My Slow Burn (E46 M3)

[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...