Sharocks 2004 CB/Cinn 6MT Build Journal

[timmo]

I would say, even if you're in a budget, get better seats, or seat.

A found a used Recaro SPG (super skinny like for 30 inch waists lol) for a friend with an S2000 for $300 bucks.

When I lived in Toronto I would often have things shipped to Niagara and I'd cross the border to get them. You should look into that, it would save you money and you can get cheap gas while you're in the US of A.

$300 is a steal... I'm currently holding out, hoping an expired Sparco or Recaro comes up for sale. But I have heard good things about the FX1 Pro so if nothing comes up I may buy one. No rush as it's not needed till spring.

Hahaha at least you know how us Canadians feel to get shafted with importing stuff every single time you buy from the US. If it were not for COVID I'd definitely drive down, for now I use a forwarding company that will cross your package across the border to their drop-off location that's about a 10 minute drive from my house. Not too bad, just $8 per box + import duties/taxes.

[Sharocks]

Very cool story about your Istanbul trip, those guys sound like a super-nice bunch! Seats are looking really slick too. I too am sick and tired of sliding around in the stock seats, but as I'm on a budget I'm probably gonna stick 1 Corbeau FX1 Pro in the driver's side.

Thanks bud, the Istanbul connect was a compound thing. I had reached out to Driven34 on Insta and over on M3Post. I didn't hear back. One of my friends, who's here as well put in a good word.

Absolute nicest people.

Just goes to the show the car community literally does not have any bounds.

As for seats, yea man, I've had these Recaro's sitting in my basement for over 2 years. I was busy with other things but I'm so happy I got them in and the way I wanted them.

I would say, even if you're in a budget, get better seats, or seat.

A found a used Recaro SPG (super skinny like for 30 inch waists lol) for a friend with an S2000 for $300 bucks.

When I lived in Toronto I would often have things shipped to Niagara and I'd cross the border to get them. You should look into that, it would save you money and you can get cheap gas while you're in the US of A.

[Sharocks]

You have a great car collection, love the M3 and M5 (my combo too, wish I had space for one or two more). There are some high quality mods on this car. lol about the alcantara wheel, I just spent a bunch of money on one .. we will see. Also surprised to hear that you think non-OE CSL boxes are quiet, I find my Karb almost excessive. Do you do any HPDE events in this car?

.. also where is this mythical good road south of Boston?

Ah thanks man, I'm sure we know the same people if you're from the area. Boston is SMOL.

My gripe with Alcantara stems from use. If you have brand new Alcantara it's pretty awesome. Used, is uhh gross haha

After being in two differently modded CSL's with factory boxes, they are 100% louder but it could also be because CSL's have less of pretty much everything.

Local friends have Karbonius, Evolve and the new Turner box. Haven't heard the Turner but I've been in Karbonius and Evolve boxes at full tilt. The Evolve box was the loudest by far. Or so I thought haha.

I used to track the car, and the goal is to again. I got kicked off Limerock years ago for sound. Been kinda pissed about that ever since haha.

The road south of Boston isn't really a road. It's Blue Hills in Milton. I'm about 15 mins away from there.

[timmo]

Very cool story about your Istanbul trip, those guys sound like a super-nice bunch! Seats are looking really slick too. I too am sick and tired of sliding around in the stock seats, but as I'm on a budget I'm probably gonna stick 1 Corbeau FX1 Pro in the driver's side.

[repoman89]

You have a great car collection, love the M3 and M5 (my combo too, wish I had space for one or two more). There are some high quality mods on this car. lol about the alcantara wheel, I just spent a bunch of money on one .. we will see. Also surprised to hear that you think non-OE CSL boxes are quiet, I find my Karb almost excessive. Do you do any HPDE events in this car?

.. also where is this mythical good road south of Boston?

[Sharocks]

Damn this hasn't been updated since July.

Well things have changed a tad for the direction for the car.

So the last big thing I did was getting the Recaro's in. What a PITA that was.

The car is good but it needs some maintenance.

Ok, off she goes to Farley for an oil change, brake fluid flush, brake pad swap all around and all new pulleys, tensioners and belts. They were squeaking and it's annoying lol. FCP and Zeckhausen ftw.

Decided to show off the only decent road directly South of Boston to a friend with the same car just vert form.





I truly love how well the car rides and responds on the wide 17's. Like it's night and day. I love these wheels too. They're damn light and the best part is no one else has them haha.

Fast forward a week and I found a new phone that was limited edition (One Plus 7T Pro McLaren Edition) that was brand new. It's only in CT and the weather looks great. Asked a friend to come on down with me and we'd get pizza on the way back.

My fuel pump said nah at 85 mph in the left lane as I'm trying to overtake someone lol.

Walboro 255 LPH lasted 4 years. I went back to an OE pump from FCP.



Car was down a day or so and she's back with a new fuel pump and a new fuel filter. Don't forget to change it out!



So at this point, I've had the full 63.5mm Supersprint Sec1 and 2 ready to go. But no headers to go with them. V1's are pricey so I decided to do some research into some other options.

I found a set of Epic headers that had been modified to fit into an E46 wagon with an S54 swap. Figured they would fit well and are 2.5" at the end of the primaries so we should be good.

Hehe.



I had them sandblasted and just painted for now.

Cylinders 1-3 fit no problem. Cylinders 4-6 don't fit at all.

Word.

Meanwhile a friend's motor was finished being built.

When was the last time any of ya'll saw some Kromer Kraft headers? Especially S54 ones?

Yea same, it's been a solid decade since I've even heard that name.



Peep those primaries. Obviously it's setup for a race car and not a street car. But would be cool to have.

Also managed to get an inspection sticker. I go to a shop that's run by an older Ukrainian fellow. The man loves BMWs so I let the man rev the car and have some fun while doing the inspection.



At this point I had been driving the M3, M5 and the family 02 330xi around. My E53 X5 with a 6MT was still down for unknown reasons. I needed a new daily.

So I bit the bullet and bought my first non BMW ever. I've actually been dumb enough to only own old BMW's from the start. So jumping into this 2014 Audi S4 was a world of difference.

A friend of mine found the car one night just perusing Facebook. I bought it a few days later after a PPI.

Car was in Philly. I was set to start going back into the office soon so I needed to acquire the car sooner rather than later.

Flew down from Boston with a friend to Philly.

Stopped for cheese steaks at Jims on South Street. Got a pork sandwich from Johns as well.

Packed up and headed to NJ where I needed groceries for the parentals.

Got that and headed back up to Pelham NY where we always stop for pizza.

Loaded the trunk full of pizza and headed home.

It's Volcano Red/Black Nappa with DSG and Sport Diffs. Has an APR Stage 1 ECU and Trans tune. AWE Touring exhaust and a CTS Turbo intake.

This is also my first forced induction car ever.

With an Eaton blower. This thing rips lol.



Since I had a newer daily, I could get some paint work addressed on the M5. The 20 year old 3M clearbra did not want to come off. So I needed a new bumper. Ordered an OE one and had some areas of the car touched up. Still a work in progress but I dig this car a lot man.





Now off to storage for the winter, I'm not done with the M5 but for the season we are good.

The NJ meetup in Alpine was a few weeks away. Having missed the prior years just due to timing I was adamant on making it this year.

And I had the M3 detailed by Driven Perfection in Weymouth, MA. Alex is a friend of mine and consistently proves that Carbon Black can look decent for about 3 minutes outside.







Got the car back on the Thursday evening prior.

I also swapped my finisher side frames to OE Gloss Black ones off a ZHP coupe. Also did the 3M weatherstripping fix along with new seals.

What a PITA. Took me about 3 hours a side with like 4-5 plastic razors each time and a good amount of Goof-Off.

If you do this yourself, pick a sunny and hot day. I did it outside in like 45 degree weather and it sucked lol.

I also swapped over to some better condition front kidney grills (Thanks Sandeep!), brand new clear side indicators, brand new hood insert and brand new wiper cowl.

It was a challenge for me to get all of this done prior to the meet but this was my only motivation to get it done prior to putting all of this off for next year. I'm happy I didn't procrastinate on this.

The NJ Meet.

I left my house at like 6 AM. I was coordinating with a good friend from VT but we actually didn't get a chance to cruise down together. Probably for the better, both our cars are LOUD.

Got to NJ at around 11:45 AM and it was packed. Like holy shit I can see where Mpartsworldwide get's their inventory from.

Met up with the forum members of days past. Took about 3 seconds before I heard my username shouted at me lmao.

I don't have any pics but my friend who came down to NJ with me took pro shots. Still waiting on them hehe.

But some OG M3F members might remember this car.



I lost my shit when I saw it.

Like jawdrop.

Anyways I stayed for like 2 hours and started the age old quest of where the hell is the nearest Shell, this car is on empty dammit.



Stopped at this gem right next to the gas station. Wasn't anything spectacular but Mass had banned all hookah products in June. So now was the time to stock up. And also start searching for food.

We ended up in Pelham NY again for pizza. Can't say no to their amazing slices. I'm pretty convinced it's the water that they use.

Anyways got home and parked the car inside.

The next day aka Sunday, I took the car out for some pre-storage shots. Found some nice New England Basic Ugg Bitch foliage. Perfect!






^
I love this shot.



Noticing anything missing?

I lost 3 wheel bolts. Thanks NJ. I hate you.

Sent a quick email to Forgeline. They sent me titanium wheel bolts for free. I'm pretty impressed with them haha.

Also my brakes don't squeal as much anymore now switching to a more streetable compound. Who knew? Raybestos ST-43's are not that good for street/cold weather use.

And yes my Type V rotors are looking like Type Dead rotors. I know, I know.

Anyways here's the interior, my favorite part of the car aka the part I spend the most time in.













Illuminated shift knob ftw.

Forgot to grab some milk and apple cider donuts while I was being a hipster so I stopped at a local farm.



Oh and I guess the first of four major updates.

HEHEHEHEHEHEHE

[Tbonem3]

Great idea with the m stripes!
Great stories!
That 850 though

[Sharocks]

Ok so last we left off the M3 was on a flatbed for axles. Now I only wanna do things once to this car but at the time, Drag Week was upon us and DSS was telling me it was weeks before they could send me a pair. I don't make 1000 whp and nor do I plan on it (quitter mentality whatever). So I started looking around. I found a set with about 80k on them attached to hubs in Rhode Island. Went down and got them. Turned out the hubs had seized to the axles. Once we got them free the splines were FUBAR'd. So back to looking again. Found a guy parting a rear end with 42k on it. Snatched those axles for a pretty penny. Literally was not happy about it but low miles and they were already out of the hubs so easy peasy. They went in.

Now the bad part.

"While your in there" those words haunt me. Legit. Decided to rebuild some of the parts under the car while I was there. The oil drain was in the process of stripping. I had noticed some oil drips when the car was parked overnight. Turned out just a larger bolt and some thread chaser fixed that. Yeet.

New front tires for the CSLs since my alignment kills em.

Now story time.

I was asked to travel to a few places worldwide with my dad to settle my grandfather's affairs. He was a diplomat so he was all over the place. He passed in early 2018. This is the end of 2019 around October. Our trip ended in Istanbul. My parents love it there but I had only been for a few days in the past and I was young then, like 12.

I organized through M3Post and Instagram a meeting with a certain fellow in Turkey.

The man himself of Driven34 was gonna show me the M garage! YES.

But first he told me to meet him in an underground garage under a really nice hotel. Odd but if I get taken out trying to look at a 20 year old shitbox BMW so be it.

First off the Ubers in Istanbul are MEJ/Elite aka have manual transmissions lol



Nah this is why he wanted me there.















My favorite all time BMW ever. He knew I wanted to see it and this is where it was. Getting a detail. WTF

So I'm over here in a Blipshift CSL hoodie LOSING MY MIND. My dad is like "yo it's a 30 year old E36 M3 relax guy". I'm like nah man you don't get it we never got these how is this happening lol



Sweet baby Jesus.

So I met with the owner and his friends. They took us to a really nice spot in town for some coffee and tea, Turkish tea is insanely good.

Scheduled a date to check out the real garage soon. Headed back to the old part of town where our hotel was and proceeded to avoid history and sit at various hookah bars whilst dragging my 55 year old dad around with me until like 2 AM. Noice.

Next day, wake up and have a really nice breakfast, no pics was hungry and ate it.



The mythical place.





Only one in the world, Estoril Blue V12 6MT What Is Happening Bros.



Oh SMG, must suck, no wait a sec, something is different.



Boom.

This man, whom I have never met before, I must add, organized a drive with his friends for me and my dad. I got to ride in two different CSLs and really go to places Uber wouldn't take me/I didn't wanna pay for because I have no clue where the hell I am.

I just wanna say, you can talk all you want about your Karbonius/Evolve/Turner/Geoff Steele etc boxes. This is the mack daddy. And it works. I wasn't a believer because every E46 M3 with a CSL intake I've been in Stateside or Canada has been kinda meh. You can barely hear it and it's a lot of money for sound. Yea not an issue on an actual CSL. It's LOUD. Like real loud. The black car sees the Nurburgring often, usually a few times a year. Mods a simple yet effective.

It had, a full SS exhaust (headers, cats, sec 2 and race muffler), KW Clubsports, AP Racing Radicals F+R, Swaybars, Rollcage and some other stuff I'm forgetting.







So I got a ride in this thing, Driven34's own CSL which is similarly modded but less, an E36 M3 Evo Vert with a built motor and a 997 Turbo making about 1000 whp. The group went to a local Flamingo park for some BBQ, I don't speak Turkish so I just pointed at things and looked scared until someone spoke english lol.

For total strangers, I was floored. What nice people haha.

Ok back to my shitbox.

I landed back in Boston after a month of traveling abroad. Immediately back into BMWs as per usual.

M5 needed some parts, X5 needed Jesus (still does), M3 needed some parts and it was winter. So the only thing running around was the X5.

Spring forward (ha get it?) to March, M3 needed to come out of the garage so we needed to get some things straight. These 17's I've had for a year now were going on. That was happening. My Recaro SPG XL's were going in. That's also happening.

Lets get it.

The M3 looked like this when stored, square CSL's looking super awesome but riding super not awesome.



So I had a set of Toyo R888R's in 255/40/17's I had no use for, might as well mount them up to some 10 inch wide Forgelines.

Yea.







Turn in is nuts, but the road noise from the Toyo's was unbearable. Also these things were smoked. I only mounted them as a test. After weeks of trying to figure out what tires I should run on them it was between Nitto NT01's and NT05's. I'm lazy, I'm not gonna swap between CSL's and these often so I went with a new set of NT05's in 275/40/17. MEAT.







I love them. Since the only 18's I want are like 5k, these will have to do.

Specs are 15mm Turner spacers up front for looks/clearance and 12.5mm Turner spacers in the rear for scene points.

Next up my Recaros. I had forgotten about these in my basement next to my mass pile of car parts for about 2 years. I wanted to not just throw them in but to actually tie them into the Cinnamon somehow. But what to do?

Do I wrap them all in leather? Nah too expensive, kinda heavy, and if the seat is out of cert (I don't care about this but other orgs may) then I'm out a ton of money.

Idea. The cushions come out. Ok.

Wrap the cushions in leather? Sure that seems pretty easy and cost effective.

Nope. Wrong.

Took these stupid cushions to every upholstery shop I could find in Boston. No one could 1. Match the leather and 2. Want to do it

Friend of mine told me to visit a know biker shop known for out fitting Harleys and Choppers with new seats and side bags. Whatever, what's he gonna say? No again? Meh.

Turns out it was real easy for him.

The hide came from the UK, IDK where but it's match is on point. I even lent him my spare brand new in box OE Extended Cinnamon Armrest (I got it for a deal, couldn't say no lol)

But something was missing. I missed my old E36 M3's. Seeing the GT in Istanbul really stuck with me. But what could I do? I know, M stripes. Super tacky but I dig it and the M4 GTS and M3 GTS and M3 CRT both have things like this so if you don't like it I don't care.

I had the shop reach out to Relicate for some M stripes. 4 weeks later they were done. I was shooketh.

Oh I forgot, I needed new floor mounts since these seats came out of an E92 M3 originally. Someone here was selling a set of VAC black aluminum mounts and in desperation I bought them. I don't like VAC or their parts but they work fine.

And the Recaro sliders suck. They are so painful to install I cannot even tell you. It's a really dumb design but whatever here they are.







Just enough Cinnamon in my eyes. Works well with the extended bits. And the seats CHANGE THE CAR. I'm no longer hanging on to the wheel for support. It's a real easy car to drive now. It just sucks getting in and out and only little people can fit in the back seats. Which is fine by me, hated getting my rear carpets dirty because some people can't use Uber at 2 AM.

I'm sure I missed a lot of things, I have some more things planned but this takes us to the current day.



I have some exhaust work to do that's pretty custom but neat, some maintenance items to address and some OCD things I wanna do.

Lastly some good photos after a wash. It actually hasn't been washed or detailed in over a year and a half.

I'm tired now.

[Sharocks]

I love this color combo!

Thanks man, I sometimes hate it but most of the time I try to enjoy it.

[Sharocks]

Great color on the E39. Can't wait until I get one.

Thanks man, it was a fluke but I'm happy I bought it. Haven't seen another one come up like it since.

[88mpwr]

I love this color combo!

[Mike0032]

Great color on the E39. Can't wait until I get one.

[Sharocks]

I appreciate the timeline of ownership you have with the car. I'm also located in MA, and looking to get into an E46 in the near future. We'll definitely link up for some pictures when i find one.

Thanks man! And yea for sure, message me where you're located and I'll let you know if there any meetups happening locally.

[Loopyspec]

I appreciate the timeline of ownership you have with the car. I'm also located in MA, and looking to get into an E46 in the near future. We'll definitely link up for some pictures when i find one.

[Sharocks]

Ok we've got some years to cover. The last photos on the rooftop in Boston were taken in around July or August of 2015. Here we go.

First thing, the 4.8iS. I'd been dailying it in Boston. No issues really, some bushings here and there. Until my stupid friend decided to open the pano roof at 1 AM in Cambridge in December. Yea mega broken. This was a series of what was to come. In the next few months, more bushings, valve seals started to fail, trans wouldn't get into 5th, tcase was clapped out, nav died (who cares lol) and the water cooled alternator died.

Yea it had to go, great run from around 60k to 109k though. Went to NYC, NJ and VA with it numerous times. Great highway car but that trans absolutely sucks balls.



Traded her in for a one owner 2010 LCI E83 X3 6MT. Fully loaded which was nice since it was technically a "downgrade".

Made it from NJ to Boston and got 27 MPG!

So on to the M3, years of use had started to creep up on me. I knew I needed to address some things that were annoying me. Some scrapes, scratches etc. Off the bumpers came and it was time to address the subframe too.

Went to Wile Motorsport in Walpole, MA. I was the first person to do a Reddish kit in Mass at the time, this is 2015 so it was relatively new in the US.



It was there for at least 3 months getting parts and me trying to figure out what I wanted and didn't want. A process I tell you.









Had found a set of square rear OE 18's wrapped in nearly new Hankook RS3's locally so I snagged them while the CSL's were being refinished. I plastidipped the wheels gray because they were plastidipped black prior lol.

It was back but not done yet, I'd had amassed a good bit of parts for it over the years. This is 2017 ish so the car had been down for about 18 months at this point. You need to factor that I'm in New England and I store the car for 6 months regardless anyways so it was more or less two seasons or about a year of not driving the thing.



Mmmm looks dirty in my driveway, mainly because it is.



I actually really liked the way it rode, sat and overall was on the 18's. Maybe I'll get a set of 18's again one day.



Now I'm driving it around to make sure I like what's been done. Across the street from my local hookah bar lol. CB does look good sometimes.



I found a Gen 1 RE El Diablo with perforated tips locally. It did RE El Diablo things. Broke the support bracket. Had that welded up no biggie.



Sneak peak to my plates lol. The El Diablo fits wonderfully. I miss it and shouldn't have sold it. Looked right at home and sounded really good.



Again at the hookah bar still not clean yet lol



Friend sent me this on Snapchat lol. Plate is working haha



Mileage now.



Ok so I'm happy with some things on the car. I'm using it more and more. Snapped a quick pic next to my friends very well modded Limerock E92 M3!



All the badges on and now I'm DD'ing the thing for the summer!



Need AC thought, getting a recharge!



One thing that bothered me about the El Diablo is that the inner tips don't really function or get dirty. It looks really uneven so I fixed that. High temp black spray paint. Yep. I'm that annoyed. No biggie my titanium guy was almost done with my original Mevius exhaust anyways.



Went to Jackson Heights, NY for some grocery shopping, turns out a local member is down the street. Picked me up and gave me a ride/tour of his HPF Stage 2 car. You might recognize it, it just sold sadly though.



Ok I'd been saving the dust and paint booth flurries for far too long. Apparently CB is blue? Who knew? I had a shop owned a friend called Driven Perfection do a 40 hour paint correction to this thing. Finished it off with Opticoat Pro'ing it. Says it lasts 4 years, this was late 2017 I think?



Friend of mine does wedding photography, just so happened to have his camera in his S2K at the time. Snapped a few pics, I gotta find the rest. More on this and person later.



I hate Alcantara so much. You have no idea.



A kid snapped a shot of me leaving Larz Anderson from our local Cars and Coffee. You can see the car is actually blue and my wheels are actually gray.



Finally got my Tainik custom thickened and 12 O'Clock Cinnamon stripped wheel in. Along with a euro cluster, it's just in KMH instead of both. It looks cleaner to me.



Back with Farley for WPC Coated Rod Bearings with APR hardware!



Meanwhile I was still finishing piecing together my Brembo GTR kit. Thanks to Performance Eurowerks! Brembo Type V rotors.



Friend works at the local McLaren dealership, let me take a look at the only Carbon Blue P1 in the world! It's exposed carbon all over, I wasn't allowed to take more pics since the customer hadn't even seen it yet haha



Good friend of mine was in the middle of building his GT350 at the time as well. Thing is insane. I seriously want one, one day.



Got the car back from getting bearings done. It was nice out so we went out for a cruise. Nice shot from my friend with the S2K. Only this time the middle car is his. Still had his S2K but wanted an M3 too.



Local friend was parting out his E92 M3 VF650 build. Asked me if I wanted his Recaro SPG XL's. I said sure. This was 2018.



WE FINALLY GOT A CHICK FIL A IN BOSTON!



I wanted to drive the car to break in the bearings, technically you don't need to but I wanted to as an excuse to drive it more. Coined a friend into going to VT to the Ben and Jerry's Factory. Did the tour and all. Ate way too much ice cream in the process.





Met up with this MONSTER in VT as well. He's not really on forums much but he's on FaceBook often. Most of you will know the car. At the time it was a MaxPSI Stage 2 car. Making around 800 whp. Good times with two very different M3's.

Ok I'm going to skip out on a few things now. I can't find pics and I've gone through like 3 phones at this point.



New to the fleet, from the original owner, 2000 E39 M5 in Royal Red/Caramel Extended Nappa!



Amazing color combo and I adore it.



Had to get the plate game up.



Friend of mine picked up a new DD at the time too. B8.5 S4 in Nogaro Blue with the matching interior with a 6MT and the LSD!



That brings us to last year when I test fit these beasts. I was rolling on my square rear CSL's for a while before I found these. Locally a friend of mine bought them from Turner Motorsports off one of their old Grand AM race cars.

They are Forgeline ZX3R's in 17x10 ET 38 square. Titanium bolts and no center caps. They came with 3 sets of BFG slicks and were 275/40/17s. A tad wide on my current ride height and alignment. No biggie. Test fitting them over the brakes. Needs spacers but again no issue. Stud conversion ftw.

I never really took pics of the Brembo's I was more excited in getting them on. It's quite a large difference in having them. I've gone through brakes with this car very often. This was a massive overkill step up, but a step up regardless.





You can see my janky foglight delete I did with a 1000 degree knife and some CF I bought. Basically didn't want the hole to be exposed if the fog light surround wasn't uhhh surrounding anything. But it's 1x1 CF and it matches my car so I dig it.



10W60 gang gang. My friend with the S2K had recently swapped in a Cinnamon interior from a friend of mine who was converting to full track spec. Awesome IB/Cinn/6MT with an OE CSL trunk and a VCSL 1x1 CF diffuser I found for him on M3F.



Launching isn't the best sometimes. Broke both axles lmao.

This is September of 2019. We're almost caught up but there is a ton that was left out and ton that is to come. I'm tired lol