Immaculate low mileage 2004 Silver Grey CSL Inspired Build

[Slideways]

In regards to the shift knob and boot, it is a ZHP shift knob paired with the imitation leather (or real leather, NLA) shift boot found on the standard E46. If it were a cut factory M3 shift boot, it would have four stitch lines and it would be smooth nappa leather rather than the textured imitation leather. There are also aftermarket leather shift boot options that usually have that course grain leather.

Edit: BMW might have discontinued the real leather E46 shift boot and only offer the vinyl and alcantara ones now.

[Kipjames3]

Avedis thank you. I've been reading people doing that so maybe I'll have to end up going that route. Are you thinking about going alcantara wheel and shift boot at any point?

[Avedis]

Fridays have become my day to go and check on the progress of the paintwork. Now that all the big Monterey Car Week jobs are done, Dave was able to have his team make progress on my M3. Not a bad list to be on!


Prior to getting there, my M3 was already in the paint booth. The booth was already closed and pressurized, so I couldn't really get inside to snap photos of all the prep work they did. Even so, I could see that the paint was sanded down, and all the holes and sensitive areas were meticulously masked off.


That said, Dave knew that I wanted photos for this build thread, and he snapped some photos before I arrived.





I am not an expert on paintwork, and I had a lot of basic and probably annoying questions about the process. Dave handled my barrage of questions with grace and gave me a tour of the paint mixing room. I mentioned in a previous post that Dave did 10 color/texture samples for my car, each utilizing different paint manufacturers, spray guns, and adjustments. I was surprised to find that they got the best match with PPG paint. Dave went over all the paint brands he stocks (Sikken, PPG, and Glasurit), and their different applications. The conversation was far beyond my knowledge level but I appreciated the time and explanation. Fun note, the binders on top of the paint cabinets contain every car that they have painted in this paintbooth. They are able to pull every detail, the brand, mixing formula, spray gun, nozzle, pressure settings, etc should they need to work on that same car in the future.


All of my parts were either in the process, or in the queue. By the end of next week, everything should be painted, and finish work can begin. Hopefully the next update will be in a few weeks when I am trailering the car M3 back to my garage.

You have a link to the hardware on that magnetic plate setup you rigged together? I like that a lot

Definitely, you can get them HERE. Pair those with a thin sheet of galvanized steel ($0.98 from Lowes) and you should be good to go. If you want to do it a more legit, complex and overpriced way, you can always try the Carbonex kit HERE

Avedis is that the stock shift boot or did you change that out as well? I'm assuming that's a OEM ZHP weighted shift knob also? I'm asking because I might be doing a manual swap soon and want to keep a leather interior so I don't want the ZHP alcantara shift boot + weighted knob combo that only seems to be available. I have read the OEM broomstick leather shift boot doesn't fit the ZHP knob due to the shortened height of the ZHP knob.

The shift knob is one of the few modifications the car came with when I purchased it. I'm going to be totally honest, I'm not sure. It looks/feels like an OEM ZHP weighted knob, on a factory shift boot thats been cut, inverted, then ziptied on from the underside. Nothing about it looks or feels aftermarket. Maybe it’s taken from another BMW model. I haven't read that specific combo wouldn't work. I'm sure someone here has done it and can answer that question with certainty.

[Kipjames3]

Avedis is that the stock shift boot or did you change that out as well? I'm assuming that's a OEM ZHP weighted shift knob also? I'm asking because I might be doing a manual swap soon and want to keep a leather interior so I don't want the ZHP alcantara shift boot + weighted knob combo that only seems to be available. I have read the OEM broomstick leather shift boot doesn't fit the ZHP knob due to the shortened height of the ZHP knob.

[BADCLOWN]

You have a link to the hardware on that magnetic plate setup you rigged together? I like that a lot

[AWE46M3]

Remember that F40 getting clipped by a big rig and wondering when I’d see it again - nice to know it’s in great hands (along with your car). Love this build! Thank you for the write up to kick off the weekend

[Avedis]

Went to Premier Motorsports today to check on the progress. As expected (and disclosed to me) there was not much movement on the project. They had some really big projects that they needed to wrap up for Monterey car week before they could get to my M3.

Again, when I arrived the lobby was full of different supercars. I went to the body shop area and was happy to see my car was in the queue and was protected with plastic wrap. Dave unwrapped the car and went over all the little details on how they had to prep the CSL trunk. A lot of work went into the corner area and the sides that meet the rear quarter panel (shut lines). It still needs alignment after paint.








Dave also showed me the prep work needed for carbon parts. They were in the early stages, but the carbon parts were rough sanded, and the inside taped off to retain the carbon look and prevent overspray.





When Dave said he was going to do some testing, he wasn't joking. They used multiple paint manufacturers, spray guns, air pressure settings, etc. He explained each change, and how those changes affect the final product. Dave then went over every color sample they sprayed and we held them up to the door, which was our point of reference. I appreciated how technical all of it was. Of the ten samples shown, we narrowed it down to two that were near perfect.




Dave also gave me a mini tour of all the individual work areas which are dedicated to bigger projects. This one in particular had a F40 LM with some serious damage. This gives you an idea of the level of work they are doing there.

The lineup of cars in there is wild. Did he say what kind of work the Senna was getting? I wouldn't even want to touch the original panels and paint, but stuff happens to even supercars I guess!

It looked like it hit something soft at high speed, like a traffic cone. The impact was hard enough to crack the epoxy on the carbon, but not enough to do real damage. Dave said he repaired the epoxy and was prepping the panel for clear. Pretty high level stuff.

[simon_c]

Once again the level of detail here is next level. I thought I was meticulous about things but nowhere near this

[bavarian3]

The lineup of cars in there is wild. Did he say what kind of work the Senna was getting? I wouldn't even want to touch the original panels and paint, but stuff happens to even supercars I guess!

Hopefully your car won't be gone for too long.

[Avedis]

I finalized my drop off date and time and got to all the little last minute details to prep the car for paint. I then removed the hood and found some heavy duty plastic seat covers to protect the Recaros while in the shop.



I’m really fortunate to have a neighbor who is a Nissan master-tech, GT-R owner, and 240sx track car driver. He is infinitely knowledgeable and experienced with cars and was generous enough to help me load up my M3 on his trailer.




We arrived at Premier Motorsports and were greeted with a new group of ridiculous cars, including this fully exposed carbon McLaren Senna





Dave came out and went over every little detail of the job (for the third time). I really appreciated his willingness to listen to my wants, point of view, and concerns. He has a lot of big projects going on, so it’s going to be a while before I get the car back. I will continue to order parts and prep for the return of the car. I will keep you all updated along the way.

[Arlen4369]

Very surprised Dave picked up your car knowing he doesn’t work on non OEM parts. That aside you found yourself the best paint shop congratulations hope to see your build sometime on the road .

[Avedis]

Continuing where I left off, prepping for paintwork. Lots of little loose ends, last minute removals, and notes added. My goal is to do as much as possible prior to drop off. Even though I genuinely believe Dave is one of the best painters in California, I have an inherent distrust in body shops. I’d rather remove the extra exterior trim piece or interior panel than risk accidental damage while the car is out of my hands.

The passenger door will be getting removed by Dave just prior to paint. I disconnected the wiring harness, removed the CSL door panel, and reinstalled the interior door pull onto the bare door. Again, the goal is to make it as easy and safe as possible for Dave and his team.





Here is the passenger’s side prepped and ready to go.



Next, I prepared the CSL diffuser for paint. Most of you know this already, but the factory CSL diffuser has a valley line that separates the painted portion and unpainted portion of the diffuser. If you look really closely, you’ll see that the valley line is actually painted. I know it’s a small detail, but I absolutely hate how this was done from the factory. It looks like someone just did a really poor job masking, especially in the top portion. Below is an image I stole which shows what I’m rambling on about.



Again, my build is CSL inspired, not a CSL replica. I’m going to make a tiny (but in my eyes substantial) change by purposely not painting the valley line. Essentially I’m doing the opposite mask as the factory. I special ordered some super thin masking tape just so that I could show Dave how I wanted it masked without there being any assumptions or misinterpretation. I have issues, I know.





In the back of my head, I always had the idea of putting a German plate on the car, but I had no hard plans. In 2015, my wife did a European Delivery of her F30 335i. The car came with the German Zoll plates with Munich marking (first letter M), and tourist registration stamp. I thought it would be a fun idea to play off of this. I put one of her plates on the car then did a few digital mockups. I always tell my son that the M3 is going to be his car one day, so I settled on the plate M 3246 E. The letters being his initials, the 3246 for the displacement of the S54. The registration date is 10.11.21 which is his birthday.



While I was at it, I mocked up the a digital version of the plate, and the placement of the ///M3 badge on the trunk. This is what I settled on.



I also toyed with the idea of doing an ///M3cs badge. Thoughts?


After the renders, I ordered the real version


I wanted a quick and easy way to change plates between the California and German versions. I found a set of rubberized magnets with a M5 sized stud built in. They fit perfectly in the license plate mounts that get pushed into the CSL trunk.



Cool idea except the plates are aluminum and don’t work with the magnets. I initially purchased some magnets to glue onto the plate itself. It didn’t work out, as the connection was weak, and the magnets were too thick. I settled on the thinnest piece of galvanized steel I could find. It was significantly stronger and more low profile. I epoxied them to the plate so that I could simply snap the plate on and off. I might end up just bailing on the whole idea and just using double sided tape so that it's even more low profile. Either way, it was a fun mini project.




Last step is to schedule the exact drop off date, remove the hood, then trailer the car over to Dave's shop. This will be in the next post.

Here is another random project I was working on. I recently got a new bookshelf/console in my bedroom, I was looking for artwork to fill up the 5 shelves that the console has. For one of them, I purchased a bunch of used $5.00 BMW books on eBay, stacked them up and threw an old roundel next to it.

Crazy impressive work as always! Looking forward to the next update.

Did you talk to the shop about paint brand? Glasurit yielded better(color match and clear coat quality) results than PPG in my recent experience and is what bmw factory uses afaik. If he's as good as you say then I'm sure you're covered either way!

BTW this seems like a good time for a CF roof just sayin =)

When I initially brought the car to Dave's shop, he walked out and said, "Ok, so, Glasurit, we'll do some testing." Thats about as far as the conversation went. I will discuss more details with him on drop off. Carbon roof is coming, I just couldn't justify it right now, lots going on with work and family at the moment. It will happen, probably sometime in 2026 though.

Were there any issues or concerns with the MEs front bumper? I'm getting mine installed soon and just wondering if you found anything wrong or that needed corrected with it.

No concerns, it was uneventful in the best way possible. One thing to note is that with the top weather stripping on the bumper, it was a bit hard push in. Without the weather stripping, it was significantly easier.

[slavik1988]

In preparation for the return of the car, I purchased a ton of new clips, grommets, seals, screws, expanding rivets, etc. Sadly, this is what $400 of new genuine BMW hardware looks like, most of it you’ll never see.
[/QUOTE]

Damn, I can attest to that. Hardware is not cheap for these E46 M3s. I am just glad mine was garage kept since new but even then, these cars are getting old and the hardware is breaking.

[D-O]

Were there any issues or concerns with the MEs front bumper? I'm getting mine installed soon and just wondering if you found anything wrong or that needed corrected with it.

Mine fit like a glove right out of the box.

[0-60motorsports]

Crazy impressive work as always! Looking forward to the next update.

Did you talk to the shop about paint brand? Glasurit yielded better(color match and clear coat quality) results than PPG in my recent experience and is what bmw factory uses afaik. If he's as good as you say then I'm sure you're covered either way!

BTW this seems like a good time for a CF roof just sayin =)

GLASURIT is top notch.