2002 Steel Grey 6spd coupe Daily/Restoration project

[Casa de Mesa]

You should be proud of the work done to bring this car to the state it is now. Looks fantastic, Tbone. Exceptional work.

[Tbonem3]

Figure now's a fine time to share some recent pics. I didn't feel the car was quite there yet until recently. It's still just a stock looking car with rashed 18s.

[Tbonem3]

Ok, last bit of wet sanding, I promise...

All that remained was the very top pillar "rail" of the passenger QP (respray)

Not the worst finish, but pretty rough where it meets the trim, as I assume the shop did not remove trim for the paint job. Example:



I took it pretty easy, just using 2500 grit, putting some more pressure where the trim is as that did need the most flattening.




Alright, all done sanding. I took it easy on the edge near glass as it's a sharp angle. I really wasn't looking to take the OP down too much here, just trying to match it to factory as much as possible since this is the last of the respray.



Time to buff



Had to do some by hand, right where the trim is




All done!




Still a little sloppy closer to the trim, but I didn't want to burn through the clear, so this is the best I could do.

Almost exact orange peel as factory, comparing to other panels:



This area was pretty rough, but now basically factory looking



Happy to be done, though it is kind of fun



Very proud of the restoration I've done to the exterior of this car. Pictured below is a recent pic, so no more body work. Hard, almost impossible, to tell it's not original (only hood/fender are factory):

[Tbonem3]

Some more maintenance. I think I mentioned it earlier, but while doing headers/CPV, I notice the Exhaust cam sensor was leaking. I decided to just replace both sensors (intake/exh).

Here's the leak (only exh side)



New OES(upplier) part from FCPeuro. Newer one is now gray and larger. Make sure to buy the o-ring! The intake comes with new o-ring, but not exh!




You can see the BMW logo ground off, it's a genuine part for half cost. Another pic of new sensors:



Exhaust is easy to change, just need a 5mm hex bit/key. Intake, however, is a PITA. Not only do you have to remove the manifold, but technically, you're supposed to remove the air and even fuel rail as the plug and wire for the sensor is hiding behind. I took a short cut that I'll explain.



There's a little plastic "cage" that you have to get out of the way



Now, you can get your 5mm hex bit back there, a wobble helps.



Since it's easy to do (2 x 10mm bolts), I removed the air rail for more access



Here, you can see the sensor's harness snug as a bug behind the fuel rail. So instead of removing the fuel rail and dealing with all those bitch clips, I just cut the harness so I could pull it out. Then, after installing new intake sensor, I plugged the harness in, and just stuffed the extra wire behind the fuel rail.




Also, even though I did a quick cleanout of the ICV, since the airbox was off, I wanted to do a better job. I got some new hose clamps as the oetikers are one-time-use, and I pulled the hoses of and cleaned everything thoroughly.

[MTiz]

Repainted Roof Rails

Luckily, none of the original paint on the body panels has any clear coat failure, but the roof rails certainly do, and not so little that I could just polish it finely to make it passable. At least they can be removed easily and repainted without much fuss.

Hey, thanks for this quick DIY. My roof rails are the only thing on my car with clear coat peeling and I was wondering if I could just repaint them. Definitely filing this away for the future.

[lastMleft]

Nice work Tbone!! You are indeed an E46 M3 fanatic keep up the great work!

[Tbonem3]

Thank you Alex!

Still have some more updates to post before catching up to present day. Finally fixed the rear bumper and put on the scorza muffler recently.

[alexM3Chicago]

Dude, you are on a completely different level in terms of restore. Quality work, steel grey is one of my favorite colors. Love this thread!

[Tbonem3]

Thank you! Glad to hear

[Rudbari]

Amazing build mate
enjoyed your journey

[Tbonem3]

I had flushed the tranny with some Liqui-Moly conventional 75w gl4 to clean it out. As I documented, there was a lot of synchros (brass) dust in the, I'm sure, original factory fill. So now I wanted to flush that and put in the "permanent" lube, but it's about impossible to find Pentosin MTF2 anymore. You can buy the OE MTF-LT2 still, but it's pricey. I decided, with FCPeuro warranty returning in mind, to try Pentosin's MTF2 replacement, FFL4.

I actually put some in a friend's 6spd a couple of years ago, and it's been working well. FCPeuro had it on sale as well, so here we go...



The conventional 75w gl4 looked great (only had 2k miles). Happy to not see any synchros bits at all. Now I'm confident the tranny will be fine for years, with fresh fluid and relatively smooth (for the 420g) operation with no lockout or any issues.



While doing this, I had ordered a new belly pan for my other M, so my old one got spruced up and installed on this car now



All back together. Now there are no more missing/broken pieces!



The armrest's leather is actually in great condition, but unf, the hinge is broken and not repairable
Luckily, my friend had a spare black armrest for me. You must disassemble quite a bit to get it out:



Good to remove the center console anyway as it needed a good cleaning



Here, you can see how it's broken compared to new one (bottom). Console cleaned/treated.



Going back in

[0-60motorsports]

Awesome update!

[Tbonem3]

Thanks! I was thinking maybe the white behind the base coat would lighten it a touch, but maybe not.

Overall, I'm pleased though

[Sergmann]

Repainted Roof Rails

Pretty darned good! A hair darker, but not much. I *think* using primer might have resulted in a slightly better match. Another:

I used their primer on my project and it still came out a bit darker. I wasn't sure if it was just some fade from a 20 year old paint job or something else. I have read that metallics especially turn darker if laid down to heavy but I'm not a painter.

this looks great IMO

[Tbonem3]

Repainted Roof Rails

Luckily, none of the original paint on the body panels has any clear coat failure, but the roof rails certainly do, and not so little that I could just polish it finely to make it passable. At least they can be removed easily and repainted without much fuss.




They just pry up. I used a small flat head to get started



Another newly exposed area shows the level of dirt I've had to deal with on this car.



And dead bugs to boot



Cleaned up:




Nothing broken luckily, and not too dirty here.



Hosed them off, then applied protectant to rejuvenate while I prepare the surface to be painted



Well worn



Sanded them down. Rather than try to remove and possibly hurt the rubber, I tried blocking it off with paper. It sort of worked, but some of the pieces ended up falling out. No biggie, the paint is easily chipped off the rubber at the end.



I bought a rattlecan of steelgrey 400 from automotivetouchup.com. *I should have used primer. It ended up fine, but I did a couple extra coats of base and actually used up the whole can on the 2 trim pieces.




Then I used 1k clear which is decent enough for this small job vs. 2k. Plus I don't have professional equip/vent



So metallic in the sun!



After drying, before finishing, I wanted to see the color/metallic match



Pretty darned good! A hair darker, but not much. I *think* using primer might have resulted in a slightly better match. Another:



Ok time to color sand and buff. Used 2.5k. In hindsight, I should have done one more coat of clear to give myself a little more wiggle room. I took it easy on the sanding, and it worked out.




Now to buff and restore clarity. A little compound first



Now polished




Ok, time to reinstall (step 1: push down. step 2, there is no step 2 )








I'm really pleased with this. The faded roof rails were really killing the car's vibe. Even more than the shit tint, I was dying to get these redone. Spent about $40 in base and clear cans. A big win!