Between 485 & 705 SQ/FT From a "double" to a DOUBLE

[Purist]

I need specs!!!!! And more pics!!!!

HA! It's an '05, Silbergrau Metallic (Silver Grey) over Imola Red. 6MT, obviously! Just under 100K miles, completely stock outside of an Alcantara steering wheel, vinyl wrapped trim and the ZCP wheels.

As for the photos, I was trying to wait until the car actually arrived (speaking of, the driver just texted me and said it should be here tomorrow around noon!!), but I guess I can show you guys some photos from the seller:

I like! ARC-8's already too. Was this over on the M3 forum?

OEM ZCP wheels, actually! Fairly recently powder coated, too. And no, not on the M3 forum. Actually found it on cars.com. Was close to buying it last month before the PPI turned up a bunch of issues, albeit, common to these cars. The seller addressed the Vanos with the Besian System repair kit, reinforced the subframe and installed new bushings, and adjusted the valves, among some other minor items (new belts, new air filter, etc.). Not to mention, the clutch was replaced within the last 5k miles or so.

Once the seller contacted me after he made the repairs, we agreed to a deal pretty shortly thereafter. He documented the entire repair process with a **** load of photos, so I feel pretty good about this car.

That said, it's not perfect. But all the big ticket/headache items have been addressed, and so with time, money and hard work, I think I can get it to be exactly what I want/envision. I'll write up a proper introduction post once she's nestled safely in her new parking spot in my garage (sorry, Honda!).

 

[Ronin22]

That's a beauty! I really like those wheels.
What are you envisioning? Track build? Street/track? Weekend warrior?

 

[Mpower5266]

Wow that's a looker. Nicely done.

 

[Purist]

That's a beauty! I really like those wheels.
What are you envisioning? Track build? Street/track? Weekend warrior?

Thank you!

Not a dedicated track car, more of a weekend car that I will occasionally take to work. But I would like to get it to the track a few times a season, as well.

Wow that's a looker. Nicely done.

Thanks, man! Back to my BMW roots. Not sure why I ever left in the first place.

 

[Mpower5266]

Thank you!

Not a dedicated track car, more of a weekend car that I will occasionally take to work. But I would like to get it to the track a few times a season, as well.



Thanks, man! Back to my BMW roots. Not sure why I ever left in the first place.

I seriously thought about putting my M up on BaT not too long ago, I really want an e9. But I took it to the gym last night and I love that damn thing, its not going anywhere. Haha

 

[Purist]

I seriously thought about putting my M up on BaT not too long ago, I really want an e9. But I took it to the gym last night and I love that damn thing, its not going anywhere. Haha

I don't blame you! The E9 is a sweet car, but that M3 is damn clean!

 

[Mpower5266]

I don't blame you! The E9 is a sweet car, but that M3 is damn clean!

I think I would miss having something "quick" for mountain runs.

 

[Purist]

Definitely!

I think that’s part of the reason why I moved on from the Raptor. I missed having something small and nimble that I can kind of just toss around. The 335i was a fun car to drive, even though I didn’t really have any performance mods. Honestly, the N54 motor didn’t need anything. My car had a cat back exhaust, BC racing suspension, CCW forged wheels And some other aesthetic upgrades, but that was pretty much it. And she was a blast to drive, well-maintained, and super reliable. I regret getting rid of it, but I don’t regret buying the Raptor. I got it out of my system and decided it wasn’t for me.

Now, if I could have a Raptor and an E46 M3, then sign me up. But the Raptor was not a cheap truck, by any means, so the wife was not about that. LOL

Once I realized I could pick up a solid daily driver (the Accord), and a second car, I figured it was a no brainer. And I’m glad I went with the lease on the accord, because the new G20 3 series that is coming out has really caught my eye. In my opinion, it blows away the F30. That said, as much as I drool over the 340i and it’s basically M-level performance, the 330i might be a more realistic option as a daily driver if it fits into our budget in about 24 months from now. [emoji6]


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[TX4runner]

Congrats. Good looking E46! Very high strung engine. I had an E86 M Coupe with that engine and comp wheels that I loved. Was just too small when I started using it as my daily and my wife used the E39. Stepped up to an E92 M3. Love the V8 but it's not as nimble as the older M3/M Coupes. Comp wheels are just a great classic look!

 

[M-technik-3]

Mpower5266...E9 are down right gorgeous but they all need to encased away from oxygen and any fluid that would cause any sort of rust. They are horrible when it comes to corrosion as most know. But the styling is beautiful.

Yeah I see the ZCP wheel's, looked like in my quick glance as it had Arc-8's. Nice car the interior is not my cup of tea I find it too bold for my liking, but it might grow on me if I had one with that interior.

Have a shop for planned maintenance?

Appears very clean, and thankfully no bling stereo or street racer mods. Got to love MMMMM

 

[TX4runner]

As for the photos, I was trying to wait until the car actually arrived (speaking of, the driver just texted me and said it should be here tomorrow around noon!!)

So did the car arrive over the weekend

 

[Purist]

Mpower5266...E9 are down right gorgeous but they all need to encased away from oxygen and any fluid that would cause any sort of rust. They are horrible when it comes to corrosion as most know. But the styling is beautiful.

Yeah I see the ZCP wheel's, looked like in my quick glance as it had Arc-8's. Nice car the interior is not my cup of tea I find it too bold for my liking, but it might grow on me if I had one with that interior.

Have a shop for planned maintenance?

Appears very clean, and thankfully no bling stereo or street racer mods. Got to love MMMMM

The interior is part of the reason I wanted this car so bad. I think the Imola Red, aside from cinnamon, is the best interior on these cars and contrasts very nicely with the silver grey paint.

Like with my 335i, I'm going to try to do as much as I can on my own. That said, I'm no pro, so anything that's over my head or anything my neighbor and I can't accomplish using his 4 post lift will probably go to Wile Motorsports in Walpole,MA. He's been vouched for by many local BMW CCA members and I follow him on all social media and he does legit work.

So did the car arrive over the weekend

She did, on Saturday....sorry for the late reply. Saturday was a super crazy day, with dealing with a sick 1 year old and getting ready for his birthday party on Sunday. Followed by taking my wife out to dinner for Valentine's Day.

Then Sunday was a total loss with the party. And then it just snowballed from there. She's dirty, but I'm hoping to give her an ONR bath later today to get some off that salt off of her. Here she is, in all her nasty filth:

And a few shots (and a video) of the delivery truck, because why not:

https://vimeo.com/319039160

 

[Purist]

Also, just made my first purchase for the car. Tri-stitched Coby Wheel Alcantara shift and ebrake boots, to match the Coby Wheel that the PO had installed (which I absolutely love). Here's a picture of the ebrake boot:

 

[M-technik-3]

Nice, my buddy took European Delivery of his back in 05. Both of us were USAF then and he enjoyed being able to do a proper break in period. It's probably gonna seem a bit slower than your 335i with toys but it will handle better and tends to make you a better driver vs mash gas and mash brake's style driving.

 

[TX4runner]

Congrats on getting her home. Looks like your neighbor friend was coming out to see it as well. It did come off the truck dirty. Time for that rinse. I'm a fan of the reddish interiors. My E39 had caramel interior over carbon black exterior and my current E92 is red interior over white exterior. Love the contrast vs just having black.

 

[Purist]

Nice, my buddy took European Delivery of his back in 05. Both of us were USAF then and he enjoyed being able to do a proper break in period. It's probably gonna seem a bit slower than your 335i with toys but it will handle better and tends to make you a better driver vs mash gas and mash brake's style driving.

That's still on my bucket list, taking European delivery of a new BMW. Needs to happen in my lifetime!

Yes, the 335i was quick, but luckily there is a year + of time between owning that car and owning the M3 where maybe the M3 won't seem that much slower, ha! But like you said, the M3 is more of a drivers car and I very much look forward to getting to know her better.

Congrats on getting her home. Looks like your neighbor friend was coming out to see it as well. It did come off the truck dirty. Time for that rinse. I'm a fan of the reddish interiors. My E39 had caramel interior over carbon black exterior and my current E92 is red interior over white exterior. Love the contrast vs just having black.

Thanks, man! Yep, I was over in his garage just before the truck arrived, so he was anticipating its arrival, as well.

And I totally agree on the contrast.

 

[Purist]

I found some time on Friday to heat the garage up to 60 degrees (it was probably 40 outside) and give the M3 its first bath. It was covered in salt, so I went with two wipe downs of Optimum No Rinse and then Bead Maker as a drying agent/topper. I think she cleaned up extremely well:

But nothing beats a proper wash, so I really cannot wait for warmer weather. I'll finally be able to bust out the power washer and foam cannon and give her a proper 2 bucket wash/detail. I can almost taste Spring...oh, wait, I live in New England. That's a lie!

I guess Punta Cana in April will have to suffice!

 

[Purist]

The mod bug has hit....subtle, but I really like the change. Now it matches the black shadowline trim around my windows:

Before

After

 

[Purist]

House Updates
My wife and I both get our year end bonuses within a month of each other, roughly, towards the end of January/middle of February. Since our vacation is paid for, we have a decent chunk of change left over to start attacking various areas of the house, big and small.

First up, even though our house is new (2016), it didn't have the kitchen my wife has always wanted. We got into the house late in the building process, so most of the design/color choices had already been decided. In lieu of her dream kitchen, this is phase 1 of a multi-phase process to get her kitchen to that level. We had a contractor come in to build up the cabinets to the ceiling and eliminate all the wasted space above them. Additionally, he put up the back splash that my wife has been drooling over for a while. Here are some before and afters:

Before
Ignore the beer, this just gives you a good look at the wasted space above the cabinets

After

Next part of the kitchen update will occur the first week of April, when the cabinets are painted grey. My coworker used this lady who quit her day job to (primarily) refinish/repaint kitchen cabinets, among other things. She did such a great job with my coworkers kitchen that my wife scheduled her last summer to paint our kitchen this Spring.

To give you an idea of how popular she's getting in the area, she's now fully booked into 2021. Crazy!

We also took this opportunity to finally upgrade the builder-quality (aka cheapest option Home Depot had) kitchen faucet. My father works for a local plumbing supply company and so we upgraded to a beast of a Kohler faucet, at cost, thanks to his discount!

I also recently came across a great deal on a new handleset at Home Depot, thanks to slickdeals.net (if you don't use this, you are missing out). Again, we were able to upgrade from the builder-quality front door knob to a proper Schlage Connect Smart Door Lock:

Before

After

 

[Bob275]

How does that door lock work? Just by the code or can you program it to unlock automatically when you are within range?

 

[polexican23]

he said ignore the beer. ha.

 

[LX-Markham]

ignore the beer? that's some of Vermont's finest!

mmmmm....heady topper

 

[Purist]

How does that door lock work? Just by the code or can you program it to unlock automatically when you are within range?

Nope, no Geo-fencing or anything like that. Without any hub, it simply allows you to use a specific code to unlock the deadbolt. But I’ve ordered a Wink version one hub which will allow me to control the lock from my iPhone or via my Echo Dots. So if someone comes over, I.e., a relative, and they need to get in the house, and I’m not home, I can let them in from the front door remotely.


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[Purist]

he said ignore the beer. ha.

Haha ok fair enough. Granted this picture is over two years old, so all that beer is long gone. But we try to make it up to Vermont at least once a year so we can restock. Love it up there!


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[Purist]

ignore the beer? that's some of Vermont's finest!

mmmmm....heady topper

Heady is legit, but I actually prefer Focal Banger. That said, the beer scene in Mass and RRhode Island has really really caught up. There are some great breweries within 45 minutes of us now which is great.

Just discovered a fairly new spot in Providence called Long live Beerworks, and they have a New England style IPA that is probably top 10 that I’ve ever had, it was that good!


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[Purist]

Let's try this again (my last post, which was of decent length, didn't save correctly so I had to start over from scratch).

No movement on the garage-front and I don't see that changing anytime soon. Maybe around the fall, but nothing going on now. In the meantime, I've decided to share with you some updates with the M3. Hopefully you don't mind some car updates, but at the end of the day, luckily, this is my thread!

Took the car out for a spin early last week since it ended up being a really nice day. It was only the second time I had driven it, and first since the day it arrived. I took that opportunity to take some photos in the driveway and I must say, she looks good in the sun:

I also picked up a Megan Supremo exhaust (rear section only, e.g. axle-back). I'd like to drive the car a few more times with the windows down so I can truly experience the stock exhaust before installing the Megan, but hoping to get the new exhaust installed sometime next month with the help of my neighbor and his 4 post lift! 2.5" piping and quad 3" tips:

I eventually plan on upgrading sections 1 and 2 of the exhaust, as well, but this'll do for now.


I also upgraded the stock shift and ebrake boots to Coby Wheel tri-stitch Alcantara boots, to match the Coby Wheel tri-stich steering wheel (excuse how dirty the interior is, still haven't had a chance to get that cleaned out):

Here are a bunch of misc. car parts/fluids that need to get done in the short-term:

Note: I've already swapped out the outer, driver-side taillight, as a bunch of the LED bulbs had burned out.

And lastly, because I'm the nerdiest 36 year old ever, I recently stayed up until midnight so I wouldn't miss out on the second (and final) release of the S54 Lego set from Replica Motorsport. This is one really cool set that I will proudly display in the garage:

This past week was a total loss, due to my entire household getting hit with the stomach bug. Luckily for me, I was the last one to get it, when it finally hit me Wednesday morning. And thus, I got to spend my entire birthday yesterday sick as a goddamn dog. Yay for me!

Now that I'm on the mend and temps are on the rise, I may bring up my detailing supplies from the basement and get them back into my NewAge cabinets. We leave for the D.R. a week from Monday, so not sure how much free time I'll have before them.

Anyway, cheers!

 

[Purist]

Awful lot of crickets round these parts lately. Evidently I need to step up my game, or stick to only garage-related content. Or both! Regardless, I did manage to clean up the garage yesterday and hang some of my BMW prints:

 

[Bob275]

Awful lot of crickets round these parts lately.

The pictures in your last two posts are not showing up.

 

[Purist]

The pictures in your last two posts are not showing up.

Yes I just realized that, as well. which *****, because I spent about an hour today converting a lot of the broken images in my thread from Flickr and Imgur over to Google Photos. An hour wasted, clearly.

I was using Flickr to host my photos and don’t like the idea of having to pay for photo hosting privileges, so I tried using Google Photos. I’ve heard it doesn’t always work when using Google Photos, but decided to give it another shot, to no avail. Any suggestions on other photo hosting options or sites? The cost of Flickr pro won’t break me, obviously, I am just a bit cheap when it comes to paying for things of that nature.

I’ve tried Imgur, as well, but am blocked from using them further for hosting on forums since evidently using photos hosted by them in a “for sale” thread is against their rules. So that clearly won’t work.



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[Bob275]

There's a bunch of threads where people use this forum to host their photos. I'm not sure how hey embed them in the thread though. When I try it the pics end up as small attachments. I'm not willing to pay for photo hosting either!

 

[Purist]

There's a bunch of threads where people use this forum to host their photos. I'm not sure how hey embed them in the thread though. When I try it the pics end up as small attachments. I'm not willing to pay for photo hosting either!

Ha, glad I’m not the only one.

And I’ve seen those, too. But it seems like if you use this website to host the photos, they all get attached and appear sequentially at the bottom of the post. Which makes it tough if you’re trying to post photos from perhaps different days or different events or different activities, it’s nice to be able to put a header, then put a couple photos underneath it, add a couple spaces, then put another header or description of more photos etc. etc.




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[Bob275]

Check out this thread.
https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=334140

He does it this way somehow. Uses the forum to host but puts the pics directly in the thread somehow.

 

[Purist]

Check out this thread.
https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=334140

He does it this way somehow. Uses the forum to host but puts the pics directly in the thread somehow.

Oh cool, thanks for sharing!!

That said, I got impatient and opted for a Flickr Pro account. I’ll be spending some time tomorrow at work updating the various broken images in my thread. Again. [emoji58]


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[dittle fart around]

It's easy to add photos to the Garage Journal.

Click on User CP, under your control panel, networking, pictures and albums. Click here to add photos or open a new album.

View media item 81752

 

[Purist]

The pictures in your last two posts are not showing up.

OK, should finally be all set now. I spent a few hours going back and fixing every single broken image in my thread.

It's easy to add photos to the Garage Journal.

Click on User CP, under your control panel, networking, pictures and albums. Click here to add photos or open a new album.

View media item 81752

Thanks! I opted to just upgrade my Flickr plan to the Pro version. $50 later, I guess it's not the end of the world. Just hate having to pay for things like this.

 

[Ronin22]

I love the update on the garage! And please, don't ever stop keeping us up to date on the BM!

 

[Purist]

I love the update on the garage! And please, don't ever stop keeping us up to date on the BM!

Thanks, man!

I wasn't sure if it was BMW overload or anything, considering this isn't a "car" forum and not everyone is a BMW fan. But I enjoy posting about it and as long as there are some of you out there, that's enough for me.

 

[tweidman]

That E46 is awesome. Nice cabinet choice too. I have the same ones....

 

[Bob Heine]

I've only owned one BMW (euro-spec 733i) and as much as I loved driving and working on it, the cost of repair parts killed me.

I don't post often but I check in every time your thread pops up on my subscribed list. Post about what you love and we'll be fine.

 

[Ronin22]

I don't post often but I check in every time your thread pops up on my subscribed list. Post about what you love and we'll be fine.

Same here! I get emails for every thread I'm suscribed, and I haven't even commented once on some of them. But I do read and enjoying almost every thread on this forum!
It's true that OP's can lose interest in sharing, if there's no feedback, but I feel a bit ashamed to just say "Good work" and not have anything constructive or helpful to reply!

Sorry, enough OT, just wanted to agree on the "always read, not always reply" thing