Made my own Carbon Leather door handles and factory ///M Footrest,

[Starscream]

Yes welcome to another edition of Starscream's appearance mod threads!

Ive been busy with the Carbon Fiber fabric again, Some of you might recall my previous thread when I did my friends M3 interior in this material,

-------> See Here

So I had a bit of left over material to use, and I was thinking about doing my door handles in the M,
Now here is a before pic



In my M I have the Chromeline Silver trim along with Full extended black nappa leather
(for pics of my thread on extended leather Click Here)

Even though I love the chromeline silver I thought It might look good in carbon fabric to match the carbon leather in my car,
The fabric is pretty close to the real thing, Its a little more shiny, But its very close and to the untrained eye you would think its the same thing,

So thanks to board member "jra" who donated to me his old door handles he had experimented on (as I didn't want to ruin my chromeline handles) I now had 2 used handles to play with,
So here is what I did,

Started with the handle and a left over piece of carbon fabric, also noted the weave of the carbon leather in my car and matched the pattern accordingly



A closeup of the carbon fabric



Then I sprayed the 3M glue on the door handle after a light sanding and alcohol rinse





I then started to wrap the handle and smooth out the air bubbles,



I'm not going to bore with exactly how I folded it over and glued it etc etc but here is the final handle



and the other as finished and some close up's







Ok so we will get into those installed a little later,
Now quickly onto the next mod,
In all recent BMW M models thay have all had the ///M footrest,
I like this footrest and having an M I want one!
I noticed they sell them for the E90 3 Series and I might just get another for my E90 down the road, But they retail for around $20!
So I bought one and modified it slightly to fit to the Z4 footrest,

I pulled my footrest out of the car (its only attached by velcro)



and then I cut the attaching hardware off the back of the M footrest and 3M taped it to the Z4 Footrest,
Yes its not a "perfect" fit, but it does look nice installed,




Ok now on with what everything looks like installed,
You have to forgive the lighting, I started taking the pictures outside and they came out a little washed out,
I then took it inside and it came out a little dark but these were the best of the bunch,





















and then finally the footrest installed







Hope you enjoy the pics and writeup!

[Gyrian]

The door handles compliment your carbon leather interior beautifully!
Very, very nice mod for those with this type of trim.

PS: Where's your lighted ZHP knob?

[Starscream]

Originally Posted by Gyrian

The door handles compliment your carbon leather interior beautifully!
Very, very nice mod for those with this type of trim.

PS: Where's your lighted ZHP knob?

I actually sold the one inside the car last year, and the car has been stored for winter so I haven't made myself another yet but have been making them for people over the winter upon request,

I shall make one for myself soon, and I actually have to decide what color to make too,

Or I might just make 2

[O-cha]

That is an overlay I can get behind. But you have to do the handle itself too, that silver handle there looks out of place now.

[ZStig]

looks like a good match. nice extended leather too. don't like the footrest though

[Starscream]

Originally Posted by O-cha

That is an overlay I can get behind. But you have to do the handle itself too, that silver handle there looks out of place now.

I don't think this carbon fabric would do that very well,
I do see what your saying but this material is better suited to more 2D shapes

[izzy]

Dig the handles but not the foot rest.

[ianbiz]

it matches

[Crimson92]

i want to know how you folded the cf fabric

im interested in doing this myself

[Starscream]

Originally Posted by Crimson92

i want to know how you folded the cf fabric

im interested in doing this myself

There are a few DIY's on E90 Post, Follow them,
But Rule #1,
Take your time! This fabric will really show imperfections and getting razor sharp edges with no fold marks takes time,
I cut mine into tiny sections (the back I'm talking about) and glue it section by section rather then the whole thing,

Not sure if that improves the look or helps with the wrapping but as you can see I have no fold marks anywhere and nice straight corners

[Starscream]

I'm thinking of doing this to the speedo surrounds,
Those 2 silver "tunnel" things

Thoughts?

[jra]

that would look good, you should buy a cheap speedo off ebay

[Starscream]

Originally Posted by jra

that would look good, you should buy a cheap speedo off ebay

I actually wanted to see if I could change the LED's in a speedo anyway so I'll look there for bits

[jra]

there is one for 49.99 with free shipping. i was actually going to buy some red face overlays for my car but my guage surrounds came back before I got around to it

http://www.whitegauges.net/catalog/p...roducts_id=414

[vicj]

Nice, on the handles. The footrest, however, is really bad. I just ordered an engraved footrest from Ultimate Pedals. It's the only aftermarket one to fit exactly right.

[Z4MHawk]

Originally Posted by vicj

Nice, on the handles. The footrest, however, is really bad. I just ordered an engraved footrest from Ultimate Pedals. It's the only aftermarket one to fit exactly right.

vicj...Which style of engraved pedal did you go with? Smooth, anti-slip, or domed grip inserts? I can't make up my mind....