Bimmer fashion question, to 'clear' or not to.

[paul p (chi-town)]

Front corners....
I’ve heard they look better on certain colors. Or is it universal.
What about smoked lenses?
With Helga looking sleeker with euro bumper trim and Rolf sporting euro ellipsoids, they might benefit (aesthetically) from these.
I’ll probably keep amber in the rear or go ALL red with some tint.

Helga...
http://pavlo.interaccess.com/Helga.jpg

Rolf
http://pavlo.interaccess.com/042306kelliX32.jpg


Hang up & Drive!
94 BMW 530iT&A 140K, ‘Helga’ ( Shleppen Schnell mit “Musique ... nonstop” *dances* )
92 BMW 325i 160K, ‘Rolf’ ( Euro vision equipped *woot* )
93 Datsun NX2000 190K ‘Carla’ ( Uber heated seat & rust holes *shakes head* )
85 Toyo MR2 140K ‘Jerry’ ( Showcar/track toy, killer mpg, way more fun than a prius *grin* )

“When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."
- Hunter S. Thompson

[Jehu]

Not.

[Ross]

Only with an oversize exhaust tip

[LunatiC]

I personally think clear blinkers don't make the E34 look as dated. That's my personal opinion though.

If I were you, I would do front clears and all red rears (I've heard that touring clear rears are rarer than hens' teeth). The smoked lenses only look good in my opinion with Alpineweiss or Diamantschwartz. Note that there's a difference between smoked and BLACK, which I don't like at all.

With the E36, I would leave it with ambers at the front, and colour-code the front bar. It looks like a taxi with the grey lower bar part.

[Jr ///M5]

http://img166.imageshack.us/img166/1381/img1110kz6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Chef Paul...
I think Helga would look good with clears in the front and a set of repeaters on the side fender also in clear like the '95 model. It accents the wheels and causes the eye to follow the lines of the car, which are by the way, beautiful...but that is just my opinion and doesn't necessarily reflect the views of this board..;)

Hope you had a Merry Christmas Paul...and here's a toast to warmer times of days gone by...Peace be with you this New Year my friend.

[bubba966]

I changed all of the amber on my car (front & rear turns, and fender mounted repeaters) to factory clears. Didn't go for any of that aftermarket ricey crap. Yes, it wasn't cheap. But it made the car look a lot better, and a bit more modern.

And it should be noted that my car is Cosmos Black Metallic. Which is why I found the amber to be so nasty as it was such a contrast to the dark paint..

I also have the Euro bumper trim. Car looks much better without the bumper lights & amber blinkers...

[repenttokyo]

I like my clears, wouldn't go back to orange. It's largely a question of personal taste.

[632 Regal]

it is all personal. I think with the color on my car and clears makes the car look newer but still yet much more classy than any other foreign vehicle. To me it just adds to the everlasting classyness of the BMW. I would recommend pulling a couple pics up into photosho and making your own decision. No one will get pissed off for clearing anything... as said it is a personal preference.

[attack eagle]

I personally think clear blinkers don't make the E34 look as dated. That's my personal opinion though.

If I were you, I would do front clears and all red rears (I've heard that touring clear rears are rarer than hens' teeth). The smoked lenses only look good in my opinion with Alpineweiss or Diamantschwartz. Note that there's a difference between smoked and BLACK, which I don't like at all.

With the E36, I would leave it with ambers at the front, and colour-code the front bar. It looks like a taxi with the grey lower bar part.

they just went back into production at radicast, so you can get them again.
clears look good on blue and silver cars... maybe white too. otherwise I like ambers (or smoked on black)

[Sam-Son]

clear

[Mordan]

I personally think clear blinkers don't make the E34 look as dated.


but the E34 looks are not dated! The E34 is gorgeous and forever will be, whatever aerodynamic crap they create afterwards. :)

that's the spirit!

[Qube]

Clear. Clear it. Just as long as by clear, you mean FROSTED and not the crystal "euro" crap on eBay.

[Paul in NZ]

clear at front maybe some calassy clear/red at back....i dont think it looks better on darker cars only.

[ILoveMPower]

I went with clears all around... thats how it looks OEM in europe as far as I know so thats how I wanted to roll

[Triton540i]

Hella clears all around on Orient Blau 540i.

http://www.bimmerboard.com/members/triton540i/original/Clear%20Corners1.jpg

http://www.bimmerboard.com/members/triton540i/original/Clear%20Corners2.jpg

http://www.bimmerboard.com/members/triton540i/original/Clear%20Corners3.jpg

http://www.bimmerboard.com/members/triton540i/original/Clear%20Corners4.jpg

http://www.bimmerboard.com/members/triton540i/original/Clear%20Corners5.jpg

http://www.bimmerboard.com/members/triton540i/original/2nd%20Film%20Pic2.jpg

http://www.bimmerboard.com/members/triton540i/original/2nd%20Film%20Pic1.jpg

[LunatiC]

Your car was used in a movie?!


Hella clears all around on Orient Blau 540i.

[vince]

I also think it's personal. Yes, they look better on some cars than others, but also looks like someone broke out the lense. I always felt they look too "Rice Boy" ish. I don't like the clears on many newer cars from a functional angle. During the day, you can't see the color of the light from the side as well if it's just the bulb that's yellow. Many times I've had a hard time telling if a turn signal was on and had to look closer to see that it was on, but not nearly as visible.

The first thing I did when I got my 750il home was to remove the smoke tint that had been sprayed on the front and rear lights. yuck.

[Triton540i]

Yes, it was used in a student film. They had a "decommissioned" on hand, but the props supply company said "It's still chipped and fast." Unfortunately on some of the driving scenes, I had to slow down considerably in my turns and acceleration from a dead start, the prop police car was too slow to keep up. If you do a search for a movie "Universal Sigh," you might find it. The music was changed and isn't as good as the final cut, but overall it was pretty awesome considering it was done mostly on 16 mm film, all the sound was added afterwards and the budget was pretty much nil. I did the driving scenes, had a bunch of fun. We got busted by the police in the opening scene (not in the still picture above) when I was going around the corner and the rear wheel was smoking and squealing... I did it twice, they saw it, but only decided to talk to us after the shot was done. We told them were finished with shooting the scene, they were cool about it and let us go, no harm done. I've had pretty good luck with police, they have a tough job and just being nice to them will go a long way. :)

Somebody posted a black e34 on the site with dark tinted windows, shadowline trim, smoked lenses and wheels with black centers and chromish lips... it was totally stealth, very cool car. You just have to do what you think would be cool and just run with it. I've changed the wheels on my car since those pictures, I'll include a picture below. The car was kinda dirty when I took this night picture. The only thing I really want to do to the 5er is convert it to a 6 speed manual, put a very light tint on the windows and redye the seats, that's pretty much it.

I hope more people post pictures with clear/smoked lenses so you can make a good decision on what you see.

Good luck!
-Eric

http://www.bimmerboard.com/members/triton540i/original/Night%20Shots%208-20-07%20-%2064.jpg

[632 Regal]

Reversed to confuse small children?


http://www.bimmerboard.com/members/triton540i/original/Clear%20Corners5.jpg

[Sam-Son]

i was wondering that as well

[Triton540i]

He flipped the scene for theatrical reasons.

This is a link to the student film: https://mediamill.cla.umn.edu/mediamill/embed/7425

This is the corrected shot...

http://www.bimmerboard.com/members/triton540i/original/Clear%20Corners%20Flipped.jpg

[philbyil]

I put the clears front rear and side on the GQ years ago...make it look way cleaner but, then again, it IS a white car!!!!


Hang up & Drive!
94 BMW 530iT&A 140K, ‘Helga’ ( Shleppen Schnell mit “Musique ... nonstop” *dances* )
92 BMW 325i 160K, ‘Rolf’ ( Euro vision equipped *woot* )
93 Datsun NX2000 190K ‘Carla’ ( Uber heated seat & rust holes *shakes head* )
85 Toyo MR2 140K ‘Jerry’ ( Showcar/track toy, killer mpg, way more fun than a prius *grin* )

“When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."
- Hunter S. Thompson
[/color][/QUOTE]

[Ferret]

As everyone's said, clears are down to a personal taste, on most darker colour cars I think the orange corners are fine - especially on the dark green ones. Lighter colours like the silver, and some dark colours like black suit clears much better.

I got my hands on a give away set of good quality clear rears:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a190/Ferret101/Car/DSC00002.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a190/Ferret101/Car/DSC00003-1.jpg

My first E34 in green I thought looked better with orange corners:
Sadly this is the only crap photo I've got left of her now:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a190/Ferret101/Car/525front.jpg

My second also suited the orange corners, though it was the lighter weird green colour:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a190/Ferret101/Car/new.jpg

[RallyD]

I got a set of lightly smoked fronts to replace the clears that I had prior. The clears looked cheezy IMO on the green car but not so bad on the black one.
For the rear I used some 3m tint film similar to laminex to cover the amber on the tails. All together it cost ~$40 and improves the look without adding too much gaud.

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h30/rallyd/IMG_1350.jpg

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h30/rallyd/IMG_1380.jpg