2001 M3 Journey: Laguna Seca Blue Edition

[OPS]

bavarian3 Your calipers were done extremely nice! I love to see them nice and fresh and I agree once you get to feel a fixed caliper compared to a sliding caliper there is no going back! And I always like to remind folks dust boots should always go on dry like you did. Bravo!

[bavarian3]

Megane RS, 996 Brake Retrofit

It's been 2 months since I last posted, but as usual things are always in motion. Next up was to overhaul the brakes.

I went back and forth on all kinds of setups, even purchasing retrofit brackets for Alfa Romeo Quadrifoglio calipers. In the end, due to the weight reduction, brake bias, look and feel, I decided to go with Megane RS fronts and 996 rear calipers.


The Megane RS come new in box with brackets and lines from freakyparts.co.uk. 996 came from ebay for a steal of a price in decent shape. Rallyroad was used for brackets and lines.





I thought about running them red, even to the point of refinishing the rears. As soon as I tried them on though, I knew it wasn't the look I was going for.






Knowing what a pain refinishing is, and not having the means to spray 2k clear, I found a powdercoater to take them on for a good deal.

So I got to disassembling. I knicked a couple 996 pistons and seals in the process, and decided to just purchase full rebuild kits from OPS while everything was out.




They came back looking so good. I went with simple gloss black, as you can see. Here they are all refinished with powdercoat, seals, and pistons.






Don't forget stickers. Conveniently get a gf that has a cricut with existing vinyl cutting skills. We mocked up the brembo motorcycle logo and she somewhat-gracefully made various test pieces to eventually get it where I wanted. The fun part is these can always be changed.




Everything ready to go. I went with Zimmerman zcp rotors. Don't mind the other stuff in the background...





The install was one of the most rage inducing processes I've done. To be frank, feakyparts included hardware was poorly selected. Insufficiently lengthed bolts, poor fitting or completely missing washers, etc.





Good opportunity to remove all the old crap including studs. These came out easily with a little heat. The hex bit removed them fine even though they're "not for removal"





Front looking good, after much pain and waiting on hardware orders.




Trimming the rear shields wasn't too bad with snips. I think I removed more after this pic. Also painted exposed edges and gave the hubs a good scrubbing after.




I used all new piston shims on the rear, hoping to avoid squeal.




Finally everything was in and ready for bleeding. The Shwaben power bleeder was amazing at this.




Looks like the fluid was due for a change. Cola?





Went out and bedded the pads in, and gave the car a much needed wash.







Thoughts - So, I have a squealing issue with the pads on the front and rear. I will continue troubleshooting this, but outside of that wow! The brake feel is amazing, and the car really flies with more unsprung weight knocked off. The look with the black calipers and new rotors is just what I was going for too. Subtle but so much better than stock.

It's too bad the pads will likely need to be changed as the dust is low, and I'm perfectly happy with their performance.

Stay tuned for those other parts to get installed. I swear once those are in I'll get some proper pics of the car, I might even drive it a few miles.

[bavarian3]

You can swap the LCM face to get rid of the auto lights setting. Also, even without the windshield sensor, the auto setting is useful as it will turn your headlights and parking lights off automatically when you shut the car off, preventing an accidental battery drain.

Thanks for the tip I had no idea. Since I don't want my headlights on when driving in the day I think I'll go the faceplate swap route.

[Bry5on]

You can swap the LCM face to get rid of the auto lights setting. Also, even without the windshield sensor, the auto setting is useful as it will turn your headlights and parking lights off automatically when you shut the car off, preventing an accidental battery drain.

[bavarian3]

Lighting and trim reinstall


I started with reinstalling the refreshed wipers, hood vent, and new windshield cowl. SEM trim paint is ever so slightly satin, but if you want you can apply a matte clear for additional flatness. I think it looks perfect.

Don't mind my dog's toys they're everywhere.





The csl parts were still at the body shop, but they were able to turn around the grills promptly. These are genuine grills professionally sprayed gloss black. This is the same as what IND does.

I know the chrome grill purists will rage, but this is the way to go on lsb imo. Easily changeable anyways. Also had some new grill badges laying around but it looks like they're knockoffs.





In they go along with new side markers. What a difference.





Next up the headlights and new corner lights, and fogs. The fog lights were tough, as the price for new is ridiculously expensive. I first tried to sand and polish the existing ones without luck. I ended up taking the plunge on "TYC" brand.

The TYC(right) lenses look great, no discernible difference on look, but they do weigh less.





Because it is a hassle finding these, and they get beat up down there, I decided to have them PPF'd. Perfect timing as I took my girls Alfa Romeo in for tint and they owed me a favor.

PPF is so good now days you can't tell it's there. Fitment was perfect, and the refreshed trim went in place without issue. Nothing loose.





Headlights as shown in the previous post, looking mint with new corner lights.





Tackled the tail lights next. Early models require some mild effort to install LED tails properly. There's nothing worse than seeing those aftermarket LED tail lights with the black outline. The process is really quite simple.

First acquire a newer version LCM. Unfortunately this does add a useless auto headlight switch state without the proper windshield.




Then a couple easily sourced adapters to mount the early model harnesses to the led lights.




Then just follow the coding process(also easily sourced) to rewrite the new LCM using PA soft 1.4. Actual process took like 2mins.




Now enjoy your new genuine taillights with no dash lights or flickers, and go get a smog.

Inner lights will come with that whole csl trunk thing.




Will grab some proper pics soon. Gas cap and reflectors were still at the shop.





Soon...

[Grey Phox]

Grey Phox I went back and forth on this. They're easily replaceable lenses, so FCP warranty(and not tailgaiting semis) is the answer. I wasn't sure I could effectively apply PPF, it degrades, and you have to buy the material. With that said, look out for my next post where I'll cover what I did with the fog lights.

Fair enough. Luckily I got the pre-cut stuff, less hassle imo.

Looking forward to see what you did there. I'm not the biggest LSB fan but the car looks great and seems to be in more than capable hands. Nice work.

[bavarian3]

0-60motorsports Sharocks Loopyspec Rokoz appreciate it guys!!

Grey Phox I went back and forth on this. They're easily replaceable lenses, so FCP warranty(and not tailgaiting semis) is the answer. I wasn't sure I could effectively apply PPF, it degrades, and you have to buy the material. With that said, look out for my next post where I'll cover what I did with the fog lights.

[Rokoz]

This thread makes me want to ACT UP. Stunning work... Glad to know I can save all those crusty plastic bits with a good cleaning and SEM

[Grey Phox]

Being you replaced both headlight lenses, are you putting on Laminx or something similar over them? Is that even a thing for the E46's? I did it over a decade ago at least to the ZKWs on my E36 and it absolutely saved them many times.

[Loopyspec]

Love the progress. It's giving me motivation to start working on mine

[Sharocks]

Man is spending cheddar and time.

Commendable.

[0-60motorsports]

Looks so good.

[bavarian3]

Paint correcting.

This is the first time I've gone into the a deep invested paint correction. I was a little surprised by how long it took, but I got used to it and took my time. The process took 1-2weeks working when I had time, and not too late to avoid pissing off my neighbors.

I would say about 20-30hrs invested. The results were dramatic.



First step was stripping off all the old.





Griots DA polishers were used with orange pads paired with Sonax CutMax, then black pads with Sonax Perfect Finish.





Prep was easy with all the lighting and trim removed.










Perfect time to do the LED tail light swap too.







First pass. The CutMax is crazy good and practically looks finished already. It does haze over though which is normal.

A good tapeoff comparison.





So much glosss.











And "just like that" days later we're all done. I went back and forth on sealant, but decided on Collinite 845. Have to stay period correct amright.

Pictures uploaded here don't do it justice.








I'll post more pics in the next post where I'll cover the lighting and trim installation. Before that, I prepped the LED tail lights that would replace the old stuff.

These take to polish quite easily.










Bangin.






While this was all in-progress, OEM grills, reflectors, and "some other goodies" went off to the paint shop. Stay tuned!

[bavarian3]

Starting the exterior restoration.

Focus is now getting the exterior restored. All the faded plastic bits, front clip parts, yellowed lighting, roundels, paint correction. Everything had to come out.


Faded cowl and wipers.








Yuck






Headlight dissassembly is a paint for those with headlight washers. So much dirt.




All lighting is getting replaced/restored where needed. This gave me an opportunity to restore the inner trim.






Front bumper had to come out to get to the grill. Front clip trim, and front aux fan had to come out for cleanup.








I'm trying to be less wasteful on replacing parts that function well as is. So I decided not to mess with the condenser as it was it fine condition.

Got creative.


You all laugh, but it worked great on the oil and ac condensers.





Looking much better. Lot's of degreasing and trim restorer.





Trim parts went through the same process as previous trim. Lots of SEM trim black.




Re-assembling the front clip trim




No more dirt or faded parts. Might seem crazy to do this, but these parts show through the grills and bumper. It's all in the details!





Reassembling the headlights with freshly restored trim.




New new






Crazy difference.







Lighting install will have to wait however. With most of it and external trim still removed, I realized it made sense to take care of the paint correction.

I had a lot of this equipment around but hadn't set aside the time for it yet. Little did I know how much time I would spend on it. I'll get into this in the next post.

[M3Garand]

Very nice build