The Phoenix: My Build Journal Excerpts

[maupineda]

Super cool restoration. And i will be alone here, but those wheels just look off place, it makes the car look wrong.

[Epoustouflant]

Continued work on test fitment as the prototype forged CSL style wheels are incoming!

I fiddled with height, a bit more, both sides now have the same camber and height settings. Driver side is 30mm, Passenger side is 20mm. It's much more aligned with my final planned specs.

I'm working on a slew of entries on the carbon doors, subframe reinforcement, CSL trunk fitment, and more.

[Epoustouflant]

Lots of updates inbound on the car. This is a summary, believe it or not. Re-assembly is a snooze-fest of never ending lists of SKUs to buy as you find old cars are old: trims break and seals wear.

What blows about the E46 is the ridiculous pricing on some of the SKUs because of how they're made.

So I cheapen out on the MK60 upgrade and went with this also obnoxiously expensive blank upper trim. I have few more in stock and available for anyone that wants it, or to get it painted with your lower trims.





old///MFanatic I sort of got headlights back on I'm still unsure whether I do amber or clear corner and rear lights.

This shows test fitment with +30mm spacers on the widened fenders.





The valve covers got pulled to create the new Bespoke S54 Painted Valve Covers product for 2024.



With the recent 296/284s fitted to my S85, I was reminded this engine was the initiator I'm looking forward to seeing bench power results with these 288/280s.



New headliner trims, I'm still awaiting the center bezels, trims and panel.


The VF Engineering sticker finally got removed.



The leaking PS reservoir was upgraded to something new I'm about to release.



The Karbonius CSL trunk got fully fitted - a few adjustment were needed. The diffuser got bolted but not yet fully fitted, we'll pull the lower corners in with the slotted gaps.



I'm sticking to chrome grills on this one. It's a classic.


Rear seats were fitted with their door cards. I'm awaiting a carbon rear deck and the speakers are FUBAR on the rear door cards. The damaged leather on them irks me.



Another new, expensive part - the hood cowl.


The previously rusted battery bracket was replaced.


Briefly test fitted the CSL roof rails - they weren't fitted fully as we keep trims off until final polish and PPF.


The cracked vent also got replaced.


We eliminated overspray from the previously PY "refresh"



We are facing issues with the door stopper on the driver side. These doors aren't plug and play.


You're looking at 1,500 USD worth of door seals that need to be replaced.

[Epoustouflant]

Everything looks good Matt, I don't agree with the yellow carrier though.

Looking forward to this more interesting build.

The subframes? I was 100% people pleasing, old habits.

Thanks for the feedbacks, appreciate you.

[jet_dogg]

Everything looks good Matt, I don't agree with the yellow carrier though.

Looking forward to this more interesting build.

[Epoustouflant]

Always loved putting my cars back together after a full respray. Some say it’s the bumpers and hood installed. For me something about getting to the windows, lenses/headlight/taillights and exterior trim you can really notice a large completion of how it’ll look imho. Something about the sparkle and filling in the silhouette.

100% - it isn't a car until it's got its eyes back!

We nipped and tucked them up a bit.

[old///MFanatic]

Progress is being made - fast. You got to love the deserts and autobahns of a build process.

Always loved putting my cars back together after a full respray. Some say it’s the bumpers and hood installed. For me something about getting to the windows, lenses/headlight/taillights and exterior trim you can really notice a large completion of how it’ll look imho. Something about the sparkle and filling in the silhouette.

[ugaexploder]

can't wait to see what this tips the scales at when the dust settles.

[Epoustouflant]

Progress is being made - fast. You got to love the deserts and autobahns of a build process.

[Epoustouflant]

This pic looks dope, you can really see the increased track of the fenders here. Can't wait to see this beast come together.

Thanks dude 👏

Here's another that I find not too bad - it'll be fun to have a side by side versus an original car.

[9kracing]

This pic looks dope, you can really see the increased track of the fenders here.



Can't wait to see this beast come together.

[Epoustouflant]

--
NEW BUILD JOURNAL ENTRY
"A New World."
Special Series: Widened Carbon Fenders
Link to the full entry.
—
In this entry, I explore new wheel fitment possibilities opened up by the wider fenders in preparation for the 163M CSL style forged wheel program.

I include fitment tables and in-depth specs, and future fitments I want to explore.

See below for the preview. You can spec a set of widened fenders year long here.
—
The first set of prototype, raw forged CSL style wheels are (nearly) here .

Up next: we do the final fitment of the fenders during re-assembly, and we revisit the wheel fitment with tires mounted.

Cheers!
Matt
@m3_epoustouflant

[Epoustouflant]

Maybe this is a dumb question, but we've been on the subject of body shops in another thread and it makes me wonder, how are you going to match all the pieces fully when they're not being painted at the same time? I assume you have this thought out, and clearly with a build like this, anything but an exact match won't fly. I'm curious if you have a bunch of extra paint pre-mixed and stored (how long does it last?) or how that works. I think everyone I know who has done a big build like this has painted the car and all the parts all at the same time.

It's actually a great question. There's lot of opacity when it comes to paint work.

In short, the issues that come up with color matching will usually arise from cars that have seen UV exposure and use different products, across different panel materials.

Here, the color fornulas stays the same using the same BASF pigment with the same preparation work across every single panel along with using the same spraying methods & overall thickness per color and clear coats.

As an example, for color matching, the shop usually uses a gas cap to match. It's what we did this week on my M5's rear bumper.




The doors and other panels have been sprayed and clear coated.

The issues we've faced came from surface contamination of carbon panels, notably the trunk. No matter how careful we prep'ed it, it seems the gel coating used in the CSL trunk's mold led to surface contamination - commonly called "fish eyes". I haven't had much luck when it comes to Karbonius' gel coat, we had similar fish eye issues on the roof's original clear coat.

We had to sand down the clear across the hood, trunk and doors to re-clear again, eliminating the issues. We did the same to the roof previously over last Winter.

[Nate047]

Maybe this is a dumb question, but we've been on the subject of body shops in another thread and it makes me wonder, how are you going to match all the pieces fully when they're not being painted at the same time? I assume you have this thought out, and clearly with a build like this, anything but an exact match won't fly. I'm curious if you have a bunch of extra paint pre-mixed and stored (how long does it last?) or how that works. I think everyone I know who has done a big build like this has painted the car and all the parts all at the same time.

[Epoustouflant]

AH! Got to play catch up again here. We've made good progress this Fall, and the car is close to reassembly. I'll drop the latest entries in separate postings. .

--
NEW BUILD JOURNAL ENTRY
"We just wanted to be sure."
Link to the full entry.
I also filmed and edited a reel here.
---
Special Series: E46 1:1 Carbon Doors
—
In this entry, I touch on expectations of OE+ versus Motorsport doors, and we finally test fit the 1:1 OE carbon doors along with the widened carbon fenders.

I document the gaps, and body line alignments along with insights on how doors are aligned.

We were pretty stoked about the final fitment.

Up next: It's time for the last round of paint on the restoration and color change.

We'll inspect the finish quality we achieved, along with interior accessories fitment, and my final impressions on the door’s feel.

P.S.: I forgot to post the previous two entries to this Special Series and will photo & video dump them later on this week.

Cheers!
Matt
@m3_epoustouflant