What have you done with or to your M3 today?

[Helmsman]

Originally Posted by akkando

Took out the chrome side gills and wrapped the chrome in a matte black sample I had lying around and the LED light in a semi transparent black. It appears the e90 m3 side gill is A LOT harder to get out than the e92/93 variant.

I mostly used plastic pry tools and just yanking it with rubber gloves on. Passenger side the whole thing came out. Driver side just the gill and a I broke a tab, but still seems solid. Since the passenger side came out with everything attached, getting gill out of the black plastic piece that the tabs snap into was also a huge pain. I used a heat gun to help get the tabs out and even had to file a nub down so I could get one out. Snaps back in solid.

For wrapping I didn't know what I was doing so I test wrapped one with a black metallic vinyl first to see if I could do it. I didn't have extra of the matte black so I had to get it right the first time. The black metallic wrap looked okay so I went ahead and did both sides in matte black, which matches the matte

Looks great after the sweat though! Pretty sure "my" wrap guy did my (E90) gils without taking them out. Went white (after black), becoming few years since so prob time for black soon again... will give it a try with them in place.

[chocstraw]

Originally Posted by Helmsman

Looks great after the sweat though! Pretty sure "my" wrap guy did my (E90) gils without taking them out. Went white (after black), becoming few years since so prob time for black soon again... will give it a try with them in place.

Seems difficult, the edge around the light is very tight, getting a good tuck with the light in might not be easy.

[Denny347]

Originally Posted by akkando

Took out the chrome side gills and wrapped the chrome in a matte black sample I had lying around and the LED light in a semi transparent black. It appears the e90 m3 side gill is A LOT harder to get out than the e92/93 variant.

I mostly used plastic pry tools and just yanking it with rubber gloves on. Passenger side the whole thing came out. Driver side just the gill and a I broke a tab, but still seems solid. Since the passenger side came out with everything attached, getting gill out of the black plastic piece that the tabs snap into was also a huge pain. I used a heat gun to help get the tabs out and even had to file a nub down so I could get one out. Snaps back in solid.

For wrapping I didn't know what I was doing so I test wrapped one with a black metallic vinyl first to see if I could do it. I didn't have extra of the matte black so I had to get it right the first time. The black metallic wrap looked okay so I went ahead and did both sides in matte black, which matches the matte black grills I have up front.






Heat gun and file.


Black Metallic test wrap


Now re-wrapped in matte black


Back together and on the car

Great job on the wrap. Looks a TON better. Saved you some money as well, which is always nice. I might have to try that. Winter is approaching and the car is going to be sitting in the garage for most of it. Give me something to do with it...haha

[m3jala]

Took it in for smog and safety check. Mechanic doing the check loved the v8. Always fun the conversations I get with people over this car.

[wfdeacon88]

Finally getting a new windshield this morning... my insurance covered the entire cost despite it only being the sandblast effect with thousands of specs.. I told them the glare created by these microchips is dangerous on my commute, which is true.. opting for the solar replacement with purple hue and better heat rejection.

Here's an example of the current state. Will post final results this morning when I see it

[Helmsman]

Originally Posted by wfdeacon88

Finally getting a new windshield this morning... my insurance covered the entire cost despite it only being the sandblast effect with thousands of specs.. I told them the glare created by these microchips is dangerous on my commute, which is true.. opting for the solar replacement with purple hue and better heat rejection.

Here's an example of the current state. Will post final results this morning when I see it

Yeah, done mine twice: never experienced such a "soft" windshield before, not sure whether its Pilkington that is bad but guess I'll find out as they used another brand last time.

[m3jala]

Originally Posted by Helmsman

Yeah, done mine twice: never experienced such a "soft" windshield before, not sure whether its Pilkington that is bad but guess I'll find out as they used another brand last time.

Probably a dumb question but I assume you can't just "buff it out" 🙂

[wfdeacon88]

Originally Posted by m3jala

Probably a dumb question but I assume you can't just "buff it out"

Not a dumb question, but the OEM pilkington glass was absolutely the worst, and the "sandblast" micro chip damage was way too deep to polish or buff.. close up view and touch shows basically thousands of small, but relatively deep chips.

[akkando]

Originally Posted by chocstraw

Seems difficult, the edge around the light is very tight, getting a good tuck with the light in might not be easy.

Yeah I had thought about doing it that way but seemed like it would be really difficult. If you're a pro, maybe it's no big deal, but I couldn't do it that way.

[akkando]

Originally Posted by Denny347

Great job on the wrap. Looks a TON better. Saved you some money as well, which is always nice. I might have to try that. Winter is approaching and the car is going to be sitting in the garage for most of it. Give me something to do with it...haha

Yeah I was thinking about buying everything from Ind but it's pricey, and wouldn't have taken care of the hard part. The hard part for me was taking them out. Wrapping and reinstall was fine if your patient.

My friend told me not change them from chrome because it helps make it stand out as an M3, but I don't care about that. I think it looks cleaner. Probably swap the badge in back two for matte black. Maybe the hood vents too, not sure. Then what to do with the tail pipes? It will be the only chrome left. It's kind of nice that they pop a bit, and the install is more involved than just a straight swap since you have to drop the exhaust and drill out the rivets I guess.

[Denny347]

Originally Posted by wfdeacon88

Finally getting a new windshield this morning... my insurance covered the entire cost despite it only being the sandblast effect with thousands of specs.. I told them the glare created by these microchips is dangerous on my commute, which is true.. opting for the solar replacement with purple hue and better heat rejection.

Here's an example of the current state. Will post final results this morning when I see it

I was wondering about the strange color of my windshield, it's a blueish/purple tint. I was thinking someone installed a film on the inside of it.

[wfdeacon88]

Originally Posted by Denny347

I was wondering about the strange color of my windshield, it's a blueish/purple tint. I was thinking someone installed a film on the inside of it.

Here is mine.. just finished..very happy !

[sterile stork]

Recently had a set of Dinan monoball bushings installed in the front thrust arms. The steering wheel feedback is now quite firm and handling the 295/30/18 pilot sport cup 2 up-front is much improved. Definitely happy with the bushings and would recommend. GAS also appears to offer something similar and at a discount! Snapped a pic in the alley during one of our peak-fall days



Currently using a set of HR Race springs while I enjoy some more time with EDC-functionality. May have to switch to Swift springs, looking around suggests I might get another couple mm's drop

Couldn't have made the wheels happen without the master-spec'r, slicer

[M3MPH1S]

Originally Posted by wfdeacon88

Finally getting a new windshield this morning... my insurance covered the entire cost despite it only being the sandblast effect with thousands of specs.. I told them the glare created by these microchips is dangerous on my commute, which is true.. opting for the solar replacement with purple hue and better heat rejection.

Here's an example of the current state. Will post final results this morning when I see it

Replaced mine because of the same issue and I also went with the solar coated glass. Makes a BIG difference.

[wfdeacon88]

Originally Posted by M3MPH1S

Replaced mine because of the same issue and I also went with the solar coated glass. Makes a BIG difference.

It's definitely a much bigger difference than I ever expected. No, it's not OEM, but it's 10x better than the garage OEM that was on there... plus, it looks WAY better.

[Denny347]

Nice enough day so I pulled off the 219M wheels off and scrubbed inside the wheel wells, cleaned the inside of the wheels, and installed spacers. I had 4-12mm Macht Schnell spacers I took off my 330i before I sold it. The fronts could use a wider spacer but 12mm is better than 0mm...haha. In the future, I might buy some 15 or 18mm spacers to replace the front 12mm. Rears look noticeably better.

[kimiraikkonen]

So one of my angel eyes went out and when I proceeded to change it............and saw the wonderful surprise below! Cracked and shredded insulation wire.



I'm the 2nd owner on the vehicle so don't know wtf happened before here. I checked the other headlight and its wire was pretty much shredded as well. This is a 2008 M3, so not sure if this is up to age on the wires, but my previous '08 M3 wires were in much better condition. Not sure if there was a higher wattage H8 bulb put in there before by the previous owner.

So just did a quick and dirty and did a full wrap with electrical tape. If I had time and was anal, I suppose I could have gotten color coded tape, but just used the high temp green tape that I had lying around.

Anyone else have this happen to them? I saw another posting from someone with a similar experience.

[shimmy23]

Winters back on. Decided not to install any spacers this time:

[strokemycocktus]

Originally Posted by Timujin

Yikes those are beyond EOL.

FYI these have like 2500 km on them, I've just been to 2 track days and that's all. They have no lip and are not bent, I don't see a reason to replace almost new rotors just because they don't look pretty.
Thanks for appreciating the calipers tho

[Grip Addict]

Drove to get a haircut, get money out of the ATM, returned a camping chair to Walmart (man has the quality level and size of their chairs done down in just two years), also played with my GoPro for testing future content ideas:

[PTRAN]

liquid gold!

[Denny347]

[/QUOTE]

LOVE that color!!!!