Hello all,

I noticed some damage on my passenger-side taillight the other day; I have no idea what caused it, but the cost of a new taillight assembly made me look at alternatives. I was hoping someone would make custom lights for these cars, which are often cheaper than the stock versions, but I did not find any. So, before replacing the entire headlight assembly, I figured I would see if I could just ‘fix’ the hole and make the taillights look even better while I am at it (for a fraction of the cost).

I believe I can grab the broken pieces and glue them back together as they are within the light themselves still, and then will need to make everything water-tight and clean. If I can’t seem to grab those fallen pieces and glue them back together, I may just remove them and simply cover up the damage. So, I picked up a ‘3M Auto High-Strength Lens Repair Film’ kit from Amazon to kind of smooth out the edges of the damage and cover the hole, then, depending on how it looks, I would install some pre-cut taillight tints to each light, thus hopefully, completely hiding the damage, and forming an air-tight seal. I picked up the tints from Rvinyl.com, and while I am usually not a big fan of smoked taillights, I hope they look alright and won’t get me pulled over too much (pretty sure they are illegal in CO).

While I am working on the taillights, the chrome trunk trim will be another thing to do; I have been procrastinating on wrapping this piece with carbon fiber for a bit now, but with each carbon fiber/smoke tint upgrade, the chrome bar becomes more and more hideous. So, I picked up some 3M carbon fiber wrap from Amazon, and already have the tools needed to remove the trim piece (I have tried to wrap it before with the part still attached to the car, and it didn’t go too well).

I also want to remove the chrome ‘Xdrive’ and ‘750i’ badges on the rear and switch them for my already-purchased black versions (at least the 750i part). I may like the look of being completely de-badged, so we will see what we end up with. In the future, while there is no M750i, I figure I am getting close to what BMW would have made from the factory on a 750i ‘M’ variant; I know this is quite frowned upon, but if it is your car, don’t let other people impact your decisions.

New Mod List

• RaceChip S Tuner (+3 PSI)
• Custom MagnaFlow dual exhaust (deleted both resonators, added 2 MagnaFlow straight-through mufflers, and an x-pipe)
• K&N drop-in air filters (no charcoal filters as well)
• BimmerCode tuning: Alpina gauges, video in motion, etc.
• BimmerLink/Torque Pro monitoring/gauges (cellphone)
• BMW emblem front license plate
• Carbon fiber wing
• Custom rear-seat entertainment system (2 headrest monitors/DVD/USB players)
• Carbon fiber trunk trim (Installed this weekend)
• RVinyl ‘Blackout Smoke’ taillight tints (Install this Wednesday)
• Black ‘750i’ badge (Removed Chrome Xdrive and 750i emblems) (Installed this weekend)

To Do:

• Fix/replace rims (road rash)
• Remove deteriorating paint protection film on the front of the car
• Replace fuel door lock actuator (funny story)
• Custom front-facing cold air intake (or ARM Motorsports): Not required, but will sound better
• Replace windshield (pitting)
• Full window tints
• Possibly lowering links (need to add ramps on the driveway as I currently scrape a bit when the air suspension is fully lowered)
• M Sport bumper grilles (middle, left, and right)
• Blue strut brace covers (with active grille shutters, I don’t know if this is worth it)
• Carbon fiber antenna cover
• Carbon fiber mirror covers
• Carbon fiber armrest cover
• M-style black grille (I would need to disable the active grill shutters, so not too keen on that)
• Audio: Coming from the 2016 STI, the factory H&K system is amazing, but looking into BavSound’s Ghost Subwoofer kit to replace the factory dual 8″ subwoofers, and possibly a larger amplifier

All the parts, minus the tints, will arrive this weekend, so I will be quite busy getting everything done. Wish me luck, I am sure I will need it!

Update 6/24/24

I am still waiting for the taillight tint kit to arrive (this Wednesday), but over the weekend, I got the taillight fixed and wrapped the trunk trim. I love the look, what do you think?