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RoyalFlushness's 2001 Imola Red E46 M3

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    #1

    RoyalFlushness's 2001 Imola Red E46 M3

    Follow my car Instagram @royalflushness

    Having owned a variety of BMW's in my lifetime, it was always a goal of mine to own an E46 M3. My second car at the moment is my E90 M3 (pictured below). It has now been reduced to a more OEM + look as my E46 has now become my summer car.



    So go back to 3 years ago and I had began my search for the perfect E46 M3. Unfortunately many of the cars here in Toronto had been winter driven and had rust issues. So I took my search to Florida. Eventually I found my perfect spec (Imola Red / Pre facelift / 6MT / Coupe) and I gave a deposit and flew down to Florida to pick it up. From there I drove the car back to Toronto, imported it and embarked on the journey of bringing it back to my perfect version of OEM +. Pictured below is the car when I purchased it in Florida.




    Enjoy my build thread.
    Frankie
    Last edited by RoyalFlushness; 02-02-2022, 11:06 AM.
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    #2
    Once I got the car back to Toronto, it was time to start cleaning it up. Unfortunately the Florida sun had done it's work on the paint and there were also a number of stone chips/pealing clear coat/scrapes I wanted to address. Changing to 18's was definitely on my list of things to do, however for the time being, I wanted to get some fresh powder coat and semi slicks on the current VMR's and get some lowering springs on before switching to coilovers.


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      #3
      Next, it was time to address the paint issues. Below is the condition the paint was in when I picked it up. Notice the pealing clear coat on the rear bumper from a previous paint job the front end being peppered with stone chips. Luckily, I have a relationship with a paint shop that works on German cars and uses only Glasurit water based paint that has done amazing work on some of my other cars. The next step was to paint the entire front end, rear bumper, all trims, door handles and roof rails.




      In the Shop:






      Reflectors:



      Front and Rear Bumpers Prepped:



      Some fresh Imola on some small pieces:
      Last edited by RoyalFlushness; 03-23-2020, 06:31 AM.

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        #4
        Paint finished and a nice wash:






        Last edited by RoyalFlushness; 03-23-2020, 07:18 AM.
        • Likes 2

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          #5
          Next on the list was exhaust and cleaning up the headlight lenses and seals. I sourced myself an old AC Shnitzer exhaust (one of the best sounding exhausts in my opinion) and used the engineering smarts of my exhaust shop to get the outdated oval tips cut off and add some nice SS staggered tips. The original ACS exhaust looks like this:


          Chopped them off:



          Finished Product:







          Installed:




          Old Lenses:





          New:

          Last edited by RoyalFlushness; 04-28-2020, 09:07 PM.
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            #6
            Fast forward to the next summer and now it was time to tackle wheels / suspension / some additional paint work. I managed to source 4 OEM Rear 18's and had them refinished in my version of shadow chrome. Mixed with some fresh 265/35/18 AD08r's and here was the result:




            Coby Wheel came through with a nice new re-wrap of the old steering wheel. I went with grey Alcantara and a black centre stripe:

            Last edited by RoyalFlushness; 02-10-2021, 03:08 PM.

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              #7
              Now it was time to pick a coilover. While price was not really a major issue, I knew I would not be driving this car daily and only tracking it a handful of times. After allot of research I decided to pull the trigger on a custom set of BC Coilovers with SWIFT Springs with the proper offset camber plates:





              Installed but not yet dialled in:

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                #8
                From here, it was time to go back in for some more paint work. There were a number of things that I still was not happy with on the body of the car. There was some peeling clear coat near the quarter panels and various chips and dings I wanted to have taken care of:





                Last edited by RoyalFlushness; 01-31-2021, 12:19 PM.
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                  #9
                  Dialed in the suspension, added some spacers to the rear and added a stud conversion kit.
                  And... the result which is currently as she stands today: My take on OEM +
                  There are still a number of items that need to be addressed such as subframe, cut and polish, alignment etc... however those will be tackled this summer. Pictures:








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                    #10
                    New wheels just arrived with some fresh center caps.

                    Apex EC7 - 18X9.5 ET22 all around

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                      #11
                      Remember watching your build from M3F! Since I just saw it, what drew you to a pre facelift example? Car is look great and those wheels will make it even better!
                      2005 ///M3 6MT Coupe Imola/M-Texture



                      Build Thread

                      Instagram

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                        #12
                        Originally posted by Inizes View Post
                        Remember watching your build from M3F! Since I just saw it, what drew you to a pre facelift example? Car is look great and those wheels will make it even better!
                        Thanks man. I have been searching for a clean Imola Red E46 for years and didn't really care about pre facelift or not. I kinda dig the OG pre led tails.
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                          #13
                          Wheels and tires are fitted. A few teaser pictures from today.
                          Last edited by RoyalFlushness; 09-14-2021, 01:14 PM.
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                            #14
                            Car looks fantastic.

                            Really like the new setup and the OEM 18s you had on there. A lot of guys are running stretched tires but imo this is the right approach. I think the front end would really benefit from OEM chrome grills and gills to match the indicators and wheels - but that's just me. Good work 🤙

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                              #15
                              Originally posted by DI46LO View Post
                              Car looks fantastic.

                              Really like the new setup and the OEM 18s you had on there. A lot of guys are running stretched tires but imo this is the right approach. I think the front end would really benefit from OEM chrome grills and gills to match the indicators and wheels - but that's just me. Good work 🤙
                              Thanks man. Definitely considered going back to OEM sides and grills.

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