Tyler's 04 slicktop 6spd Silvergrey MCS/Brembo/CSL/Karbonius/Nogaros/Supersprint

[jet_dogg]

I’m surprised the spherical bearing of the Vorahlag plates had worse steering feel than the TMS Street camber plates? 🤔

Note: I personally have the Ground Control Hybrid setup (which is like the race version with a small polyurethane bushing) and don’t know if my steering feel was any better or worse.

Me too, with motons and monoball plates I had incredible steering feel back in the day. Additionally, I could feel if I ran over a dime going slow over smooth pavement.

[Tbonem3]

It's ok. Nobody believed me about the monoball fcabs or the SS dual pipe sect 2 either.

[Tbonem3]

After I was happy with everything and drove it a bit, I made an appt for an alignment at JMP in the valley here. Ride height (center cap to fender) is 13.375" Front & 13" Rear without me in it, but half tank.




Looks like I did a very good job on my DIY camber adjustment (weighted string), so that's cool. I had set the camber plates for maximum caster, but you can see that it came out with a half degree disparity. It now pulls slightly to the right. The shop said they couldn't fix it because our strut towers' hole isn't big enough to access the 4 bolts. I wasn't going to pay another $120 for them to drop the struts and adjust (guesswork). I'll do it myself later. I'll mark the plates and tower in order to reach the same camber, but I'll bring the driver strut's caster forward a hair.

I've been busy with the steelgrey car, and it's been a while since I detailed the car. I already have and used Mother's CMX coating spray (sio2/tio2) to very good effect on a tiag 128i. Fellow member and professional detailer here mentioned he liked Mother's CMX polish - it contains the sealant in it for a one step, and it promotes adhesion of other ceramic coatings or sprays after it cures 24hrs. I used a medium/light (green) LC CSS pad so that there'd be some cut, but a fine finish. (order is [softest] black [no cut], blue, green, white, orange)



The polish/sealant is very nice to use. Pretty creamy, more like Griot's for longer work time. Doesn't nearly dry up and dust like Meg's 205. It's thicker too, not watery.



I usually use a MF applicator to apply the CMX sealant spray, but had some cheap foam ones. They just smeared it around. When applied with MF, it sets up just like wax (hazy, not streaky), and wipes away just like wax (I love real wax). I'll never use these foam applicators again - junk.

Never the less, the car came out great (the polish/pad is chiefly responsible for the gloss factor):





Out of the fluorescent, into the day light






My favorite pic (shows the new stance as well):

[Sharocks]

Tyler, build is looking great bud.

Really gives me inspiration to not be lazy haha.

[Tbonem3]

Tyler, build is looking great bud.

Really gives me inspiration to not be lazy haha.

Thanks! Ha, nice! I'm lucky I genuinely like wrenching and cleaning lol

[loudspeaker69]

To confirm: what FCAB do you use ?

[Tbonem3]

Stock. Replaced often.

[loudspeaker69]

Stock. Replaced often.

Why stock?
Just curious….

[Tbonem3]

That's not the right question. The right question is, "why aftermarket?" If there's not a compelling enough reason to go with a different part, you don't.

In the case of FCABs, the only change that makes sense is solid or spherical for a race application. Fresh rubber is amazing. Few owners, today, know what a new E46 M3 feels like. The only places where I think there's no trade-off is RTAB and subframe. Indeed, I'd recommend aftermarket in these 2 locations even for a street car. And I'd only recommend poly in a few, very specific locations where there is no articulation/rotation.

[loudspeaker69]

That's not the right question. The right question is, "why aftermarket?" If there's not a compelling enough reason to go with a different part, you don't.

In the case of FCABs, the only change that makes sense is solid or spherical for a race application. Fresh rubber is amazing. Few owners, today, know what a new E46 M3 feels like. The only places where I think there's no trade-off is RTAB and subframe. Indeed, I'd recommend aftermarket in these 2 locations even for a street car. And I'd only recommend poly in a few, very specific locations where there is no articulation/rotation.

Noted.

[Casa de Mesa]

[SIZE=14px]September 2019



Not sure what led me down the path to seats, probably just tired of how bad the stock ones are. I have manual seats with no adjustments to lumbar or sides, so I really slide around a lot in the stockers...

I got the street versions in vinyl.

Hey Tyler. How does the vinyl compare/fit in with your Nappa leather elsewhere? Does it feel out of place?

From your pictures, it looks absolutely perfect, but pictures can be deceiving. However based on your review, vinyl/Dinamica center seems to play the part well. The leather/Dinamica upgrade is a steep step up and I'm trying to weigh if it's worth it.

I'm considering this mod after looking at yours, Ian's and others posts on this. Like you, I have never liked the stock M3 seats. After you've spent time in a race seat, nothing compares. This is a pretty good middle ground for a street car, dropping a nice chunk of weight while you're at it.

Love the stitching coloration, BTW. Super slick detail. Well done.

[Tbonem3]

Thank you. I couldn't be happier with them. Maybe they could be tilted a bit further back, but I never feel like they're at a standard of quality lower than the factory surfaces. Whatsoever. I would assume leather might feel a little more substantial, esp on the shoulder "wings", but this is the most impressive vinyl I've ever seen/felt. I'm not missing leather at all, really. The fabric center is high quality as well. The damn white stitching was the only let down. But I made lemonade.

[Mike0032]

My favorite pic (shows the new stance as well):

Ooof. This is good.

[Tbonem3]

Some little things...

The hood grille is one of the parts that miraculously hasn't shot up in price, so figured I'd replace it. The original always looked good since I often treated it, but most of the clips had broken by now.

It wasn't until I put the old next to a new one, that I saw how worn (shinny, left side) it really was:



You can see many broken clips on the old one


New one popped in



Sprayers in. Not much difference in pictures, but it does look a little better in person



Other new trim piece I bought, which was more expensive, was the dead pedal. My original was actually in good shape, but there was a bad scratch right up front that was too noticeable, so here we go.



Unfortunately, BMW factory trim parts are looking worse and worse. They got some little kids in the factory painting these things or something, look at this finish:



Here's the scratch on my original



And the top was cracked after being removed too many times



While I was doing this, I also uninstalled my TMS pedals. I came to not like the pedals. The grip was actually too much and I was having trouble removing my foot fast enough with spirited driving. I also didn't like how it made the gas pedal heavier and harder to modulate with the increased throttle mapping in my tune.

So I bought new rubber covers. I loved the look of the TMS, but I'm happier back with stock now.




Last thing - Years ago, John (Donutboi if anyone remembers) gave me some parts when he moved to e92, and one of them was a like new ebrake. The handle on my original ebrake was well worn. I thought you could simply remove the handle, but after trying my hardest, it wouldn't budge, so I just replaced the whole unit:

[Rekpoint]

Nice touch on the hood vent. Just purchased one earlier today. For $37 and an FCP lifetime guarantee it's hard to say no.