Casa de Mesa’s M3 color change from blue to blue

[maupineda]

I prefer Mexico Blue

[Casa de Mesa]

About a month ago, I started getting the car ready for this project. It will be disassembled almost completely. The engine and windows are coming out. To start the process, up on blocks it goes.

I’ve spent a lot of time under cars. Earlier this year, I bought some of these more-expensive-than-they-should-be foam blocks from Race Ramps. For those of us without lifts, I cannot recommend these enough. The amount of room you have under the car is incredible. But really the main draw for me is the level of comfort these give you knowing this car is as stable as being on the ground.



The car is dirty as it sits. I drove it a couple of times before starting the project so it has bugs and debris on it.

A few years ago, the car was stored outside under a carport for an extended period. Somehow, a small slug ended up on the front bumper (no clue how it got there), had its last waltz and proceeded to die. I found its remains shriveled up on the bumper. That last waltz was so hot it ate the clear coat completely off the bumper cover and left me with a scale mockup of the Nürburgring. I was able to clean this up a bit with rubbing compound and polish, however there is literally no clear coat left. The front bumper is a mess and will be replaced during this project, but in a weird way, I’ll miss the Little Green Hell.



After pulling the bumper cover off and seeing in person just how big this windshield washer tank is, I’m going to relocate it to the drug bin in favor of a smaller bottle. Brey Krause makes a relocation bracket (part #: R-9232) to mount an E36 washer tank. Brilliant. I can’t take credit for this - robgill and Obioban did this on their builds and now I see why. This is weight in front of the axle and although it is low, it still creates a moment arm.





The car has the high-pressure headlight washers currently. With the washer tank relocation, I’m going to delete them. I have always hated that they come on during the rare occasion I've sprayed the windshield with washer fluid. The trim pieces that sit under the headlights will be replaced with the the pieces without the headlight washer cutouts, parts 51138208679 (left) and 51138208680 (right)



More disassembly. The fan is working fine, albeit is ugly and faded. I’m debating trying to clean it up or just replace it. Not sure how often these fail so this may be one of the “might as well” pieces that gets replaced. Open to suggestions here...




I’m labeling all electrical connections as I go. While the car is in paint, my plan is to remove the electrical tape from the harnesses and replace it with Tesa tape. For the engine compartment looms, I’ll use Tesa 51036 high temp. For the interior looms that require redoing, I’ll use the black fuzzy stuff.







My collection of fasteners is growing. I probably have 40 bags at this point. This photo is about 3 weeks old.

[jvit27]

I love Shark Blue (which is just rebranded Cornflower Blue from VW). Voodoo blue is a good color too, but it IS a Toyota color. Mexico/Riviera are iconic, but on anything other than a Porsche it could be mistaken for a wrap. Miami Blue is a great color, but consequently too close to LSB that the masses might just assume you missed the mark IMO. Santorini Blue would be my vote since it's a BMW color and has the wide dynamic range at various times of day LSB has (but without the ugly green hue in direct light )

Metallic colors generally 'sell' the job better since they have more depth and luster, which makes it pretty tough to fake with a wrap. In fact, it's really hard to do a color change on a car and actually make it believable - especially on an older car from a time when custom paint options weren't very popular. Atlantis Blue would be a killer choice if you went that route.

Both decision and process are pretty agonizing, so I don't envy you but am looking forward to seeing the final result!

[Casa de Mesa]

Over the past couple of weeks and the holiday break, I’ve been able to make progress on the dismantling the interior. It’s been slow going as I haven’t had a lot of dedicated time and I’m also going slow – taking detailed photos, tracing wires to see if anything can be eliminated, understanding how things are fitted/work so I can put it back together, making sure I don’t break plastic tabs on interior panels and so forth and so on. For posterity sake, here are a few shots.

Headrests and rear window shelf speakers out. Getting the headrest out on these cars is way more difficult than it should be. I’m going to delete the latch/baby seat system (weight savings + clean up the appearance). In doing so, I’ll probably have the parcel shelf cover reupholstered, covering over the holes. I’m not sure if I’m going Alcantara here and elsewhere yet.



Sidebar: Does anyone know if the “HiFi” speaker grills (#9 below, part # 51468222943, fits both L/R sides) will fit in place of the stock non-branded/latch system/Harmon-Kardon ones (part # Left 51468243679 and Right 51468243680)? They don’t appear to have the latch system holes, but it’s hard to tell if these will fit or not.



RealOEM: https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/sho...diagId=51_3742

Better look at them on ECSTuning:
HiFi grills: https://www.ecstuning.com/b-genuine-...h/51468222943/

Existing Latch grill left: https://www.ecstuning.com/b-genuine-...t/51468243679/
Existing Latch grill right: https://www.ecstuning.com/b-genuine-...t/51468243680/

EDIT: I think figured it out, the solution is just below but leaving the above for others who might be doing the same thing.

SOLUTION: RealOEM has several different speaker grills listed. Some branded with HK and no Latch system, some with Latch system but no HK branding, different colors, etc.

• #11 is what I have. There are left and right sides and have cutouts for the latch system. They are slightly longer in length.
• #9 (or what I thought I could use) does not have the latch system cutouts and is smaller in length. I don't think it would fit.

However, it looks like there are covers that snap into place in #11. These are #10 in the RealOEM pic. I think these will clean up the appearance a bit.
Left – 51468243667 https://www.ecstuning.com/b-genuine-...t/51468243667/
Right – 51468243668 https://www.ecstuning.com/b-genuine-...r/51468243668/


Latch system brackets that will be removed:




Removed the rear seats, parcel shelf cover, rear window trim (part #2 in the RealOEM pic above, my car does not have the rear sunshade):





Headliner out…





Parts collection storage. I'm running out of room:



Center console out:



Sunroof out:





Moved onto the doors. In this picture, I had no idea of the pain ahead. Rookie.



I got the vapor barrier removed without any issue, but man that black sealant/adhesive they use is a royal PITA to remove. I managed to save all of the adhesive and transferred it back to the outward side of the vapor barrier, so I should be able to stick it back on the car down the road. But the question is… where the hell do I store this for ‘X’ months so I don’t contaminate the adhesive?



And fast forward a few hours later, the finished product. I took a ton of detailed photos and also took my time. After having done this, it’s pretty straightforward now that I know how it all comes apart. But this was a daunting disassembly that tried my patience if I’m being honest…





Bits and bobs:



Last time I got a door this far apart, the next step was to take a sawsall to the inner door skin and side impact bar to make room for roll cage tubing. Feels a little weird knowing this is staying put.

[Casa de Mesa]

Side airbag not operational

My car is an early build 2003 (built Sept 2002). It came with additional decals on the door jambs “Side airbag not operational”.



This may have been solved elsewhere on the internet, but in searching Google and this site, I have never found anything definitive. The three answers I kept finding as to what these decals mean:

1. It came from the factory with the airbags disabled, or
2. The airbags were disabled by the US dealership on arrival, or
3. A customer requested the airbag to be disabled.

The answer to why these are disabled is still a mystery to me. Is it US law circa 2002/2003? Did something happen to an infant in the back seat of an M3 that cause BMW to overcompensate?

Regardless of why [these are disabled], my side airbags are present in the car but the wiring is not connected. It’s just felt-taped to the actual airbag. Apologies for the bad picture - the connector is felt-taped in the lower left of the airbag.



This doesn’t make a ton of sense to me as why would BMW undergo the cost of putting in airbags only to never hook them up? This makes options 2 or 3 above seem more plausible… but even these don’t seem realistic.

I have a friend who has a 2004 and his car doesn’t have these airbags in there at all.

All of this to say, I bought replacement stickers but now I’m planning on deleting these from the car for the following reasons:

• The stickers are ugly and clutter up the door jamb (these are on the passenger and driver side)
• It looks like at least some later model cars don’t have these airbags at all
• They haven’t been operational in my car under my ownership, and most probably, not ever
• I will never put a child seat back there
• They are unnecessary weight

Passenger door and window

Both doors are now gutted. What took my probably 4 hours total on the driver side (I said I was going slow and methodical…) took me only 45 min on the passenger door.




Dashboard removal

I then turned my attention to the dashboard. I’m removing it because I don’t want to run the risk of it getting damaged during paint. Also, I’ve had a rattle in the dash for years that has drove me nuts. What better time to troubleshoot it…

Lastly, I want the head airbags removed during paint too. I know it’s possible to pull them from the car with the dash in place, but I saw a DIY somewhere where the person that did so damaged the airbag and the dash. I’m not willing to take that risk, so out the dash comes!



Radio, center vents, glove box and passenger airbag removed.



Instrument cluster removed.



Ready to pull the dash.



Dash removed.





Carpets are up next then the interior is pretty much done. Engine removal is the next bit ticket item.

[repoman89]

^I have the "side airbags not operational" thing on my E39 M5. As far as I can gather you could request they be disabled if e.g. you were planning on having kids or child seats back there since the airbag would cause more harm than good in an accident. I need to remember to disable and weight save them in my M3.

edit: interesting getting a glimpse of how the stereo wiring is routed, thanks for all the pics! Keep them coming! Still planning my own nav / harness delete at some point and it's an unknown to me how much I'll have to remove. Seems like ... pretty much everything.

[heinzboehmer]

As far as I know, rear side airbags were an option. My car is an Apr 2002 build and doesn't have them.

I don't know why they are disabled on your car though.

[Casa de Mesa]

^I have the "side airbags not operational" thing on my E39 M5. As far as I can gather you could request they be disabled if e.g. you were planning on having kids or child seats back there since the airbag would cause more harm than good in an accident. I need to remember to disable and weight save them in my M3.

As far as I know, rear side airbags were an option. My car is an Apr 2002 build and doesn't have them.

I don't know why they are disabled on your car though.

Ok this helps a good bit. Thank you. It's still weird they are disabled tho. I have the full maintenance history on the car (from BMW) and no dealer ever disabled the airbags due to the customer asking. Perhaps this was done upon delivery?

edit: interesting getting a glimpse of how the stereo wiring is routed, thanks for all the pics! Keep them coming! Still planning my own nav / harness delete at some point and it's an unknown to me how much I'll have to remove. Seems like ... pretty much everything.

Let me know if you need specific shots. I can add them as I have PLENTY of photos. I'm also happy to PM some to you.

[Casa de Mesa]

Couple more progress photos. Hoping the motor is yanked this weekend. Time to stop killing time on NAM3 and start wrenching!

Got the rear carpet out:




Pulled the passenger side engine bay wiring harness back through the roughly 3" wide hole in the drug bin:



Threw a paint sample in the drug bin to see what it would look like under a florescent lamp. Engine bay is filthy, but this gives a good idea of the color difference:



Trunk disassembled:



While disassembling the trunk, I noticed that the trunk release wires (3 of them) had a spot where the wire insulation was completely worn through. It was arcing on the trunk, with visible "smoke" evidence present where the arrow is in this pic. I wiped the soot away to get a better view and sure as $hit, it's down to bare metal. Explains why sometimes my trunk would be hesitant to open whenever I hit the release button! I marked the wiring (FIRE!) so I don't forget to fix the insulation when I reassemble this. I have a Karbonius CF trunk on order so won't be an issue go forward... but it looks like the wiring was routed incorrectly at the factory. Not sure if this is a common problem or not, but consider this a PSA.



Tail lights out:



Condenser out. It's in pretty good shape, surprisingly. I'll probably replace this, but I'm wondering if I need to. Car has 74k miles on it. Anyone know how long do these things typically last?



Radiator out. This is in good shape too, but absolutely will be replaced with OEM:



Just have the power steering and oil cooler to drain and the radiator support bar will be out of the way:

[02_lsb]

Wow.

[heinzboehmer]

Oh cool, your car is one of the rare topaz cars with an mk60. There were only like four months of production when that combo was made.

[repoman89]

Let me know if you need specific shots. I can add them as I have PLENTY of photos. I'm also happy to PM some to you.

Any that show how that audio harness is routed throughout the car would be highly appreciated! Looks like in your latest post you’re at the point where you can see pretty much the whole thing.

[Casa de Mesa]

Wow.

Ha, that's what I'm thinking too...

Oh cool, your car is one of the rare topaz cars with an mk60. There were only like four months of production when that combo was made.

Yeah, it was one of the reasons I went with this car. It didn't have the LED tails, but had MK60. That and this car was mechanically excellent. The paint work was a little abused, as I said, but clearly I'm fixing that now lol

Any that show how that audio harness is routed throughout the car would be highly appreciated! Looks like in your latest post you’re at the point where you can see pretty much the whole thing.

Let me see what I can dig up. From what I recall, the primary audio harness runs down the driver side (inside of rocker panel - first pic in post #24) all the way back to the H/K amp in the trunk. From there, I'm pretty sure it forks off to 1) the H/K sub in the "parcel shell" and 2) the mid-woofers speakers in the parcel shelf 3) the tweeters in the rear seat position. For the parcel shelf wiring to the speakers, see the 2nd and 3rd pic in post #19. The 2nd pic in post #20 shows yellow/blue wiring to the passenger side rear tweeter (rear seat position).

I'll find some more pics, but let me know if there is something specific. I'll confirm what I put in the prior paragraph today when I head back to the car.

[Tbonem3]

Oh cool, your car is one of the rare topaz cars with an mk60. There were only like four months of production when that combo was made.

I just did a valve adjust on a topaz car with mk60. March 03 build iirc. Beautiful color; nice to see it in the flesh.

[thegenius46m]

Oh cool, your car is one of the rare topaz cars with an mk60. There were only like four months of production when that combo was made.

They are rare gems!