E46 M3 owner picks up his E92 M3

[regensburg94]

Originally Posted by PYE46M3

I don't think the age of the film matters much. I think the type of film/adhesive matters more. The idea is to warm up the glue so it peels off with the tint instead of staying on the glass. If you peel it off without warming the film, the glue will remain on the glass. I honestly don't think it is something that requires a professional, MAYBE just for the rear glass because of the defroster but even that is a DIY project.

you can either use a heat gun or garment steamer. heat gun is used from the outside and it takes a little longer to warm up glass so you have to be more patient. the garment steamer can be applied directly to the film from inside or outside (obviously through the glass will take a little longer). what you DONT want to do is work on the rear windows from the inside with a steamer. that escpaing steam will collect on the headliner and pillars, soak them and loosen up the glue which results in saggy headliner. Have a friend warm the rear windows from the outside with a heat gun or steam garment and slowly and patiently peel it off. You'll easily notice if you leave any glue residue behind which is a sign that you arent warming up the glue. properly warmed up film peels off with ease.

i took a gamble with my rear glass because I had no one to help me warm it up from the outside. So i just peeled it off slowly as it was warm enough in the sun. not the best idea but I got impatient

even if you DO leave glue residue on, you can remove it with a razor and glue remover such as this: https://www.amazon.com/GILA-FR200-Wi...9977627&sr=8-3

obviously it is more work. you do not want to leave glue on the rear defroster because it is much more difficult to wipe it off back there and you can't use a razor on it. there are a lot of youtube videos on this, I would watch them and attempt it myself. aside from the rear defroster, there is really nothing major to go wrong.

ps: if you use garment steamer on the inside, cover the door panels because water droplets will get everywhere

Thank you! This is super, super helpful.

[PYE46M3]

Originally Posted by martgsr

Mine will arrive soon !

awesome... if you clean the trunk carpeting, dont brush in one area for too long or it will start to pull out the fibers. go over a single area quickly in multiple different directions to avoid that. I would stick to simple green. I've used tide in the past on super dirty carpet and it makes a lot of suds which is difficult to rinse thoroughly.

Originally Posted by regensburg94

Thank you! This is super, super helpful.

np. pick a hot day to do this, you dont want cold weather working against you. The front doors should be a piece of cake. I would start there as practice. good luck

[PYE46M3]

Paint correction update !


Started out by removing the rear spoiler... I think you guys know why




The double sided tape is IMPOSSIBLE to remover. Thank god advance auto had this tool in stock. It still took 30 minutes to remove it with this tool !




Stripped the old wax layer with simple green + foam cannon




Chemical decontamination of the entire car with Meguiars all wheel cleaner (same thing as Iron X but for cheap guys like me). I used almost two 24oz bottles of this stuff !

CF Roof




hood




Clay bar using Meguiars clay. This shot was taken after the CF roof was clayed




Had a few rock chips that I decided to touch up before any paint correction.




This was the most noticeable one




The idea is to fill the chip with same color paint so its less noticeable than the primer underneat. This one came out ok, its just too deep to get good results. Should have added a few more layers. The kit works better on smaller chips




I decided to go with Sonax products as I've read great reviews. Picked up some various polishes to tackle a variety of defects




Sonax medium yellow pad and heavy cut red pad. the red one is VERY aggressive and i did not use it.




had some lake country pads from years before as well. Pink (heavy polish), orange (medium cut), yellow (heavy cut)




I used Griots 6" polisher with 5" backing plate. On paper, I knew exactly what I had to do as I've read about this stuff and watched videos for many many years. In reality though, I have LITTLE hands on experience machine polishing. Luckily the sonax products were super easy to use and produced lovely results.





masked with Carpro masking tape. it left zero residue as promised.





tail lights came out and were polished separately.




Griots 3" polisher is very underpowered and chokes with anything more than its own weight on it. The 6" polisher on the other hand is an absolute beast on setting 5 and 6.




Most panels were polished with EX 04-06 on sonax yellow pad. The combo ate through all swirls with ease but left some deeper scratches. I left a little piece of tape on some of the more noticeable defects after I was done with each panel and came back and worked them out with Sonax cut and finish on lake country orange or yellow pad.




In the end, i got about 75% of the defects out and left some deeper ones to live with. I did not want to chase every defect to thin out the clear coat with aggressive combos as the car was detailed by EAG 4-5 years ago.

hood




CF roof




swapped black grill for new OEM front grill. what a huge difference on IB !



new OE side gills !




Meguiars was 30% off at local store and decided to give these a try. The blue bottle is a spray on, rinse off type of wax that i will apply after every wash to reinforce the protection. I used the bottle on the left to apply 4 coats to the CF roof and 2 to every other panel.




Time for some CF goodies... BMW Performance spoiler and CF license plate frame which I got on sale about 1.5 years ago in hopes of one day becoming an E92M owner. it feels so great to be able to install them now !




look at that color combo




I used 3M double sided tape. Later I learned about BMW Betalink, no regrets using tape instead. still came out great !




noticed a tiny crack on the windshield trim. decided to replace it while BMW still makes the part and it was only $35.




after removal




after installation but before removal of the tape




installed new plate mount and hardware.... She is still not registered !






.......and after 100+ hours of detailing, she is all "dialed in"

[MisterClutch888]

Looking so good. My window rubber trim is folded up in that corner (corner of cf roof and windshield). Maybe i should replace the rubber trim as well.

[br2wdc]

I also recently picked up my car in Columbus, OH, so the state of Ohio is losing some nice E9x M3's.

Congrats on the purchase!

Originally Posted by PYE46M3

I used to live in CA, i need to update my profile haha. I picked up the car in Ohio, I live in MI for now.

[Space Fox]

This thread makes me happy

[PYE46M3]

Originally Posted by MisterClutch888

Looking so good. My window rubber trim is folded up in that corner (corner of cf roof and windshield). Maybe i should replace the rubber trim as well.

It wasn't that bad of an install at all ! there are a couple videos on youtube. part is cheap too !

Originally Posted by br2wdc

I also recently picked up my car in Columbus, OH, so the state of Ohio is losing some nice E9x M3's.

Congrats on the purchase!

Thanks you too. car looks gorgeous. Looks like Interlagos as well? what are the specs !

Originally Posted by Space Fox

This thread makes me happy

It makes me happy too

[br2wdc]

Thanks and now that I have gone back to the beginning of your post, I can see we were on very similar paths.

So this may sound familiar to you: My car is a Two owner car, 2nd owner purchased it from EAG five years ago with 22k miles

It's Le Mans Blue/Beige with 77k miles and options include DCT, Slicktop, iDrive, HiFi 676 with Sirius XM, heated seats, and PDC. Also have the original rims/tires he used for winters, and the competition wheels are not OEM but have good tread on summer Michelin's.

The only option I really wanted that is missing is ZCP, but as you said when you check off almost every box I knew I had to jump!

2nd owner was extremely meticulous with the car, had religiously changed the oil every 5k, and had receipts for everything including the TA last summer. The interior is almost perfect and I'm not sure if anyone actually sat in the back seat!

So I am extremely pleased and feel very fortunate to have found the right car so quickly.

Also, I was very happy with my car and it's condition until I saw your post and Space Fox; you guys certainly pressed the "Nuclear" button, so if you'll excuse me I have a lot of work to do on my car!

Originally Posted by PYE46M3

Thanks you too. car looks gorgeous. Looks like Interlagos as well? what are the specs !

[Cbozz]

wow, I really enjoyed this thread! keep the pictures coming!

[PYE46M3]

Originally Posted by br2wdc

Thanks and now that I have gone back to the beginning of your post, I can see we were on very similar paths.

So this may sound familiar to you: My car is a Two owner car, 2nd owner purchased it from EAG five years ago with 22k miles

It's Le Mans Blue/Beige with 77k miles and options include DCT, Slicktop, iDrive, HiFi 676 with Sirius XM, heated seats, and PDC. Also have the original rims/tires he used for winters, and the competition wheels are not OEM but have good tread on summer Michelin's.

The only option I really wanted that is missing is ZCP, but as you said when you check off almost every box I knew I had to jump!

2nd owner was extremely meticulous with the car, had religiously changed the oil every 5k, and had receipts for everything including the TA last summer. The interior is almost perfect and I'm not sure if anyone actually sat in the back seat!

So I am extremely pleased and feel very fortunate to have found the right car so quickly.

Also, I WAS very happy with my car and it's condition until I saw your post and Space Fox; you guys certainly pressed the "Nuclear" Option button, and if you'll excuse me I have A LOT of work to do on my car!

wow what a similar story ! Did you purchase it from the second owner? I got mine from a chevy dealer where the 2nd owner traded it in. I didnt realize it was a previous EAG car until i googled the VIN and saw the old listing on EAG website.

it is OK that yours is not a ZCP. You don't get much with ZCP anyways. A clean Lemans Blue sedan is pretty hard to find ! The only two things that I wanted but didnt get with my purchase was sport cloth seats and no nav.... but a car spec'd like that would be near impossible to find.

Did the 2nd owner flush out all the lubricants? I can almost guarantee you that at 22k, EAG didn't touch any of them. That may be a start for you ! I did a very thorough cleaning on mine because it will be garaged all the time and driven maybe 500 miles a year, so it was kind of worth restoring it and maintaining it. If i was to DD, i would have done far less than what I did lol !

Originally Posted by Cbozz

wow, I really enjoyed this thread! keep the pictures coming!

Sadly I don't think I have anything else left to clean

I may get some pedals and will post pictures of that, otherwise she will be pretty stock !

[br2wdc]

Yes very similar; I was searching nationwide and if it wasn't for the pandemic I would have flown out to San Diego for a SSII E90 or Chicago for a IB E90.

In another post I mentioned the two cars I missed locally, the last of which by about 4 hours to another BMW enthusiast; I vowed after that I would pursue the next good car "by any means necessary" and you see the results

I did purchase the car directly from the 2nd owner. In his receipt folder he had the EAG work order for the car showing mileage at 22k and a $1200 Service Invoice showing "work performed" including an oil change, paint less dent removal, full detail, and full tank of gas ... shockingly as you mentioned no diff/transmission/PS fluid replacement anywhere

But brace yourself for more accolades for the previous owner: at 50k miles I saw a receipt for a full Transmission service, and I asked him about it. As you may know, BMW claims it's a "lifetime" fill for DCT and he was advised as such. So he advised them to "do it, or I'll find someone else who will", which they did

So you will not be shocked to learn he replaced the power steering fluid at 65k miles, and at the last oil change he had them replace the brake fluid and rear diff oil at 76k.

I completely agree with you on ZCP, and I have learned quite a bit from your post and my next steps will concentrate on ceramic coating, an upgrade for the Audio system and of course rod bearings.

I might even create a welcome post similar to yours so I can share information and get some additional tips

Originally Posted by PYE46M3

wow what a similar story ! Did you purchase it from the second owner?

it is OK that yours is not a ZCP. You don't get much with ZCP anyways. A clean Lemans Blue sedan is pretty hard to find ! The only two things that I wanted but didnt get with my purchase was sport cloth seats and no nav.... but a car spec'd like that would be near impossible to find.

Did the 2nd owner flush out all the lubricants? I can almost guarantee you that at 22k, EAG didn't touch any of them. That may be a start for you ! I did a very thorough cleaning on mine because it will be garaged all the time and driven maybe 500 miles a year, so it was kind of worth restoring it and maintaining it. If i was to DD, i would have done far less than what I did lol !

[PYE46M3]

Originally Posted by br2wdc

Yes very similar; I was searching nationwide and if it wasn't for the pandemic I would have flown out to San Diego for a SSII E90 or Chicago for a IB E90.

In another post I mentioned the two cars I missed locally, the last of which by about 4 hours to another BMW enthusiast; I vowed after that I would pursue the next good car "by any means necessary" and you see the results

I did purchase the car directly from the 2nd owner. In his receipt folder he had the EAG work order for the car showing mileage at 22k and a $1200 Service Invoice showing "work performed" including an oil change, paint less dent removal, full detail, and full tank of gas ... shockingly as you mentioned no diff/transmission/PS fluid replacement anywhere

But brace yourself for more accolades for the previous owner: at 50k miles I saw a receipt for a full Transmission service, and I asked him about it. As you may know, BMW claims it's a "lifetime" fill for DCT and he was advised as such. So he advised them to "do it, or I'll find someone else who will", which they did

So you will not be shocked to learn he replaced the power steering fluid at 65k miles, and at the last oil change he had them replace the brake fluid and rear diff oil at 76k.

I completely agree with you on ZCP, and I have learned quite a bit from your post and my next steps will concentrate on ceramic coating, an upgrade for the Audio system and of course rod bearings.

I might even create a welcome post similar to yours so I can share information and get some additional tips

Same experience here trying to purchase my E46 and my E92. lost a few good cars because I just couldn't find travel time or others beat me to it. In some cases, I did end up seeing the car in person but it didnt meet my expectation and I came back empty handed with $ out of my pocket due to travel cost. In the end though, I ended up buying the best cars I came across and they popped up in my backyard. I have learned to just be patient and trust that the car that is meant for you one day will fall onto your lap.

Glad your car came with good maintenance history. I have to do my rod bearings at some point for peace of mind and also the valve covers as both are leaking ! your ZCP wheels look so fresh. Mine are all beat up and I can not justify refinishing them or buying new ones I have to admit that silver ZCPs flow much better with Le Mans than Interlagos.

[wyatth]

You do house calls? What’s your hourly?

[PYE46M3]

Originally Posted by wyatth

You do house calls? What’s your hourly?

haha, can you provide housing for a week?

[Drifter2090]

Looking great!! And you're better off with the 3M tape. The betalink is too permanent, I had some clear coat issues on my old E92 335's performance spoiler but I used betalink so I could never get it off

[nsogiba]

Nice work on the detail. Was the paint fairly hard?

[PYE46M3]

Originally Posted by Drifter2090

Looking great!! And you're better off with the 3M tape. The betalink is too permanent, I had some clear coat issues on my old E92 335's performance spoiler but I used betalink so I could never get it off

Yes I agree. I like the fact that it is removable for those exact reasons.

Originally Posted by nsogiba

Nice work on the detail. Was the paint fairly hard?

I can't comment on that because I do not have much machine polishing experience to compare this car to others. IMO it must be on the soft side because i was able to take out some serious swirls with the weak 3" griots polisher along with lake country orange pad and sonax ex 04-06.

[PYE46M3]

Last wash of the season already ! Barely got to drive either car. summer go by really quick for anyone else ?

[AR_Motorwerkz]

Originally Posted by PYE46M3

Last wash of the season already ! Barely got to drive either car. summer go by really quick for anyone else ?


Attachment 2406839

Amazing stable! Both the E46 and E92 are amazing cars. Which one of these two beauties takes the crown, though?

[PYE46M3]

Originally Posted by AR_Motorwerkz

Amazing stable! Both the E46 and E92 are amazing cars. Which one of these two beauties takes the crown, though?

Thanks ! I love both of them for different reasons but the 46 easily takes the crown. It’s a completely different driving experience but it’s way more special to me because of how much I like the color and how rare it is. It’s nearly impossible to find another 6spd PY 05 coupe nowadays.... Bmw stopped offering the color in feb 05 and vast majority of them were 01-02s which are all trashed by now. the 92M is easily replaceable for now... in fact I would trade it for a mint sub 50K 03 lemans blue M5 in a heart beat

[AR_Motorwerkz]

Originally Posted by PYE46M3

Thanks ! I love both of them for different reasons but the 46 easily takes the crown. It’s a completely different driving experience but it’s way more special to me because of how much I like the color and how rare it is. It’s nearly impossible to find another 6spd PY 05 coupe nowadays.... Bmw stopped offering the color in feb 05 and vast majority of them were 01-02s which are all trashed by now. the 92M is easily replaceable for now... in fact I would trade it for a mint sub 50K 03 lemans blue M5 in a heart beat

Yeah, clean E46s are becoming a rarity especially with a manual! Yours is a gem!

[PYE46M3]

Been a while since I have updated this thread....

Ended up buying a brand new set of OEM ZCP wheels with all new TPMS and center caps. Wrapped them in Yokohama Advan apex in 255/275 size. My old set was curb rashed and it I wanted a mint set !










Also ended up picking up an Eissenman race that I fully polished and put on the car.

The car will stay as is for the most part. At most maybe a mild drop with spacers but I doubt it since I hardly drive it. I have probably put 1500 miles on it since 3 years ago.