photo journey of my e46 m3... (pic heavy)

[Johnboy1984]

It occured to me today after seeing a few threads about e46 m3's that I havent really shared any of the progress of my own on rms, so I've copied this from another forum .. have a look if you have 5 mins

Some of you may have seen some of these photos before... But I just wanted to put it all together in one thread to show the work I have done (most of which in the last few months) and also any of the work I will do in the future... I wouldn't call it a build thread as such because there are people on here that have done some serious modifying ... I think I have only scratched the surface compared to some ... I was a self confessed oem nut... It all started when I got the wheels polished ... The rest is history lol... Il let the pics do the talking ... Thanks for looking

Car is 2004
Py/kiwi
Bought with 49k. Now 58k
Fbmwsh
Folding mirrors, HK, heated seats , centre headrest, centre armrest
ART BBK
Super sprint centre section , race lightweight back box
KW V3 coilovers

 

[Johnboy1984]

A wee update on the car today... I know most prob wouldn't be arsed.... But I'm getting her ready for the ni BMW show tomorrow, so I thought I would remove the wheels and give them a thorough clean, while I had them off I decided to do the arches and the callers etc, with some cracking results

I bought some proper gear for doing the arches... I have to say this stuff doesn't mess about

Well impressed with how the arches turned out

 

[Johnboy1984]

Well folks just a small update on the car... The car has almost 60k on her now and she had developed a bit of a knock .. Upon inspection I noticed a bit of play in the drivers balljoint... So me, being me decided that two new wishbones, with bushes should be installed,

And also while I was in the mood for it I decided to change the rtab also... This is a pic of one of the old ones that we removed with a bit of brut force

The difference in the car was well worth the spend... No more knocks or 'leaning' due to old bushes....

Next up was a set of csl reps from cm wheels... Chris is a great guy and very easy to deal with... I have the advantage of being able to drive down the road and see him in person which helps when buying something like wheels...

Great quality wheels, and it won't be the end of the world if I were to wreck one as they are cheap to replace... I wanted a gloss black set really , so I got them chemically stripped, blasted... Then powder primer, powder basecoat and powder lacquered by a trusted source ..

And finally one the car... Not the best pics , I will get some better ones on our next meet... It was getting late and the car was dirty but you get the idea... I'm well pleased with the look

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[Johnboy1984]

Just a wee update fellas... Got my German badges from nevets over at tmc and have to say... I think the suit the colour theme really well... I took a few pics also... They are not m5lvyn quality but they will do for some arse with an iPhone in tesco's car park

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[Gibbo]

lovely motor and nice mods, looks great

 

[Johnboy1984]

Not posted anything on this thread for a whole so I thought I would post a few pics of our rolling road day with east coast customs yesterday... I had never been there before, in fact people had told me about the place and I was expecting a back alley garage... Far from it.. Very professional outfit that is responsible for some of the fastest cars in Europe ..

Anyway, there was 4 fellow cutters there in e46, and also trev in the e90... It's always a nervous time putting your car on the rollers for the first time since you took ownership!... You are hoping that your
Judgement of a good car is as sound as you
Think it is and it's a tad nerve wrecking... Especially with 4 others to compare it against... Anyway, turns out she is a very healthy motor, she has barely
Lost anything in 10 years... Well happy with the results !!






As you can see, the torque figure is almost factory fresh, and the bhp is making 337 bhp.... Some people claim the factory figure is 343 bhp, although I have read that it's actually 338 bhp... I'm sure someone on here will know the way of it .

 

[Johnboy1984]

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[Lappintyre]

until the last picture, it was perfect

Edit, the pic with the dark wheels that is....oem ftw

 

[Lyons]

Lovely car. Prefer the polished wheels myself, and not keen on the colour coded grill.
Thought of lowering at all?

 

[Johnboy1984]

Well, havent updated the thread in a while, where to begin???.... well, she was due 2 rear tyres... so me being me ordered 4 new pilot super sprots from tyreleader and Brunberg took delivery of them for me in London (thanks B)..






The difference in the car was like night and day.. the grip, road noise and ride comfort was made it a different car.... While the wheels were off I noticed that the centre caps were crap so I bought 4 brand new genuine caps from Bavarian.. you can see the old one in the top right, compared to the new ones



also I gave the wheels a bit of a polish and sealed them with race glaze while they were off..




next was the last of the german badges to be applied to the bootlid... thanks to Nevets... top quality work..



Then, it was time to sort the ride height and excess body roll from the oem suspension... The obvious choice was coilovers... I was going to buy bc's but as luck would have it, a set of KW V3's came up at the right time and I snapped them up.... Also paid a visit to cricmcn (site sponsor) for spacers and black nut caps...


and also cleaned the arches in prep for an upcoming show



With a bit of messing around i finally got the ride height set to where I wanted it... a subtle drop but still making the car fully useable... with the help of M5lvyn and Chris86 we got the coilovers fitted and ride set... I think we nailed it




The suspension and the tyres have made this a truly awesome machine... Next up was a full cleaning session to get it ready for the N.I BMW stand at dubshed.... the leather was first to get attacked with steam, a leather brush, a custom mix of cleaning products and some serious elbow grease... I thought my leather was clean until we done this... how wrong I was..



before and after... all seats, door cards and steering wheel were done..






and the finished article... the camera doesnt really do them justice as it makes them look beige... they are like new now and we treated them with gliptone leather care and now they smell and feel like brand new leather..




Next up was a bit of a deep clean, polish and wax an also the engine bay got a good going over too... as you may have guessed, some of these pics were taken by Mel, and some with my crappy iphone..





and finally she was ready for dubshed... also we ordered some show plates from Nevets... I opted for German style to tie in with the theme..






I can finally say im happy with the car, im sure ive left out lots but that will do for now.... thanks for looking

 

[Johnboy1984]

Lovely car. Prefer the polished wheels myself, and not keen on the colour coded grill.
Thought of lowering at all?

give me a chance, its coming lol

 

[pablo]

looks great Johnboy - did you try the wheels on in silver?

 

[Johnboy1984]

Just a tiny update.... Now that the kw v3 coilovers have had time to settle and I'm happy with the ride height, next up was a 4 wheel alignment, I personally checked the machine and made sure that all settings were correct and within tolerance... To be fair there wasn't too much adjusting required.. I kind of knew that anyway as she was driving really well.... Also she was treated to her 3rd oil change in 10,000 miles... All I can say to anyone thinking of upgrading their suspension is to hold out and save your money a bit longer and go for coilovers.... It has transformed this car... All the mods I have done have made this a seriously good car... It now handles, stops and performs like a proper drivers car!... Although they are a good car as standard... You will soon realise that they are not cut out for anything other than tushing around in standard form...

An awesome car, with an awesome noise to go with it....

 

[Johnboy1984]

Well a bit of an update on the car... I fitted 2 new rear drop links, also replaced the rear top mounts




Now thats all the boring stuff talked about.... I have been talking for a while about going for the oem+ look on the car for summer.... now that the car is lowered on the coilovers, I had a vision of how I wanted the car to look...

Re polish my oem 19's
repaint my brakes (orange to gun metal grey)
re-fit chrome grills
correct spacers for the oem wheels...

I was going to cheat and send the brakes to England to get done but wheres the fun in that..... I have all the equipment here so I decided to do it myself... The same for polishing the wheels... anyway, heres how I got on... To say I'm happy with the result is an understatement !!

The car is now on 63k miles and still look and drives as new (it bloody should with the money I have spent on it)

brakes removed from car, blasted, painted and lacquered... wheels polished



























hope you like

 

[pablo]

edit - the drop tied them in nicely - so good call

 

[Johnboy1984]

looks great Johnboy - did you try the wheels on in silver?

No mate, I wanted to try the black as I had seen one at a show a few weeks before and it looked the part... also, the orange brakes werent working with the polished wheels.... The black wheels are for winter only.... The polished ones only go on for summer use due to salt etc.

 

[collyirwin11]

Superb example and you appear to be very keen and thorough and the car reflects that, looks incredible. Im glad you put the polished oem wheels back on, and the brakes look a lot better now IMHO. Enjoy

 

[pablo]

I liked them in your face orange I gotta say! How about doing them PY?

 

[Johnboy1984]

Superb example and you appear to be very keen and thorough and the car reflects that, looks incredible. Im glad you put the polished oem wheels back on, and the brakes look a lot better now IMHO. Enjoy

Cheers mate

 

[Johnboy1984]

I liked them in your face orange I gotta say! How about doing them PY?

Funny you should Mention it mate.. I've been toying with the idea of either Dakar yellow or just plain bright yellow next and changing the logo... I haven't decided yet

 

[pablo]

do it! they look a bit lost in there atm

 

[Johnboy1984]

do it! they look a bit lost in there atm

That is the whole idea lol... Subtle oem+ ... I'm still mulling it mate... You will be the first to know lol...

 

[pablo]

that did sound a little demanding

OEM+ is all well and good but a big set of stoppers is something everyone likes to see from 1/2 mile away!

 

[Johnboy1984]

that did sound a little demanding

OEM+ is all well and good but a big set of stoppers is something everyone likes to see from 1/2 mile away!

I'm just back from gaydon in England and everyone had theirs on display.. That's what's put the idea in my head... Yellow with maybe a brembo or ap logo would be mint .... Red is done to death and I think yellow will go well with the py car... Suppose if it looks crap I can change it again lol

 

[Lappintyre]

Oh yes..... mucho better!!