The Phoenix: My Build Journal Excerpts

[Epoustouflant]

San Marino Blue is super pretty. Although still can't believe you painted over PY...

We gave it a full strip & sand off!

In all seriousness, I explained why here and here.

In short: the paint's condition was crap, PY isn't all that rare and in demand, and once you factor in costs to do this, the wannabe CSL status, wanting to keep this in the family and a blue M being my teenage dream - well, it makes sense to me.

It's all very much an emotional choice.

[Maxima SE]

Should have kept it phoenix yellow to be honest. Way more unique than yet another blue car on the road

[Gt4]

Should have kept it phoenix yellow to be honest. Way more unique than yet another blue car on the road

Other PY owners should be grateful than, their PY Coupe just became more rare! 1/522 instead of 1/523! Haha

[Epoustouflant]

Should have kept it phoenix yellow to be honest. Way more unique than yet another blue car on the road

You’re definitely right about PY unique and more impactful.

My Fire Orange E92 is the *look at me* car, and San Marino isn’t just another blue.

There’s a few drops of pearlescent violet in the formula that give it that Blurple color shift that absolutely broke my neck the first time I saw a M4CS in the flesh.

[Epoustouflant]

Other PY owners should be grateful than, their PY Coupe just became more rare! 1/522 instead of 1/523! Haha

That’s a line I’ll use.

[Tbonem3]

San Marino is my favorite tho I might say Lemans at times. Great choice.

[Thoglan]

Wish I had the balls to colour change

[Tbonem3]

You can get blue balls rather easily

[Gt4]

Wish I had the balls to colour change

Just need to buy a cheap high mileage M3 to do it. It seems to be more and more frequent to see full paint job or color change on E46 M3 these days!

[Thoglan]

Just need to buy a cheap high mileage M3 to do it. It seems to be more and more frequent to see full paint job or color change on E46 M3 these days!

Honestly mine is a decent candidate anyway. TiAg, and just about every panel has had some below average quality paint work. I still can't bring myself to change the colour. I'll probably eventually have it fully resprayed properly just in TiAg since the vin not matching would bother me too much.

[Gt4]

Honestly mine is a decent candidate anyway. TiAg, and just about every panel has had some below average quality paint work. I still can't bring myself to change the colour. I'll probably eventually have it fully resprayed properly just in TiAg since the vin not matching would bother me too much.

Sold my 2006 Alpine White M3 Slicktop and it got resprayed last week but no color change. Paint was in bad condition.

I wouldn’t mine doing a color change on a M3 but it would need to be a full respray with engine bay and everywhere coat in new color.

I think a color Yas Marina blue would look even better on a older car like the E46 M3.

Can’t wait to see San Marino blue on the E46 M3!

[Epoustouflant]

Sold my 2006 Alpine White M3 Slicktop and it got resprayed last week but no color change. Paint was in bad condition.

I wouldn’t mine doing a color change on a M3 but it would need to be a full respray with engine bay and everywhere coat in new color.

I think a color Yas Marina blue would look even better on a older car like the E46 M3.

Can’t wait to see San Marino blue on the E46 M3!

The E46 doesn't need an interior respray to do a proper color change. It's all primer and overspray on the edges.

The trunk compartment and engine bay need to get done, as well as the underbody.

The challenge with any color change is finding a competent paint & body that will use the right techniques. I'll get into nitty gritty details in the upcoming journal entries.

[Nate047]

Just because its rare doesn't make bile yellow a nice color lol.

San Marino is a great color. This thing's gonna be properly sick.

[Tbonem3]

Phoenix doesn't look so great in poor lighting, but that's also true of some other E46 era colors, notably LSB. If you have talent with a lens (I know you do Nate, but anyone ese), you can easily show off how pretty PY can be.

[WestBankM4]

I've been stopped on the road a couple of times, the last time it was a father and his son. They had made a bet on the color of my CS, the father said it's purple and the kid said it was blue, I told them it's San Marino Blue. I don't blame them either because there are times when the sun is going down, there's still ambient light but the car looks purple, there's no mistaking it.

Great color choice man, I'm excited to see what it looks like!