November 16, 1998
By: Robert Leidy

Looking for a little more chrome accents for the Z3 interior? How about chrome trim for the triangle shaped speakers in the door. This product is similar to the wood dash kits that many Z3 owners have used. The chrome trim is really just chromed plastic with the patented ultra-sticky 3M tape behind it. Installation is easy, just heat the plastic piece and tape up using a hair dryer. Once the plastic and 3M tape get really hot (almost too hot to touch) the plastic chrome piece becomes semi-flexible and the tape gets really sticky. Peel off the protective liner off the back side of the tape, be very careful with alignment and just stick it on. I would recommend that you practice dry fitting the piece a couple times, because you don't get two chances at this. I rushed my installation a little and didn't get the driver's side on as well as I would have liked too.

As a general rule, I usually don't care for the stick on parts if you can see the edges of the product or the 3M tape under it. But the location of the trim piece is in a recessed area that enables the thin plastic piece to fit into the indentation and blend into the interior without looking "stuck on". The end result is a very clean and neat look. Only real downside to this upgrade is the price, its pretty expensive for what you get, but then again it's a custom made piece especially designed for the Z3. This same company makes additional chrome trim pieces for the Z3 interior, this is one of the more expensive pieces but the quality and accuracy of the fit is very high. Check out their website for their fill line of chrome trim pieces for the Z3 interior.

I'm very pleased with the look, it's just enough chrome to catch your eye and glimmer in the sunlight without being overly dramatic. Since most the the area around the chrome is black the majority of the reflection is black. Problem is, the additional chrome looks so good that it leaves me looking around the interior for other places where similar chrome trim could be added.... I think the radio is my next target, a chrome trim ring around it would look really good as well.

One other note: a couple weeks after installing these I had a tweeter go bad on me (the speaker behind the now chrome trimmed grill). I was worried that I would not be able to remove the grill because of the sticky 3M tape. However the chrome trim fit so well that it did not get in the way at all. I was able to remove the speaker grill with the chrome ring on it without any additional effort.