Thanks, Cliff

 

[Guest]

Gentlemen (and ladies),

I noticed a while ago that my 330i came with black head light inserts instead of the titanium color inserts. Anyway, I heard that some people painted them silver. I was wondering if someone could assist me in taking out the insert because I am unfamilar with it. There must be an infinate number of different silvers out there so how do I know what to get. Also, what kind of paint do I buy? Any help or suggestions are welcome! Thanks, Cliff

IMO, leave 'em black. The cars with black housings look more like BMWs as you can more clearly see the dual-headlights inside the housings. The cars with "titanium" housings end up looking like they have simple rectangular "Japanese-style" headlights and look less distinctively like BMWs.

The only reason I can imagine for wanting to make your black housings silver is to make sure no one thinks you rebadged your 325 as a 330. But, really, who cares.

 

[LilEccentricJ]

I have a 330 and after a run in with a bridge the body shop replaced the lights with the black by accident... I like them much better and let them remain.

Here is a before:

 

[Guest]

Thanks LilJ for illustrating my point.

 

[nate]

Good guys wear black :bigpimp:

 

[Cliff330i]

all right....

You guys are so damn convincing! OK, I will leave them black. I also have a silver car so I guss the black is a nicer contrast anyway. Thanks

 

[LilEccentricJ]

TD, Nate... we did it!

 

[nate]

TD, Nate... we did it!

 

[geomax]

Now hold on a sec! I think the silver inserts are a big improvement, especially if your car is a dark color. My 325ci came with "clears", and in a sea of dark blue and black headlight trim, the clears looked odd, and the whole front end just looked too dark.

Here's a Before shot:

And after:

And another of the whole front end:

IMHO, I think the silver trim definitely looks better. And why not do it? Not like it costs huge $$, and very easy to install.

My .02

 

[sal325xi]

My silver contrasts better with black trim

imo.

 

[Mystikal]

I like the black in a Titanium car too, IMHO.

:dunno:

 

[Cliff330i]

Everyone has valid points. I agree that if you have a dark colored car, the titainium color would look good because it highlights by contrasting. However, on a titainium silver, white car or light color, the black trim might contrast in the same way but in the opposite way. But all in all,asthetics is 100% subjective. Except for the Aztec. If you have that fugly thing, I wouldn't even say that you have bad taste. Rather, you have NO taste at all. Sheeeeeesh! I saw one on the road and it looked like it was going to hobble over. Anyhow.............

 

[aldo]

Dark Colors = Silver / Light Colors = Black

I agree that the Titanium trim looks much better on dark colors while Black is great on light colors. Unfortunately, the Dealers don't have the part numbers yet for the 02 Sedan inserts. I've been looking now for about three months....

 

[Chris330Ci]

Black with Titanium Trim = :thumb: