Robs E46M Rosso Corsa Street Build

[robgill]

I attempted to clear bra the front bumper and that was a complete fail... Just couldn't get it to cleanly stretch and stick and eventually gave up and just coated everything. Calling the exterior done for now!

[robgill]

Then I moved on to the trunk to get the backup camera installed as well as the remaining trim. I had previously run all of the wiring so now just had to hook it all up. Took a lot of trial and error to get this to work properly. There is no instructions and Avin just references a bunch of DIY threads that aren't very clear. Ultimately this is the wiring that worked for me:

1. License plate light wiring:
   1. Connect Blue/Yellow and Ground to black LED license plate light ground
   2. Connect Blue/Brown to red LED back up to wire
2. Camera Wiring:
   1. Connect both the red positive from camera power, and the red wire from the RCA (camera activation trigger) to the positive backup light.
   2. Connect the black ground from the camera power line to the brown wire of the backup light.
   3. At the head unit, connect the red RCA activation wire to the green harness bundle wire marked backup.

All installed! I added some strips of black vinyl to cover up some openings in the camera housing:





Head unit view in reverse:



With the camera installed all new trim installed in the trunk including tool set. Found a couple places I need to touch up red paint to wrap around the visible edge.







Also cleaned up the visors and removed the airbag labels:

[Onefastsicilian]

Also cleaned up the visors and removed the airbag labels:

That looks great! How did you remove/clean where the stickers were?

[robgill]

That looks great! How did you remove/clean where the stickers were?

It was surprisingly easy. I sprayed it with some griots interior cleaner and then rubbed it with a microfiber towel and it came right off.

[02_lsb]

I attempted to clear bra the front bumper and that was a complete fail... Just couldn't get it to cleanly stretch and stick and eventually gave up and just coated everything. Calling the exterior done for now!

The car looks amazing!
What’s the trick to align the front bumper?

[freshprince2421]

Would really love some E9X gloss black competition wheels on this car (admitted non-Volk guy). Fantastic build all the way around!

[robgill]

The car looks amazing! What’s the trick to align the front bumper?

New bumper and mounts 😆, Actually one thing to check is how the mouth opening is mating with the bumper carrier. On both my street and track cars I had a hard time getting the bumper to slide on fully and both times it was the top of the mouth interfering with the carrier. There are some tabs that want to slide above but need to be below if that makes sense...

Would really love some E9X gloss black competition wheels on this car (admitted non-Volk guy). Fantastic build all the way around!

For sure! I've considered them but I'm not a huge fan of black wheels. Those wheels in a dark silver would be awesome.

[02_lsb]

New bumper and mounts 😆, Actually one thing to check is how the mouth opening is mating with the bumper carrier. On both my street and track cars I had a hard time getting the bumper to slide on fully and both times it was the top of the mouth interfering with the carrier. There are some tabs that want to slide above but need to be below if that makes sense...



For sure! I've considered them but I'm not a huge fan of black wheels. Those wheels in a dark silver would be awesome.

Nice. I’m about to go through the same exercise.

what are the part numbers for mounts?

[robgill]

Nice. I’m about to go through the same exercise.

what are the part numbers for mounts?

51118195295 and 51118195296. Also some aftermarket ones a reference in the thread above.

[robgill]

Was waiting for a couple parts to finish up the dash and center console. First I replaced the center vents, old one was cracked and had clearly been taken in/out a few too many times:



Next I decided to replace the HVAC controls as the LED had some bleed at the bottom:



I picked up a cheap replacement on eBay but the finish was worse than whats in the car. So I pulled the LED panel out of the eBay unit and used the existing face plate. Worked great and now the center dash is complete!





Next was getting the Colby Wheel shift and ebrake boots installed. Replaced the entire ebrake so I had a new leather handle. Also used the custom gaiter ring that i got from Billy Bogdziewicz on the old M3Forum and love them!! Not sure if he is still around:





One more SMG improvement, I flashed in the CSL SMG "255" settings using the instructions from ECUWorx (thx @Martyn).

[Will ZCPM3]

Nice shift knob! I'm still here, beautiful build Rob.

[robgill]

Nice shift knob! I'm still here, beautiful build Rob.

Perfect I was hoping you would chime in. Love the shifter and glad to have it finally installed 👍

[robgill]

Fun couple of weeks! Pretty mild winter here in NYC so been driving the car a lot. I'm really liking the SMG with the CSL tune. The engine is also running (and sounding) great. So well in fact that I've decided to stick with the Evolve Alpha-N tune that had been previously installed on the car. I got ahold of them and they made some adjustments for larger cams and airbox. I flashed that in and all has been good. I'll still take it over to RK-Tunes at some point to get it on the dyno and see what kind of power its making.

One thing that has been bugging me is that the alignment is clearly off. The wheel is not centered and it was a little squirmy under acceleration. I headed over to Ivans Alignments in Jersey to get it sorted out. I went with pretty standard street specs with 2.5 camber up front and 2 in the back along with pretty neutral toe. Took it for a test drive and immediately the wheel was off again... On closer inspection we determined the RTABs were shot and not holding the alignment. The original plan was always to do a full rear subframe rebuild but I was hoping to push that off for a couple of years. The subframe had been reinforced by previous owner so I assumed bushings had also been replace. Clearly not . So... back to the garage to replace the RTABs and install new adjustable lower camber arms. I'll save full rebuild for a later date. RTABs coming out pretty easy:



Camber arms not so much... What a nightmare. The outer bolts were completely seized in the ball joints and no amount of penetrating fluid, heat and BFH would budge them. So had to cut off the old camber arms and bolt heads. Then make a run to Harbor Freight to pickup a clamp style ball joint pusher. Of course the this tool interfered with the brake rotors and shields , so had to take those off and finally was able to get ball joints out:



Next I had to pull the new Turner RTABs and OE ball joins out of the trailing arms I previously built and get them installed on the car. All of that went pretty smooth.



Back to Ivans and now the alignment is perfect!!

[Tbonem3]

What? Someone is happy with their Evolve alpha N tune? Blasphemy!

[robgill]

What? Someone is happy with their Evolve alpha N tune? Blasphemy!

Hah yeah I kind of snuck that in there 😂. I'm generally pretty anti canned tuned but I'm exceptionally impressed with the drivability of the Evolve tune. The torque is down low (opposite of my track car) and its a blast to drive on the street. They have also been a pleasure to work with.