Hi guys,

I am wondering if changing the exterior trim (from silver to black) would affect the overall quality of the ride (water leakage during rain, wind noise at high speed, etc). I am concerned about the process involved: removing the parts and installing new ones.

Basically, want to go from this:



to this:



I intend to have the trim changed at a Porsche dealer. I purchase a 09 turbo S with silver trim because I got a great deal from the dealer but it had silver exterior trim.

I don't wish to have it painted as I want to prevent potential chipping in the long run.

Any feedback/opinion/idea/experience?

Thanks!

 

Hovy,
The changeover is not too difficult and it will not affect the environmental sealing of the car. There are four pieces of trim for each side. Following is a breakdown of what is required for each piece......

Top Raingutter Trim
This piece starts at the side mirrors and extends up over the windows and terminates at the start of the rear quarter glass. Removal is simple. It snaps off. A support needs to be removed at the B pillar to allow its complete removal. There is also a clip that connects it to the rear quarter glass surround. I recommend you remove the rear quarter glass trim and the raingutter trim together to avoid breaking the clip.

Rear Quarter Glass Trim
This trim can only be removed by removing the rear quarter windows. You will need to remove a lot of the intereior trim in order to access the bolts that hold the window in place. Once the nuts are removed (about 8 of them), the rear glass pops out. There is only a rubber seal. The trim is attached to the glass. It is removed by a series of screws around the periphery. In addition, the C pillar covers are part of that and they are adhered to the base metal. They are a pain to remove. Assembly is the reverse order.

Rear door Window Sill
Snap off, snap on.

Front Door Window Sill
Remove side mirror. Snap off, snap on.

B Pillar Cover
Spin bottom cover 90 degrees, remove two Torx screws, pop off cover and replace.

Bottom of Door Trim
Adhered to plastic substrate. Remove original by prying with plastic spatula and possibly dental floss (yes, believe it or not!) Apply new with double sided tape.

Rear hatch bottom of glass Trim
Adhered to substrate. Pry off and use double sided tape to replace.

Any other questions, let me know. Hope this helps!

Best,
Ken

 

I was not expecting a reply of this depth. Really, thanks Ken!

I am not going to perform the swap myself, I will bring it to a Porsche dealer to get it done. I should not be worried about potentials problems but you know, they too can omit little things.

I was concerned about keeping the factory sealing quality of the car more than anything else. Any idea how long would this swap take? I was told 980$ for parts and I am awaiting an answer on Monday for labor? (In selling the silver trim online, I should get at least couple hundreds back)

thanks again!

 

The three toughest aspects of this changeover are the rear quarter glass (my dealer's tech never did it before when I queried him), the adhered bottom of door sections and the adhered rear hatch section.

Your parts cost sounds about right. If I had to guess the total time, I would say at least a full day. I am very efficient when I do my own work and I can't imagine them doing it any faster than that.

Hope that helps.

PS Don't forget, your door handles will still be silver. If you go the route of replacing them too, they are about $250/handle without labor and the labor is intensive. Couple that with the possibility of having the Porsche Entry and Drive antennas built into the handles and it complicates matters.

 

I do have "Entry and Drive" and I do wanted to get the door handles changed to black as well. My goodness, this might be more complicated than I thought.

What do you think about getting the whole thing painted? I know a body shop and know the owners personally, they've done serious work on Ferraris, Lambos etc ...

What are your thoughts about painting the whole trim to a matte black?

Thanks again!

 

That is all that Porsche does. They simply paint them. Nothing special. My philosophy when I did mine was simply to replace them since they had to come off anyway. By the time the shop removes them, primes them and paints them, they replacement parts are cheap enough to make it a wash. THe door handles are a different story. That is all I have left and my body guy will paint them on the car, albeit slightly disengaged so they are separated from the body, yet not totally removed.
I will need to post some pics one of these days.

 

Great! If you could please do post pics. I am thinking to get the whole trim and handles painted instead of going through the hassle of removing and replacing parts.

I will post before-after pics as well.

Thanks for everything Ken!

 

That's what I intend to do: paint straight on the car, no parts removal. Easier, faster and cheaper.

 

it will make your ride slower.

 

I've seen paint before...looks nice. I doubt you wanna be ghetto, but i've seen it taped before too. Can't really tell because there will not be many seams and tape is flexible.

 

i prefer the silver trim
provides nice accenting on black car

 

i like the silver on black contrast better, blk on blk is a bit dull...

 

Thank you for the info in removing these parts ,I will take mine off and have them painted by body shop,
Great site, very easy, great info.


Thank you again

Mark

QUOTE=KPV;2341631]Hovy,
The changeover is not too difficult and it will not affect the environmental sealing of the car. There are four pieces of trim for each side. Following is a breakdown of what is required for each piece......

Top Raingutter Trim
This piece starts at the side mirrors and extends up over the windows and terminates at the start of the rear quarter glass. Removal is simple. It snaps off. A support needs to be removed at the B pillar to allow its complete removal. There is also a clip that connects it to the rear quarter glass surround. I recommend you remove the rear quarter glass trim and the raingutter trim together to avoid breaking the clip.

Rear Quarter Glass Trim
This trim can only be removed by removing the rear quarter windows. You will need to remove a lot of the intereior trim in order to access the bolts that hold the window in place. Once the nuts are removed (about 8 of them), the rear glass pops out. There is only a rubber seal. The trim is attached to the glass. It is removed by a series of screws around the periphery. In addition, the C pillar covers are part of that and they are adhered to the base metal. They are a pain to remove. Assembly is the reverse order.

Rear door Window Sill
Snap off, snap on.

Front Door Window Sill
Remove side mirror. Snap off, snap on.

B Pillar Cover
Spin bottom cover 90 degrees, remove two Torx screws, pop off cover and replace.

Bottom of Door Trim
Adhered to plastic substrate. Remove original by prying with plastic spatula and possibly dental floss (yes, believe it or not!) Apply new with double sided tape.

Rear hatch bottom of glass Trim
Adhered to substrate. Pry off and use double sided tape to replace.

Any other questions, let me know. Hope this helps!

Best,
Ken[/QUOTE]

 

If I were to murder-out my trim, I'd go with boneyard trim replacements. But, I'm resisting the "murder fad" at the moment...