Speed Yellow E92 M3 mods journal

[llis]

First of all, my philosophy:

1. All mods must be things I like.
2. All mods must be reversible, back to OEM.
3. All OEM parts must be stored carefully for that occasion.
4. If I end up not liking it, no biggie. I remove it, try something else, sell the old parts. (I expect to have some leftovers from before going up soon.)
5. When in doubt, refer to #1.

The great thing about ordering your own car instead of off the lot is you get a pristine paintjob. The car arrived dirty, but at least no poorly done washes had been done. I had the car professionally and carefully detailed. Then I immediately had a clearbra installed.

For clearbra, my preferred shop finally ditched 3M after years of frustration with fogging and orangepeel. They started using Suntek PPF film, and on their recommendation and description of the product, I said ok. And wow! It's a new film that is "self-healing" -- pour hot water on the surface and microscratches and pits fade back into the amazing shine. You wouldn't know there's a clearbra on the car! I had full hood, full fenders, bumper and scoops, mirrors, door handles and the top of the back bumper done. So far I'm delighted!

In my own garage, I started with the easy stuff: replacing the roundels, grilles and side gills.



The roundels I ordered from JBSpeed are carbon fiber pattern. I think they turned out quite well. The hood and trunk roundels were first. The rest come later....

For the front grilles, I installed some carbon fiber grilles from JBSpeed. They seem to be of decent quality. We'll see how they hold up over time. They were affordable enough.

The side gills I got from JBSpeed, though, didn't have any M markers, just raw plastic. That made me question my plan here. I had BMW black chrome gills leftover from my last car, so I put those in instead, and it looks good. As it turns out, the black chrome matches pretty well the black trim on the side of the car.

I also bought CF hood vents, but the varnish on them had small bubbles and looked not so good, so I set those aside, and will consider other options later. As it is, the painted vent pieces are adequate.



For exhaust, I wanted something a bit more formidable than the BMW M Performance Exhaust I had on my last car. After much listening and agonizing, I finally ordered the black Eisenmann Race exhaust with connecting pipes from IND. So far, wow! It's a bit stinky with that burning metal smell, though. When the snow melts, I'll take her out for a long roaring run. But now I'm really eager to get past the break-in period and hear what this girl can do!

Next was window tint. For this I went with 3M Chrystalline, which has heat rejection that beats most other tints. (The shop also offered Huper Optik, but after reading about the comfort access and radio issues here on M3post, I passed on that.) The tint is 40%, which isn't even max legal darkness in this state, but I still like it. I had that done only yesterday, so I haven't really had a chance to test out how well it works heat-wise. More to come on that. (I can say that the oem tint does you no favors in heat rejection.)

Finally (for this first phase), wheels and tires. I've always liked wider tires, and on my last car the Yokohama AD08 255/275 combination was outstanding. (If you want a street tire for tracking, AD08s are right up there with the best, imho.) This time I went with Michelin PSS, because I'm not planning on tracking the car and the PSS is a bit quieter and more comfortable on the street.

I had those mounted on the BMW 359 black GTS wheels. And on these wheels I used the carbon fiber roundels. For stance, I have 12.5mm spacers all around. The OEM wheels are going into storage. The Pirelli P-Zeroes with 730 sedate miles of wear will be going up for sale.

Enough blah blah. More pictures....

[///M Power-Belgium]

I need to say....i don't like yellow cars.......
BUT !!! your speed yellow....i like...very nice car

[tha_good_life]

looking good! I'm getting rid of my 3m and replacing it with Xpel. Similar product to what you have.

[Curt2000]

Nice subtle quality mods, your car is a gem!

[CD2534]

Great philosophy and great mods. Cant wait to see what else you have in store over the course of ownership! Awesome color as well!

[GOLFFRR]

nice

[nbennettksu]

very nice

[IMG]

Very nice,i like !

[uplusd]

Great start, thanks for sharing

[THE TECH]

Looks good.

[j2m]

Looks great

[Ivan@PYSpeed.com]

very nice!

[Alen E90]

lookin' good!

[info@trinityautosport]

looks good =)

[Chriskm3]

I don't think I ever seen yellow m3 e92 in my area. Nice choice

[mthreefan]

great pictures, i like the mods

[mkPOTO]

congrats, looks good!

[Powerbeast]

Wish you went with gloss black grill over CF.

[Nate2046]

I could never drive a yellow car myself but that Speed Yellow definitely has an aggressive look, nice choice! Your mod philosophy is dead on and gives you a good opportunity to make your first move back to OEM. Its just my opinion but your car would look so much better with the stock roundels. They are the symbol of BMW and its always struck me as a little sacreligious to change the scheme. Small point. Great looking car, enjoy it!

[W///]

My kind of car. OEM but pumped up 1 level. Very nice!

[ApexM3]

Looks great bro!

[Notsorich]

Too Sick!