e90 M3 install rear sunshade and side door window shades or not?

[anselmw]

Originally Posted by akkando

Brave!

I was unsure too, but thought, worse case I buy some new door panels and reinstall. Seems to be plenty of non shade door panel sets out there.

[anselmw]

Originally Posted by akkando

Brave!

Yup but once you understand what to do. It is fairly simple. Did other side in under an hour! Now shades on both doors! As good as factory! Everything seems nice and tight. Will see how it lasts without the glue.

[delmarco]

Originally Posted by anselmw

Yup but once you understand what to do. It is fairly simple. Did other side in under an hour! Now shades on both doors! As good as factory! Everything seems nice and tight. Will see how it lasts without the glue.

Middle of this DIY right now.

Not bad.

1. My first time using a heat gun but it sure is effective at separating the sunshade cassette from the door panel. Use a heat gun...and have patience.

2. It is seriously hard to get all the parts for this retrofit since most eBay sellers forget to sent the upper plastic moldings or clips. If you are doing this MAKE SURE your seller INCLUDES EVERYTHING or you will be spending more money at the stealership buying clips and trims (and also waiting on back ordered shipments).

3. I ended up repairing the door shades at the edges where (it looks torn but it is not) is was coming apart from the plastic bar with the grab tab. It is easy to repair with krazy glue. Expect to do this.

My next step is removing the oyster dakota panels from my car, cutting them, and affixing the shade cassettes to the panel. Not sure if I will use glue. the OP is correct in saying that it slots into the top of the panel where you are going to cut it and it holds the cassette securely without needing glue. I may glue it though because I don't want to find out why the car factory decided to glue these shade cassettes to the door panels after 2006.

[anselmw]

Nice job so far. Mine have held up well with no need to glue. My suspicion is the factory started to glue them to ease door panel removal and reinstall without having to worry about aligning up the plastic pieces.

[delmarco]

Originally Posted by anselmw

Nice job so far. Mine have held up well with no need to glue. My suspicion is the factory started to glue them to ease door panel removal and reinstall without having to worry about aligning up the plastic pieces.

What did you use to cut the slot into door panel? I'm looking at it and don't want to botch it up. It seems the top leather cover is too soft for a dremel while the plastic underneath is too hard for an exacto knife.

[anselmw]

Originally Posted by delmarco

What did you use to cut the slot into door panel? I'm looking at it and don't want to botch it up. It seems the top leather cover is too soft for a dremel while the plastic underneath is too hard for an exacto knife.

I had the same dilemma. Dremel would not work well in terms of materials but also being able to hold it steady.

I went with a Stanley Retractable utility knife. The blade is a bit thicker and strong enough to cut through both materials.

[delmarco]

Originally Posted by anselmw

I had the same dilemma. Dremel would not work well in terms of materials but also being able to hold it steady.

I went with a Stanley Retractable utility knife. The blade is a bit thicker and strong enough to cut through both materials.

I used the same thing. I cut from the back of the card and when I sliced through to the leather I cut the leather separately to avoid damaging the leather sheet.

I actually purposely undercut so I could do a bunch of micro cuts to get a perfect fit. You definitely don't need to glue it. The cassette slots right over the door panel and sticks!


Over all it came out looking great! I'm going to install it on the car now.....

[delmarco]

All set...really can't believe how easy this was...
I didn't realize at the end when installing the panel with the sunshde cassette you need to remove the 4 upper metal holding clips under the roll down window. It seems the shade cassette hooked itself onto the thick rubber weather seal that the glass window slides into.

Took me a minute to realize this and once I did the door panel went right back on easily.

Looks OEM and the next owner of my car would certainly think it came from the factory.

Tommorrow I will do the passenger side rear door and create some sort of video DIY. This is a relatively cheap and easy DIY that more luxury minded enthusiast should be aware of.

[darren p.]

Good work! The Fox Red interior I bought this past summer had solar shades but my car didn't come with them so I had to get the trim, the hooks and the hardware to hold them in as well as the quarter glass shades. I wouldn't have done it if I hadn't found a set of the quarter glass shades on ebay for cheap, wasn't spending $260 per window for the smaller shades new but now that I have them, I love them.

Now we gotta get a DIY for the rear window shade going!

[delmarco]

Originally Posted by darren p.

Good work! The Fox Red interior I bought this past summer had solar shades but my car didn't come with them so I had to get the trim, the hooks and the hardware to hold them in as well as the quarter glass shades. I wouldn't have done it if I hadn't found a set of the quarter glass shades on ebay for cheap, wasn't spending $260 per window for the smaller shades new but now that I have them, I love them.

Now we gotta get a DIY for the rear window shade going!

Done that a few summers ago. Easier to get a rear power shade from eBay than it was the door shades.

[delmarco]

Thanks @anselmw

You've inspired and driven me to success with this retrofit!

All done!

For some reason the passenger side rear door panel gave me a lot more trouble in two places.

1. For the life of me I couldn't get a good clean cut. I under cut and expected to make a few adjustment trim to slide the cassette into the cut like the driver side panel but here I had to make a lot of extra cuts where I over cut in some parts and under cut in others. It looks like Frankenstein off the car but the end result once squeezed onto the car's door looks great!

2. Replacing the passenger rear door panel was a 2 hour nightmare. It was like the panel was from a different car. I'm not sure if I warped the panel during the removal of the upper glued on plastic trim but it was tough to get the clips to all line up on the steel door. In the end I installed the door panel, then the C pillar roller shade trim then last I install the roller shade cassette into the space between the door panel and the steel door frame.
That worked.

Here are my results (as you can see my little guy is already enjoying the shade in the back ):

[anselmw]

Originally Posted by delmarco

Done that a few summers ago. Easier to get a rear power shade from eBay than it was the door shades.

Nice that you got the rear shade to work. I repaired on my prior car but when I looked into to do it for this car, to get the factory button work seemed like a huge hassle with programming as well as the proper ecu that had that option. Looks like you bypassed it by direct wiring.

[delmarco]

Originally Posted by anselmw

Nice that you got the rear shade to work. I repaired on my prior car but when I looked into to do it for this car, to get the factory button work seemed like a huge hassle with programming as well as the proper ecu that had that option. Looks like you bypassed it by direct wiring.

Yeah you could use a Reverse Polarity Switch ($5 and up on Amazon) and a fuse piggyback tapped into any of the "accessory" 5 amp fuse, ground it where ever and you are good to go.

I actually just tracked down and JBBE with the shade relay and I have a buddy that will code it for $70 but I am happy with everything as is. I've spent enough money on sun shades and I still have to do the CIC parking camera retrofit.

[anselmw]

Originally Posted by delmarco

Yeah you could use a Reverse Polarity Switch ($5 and up on Amazon) and a fuse piggyback tapped into any of the "accessory" 5 amp fuse, ground it where ever and you are good to go.

I actually just tracked down and JBBE with the shade relay and I have a buddy that will code it for $70 but I am happy with everything as is. I've spent enough money on sun shades and I still have to do the CIC parking camera retrofit.

Hey for the Amazon switch. Is there way to tie it into the factory switch？I hate non factory looking mods. Forgot to ask. Did you glue the shades in? Mine has been great still unglued.

[InnerBlueSkies]

Originally Posted by delmarco

Done that a few summers ago. Easier to get a rear power shade from eBay than it was the door shades.

Just found your channel. Very nice presentation.

[delmarco]

Originally Posted by anselmw

Hey for the Amazon switch. Is there way to tie it into the factory switch?

No the dash panel switch uses a complicated bus relay system that can't be tapped into.

(I did the same modification on my 2001 330i 10 years ago and those older pre-2003 production BMWs were using simple pre-Bus wiring for the accessories and it was literally a couple of wires from the oem factory dash switch going to power, ground and the sunshade motor)

Yeah I also hate non factory mods but the kids in the back seat basically use the shade and don't have to bug me. Eventually I will code a JBBE and have it set up on the oem dash switch.

Originally Posted by anselmw

Did you glue the shades in? Mine has been great still unglued.

Nah. I actually went back last night to adjust the passenger side rear door panel. One of the plastic clips for the panel broke and the panel/shade cassette by the C pillar kept coming apart when the door was slammed shut.

Once I replaced the clip the entire thing is now solid. I think glue would be over kill. It seems solid as is. I tested with multiple door slams and even shook the door up and everything is fine. Once all the clips are good the door panel and shade seems secure.

I did a quick video clip of fitting that passenger door panel - see here:

[s0ldats]

does anyone have a set for sale?