I washed the car on Saturday (75 degrees and sunny, BTW :cool ), and I had noticed while following my wife home last week that the strip of metal below the rear bumper was very dirty from the exhaust and road grime. So I went after it with some Simple Green. Man that stuff is great. Cleaned it right off, then I followed that up with some more soapy water since I'd heard that you shouldn't leave that stuff on the paint.
Then I realised that the area between the tail lights was really dirty even after I'd washed it, so I hit that with the magical green spray. Then I pulled the licence plate. Of course it was really dirty behind there... then things really got out of hand. Long story short, I ended up removing the tail lights cleaning everything, scuffing up the chrome with a scotch brite pad, masking off the lenses and blacking out the chrome. Then I decided to paint the area behind the plate also... more scotch brite, more tape, more paint ... BAM! hours killed.
I had seen this on a couple E30s on this board and I thought it looked really good. I hope they don't mind. I don't know if it's some kind of Euro look or not, I just liked it so here it is.
Before (last year actually):
http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g189/Travis_in_TX/cars/6-3-06007.jpg

After:
http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g189/Travis_in_TX/cars/tail002.jpg
Yes, some neighborhood kids were nice enough to help me with the debadging process... I haven't had a chance to replace it yet. :(
Anyways, tell me what you think.

what a difference. looks good post more pics when u finish the emblem

haha
sry about the emblem, mine was stolen before too
and i caught the kids doing it.....

they wont do it again:devillook

Oh man what I wouldn't give to catch them in the act. I wonder if it's the same kids that spray painted it last summer, or that egged it a year before that. :mad
Apparently someone is jealous of my 22 year old car with a bad paint job, $50 wheels, and whose value changes based on the amount of gas in the tank.:rolleyes

they dont care what car it's from , they want the little emblem as some form of proof of their hooligan acts.

Very good. It sure makes a difference!

By the way, that's a cool exhaust. Is it supposed to be centered though?

Reading the description I didn't think I was going to like the area around the plate black, but it actually looks really good. You should shadowline it too.

btw.. the exhaust is not supposed to be centered. Not from the factory anyways

I would like to shadowline the rest of the car some day.
It's the stock exhaust, slightly offset from center... it snakes between the fuel tank and the spare tire well.