Keith’s E46 M3 build log.

[blknsilver4life]

Airbox is beautiful in matte!

[Keith_MN]

Coming up on two years of ownership and happy with the progress.

Spent some time a couple months ago getting NCS Expert/Dummy to work and finally got the rest of the manual swap coding done. No more lights on the dash.

Didn't drive the car too much this summer. It seemed like it was either 90*, raining or wildfire smoke. On the contrary, this fall has generally been great. Been driving the car a fair amount.

Swapping between three shift knobs. The ZCP, gooseneck and a delrin piece. I like the looks of the ZCP the most and that is what has stayed in, but I think the delrin knob had a better shift feel. TBD.

Phone mount has been great. I bit wobbly at times but it has been functional.

Have PSS10s on the list for holiday sales this year. Mine are 21 years old & 60k+ miles. They still feel pretty good given the age.

Speaking of, turned 80k last week. Meant to take a pic but forgot, next time I looked it was just a big ol BOOB. I'm still 17.


Been hanging out with a few bad influences from the past who have been reeled back into track cars. Not for me, at least not right now. This one is fully caged, supercharged, etc.



A couple pics in the neighborhood.







Had the windows done on the van this summer, took this pic there. More on the van in the next post...


So other than replacing the Bilsteins, the other agenda items for this winter:

Seibon CSL trunk
CSL diffuser (whatever that old ebay brand was)
Reverse light issue. Work normally but on occasion will come on while not in reverse.
Minor interior refurb tasks

Trunk needs a little corner repaired, both need fitment adjustments, paint, etc.

Hoping to drive it for another month, just depends on when we get our first salt. I bought an external mic for my camera a while back, maybe I'll get some sound clips before the snow flies.

[Keith_MN]

Warning, Ford content.

After I finally 100% finished the manual swap on the M3 and could cross that off my list, I moved on to another project that I had been procrastinating on.

We bought a '93 E250 Sportsmobile in 2022. It's a Cali truck that was brought to MN in the late 20teens. The PO is a bike mechanic at a shop I know, he bought it with his gf and they split. I don't think he could bear to look at it, felt bad for the guy. Also was very happy to help him out of this situation.

He had done a lot of standard maintenance and fixing of non-op parts. I spent the last few years doing a suspension upgrade, added armored bumpers w/swing outs, substantial lighting upgrades, audio/video and a full plastic interior color change/refurb.

The truck as a whole is in fantastic shape, aside from two spots. The most significant is the leading edge of the roof. Common issue I've seen on west coast trucks. Sea air & condensation pools on the roof, the sun wears the poor finish and it corrodes. The other issue is the pass side rear has a small dent above the taillight that put in a 2" crease, cracking the paint and corroding.

The roof has gotten worse as it sits outside in the summer and not much was left of anything resembling a finish. Look at the difference from where the pop-up covers the roof vs the areas that are exposed. Body shops either ghosted me or wanted to paint essentially the entire van. I want a simple repair to stop further corrosion and protect the metal for the next ~5 years. Then maybe a repaint, vinyl or vehicle change.


Rear corner issue buzzed clean.


Down the internet rabbit hole and settled on the following products.


I was expecting more damage from the corrosion, thus the filler. To my surprise, I got to shiny metal remarkably fast. No filler needed. Buzzed out the roof gutter seam sealer and pulled out the windshield gasket, no corrosion in there either.


I had terrible conditions. Gusty wind. Direct sunlight. Hot weather. But this was the window I had and it's too tall to fit in the garage...



I've done plenty of back alley spray paint jobs this Eastwood urethane can is by far the worst thing I ever worked with. Sure, the conditions I was using it in were not ideal but the spray pattern and spitting of this thing was a crime against humanity. It quickly turned into a "just get paint on the surface" and that was going to be good enough. It's the roof, nobody's going to see it (I tell myself repeatedly).


Got the windshield replaced and then all 9 windows tinted. Last camp of the year at Spirit Mtn in Duluth.



Finished the van project list for the summer by finding these nice traction board mounts and attaching them to the side of the Pelican. I was storing them in the back of the van previously. Now they can be first off/last on if I need to level the van in camp and keeps the dirt outside. Turn your head.