My Slow Burn (E46 M3)

[Titaniu//M]

Beautiful M3. Quite the garage you have as well

[heinzboehmer]

And here are some misc parts I had accumulated for the car, waiting to get installed:





And because I'm the nerdiest 36 year old ever, I stayed up until midnight so I wouldn't miss out on the second (and final) release of the S54 Lego set from Replica Motorsport. This is one really cool set that I will proudly display in the garage:

Nice car!

That Lego S54 is super cool. Too bad they're not sold anymore. I wonder is Replica Motorsport will sell/give me the instructions and then I can source the parts myself.

[eforty6_m3]

March 8, 2020

The M3 is officially ready for her suspension overhaul:




March 14, 2020

FINALLY had some free time to start the suspension over the weekend. My neighbor let me borrow his Milwaukee M18 Fuel impact driver, as my smaller 20v Porter Cable impact wasn't cutting it, as well as his Snap-On pry bars. This was my first time ever doing suspension work on my own, but with the help of YouTube and some DIY threads I found on various BMW forums, I plugged away.













And as luck would have it, because just about anything I do that involves my cars, it can never be straightforward and I always run into a snafu. This time, that snafu ended up being the LAST bolt I needed to tighten up to be 100% done. The rear, driver-side bottom shock mount where the shock bolts to the trailing arm. I ended up getting a little too M18 Fuel impact driver happy and ended up stripping the threads on the bolt:



Also, I got around to ordering a keyhole delete for my driver door. My buddy painted for me at no charge (he's done lots of side work for me in the past, and I've always taken care of him):




March 17, 2020

Suspension is done! I still need to make some minor adjustments, but man, what a night and day difference:





Spacers making a huge difference. Rears are nearly flush and the fronts should be close once I adjust height & camber:





Fresh, new (OEM) center caps make a big difference (disregard the wheel orientation):





Before and after shots. And yes, I realize the newly painted delete doesn't match the 15 year old paint perfectly. But honestly, other than me and anyone I explicitly tell about the delete will really notice. So I'm not too worried about it.








March 21, 2020

Cool birthday gift from my wife (the band, not the watch!):



Also trying to finish the interior refresh on the M3, but before I do that, I need to decide on a better bluetooth streaming option. Currently, I have the following setup:

BMW Glove Box Black Flashlight Auxiliary Power Adapter:



2 in 1 USB Bluetooth 5.0 Transmitter/Receiver



And a flush mount USB charger.

The main issue with this setup is that the flashlight isn't switched, so it's always on. So if I was to run to the store with the M3 and connected to bluetooth, I shut the car off and run into the store. All this time, the bluetooth receiver is still on and trying to maintain connection with my phone. But I found that when returning to the car, more times than not, my phone wouldn't be able to reconnect to the device. And any sort of toggling bluetooth on/off or forgetting the bluetooth device and reconnecting to it typically wouldn't work. I found that unplugging the USB charger that powers the bluetooth device would sometimes fix the issue.

Needless to say, I've had enough of that. And I don't want to go the route of aftermarket stereos. I know they've got some really nice OEM-looking options (Dynavin comes to mind), I just don't feel like spending that kind of money and don't want to switch from my current single DIN setup.

After some research on various forums, I've settled on the following solution which checks off two boxes for me: 1) affordable and 2) well reviewed:






March 24, 2020

Lastly, the bluetooth module for the M3 arrived today, so I'm going to try and get in the garage tonight after my youngest goes to bed tonight and get that installed and finally swap out all the center console pieces sitting on my workbench.

Oh, I almost forgot. I got the angel eye's installed. Still need to hide/clean up the wiring, but here is a sneak peek from some awful photos I took on my iPhone:






March 28, 2020

Angel eyes are finally installed, after they've been sitting on my workbench for about two months. Install was pretty straightforward, other than the occasional hiccup (which really goes for anything that you're doing for the first time). Light output is excellent! I didn't take many photos during the install process. When I'm in the middle of something, I typically just want to get it done. But here are the photos I did take:







I also swapped out all the beat interior bits for all the fresh OEM parts. Here are some shots:





Again, just wanted it done, so didn't take many pictures. I'll take some interior photos of the car when it's nicer out and she's not in the garage, so I get some better lighting. But the interior definitely feels refreshed. Once I can vacuum the interior, I'm also going to put in the new OEM floor mats I picked up. Then the interior will just about be complete.

Oh and I got the bluetooth module installed. Talk about a gigantic PIA. The biggest issue was figuring out a spot to hide the module. Since it was decently sized, I couldn't just tuck it behind the radio. I had to remove the center HVAC vents and controls before I could figure out the best way to mount it. A few busted knuckles and scratches and scrapes later, I can finally easily stream music to my car and use the steering wheel controls, as well. The only thing I forgot to do before buttoning up the interior was to plug in the microphone for the bluetooth calling. Not sure I'll do this, because I don't make that many calls on my phone (I HATE phone calls...text messages suffice 99.9% of the time, am I right?!), but I'll hold onto it in case I decide to do it down the road.

After I finished all the above on Saturday afternoon, I backed the car out of the garage and let it get to idle, while reinstalling the Swisstrax that I had removed for the suspension install. My 4 year old helped me out with stepping on the tiles to click them back into place while my 2 yr old napped and my wife sat on the neighbors lawn and drank wine while socially distancing with 2 of the lady neighbors!

Here are some photos I took outside the garage. Man, I am loving how this front end is coming together:













As you can see in that last photo, the rear driver side still needs to come down a bit. I'm going to do some measuring this week and tweak the ride height. It's close, though!

Since the car was already in the driveway, once my wife returned from her afternoon beverage sampling, I took the M3 for a quick romp down the road. Let her get up to normal operating temp, then returned home before the rain came. After sitting for basically 4.5 months, she ran flawlessly. Man I absolutely LOVE this car!



Next up for the M3 (aside from the suspension tweaking) is removing and reinstalling the front lip. If you recall, I wasn't 100% happy with how I initially mounted it. It can definitely be better and more flush, so in addition to using fishing line to remove it, I bought the following to hopefully get rid of all the leftover residue/tape before remounting it:







April 3, 2020

Wanted some more induction noise, so after some discussions with a buddy of mine, I opted for the aFe Magnum Force Stage 2 intake:




I'll swap out and sell the Bimmerworld elbow once the intake arrives to recoup some dough.

Also ordered a set of black anodized pedals (Pedal Haus) by way of IND-Distribution:




April 15, 2020

Since the kids were at my in-laws for the day, I FINALLY got around to installing the aFe stage 2 intake, as well as the aFe "Dynamic" air scoop I had ordered separately:











One last photo I took after finishing up my interior refresh recently. I guess I forgot to share it here, but it is on the "Gram". Car feels newer and cleaner inside with no more scratches on the interior compartments/center console/etc, along with brand new OEM floor mats:



April 19, 2020

We had a rare child-free evening. My wife dropped them off at my in-laws yesterday afternoon and met up with some of her childhood friends for social distancing wine and cheese, so I had some me time! Took the M3 for a run through one of our favorite nearby coastal towns, Bristol,RI (you may have heard of it...their parade is the oldest 4th of July celebration in the country). It was starting to cool off and the wind was whipping, but I managed to take a few photos:









And with that, I think I'm just about caught up. I'm sure I missed some things, but I'm not too concerned. Hope you enjoy what I've put together thus far and what is yet to come. Cheers!

[eforty6_m3]

January 30, 2020

Been moving at a snails pace lately. Winter and kids have taken over. But if I had to provide any updates, I guess I do have a few.

About a month ago, I used some of my fantasy football winnings to grab a few things I've been meaning to pickup. Some directly for the car and others indirectly for the car. First off, after much research, I decided to go with a set of opaque angel eyes from the Angel Eye Guy:





Very much looking forward to getting these installed, but not much of a rush since she's not leaving the garage until April the earliest.

Continuing with my Coby Wheel trend (steering wheel, shift and ebrake boots), I picked up a black Alcantara ebrake handle with red/navy/blue stitching.





I also took Matt's (Obsessed Garage) advice and picked up a set of Future Classic 15mm spacers. Haven't installed them yet, but I will be putting these up front and my 12mm spacers in the rear.



Oh and I snagged these sweet BMW M-Tech inspired socks:




February 7, 2020

And yet another pair of BMW-themed socks:



February 17, 2020

First photos of the M3 in the garage with the Swisstrax flooring:






February 24, 2020

I may or may not have just ordered some new toys for the M3. Most notably:



February 28, 2020

Now, the focus will temporarily shift to the M3. I've been stockpiling parts over the winter, including replacing a bunch of the center console parts to give the interior a refresh. You can see here just how beat up some of these pieces are:



Here is a sampling of the parts I had picked up:

[eforty6_m3]

September 2, 2019

1) I installed Homelink:










2) I also added a 2x2 weave carbon fiber front lip:













September 25, 2019

I swapped out the chrome ///M3 badge for an IND Industries gloss black version:











I won the championship in one of my fantasy baseball leagues, so I used the winnings (my play money) to purchase a 2x2 weave carbon fiber rear diffuser:










September 30, 2019

We had some nice weather, so I found a quiet road nearby with some nice fall colors and had myself a little photo session, courtesy of my (at the time) new iPhone 11 Pro Max (this thing takes ridiculous pictures):








October 7, 2019

I figured I would take this opportunity to finish vinyl wrapping the interior trim that the previous owner hadn't gotten around to. That being just the two rear armrests. As I got into it the other night removing these bits, I realized that there wasn't much more I needed to remove in order to refinish the rear deck. So might as well take care of that, too.

So out came the very faded rear deck. Here are some photos detailing just how much you really have to remove to even access it:













And some clear shots of the horrible fading:





After the first light coat of Dupli-Color Vinyl & Fabric Paint - Flat Black:



After the second light coat:



After the 3rd coat, this one, fairly heavy:



And the finished product (I used the entire can...2 light coats, then about 4 or 5 heavy coats):







I am very happy with how this turned out. That faded deck had really been eating away at me, so I'm looking forward to everything going back together and looking new again.

I haven't forgotten about the vinyl wrapping. I ran out the other night, mainly because it was my first ever time vinyl wrapping. The previous owner had put the rest of the vinyl wrap that he hadn't used in the trunk of the car prior to shipping it, though there wasn't a ton. Those of you who have done it before know there's definitely a learning curve, so I had to order more and it only came in yesterday, but I am hoping to get back to it tonight or tomorrow. I'll probably start buttoning the rear of the car back up tonight, as well.

Rear window seals are up next. I've had the parts since about March, but have been putting it off long enough.


October 25, 2019

Busy couple of days in the garage for me, finishing up the rear deck, wrapping the rear armrests and replacing the rear window seals. I took a personal day on Friday to get more time to finish everything up.
I started buttoning the interior back up at 9am and didn't finish the window seals until 4:45pm.

Very happy to no longer be seeing dry, cracked seals and kudos to the DIY threads on the window seal job. Like many others, I went with the 3M 08650 EPDM HOLLOW RUBBER WEATHERSTRIP 7/8" THICK x 3/4" WIDE x 8':

https://www.amazon.com/3M-08650-EPDM...ct_top?ie=UTF8.

To help with the kinking around the hofmeister kink, I used some 3/8 vinyl tubing that I picked up from Home Depot that I then inserted into the seal.

Additionally, I had to replace the driver-side lower gasket (the seal below the rear window, part # 51368194741).




























November 20, 2019

Scored a fantastic deal on a brand new OEM BMW car cover for the M3 (Noah fabric). Been scouring craigslist/facebook marketplace for the past few months, as I didn't want to spend the money that a brand new cover retails for ([COLOR=var(--darkreader-inline-color) !important]$180[/COLOR]). Found one up near Boston earlier this week. Ended up timing it perfectly so that I could grab the cover after my father and I checked out a 1998 Jeep Cherokee (would be my dad's winter ride) in a nearby town.

Sure enough, the cover was as advertised (which almost never happens these days). And the guy selling it was only asking $59 (odd number?!). I ended up giving him $60 for meeting me at a police station not far from the Jeep.

So now the M3 is properly tucked away and protected for the winter :

[eforty6_m3]

May 9, 2019

I spent a good chunk of time getting the M3 dialed in for a local Cars and Coffee. This consisted of the following procedures/products:

• Lightly pressure wash engine bay
• Spray APC and agitate with brush
• Rinse engine bay
• Dry engine bay with leaf blower
• Cover engine bay plastics with Meguiar's Hyper Dressing
• Adam's Wheel cleaner
• Adam's Rubber & Tire cleaner
• Strip Wash
• Iron-X
• Nanoskin Autoscrub (all panels and glass)
• Adam's Car Shampoo wash to get all residue from previous steps off
• 1 layer of Jescar Powerlock
• 2 layers of Collinite 845
• Coat wheels with Bead Maker
• CarPro Perl on tires
• Wolf's Nano Trim Coat

I'll give the car another wash this weekend and top it with Bead Maker. Very happy with how the car came out, swirls and other paint imperfections aside:








June 12, 2019

As I typically do to all my vehicles, I removed the sun visor warning labels/stickers:







June 17, 2019

Gave the M3 another wash:







June 23, 2019

Brought the M3 to a local Rides & Coffee last Sunday. Rode in with my buddy and his clean '99 Civic Si (EM1):



Cool shot that my photog buddy took with his Nikon and lightly touched up with Lightroom (not sure on the Nikon model or what lens/settings he used):




June 26, 2019

A fellow BMW CCA member came over yesterday morning to drop off some items he had left over after selling his E46 M3. We caught up for a bit then went for a ride in his 2016 M2 6MT. Sorry, he went for the ride, I DROVE!

The M2 had an aftermarket short shift kit and was a blast to drive. I actually liked the rev match on downshifts. Such a sick color, too! Needless to say, I will own an M2 at some point in my life. Once the kids are older and 4 doors isn't as important, I suppose.




July 1, 2019

Few minor updates on the M3. I swapped out my busted driver door sill for a replacement that I had picked up in CT on my way to the Barrett Jackson show. The little things sure do make a big difference.

Before/during/after:












July 13, 2019

I had sent out my leaking rear-view mirror to http://www.radar-mirror.com/ to be rebuilt. For the extra $20, I opted for the lifetime warranty. For the peace of mind, it was worth it for me, as I plan on having this car or a long time and would rather avoid spending another $99 if and when the mirror leaks again down the road. It arrived today looking good as new:



I treated my imola red leather interior with the Leatherique two-step system. Let me say, it was well worth the time and effort. Here is a before/after of the front seats for comparison sake. Tough to really get the full picture just from these photos, but the feel and look of the leather in person is much improved. All that nasty sweat and dirt has been removed and the leather looks and feels much more rejuvenated:


Before



After



I also tried my hand at restoring the faded red seat belt buckle release buttons, based on a recent Ammo NYC video I watched. This is done using a heat gun with a reducing tip to direct the heat better. Unfortunately, the Harbor Freight heat gun accessory kit I purchased didn't have a narrow enough tip for me to get the same results as the video, but for me, it's way better than before and a significant improvement. Here are comparison photos:





My car didn't come with the owner's manual or any of the other brochures and what not. So I found a complete set (granted, from a 2002) on eBay for a good price and this is what it came with:



July 19, 2019

Swapped out the now sloppy factory shifter for a BMW Performance shifter. Replaced the worn out and cracked shifter cup, as well. Took it for a quick spin before the 100 degree heat hit yesterday and happy to report that the shifter now sits a bit lower than before (you can see the difference in length below) and the throws are definitely shorter and the sloppy play has been all but removed with this upgrade. Very happy with this modification:









Also threw up this sweet flag I scored on eBay:




July 24, 2019

Couple of photos I took at a BMW CCA Bimmers & Burgers event:












August 9, 2019

Washed the M3 for a car show I never ended up making it to. I blame that on tailgating all day for the Jimmy Buffett concert. Here are some during and after shots:

[eforty6_m3]

April 9, 2019

I did manage to clean up the garage yesterday and hang some of my BMW prints:








Since I had taken my M3 to work and I was wearing my Dialed Watch Co., I had to take advantage of the photo op:



I also took the car out for a quick rip on my lunch break and watched as the tach hit 100k miles:




April 17, 2019

I replaced the fuel door spring clip as I was sick of seeing the door not fully closed:

Before


After





The new tires I ordered also showed up. Hankook Ventus V12 Evo2's, 225/40/19 front and 255/35/19 rear. I realize there are lots of haters when it comes to Hankook (and other "non-Michelin" brands), but I've had these tires on past cars and I think they're fantastic. Especially for my needs and at their price point, I just couldn't justify spending more on the Pilot Sports, when I'm not tracking my car (yet):





I washed the car and topped it with Bead Maker:





Oh right, I had almost forgotten about this print that my wife made for me a few years ago. Need to find a good spot to hang it, but for now, I'll leave it here:




April 19, 2019

Minor aesthetic upgrade on the M3 today, which I think makes a big difference and really cleans up the front bumper. Threw on some Bimmian painted reflectors:








I also started the exhaust install and got the rear of my car up on ramps. Diffuser off:







Of course not a single one of the flange bolts holding the muffler/section 3 onto the section 2 piping came out normally. They were all rusted to shit to the point that no amount of PB Blaster would be enough. So after a ton of grinding and using my dremel, I managed to get the stock muffler off:



Since I'm doing this alone, and because the stock muffler weighs around 56 lbs, my jack came in clutch in allowing me to use it to hold up the muffler as I was removing it, and then safely lowering it down so it wouldn't fall on my skull:



Section 2 piping, minus one flange:



The flange was cracked to begin with, and knowing I wouldn't reuse it, I ended up cutting through it to assist with removing the muffler.

Exhaust comparison:






April 26, 2019

Got the exhaust installed on the M3, but still have some minor adjusting to do in order to get the tips as level as I can. Unfortunately, and I knew this possibility existed going in, the tips do point down ever so slightly. That was the risk I ran in buying the exhaust I went with. I know other owners have said they were able to alleviate the pointing down of the tips by replacing the exhaust section 2 with an aftermarket option. Not sure I want to do that just yet, so I may end up paying someone to cut off the tips and weld them back on so they aim straight back.

Before I do that, however, I need to replace the passenger side exhaust hanger and potentially shim all 3 hangers a bit in order to get the exhaust to sit more level. That may also help with the angle of the tips, so we shall see.

Here are some crude, rushed photos I managed to take:






May 8, 2019

Swapped out the bad passenger side, rear hanger which helped somewhat with the angle of the tips (still not great, though):





I also swapped out the hood grill insert where the washer jets reside, as the old one was faded from 14 years of sun. Old (left) and new (right).

[eforty6_m3]

Feb 22, 2019

Some of you may recall, but around this time (winter 2018/2019), the mid-west was dealing with extremely cold weather due to a polar-vortex. The week before the car was picked up in IL, temps were almost -60 with the wind chill. As a result, the seller was unable to wash the car, so it arrived fairly dirty. A week after she arrived, I heated up the garage and gave her a proper rinseless wash via two wipe downs of Optimum No Rinse and then Bead Maker as a drying agent/topper. I think she cleaned up extremely well:






March 1, 2019

Picked up this sweet MTech keychain from Stitchboots:


Removed the chrome kidneys (complete with gaudy radar jammers) and swapped in some gloss black examples, and installed my Obsessed Garage license plate frame:






March 11, 2019

Took the car out for a spin early last week since it ended up being a really nice day. It was only the second time I had driven it, and first since the day it arrived. I took that opportunity to take some photos in the driveway and I must say, she looks good in the sun:




March 12, 2019

I also picked up a Megan Supremo exhaust (rear section only):





I eventually plan on upgrading sections 1 and 2 of the exhaust, as well, but this'll do for now.


March 15, 2019

I also upgraded the stock shift and ebrake boots to Coby Wheel tri-stitch Alcantara boots, to match the Coby Wheel tri-stich steering wheel that came in the car:







And here are some misc parts I had accumulated for the car, waiting to get installed:





And because I'm the nerdiest 36 year old ever, I stayed up until midnight so I wouldn't miss out on the second (and final) release of the S54 Lego set from Replica Motorsport. This is one really cool set that I will proudly display in the garage:

[eforty6_m3]

Luckily for me, my "build" thread on M3Forum was pretty minimal, so I won't have much to replicate over here. That said, I can't really remember my intro, so I'll get right to the chase, cliff notes style:

Before I get into the story of my M3, let me quickly catch you up on my automotive timeline. I'm a longtime BMW enthusiast, having owned 2 E30's, an E36 and an E90 335i (N54). I had bought my most recent BMW (E90) in September of 2011, looking like this:





After 6+ years of modifying, and expecting our second son in February 2018, I decided I wanted something bigger and more rugged that could take all the abuse that two young boys could throw at it. And so I sold it January of 2018 looking like this:









Just before selling the E90, however, I had purchased the vehicle that I decided on and spent months searching and obsessing over. I found it in Delaware (I'm in Massachusetts), so the week after Thanksiving 2017, I boarded a one-way flight from PVD and was picked up at the Philly airport by the salesman I had been dealing with for weeks. After a LONG drive home (with a few pit stops), the truck I had been OBSESSING over was finally mine:





That said, (again, we're going high-level, cliff notes style), after nearly a year ownership, I decided daily driving a truck wasn't really my thing and that I really missed being behind the wheel of a BMW and driving stick. After hanging out in my neighbors garage (he's a car guy, through and through) one night, we got to talking and I started thinking about what car I'd want if I were to sell my Raptor. I initially threw around a few ideas, from an E28 535i to an E36 M3. But then realized one of my dream cars from my college days ('05 graduate) was now a realistic possibility for me. So my search for an E46 M3 began.

However, knowing I wouldn't be daily driving the M3 (2 kids and all, and I live in New England...so snow and salt), I needed to settle on a daily driver. Not knowing what I wanted long-term, I decided to look into leasing for the first time ever. Wanting something relatively affordable (leaving me more money to spend on the M3), I wound up with a 2018 Honda Accord Sport 1.5T:



Now that I had a new daily driver on hand, I got to selling the Raptor, which ended up selling fairly quickly looking like this:




OK, so this is more or less about the time where the story of my M3 begins, so I'll try and be a bit more detailed here. To reiterate from earlier, I'd fallen in love with the E46 M3 when I first laid my eyes on it. I even had a poster of it on my college dorm room wall! Even while selling the Raptor and looking for a daily, I had been perusing cargurus.com, autotrader.com, cars.com, Facebook Marketplace, craigslist, and just about every BMW forum known to man looking for my ideal car. I ruled a few items out from the get go, namely the following:

• No SMG
• No convertibles
• No black
• No TiAG

Knowing I'd have to look outside my immediate area, I started finding more options that were in my ballpark. After almost buying an Imola Red example from upstate NY (which fell through due to some "last minute" bubbling issues the seller noticed with the paint...which was just one of the issues I had with the seller), I found what appeared to look like a relatively clean example on Cars.com, located in Winnebago,IL. Here are the photos from the original listing:

















That interior and those comp wheels really had me drooling over this car! The seller ended up being a very nice guy who did a great job of responding in a timely manner to my myriad of questions. He sent me tons and tons of photos and videos of the car, including specific shots/videos I had requested (cold start, walk around video, etc.). He even sent me the PPI he had done prior to him purchasing the car a few years prior, showing no major issues with the car, including the normal items (rear subframe, vanos, etc.).

After a few days of back and forth texting/phone calls/emails, etc., we agreed on a price, pending a PPI. As you can see from the listing photos, he had two sets of wheels for the car. The car wasn't a competition model, but I much prefer the look of the ZCP wheels, so the price we agreed on was including the ZCP wheels. I could have purchased the car for $1k less if I took the other wheels, but the ZCP wheels had just been freshly powder-coated and I wanted them!

Being a BMW CCA member, I reached out to a few resources in the Chicago/IL area to help point me to a reputable indy shop to get the PPI performed at. Eric Kaul (some of you may know the name, as he's very active in the BMW/autocross scene) reached out to some of his connections in the area, and they ended up pointing me to German Auto Werks. Oddly enough, as the seller was waiting for the PPI to finish up, he texted me 2 hours or so in and said that with the PPI he had done elsewhere, the car was in and out in under an hour. So clearly this one was much more thorough (more on that shortly). Which makes sense, because I had the option of having the shop drop the subframe to properly inspect for cracks (for more $, obviously), which I agreed to. Rather be safe than sorry.

Well, as luck would have it, the PPI came back with a decent amount of findings. Much of these items were either things I was already aware of, or items that I could prioritize and slowly address/tackle myself. However, there were cracks present, as well as stored Vanos faults. I was pretty bummed once I received the report, but so was the seller. He was upset that the shop that performed his PPI when he bought the car clearly didn't do enough investigative work, because many of these items would probably have been discovered earlier. So with my high hopes of buying a car now deflated, I told the seller that unless he was willing to accept a much lower price, I was going to have no choice but to continue my search elsewhere.

About a month went by and I was still having no luck finding the right car. Tons of convertibles, tons of SMGs, but nothing I really wanted or could afford. Throughout this time, the seller had been periodically reaching out, keeping me up to date on the progress of the car. He told me that after initially "sulking" about it, he turned this opportunity into a positive. He had always planned to address those big ticket items as preventative maintenance, but never had the time. But he decided he would make time and perform those repairs himself. Told me that he had been working on cars for 30+ years, including engine/transmission swaps and some engine rebuilds. Again, I was all but set on another car, but I could never quite get this one out of my head.

He sent me an album containing photos of all the work he had done and documented and man, he was thorough. He ended up doing the following work:

• Vanos rebuild, w/ all new seals & anti-rattle kit
• Valves adjusted
• A/C belt replaced
• Power steering hose bolt replaced
• Reinforced sub-frame
• New sub-frame bushings
• Valve cover gasket

After the repairs were 100% done, he again texted me on 1/27/19 letting me know the car was done, if I was still interested. After some more back and forth, I texted him back the morning of 2/2/19, telling him he had a deal. Now I needed to get working on the logistics to get the car home. On advice from Rob Siegel (BMW CCA member and writer), I ended up using GARTHO LOGISTICS to ship my car in an enclosed trailer.

Feb 9, 2019

The trailer arrived in Winnebago,IL on 2/9/19 to pick up the car for delivery. The seller took this video of the car being loaded and texted it to me:

Feb 16, 2019

As luck would have it, the car arrived one week later, on my youngest son's 1st birthday. With how my face lit up that day, you'd think it was my birthday!:

More to come as I get my ish together...