Did anyone chrome alu bumper strips on FL cars?

[PsYcHe]

Must have been as Brian and at least one other have them as apparently factory fit.

[notorious]

OK, I have painted my trims with sparkling silver powder paint.
I have chosen this approach because trims will last forever once power painted.
I've done this in www.myalloys.co.uk and the cost for 5 trims was 120 pounds including VAT.
I have also refurbished 8 alloy wheels with them using the same sparkling silver color.

I'm very pleased the with result. I'll be removing lower door trims as well as wing trims
to paint them the same way. Power paint color is not as shiny as chrome -- it is kind of glittery.
All my lower trims including wheels will be the same glittery color. Those upper trims around windows
I'm changing to new original anodised aluminium ones from Audi and I'm also installing A6 C6
handles with chrome strip, so the car will have two "belts" of chrome. Lower belt including wheels --
sparkling silver powder paint and upper belt of classic shiny chrome including handles and chrome around windows.

The reason why I adopted this approach is because my lower trims were in much worse condition
than the trims around windows. A lot of things are going on at lower part of the car and it seems trim
just doesn't survive in those conditions.

Pictures! I decided to leave pictures without reducing their size for you to 'understand' texture of this paint.

[Nollywood]

I'm looking to buy the OEM satin black trim, I'm not really a fan of external brightwork.

[notorious]

In this case I will still suggest to take your chrome trims and powder paint them black. New trim from Audi is prohibitly expensive, almost 1000 pounds.

[Nollywood]

Originally Posted by notorious

In this case I will still suggest to take your chrome trims and powder paint them black. New trim from Audi is prohibitly expensive, almost 1000 pounds.

The chrome trim is pricey, satin black is half the price.

[notorious]

Interesting, I didn't know that.

[Nollywood]

I wasn't aware either, I never even knew the trims were available in Satin Black, this thread drew my attention to it.

[27litres]

Interesting read fellas...
Just resurrecting this thread for a couple of questions:
Notorious, did you ever get the side trims painted?
If so how did it go? As the polished portion of the side trim is an insert of the rubbing strip, did you remove the aluminium portion (I expect this invites damage if it's possible at all?), or have it taped off?

I'm looking to do something similar as my trims were painted black by the prev owner and have started to peel.
Also the lower front (S8) grille surround has taken 14 years of punishment and I'm looking to improve its appearance.

[notorious]

Powder paint is forever. After all this time aluminium strips look new.

Side strips are very easy to remove and alu strip separates without problem for painting. However, this time I painted the side strips with normal water based paint that car body shops use. Exactly the same sparkling silver colour, but normal metallic base paint under lacquer. I used Specialised Paintwork in Reading and I specifically asked them to paint both inside and outside to prevent any risk of corrosion, which they did. The solution survived the test of time and I'm very pleased.

The reason why I used different technologies for side strips is because wheels refurbishment people hesitated to do the job as they normally do wheels and don't have experience with delicate side strips. For example, they have to drill a small hole in invisible part of the strip in order to hang it in their kiln. All their process is adopted for wheels, so everything looks like a wheel for them But with good relationship they will do exceptions.

I now have two 'chrome belts'. The lower belt which is wheels and all lower strips. They are sparkling silver and all exactly the same colour and the upper belt which is chrome around door windows.

[notorious]

P.S. I changed lower bumper girll to chromeless one to get rid of the u-shape chrome, simply which doesn't belong there. It is available from audi for FL cars. There is a thread about it here.