Dawson's 2002 Silverstone Metallic M3

[Sharocks]

Nice to see you here man.

Let me ask you, did this car come from Massachusetts?

Because a local friend of mine had a Tiag M3 that he resprayed to Silverstone and sold a while ago. And it had a full VCSL body on it.

Can't be many of them running around haha.

Car looks great and while I may be biased, I like the interior a lot. It's different.

[Str8f4c3]

I knew that I wanted to tackle the subframe reinforcement as soon as possible with this car. The rod bearings were done at 132,000km by the previous owner, and the Vanos was also completed around that time, so the Subframe was the last of the big three. Car was booked at my local independent shop for the end of October


I had the Redish V2 plates on hand, as well as the Superpro subframe bushings. I didn’t feel the need to perform a topside reinforcement at this very moment, given that I drive my car like a grandma on the street, it will never see the track, and the subframe was in excellent condition as is.


I also discovered a couple of peculiar suspension choices: a set of poly diff bushings at the rear mounts, with the front bushing left OE, and a poly front control arm bushing on the passenger side paired with the original driver side bushing. To remedy this I sent a powerflex front diff bushing, updated front diff bolt and a set of Whiteline FCABs along with the car when she went under the knife.


Here’s my stock front diff bushing. No more wondering where that clunk was coming from…





A few photos I got from my mechanic. No cracks were found when the plates were put in, which I was quite happy about.








What a difference this job made. Car felt much tighter in every way, and the rear end is nice and planted now.


Took the car to Vancouver to meet with a fellow E46 M3 owner from the Toronto area, and he snapped a few awesome photos of the car.

[Str8f4c3]

There was definitely a bit of a honeymoon period with this car, which I definitely needed. It was very nice to forget about COVID and whatnot and just take the car out to the backroads on a sunday morning with some friends. It ran very well and I had no major issues with it for the first couple of months.


After the honeymoon was over, there were many little bits and pieces that needed to get ironed out. The first of those was the tune. The previous owner had stated there was a Buildjournal Tune on the car, and provided a receipt to confirm. When I went to get the tune transferred to my name with the folks at Buildjournal, they read my .bin and told me there was nothing more than a free burble tune on the car, and that the receipt I was given had been forged. I honestly have no idea what the deal with this was, but the previous owner covered the cost of a new tune, which was awesome.


That wasn’t the only roadblock though. I then had issues with the ECU when trying to flash the tune. Somehow, both of the EEPROMS became corrupt and the car refused to start. Luckily, RPM Motorsports has a location local to me, and they had me fixed up in no time. I highly recommend them for ECU Repair should you ever need it.


I also gave the steering wheel a good clean using a good old magic eraser. Works like a charm, steering wheel and stitching look brand new. A word of caution though, it will further deteriorate any areas of leather that are already peeling or tearing.


Before:


After:


Redyed the rear shelf as well. The sun bleached section almost matched the paint perfectly haha. Unfortunately I didn't get an after picture, but it looks much much better. Used Duplicolor vinyl dye.





After that, it was time to tackle the large number of issues I’d found with the suspension and overall driveability of the car. I amassed a number of parts, and set to work replacing them on a Saturday at the end of October. Up first was Clutch/trans related: I changed the Transmission fluid to royal purple synchro max, Deleted the CDV, and added an adjustable clutch stop. The difference that these three little things made was enormous. The car is much easier and smoother to drive, if you haven’t at least deleted the CDV, I highly recommend it. I have some very choice words for the engineer who thought that was a good idea. Royal Purple is better than what was in the trans, and I had it lying around from my last car, but realistically I wouldn’t do it again purely for how awful it is in the cold.




I also picked up some new springs for the front struts. Got a good deal on these 7”, 350# TCKline Springs on Ebay. The car came with 550# Springs installed up front, and 400# springs out back. Not sure what the deal was with that, but it definitely made the car feel a little off. The 350# springs went in up front, and the 550# were moved to the rear. Puts the car at almost Flat Ride Spec, greatly improves the ride quality. Unfortunately this still didn’t get me to where I wanted to be with the suspension, but more on that later.





I found out after purchase that underneath the car was in a bit of a disaster state. Just about every plastic splash shield was missing, there were exactly zero exhaust gaskets present after the headers, the belly pan was missing most of its hardware, and there were no exhaust support brackets installed. I’m still working on finding splash shields, but I picked up new hardware for the belly pan, added exhaust gaskets, and a new support brace. This actually cleaned up the exhaust sound quite a bit, eliminating much of the rattle that was present before. Still can’t believe those bolts are $4 each and BMW recommends one time use...


After that, the car went into my local independent shop to have the subframe reinforced, which I’ll tackle in the next post.

[Str8f4c3]

Towards the end of my time with the CB (the beginning of summer 2020), I was at a point where I enjoyed the car, but things about it were getting rather tiring. I enjoyed SMG, but I was tired of getting beaten up driving around town. I love SMG and if you drive it right, CSL tune or not, it’ll shift like butter and faster than a three pedal car. If the ability to drop to neutral quickly for red lights had been programmed into the system, I’d probably still have that car.


I loved Carbon Black, but it was always dirty. I toyed with the idea of selling the car, and posted it with all the mods still on the car and the goal of picking up a z3m coupe as a long term project, while staying open to all sorts of M cars.


Then, while browsing local classifieds, this photo caught my eye:





Reading the ad, there were a few big pros that Stood out to me: Silverstone Metallic Exterior, Lots of aftermarket goodies, Factory 6 Speed, Vanos and Rod bearings done recently, and only 145000km. There were also a lot of cons: Rebuilt title, the car was resprayed from TiAg, and a lack of reinforced subframe.


It’s easy to understand why a car like this would be passed on by many, but for me it was perfect. I subscribe to the school of racking up many, many kilometers and driving my cars frequently, especially while living in a city where it’s possible to run summer tires year round, and that’s not as easy to do with a clean, low mileage car. Plus, given I was still in possession of my first M3, I was able to keep many of the aftermarket bits I had already purchased while still leaving some mods as a “value add” when selling the CB.


The seller and I settled on a price, and a week later I took the short ferry ride to Vancouver to pick up the car. A photo from the day I took ownership:





The car came on TCKline SA Coilovers, along with the 135i/CSL Front Brakes, Megan Racing Headers, a Frequency Intelligent Valvetronic Exhaust, a BMW Performance Shift Lever/ZHP Knob, H&R Sway Bars, and a few other suspension bits. The HRE Wheels were removed (not a huge loss, as the price came down a bunch, and I wasn’t a fan of the color, 19” size, or reverse lip, though I believe a member on here now owns those rims). It also came with this custom two tone interior, which while well executed, was not particularly to my taste:





The respray, while excluding the door jambs, was very well done, and was detailed and ceramic coated by the previous owner. I’m quite happy with the condition of the paint. The car previously had a Vorsteiner body kit on it, and the rear diffuser wasn’t painted to match the body color.





After Getting the car home, I quickly got to work swapping parts between the two cars. After all was said and done, I had pulled my black interior, my entire sound system (Bavsound, Eonon Head unit, JL 10W6 Sub), My Enkei NT03+m wheels, my quad projector headlights, OE LED Tail Lights, and a few exterior trim pieces.







After that, the Car went into storage in a parkade at a family member’s Condo. The car was in a fair bit of disarray at the time, with the entire interior disassembled minus the Driver's seat, and the panel and bumper gaps all out of whack. The car would stay tucked in here for the better part of the next two months, while I addressed issues and sold my Carbon Black Car.





The day I sold the CB.





A couple days later, I brought my silverstone home. I was beyond excited to get this thing on the road. I Put the interior back together, threw in a new battery, and did an oil change. Threw my headlights in, as well as a my full set of OE BMW Performance Pedals.







The car chillin in the carport after (sort of) getting her all back together:





Initially, I wanted to have the subframe reinforced before putting plates on the car, and as such the car was parked for about a month while I ordered Reddish Plates, Superpro Subframe bushings, and other supporting bits. I eventually decided I’d rather wait to address the subframe, and just enjoy the car while the weather was still nice. First weekend out, I attended European Cars and Coffee with some M buddies, and visited the home of another enthusiast, who had an awesome collection of rides, including a minty e39 m5, a 2002tii, 997 Turbo, and a C7 Z06.







The first few weeks of driving this car, I fell back in love with the platform. While SMG is great and doesn’t deserve the hate, the manual is much more compliant around town at low RPM’s. Between the upgrades, being able to hold onto many of my aftermarket goodies, and the gorgeous new paint color, I was very happy overall.

[Str8f4c3]

Hello All!


My name is Dawson, and welcome to my build log! A bit about me: I’m from Victoria, BC, Canada, currently attending the University of Victoria. I’ve been a bit of a lurker in this part of the internet for a good while, having been a member of m3forums for the better part of the last four years prior to its demise, and I had a rather short lived build log on that site, for my 2002 Carbon Black on Black SMG Coupe.


Before we get to my current ride, A bit of backstory. While I didn’t take an interest in cars from an early age, I was enamored with BMWs from just about the second I got my license. That said, my parents forced me to choose a more reliable brand for my first car purchase (something I thank them endlessly for) and I ended up with a 2009 Mazda6. Fully loaded car, with the v6, all the options, and 20” Chrome wheels (facepalm):




In the ten months I owned that car, I put over 13000 kilometers on it, and all I did was change the oil. Amazing car with a lot of great memories, and I still miss it. Towards the end of my ownership, though, I had my heart set on finding an E46 M3. The spring of my senior year of high school, I put the Mazda up for sale, and sold it in less than a week.


I began the hunt for an E46 M3, with the following criteria: Not a convertible. That was the only thing I wasn’t willing to go for, though I also preferred to stay away from grey leather, and keep the mileage under 200,000km. Living in southern Alberta at the time, there were few examples available local to me, and after a few weeks of searching I viewed the one of the 3 cars in the area at the time, which had just come up for sale. It ended up being a bit of lemon, with more problem areas than sound ones, and it just about scared me away from purchasing an M3.


Three weeks later, I found my first M3: a fairly clean, close to stock 2002 Carbon Black on Black SMG Coupe with 155000 kilometers on the clock, from a private seller in Metro Vancouver. I went through many adventures with that car, and it taught me so much. In the two years I owned it, the car was modified with full suspension and exhaust amongst others, and I really fell in love with the platform. Here's how it sat with Forgestars for most of my ownership, and the final iteration prior to sale.






Next post is on to the good stuff :P