Follow up Thread

Rusky

Senior member
 Cambridgeshire
I recently posed the question about the sportiness of the Auto gear stick and what changes could be made. :| Well Jonny E mentioned M-style in his sport button thread so i had a look to see what they had to offer and after spending thousands of £££ s in my head :headbang: :headbang: i have decided that what i am after is a piano black strip to replace the silver strip on my gear stick :roll:

Now where on earth can i get one from :headbang: More to the point why isnt there a multitude of colours and finishes to choose from eh :!: :poke:
All my trim is piano black so why is the gear stick trim silver??? :evil: :headbang:

And why o why is that electronic valve exhaust so expensive :cry: :cry: I really want one :cry: :cry:

Any way back to the gear stick, any ideas? :tumbleweed: :D
 
Apparently - though I have not tried it yet despite what I said last week - you can get the silver bit off easily once you have taken the knob off. How about getting some black vinyl wrap from fleabay as a cheap reversible option ?

Oh, and the gearstick is silver to match the door handle trims I think.
 
Think my door handle trims are black or are they????? :rofl: Hmmm not sure now :rofl: Vinyl wrap maybe the solution but my DIY skills in that area are not fully tested so the results could be less than perfect :wink:

Also, do you really need to take the knob off? I thought the silver bit might just clip off hmmm need to investigate this a bit more me thinks :)

But it is one possible solution. Ta Mr B :thumbsup:
 
If your door handles are black then someone has done it already - not sure that they came in black ?

I have had a tug or two (ooo-er) at the plastic bit on my knob and it isn't obvious how it connects... So I was planning to take it off to have a good look.

I guess it is possible you could wrap it in situ, need to be neat though and if it is not wrapped round the back may peel ?
 
This is what i want
https://www.getbmwparts.com/partlocator/_inc/getGraphic.cfm?graphic=SFPLImage91366.jpg&siteid=214336&catalogID=4462

doesnt say it fits the z4 though
 
Ooooo - nice :thumbsup:

Do they do a silver version ? I can't find one :x
 
No the silver looks like the one in the Zed but the gloss black one is from the one series and i think looks so much better. :)
 
Okay, DO NOT fcuk with the silver bit in your gear knob :!:

Pics to follow later, but I have definitely taken one for the Forum this time :cry:
 
So, tried to take the silver bit out of my auto gear stick with no idea how it goes together. Not a great idea, but educational for anyone else thinking of doing it. For what it's worth, the knob itself came off really easily.

This is what it looked like once I prised it off (with a table knife from the bottom end) :

85bcd863278a92b836949a05ff6bf04c_zps1ebd4d99.jpg


Note three little silver bits in the top left - bits of clips that held it in place. Slide, not press clips on the thin edge, and (as Ranski postulated on another thread) pretty much one-time press clips on the top :headbang:

You can see the slots at the top and the slide mounts on the knob itself in this photo :

4e6df0002d3e3600c9c7d093700182da_zps9114d72a.jpg


You can see the mess I made of the plastic clips on the silver bit below :

1a95f90743e58d86bd6b99e7fdb118a6_zps9174c48c.jpg


The bottom two on the thin end broke completely, the top two on the same end bent backwards out of shape, and the ends of the top two snapped right off. Arse :x

However, super glue is a wonderful thing, so here's what it looks like in one piece :

b8293748c45c1405743b57341c842ae6_zps2ffffb62.jpg


Let it dry, slid it back on and gave the top a whack to seat the two top clips. I am not sure the button for selecting reverse, park etc works as smoothly as it did before, but the knob is back on and working :thumbsup:

Oh, and while prising the top off I loosened the leather edge, so had to stick that back too. My considered advice to anyone who doesn't like their knob would be buy a different one...
 
ouch bing thats not good. if i can find out if the 1 series stick fits then i think that will be the only way to go. sorry about yohr broken knob though.

Sent from my GT-I8190N not a car using Forum Fiend v1.0.1.
 
No worries - the knob is fixed and hopefully the still-tacky superglue will keep the trim in place. It's the two bits at the top that bugger it as there's no way of pressuring them to release them. I guess they never expected anyone to take it apart... And now we know you can't without breaking it :thumbsup:

FWIW, there is enough give in the leather round the edge that, with a thin plastic tool, you could wrap it, and you can certainly get in to wrap round either end of the silver bit without taking it apart. If that 1 series knob fits it'd be great - wish it came in silver :(
 
Hi guys, sorry to but tin, on my previous car, A3, I spray painted the horrible wood trim and lacquered, bit of T-cut the Polish gave a mirror finished, this would give a lovely glass finish. The trims I painted were done in a metallic grey, cosac grey from memory but the deep piano black shine would be achievable. I have painted my Z's gear knob but used cheap lacquer and when I took it for the MOT the tester chipped it with his ring :evil: so have a new m sport centre ready to redo with some 2-Pack clear coat which is much more hard wearing and still get the shine. I'll dig out the photos, oh and also have painted my steering wheel trims satin black.
 
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