Immaculate low mileage 2004 Silver Grey CSL Inspired Build

[Avedis]

Beautiful car ! Love a clean SG.

Was the dent removal person well experienced? Is it a mobile only service or do they have a shop too? Looking to remove a few dings from my Z4

He is very experienced and I would highly recommend him. I am very particular, and he definitely shares my standard/attention to detail. He has done my X7, and my neighbor's GT-R in the past. As far as I know, he is mobile only. You can contact him HERE.

[Maxima SE]

Beautiful car ! Love a clean SG.

Was the dent removal person well experienced? Is it a mobile only service or do they have a shop too? Looking to remove a few dings from my Z4

[Tbonem3]

Nice! I just want to buy E46 M3s and do this to them all day long.

[Avedis]

Lighting was taped off and polished


Had to break out the nano polisher to get into the intricate areas without risking damage to the adjoining panels





The whole car was polished as needed. Some areas needed two stage correction, some needed a single stage with multiple passes, and some just needed one single pass. Even though I blew out my pads often and changed pads frequently, the car was covered in polishing residue. The car was wiped down with alcohol prep to remove leftover polish and polishing oils.


Prior to putting the polishing gear away, I used the same polish and pad combo to correct the side markers.


I also polished the side grills with the same combo. You can really tell a difference, especially in the gel coat of the M3 badge. Top grill is unpolished, bottom is polished.


Used pads from the day


Switched my setup from correction mode to protection mode.




Prior to coating the car, I wrapped a small plastic tool in a microfiber. I used the tool to get into all the panel gaps and crevices. You can see how much trapped dirt and polish residue I was able to get out. I got this technique from Jim @ WhiteDetails. He calls it “toothpickery”. It’s a subtle detail but it makes a huge difference. Nothing is worse than a nicely detailed car with polish and residue in all the nooks and crannies.



I used a sharp bamboo toothpick and applied the factory BMW touch up paint to the rock chips around the car. I did not photograph the process. After the touch up paint dried, I applied the first layer of ceramic coating. For the base layer, I used Gyeon Evo Mohs. With just one layer, the paint already looked very glossy. Tomorrow I will finalize with the top layers of ceramic coating, tidy the windows, dress tires, and all the small details to wrap thing up.




Day 3, all finished

[Avedis]

Spent the day decontaminating and preparing the paint for correction. After fully stripping the paint bare, I was able to find a few small scuffs.



Prior to correcting the whole car, I went through the car and found all the spots that needed extra attention. A few before and afters:


Scratch on rear quarter near the driver's side door handle



Strange rust/abrasion spot underneath the license plate. Not perfect but much improved.



Scratch on rear quarter above the passenger's side taillight



Scratch on trunk lid. After taking this photo, I found a few longer/shallower scratches on the trunk. The whole thing needed a few passes of correction.



Also found that this was a perfect time to remove the sharkfin antenna. First I cut through the adhesive foam with fishing line. I then removed the antenna, and removed the adhesive foam. I removed wire from the rear windscreen gasket. The antenna was unplugged from the trunk, then fully removed. The hole in the trunk was plugged with a BMW blindplug.







Here you can see the damage left from removal. A few passes of correction and it looked flawless.



After the worst spots were sorted, I started the polishing process on the rest of the car. This will be a multi day process, which will include polishing all the lighting, glass, trim, and paint. The car will then receive a multi-stage ceramic coating. I will update as the process continues.

[Thoglan]

I've been meaning to go with a button delete on my wheel as well since I already have no radio. I've just been waiting to do the Z4 cruise control stalk so there is no loss of functionality.

[SQ13]

Interior looks sooooo simple with the radio and wheel button delete. Love it!

[Avedis]

Dinan pedal set install. Installation was relatively straight forward an not much to document. Went full OCD and aligned the screw heads so they were all aligned/matching +
New airbag also went in and dash trim was reinstalled. Everything looking buttoned up, really making me want to go for a drive.

[Str8f4c3]

Blank upper steering wheel trim and refinished lower steering wheel trim installed. Loving this streamlined and driving focused setup.

Absolutely LOVE the look of a button-delete wheel. Had one in my first M3. I believe there is a DIY around here somewhere for retrofitting the z4 cruise control stalk, so you can keep cruise and have the clean wheel. Great thread so far, keep it up!

[Avedis]

Blank upper steering wheel trim and refinished lower steering wheel trim installed. Loving this streamlined and driving focused setup.

[Avedis]

BMW NA coordinated with local dealerships to send a mobile tech out to replace the car's airbags. Reading through the forums, I found it was best to do all the prep work myself to minimize possible damages to the car.


I removed the trim, screws, and air vent then very carefully checked the passenger’s side airbag cover. Unfortunately the white single use retaining clip that was integrated into the airbag cover was already broken. I took the entire airbag cover and cradle/mount out. I mended the tab with a little bit of 2 part epoxy. I made sure to use the epoxy extremely sparingly, so that the tab could break, as designed, when the airbag deploys




I fully prepped the car but the technician never showed up. Turns out the appointment somehow never got submitted.


In the meantime, I took on my nav delete / HVAC control relocation project. I wanted to delete the navigation, add a radio delete panel, move the HVAC, and add a sunglass tray. To do this I ordered the following:
Radio delete panel (65128229147)
Radio frame mounting bracket (51458237560)
New instrument panel switch center without rounded corners (51168268891)
Sunglass tray(51168260312)



Lower components removed


Nav unit removed. Highly recommend buying these factory nav removal tools. Made it very easy to remove.



Radio frame mounting bracket going in


Transferred the cigarette lighter and buttons over to the new instrument switch panel


Everything back in. Awaiting new airbags then the dash trim will be reinstalled.


I reconnected the battery to test the HVAC unit. I was caught off guard when NPR radio channel came on instantly and incredibly loud despite the nav unit being removed. I will have to disconnect the audio components in the trunk until I get around to physically removing them.

[WestBankM4]

Great build journal, keep us all in the loop. Extremely clean example to start working on, I'm sure your son will appreciate it in his growing years.

[Will]

Car looks great, congrats. Looking forward to updates. The homes in the background of some photos reminds me of neighborhoods around me. If so, see you around.

[eforty6_m3]

Can't wait to see where this goes. So far, great work!

[Sharocks]

Man doing all this to a 26k mile car is wild in this economy.

Good for you haha