E46 Fanatics Forum banner

Razor's Build Thread

54K views 221 replies 27 participants last post by  lllRazorlll 
#1 · (Edited)
Hey everyone, I've been on this forum for about three years and I figured it was time to start showcasing my car's progress. It is a 2000 328i with a build date of October 15, 1999 that was purchased on December 23, 1999 by the first owner. I purchased the car on June 25, 2011 after falling in love with it during the test drive. I bought it with 71,450 original miles and became the second owner. Immediately the next day I gave her a bath. Cosmetically, inside and out, the car is an 8/10. There were a few scratches that I have taken care of and there are only two or three dings overall. Very good shape for a car that was 11 years old at the time. I will sand it down and repaint it orientblau metallic one day to completely take care of the blemishes if buffing doesn't work. Below is a picture of me and my mom cheesily posing for a picture:





I have more stock pictures in an album on my profile.

She remained stock for about two years until I actually began with the modding. I wanted to do Angel Eyes and LED tails right from the start but my first mod was actually a DICE iPod integration kit. I got tired of shuffling between CDs and burning new ones with new songs I wanted to hear. It's a great unit that runs from the CD changer cable in the trunk of the car to the gear shifter. I have the cable coming through the small hole where the ash tray used to be so it can stay tucked in that cubby hole. I have bought a CoolStream Duo bluetooth adapter to play music in my car after I upgraded my phone because the DICE cable was for a 30-pin Apple device. The adapter works like a charm and now anybody can play music in the car and not just Apple users. Here's a link to the adapter:

http://www.amazon.com/CoolStream-Bluetooth-Receiver-accessories-Motorcycles/dp/B00GHUHMUS

In May 2013, I purchased Predator Orion V2 Opaque Angel Eyes from Umnitza. I got them installed and was very satisfied with the light output. The only complaint I have about them is that they have to be clipped onto the top part of the headlight bowl and therefore do not sit centered with the bowl. Because of this, I had them in for a little over a year before I decided to take them out. Here is a picture of what they looked like:



Shortly after, I did research on doing a xenon headlight retrofit. I have always been attracted to xenon lights and wanted to put them on my car especially. After looking around on forums and sites, I decided to get:

  • Bixenon FX-R 3.0 2.5" Projectors
  • E-46R Extended Shrouds
  • Matsushita Gen V Ballasts
  • Morimoto Standalone Can Bus
  • D2S Osram Xenarc 66240 CBI Bixenon Bulbs

Here are some pictures taken during the process:









Afterwards, I went to a shop and got 15% window tint on the sides and back. I am pretty happy with the result and after almost two years and have no complaints with them. I also bought some gloss black door pillar covers to go along with the tint. These have scratched pretty bad and will be removing them and polishing up the door pillar trim.



A couple months later I bought a trunk deck lip spoiler and a Euro license plate.





I have also purchased a homelink and retrofitted that to get rid of the garage door opener I had in the car. My car is completely empty inside except for the manuals, registration, and insurance cards in the glove compartment, iPod integration wire in the ash tray, and only the spare tire equipment in the trunk. The next thing on the list are clear corners, side indicators, and Euro-spec clear halogen tail lights. They're a (delayed) birthday present from a friend and will take pictures of them as soon as they go on. As far as mods, this is probably as far as I will go. The car isn't anything special like an M3 so throwing on different wheels or bumpers just would not seem right to me. I considered changing my bumpers to MTech 1 but then I would feel obligated to convert the car to 330i Sport spec. So, maybe I won't bother with that and just buy a 2001 330i Sport later. Eventually, I feel as if I will return everything back to stock (window tint, trunk spoiler) but we will see.

Between when I first got the car and now, I've played my fair share of whack-a-mole in terms of maintenance and repairs. This includes but is not limited to:

  • Changing the brake pads
  • VANOS seals replacement
  • Washer fluid pump replacement
  • Replacing one of the window regulators
  • Odds and ends of the cooling system as they appeared
  • Both rear springs
  • Passenger airbag recall
  • Temperature gauge reprogramming with P.A. Soft 1.4

Having the car for almost 30,000 miles has slowly urged me to seriously consider taking care of the long delayed and underestimated preventative maintenance measures. The car has been decently reliable so far but if I want it to last or even drive it normally I understand that I am going to have to take better care of it. The car has been good to me overall and I have not been good to it the way it deserves in return. As I am not really interested in modifying it any more at this point I will be focusing on taking the necessary measures of replacing what needs to be done by using the "shotgun" approach as jfoj has coined. The car is a pleasure to drive, which does not even begin to describe the feeling and I could not imagine how it will feel with the proper maintenance to refresh the car. I want to keep this car forever and have it as the first entry in my collection one day. With that said, I look forward to doing more work on the car and taking more pictures to document the progress. It is going to be a fun journey as the first four years of ownership have been very exciting. I would also like to share it with you guys here on the forums and thank you for creating such a great community with this much knowledge that is readily accessible.
 
See less See more
10
#2 ·
100,000 mile update: I have put on the clear corners, indicators, and OEM halogen tails courtesy of kendogg here on the forums. Went on a photoshoot with a friend and I took some pics. I am about to start addressing maintenance issues as this is my new goal for the 100,000 mile milestone. After all that is taken care of, I will reward myself by changing the bumpers and side skirts to MTech 1 in addition to Style 68s. I may go back and change out my homemade HID headlights with OEM ones. If it is too complicated to change everything from housings to ballasts and sensors to coding the car, I might just leave them the way they are. What do y'all think?

Pics from photoshoot:






 
#5 ·
I am pretty sure peytonracer4 was being a smarta$$ in that comment dude. You can pretty clearly see that the paint is pretty swirled up in a few of those pics, which is not uncommon on a lot of BMW's. Do some research and you can probably take care of it yourself, or take it to a shop and let them do it. However if you take it to a shop, do your research on them and make sure they don't make the car worse then it already is (it happens a lot).
 
#7 · (Edited)
I think he was just admiring the car lol. I need to do a buffer/correction as I haven't done one. There are a few scratches that have been covered up with touch up paint from the dealer but later down the road someday I'll probably sand the whole car down and repaint it. The touch up paint has cracked and corroded now in some areas which has me thinking there isn't much that could be done to fix it other than to just sand and repaint.

BTW I am no longer lanky the way I appear in the first photograph :eek:
 
#19 ·
I love that you tackled one of the harder retrofit jobs, I bet your light output is insane.

I know you've already addressed the paint swirls, but I think that once you get that all done, it will really show.

Glad that you found yourself some style 68's, your car is going to look great with them installed.
 
#20 ·
Thank you! I want to get a dual action buffer and do a paint correction. Granted, there are a lot of areas I had to touch up so that may come back and show. As far as the lights, yeah, it's amazing. I bought ebay headlights at first then returned them because they were bad quality. They looked like OE parts, its just that they weren't put together using reputable pieces. So yeah, I am also glad I took care of that.

The style 68s are pretty hard to find and I found a relatively good set on Craigslist. They will need to be refinished a bit but for now they're pretty good. Not a lot of rash. It's all part of some big changes coming soon in the spring which I'm excited about and can't wait for
 
#25 ·
Gauge rings are always a good and subtle addition. I thought about painting mine to match my red needles.
 
#31 ·
Well the big surprise is over. I purchased genuine BMW MTech 2 bumpers from the dealer back in November and just got them painted a few days ago. Funny story about the bumpers because I walked in there wanting to order MTech 1 and one of the guys there said there was a kit that BMW offers where I can save a bit of money. I decided to go with this kit since it includes all the necessary parts as well as me saving money. One of my brother's friends who works at Thompson BMW in Doylestown, PA helped me order the kit. Apparently, it is 1 of 10 left in Germany so that is pretty cool. I have also ordered carbon fiber front splitters, a carbon fiber rear diffuser, and selective yellow fog lamps. Overall, I am pretty happy with the outcome. I think I have accidentally ordered the correct bumpers by mistake. Here are pics:

https://flic.kr/p/Ha5Viihttps://www.flickr.com/photos/96814698@N02/
https://flic.kr/p/GJTKBWhttps://www.flickr.com/photos/96814698@N02/
https://flic.kr/p/Gezgwwhttps://www.flickr.com/photos/96814698@N02/
https://flic.kr/p/H43AYPhttps://www.flickr.com/photos/96814698@N02/
https://flic.kr/p/Gezi9Qhttps://www.flickr.com/photos/96814698@N02/
https://flic.kr/p/GJTFDWhttps://www.flickr.com/photos/96814698@N02/
https://flic.kr/p/H78Kuohttps://www.flickr.com/photos/96814698@N02/
https://flic.kr/p/H1Lyqhhttps://www.flickr.com/photos/96814698@N02/
https://flic.kr/p/H78Mxwhttps://www.flickr.com/photos/96814698@N02/
https://flic.kr/p/H78LXdhttps://www.flickr.com/photos/96814698@N02/
https://flic.kr/p/H43Eh2https://www.flickr.com/photos/96814698@N02/
https://flic.kr/p/H43FKThttps://www.flickr.com/photos/96814698@N02/
https://flic.kr/p/H1LAU5https://www.flickr.com/photos/96814698@N02/
https://flic.kr/p/H78NPEhttps://www.flickr.com/photos/96814698@N02/
https://flic.kr/p/H43H1Phttps://www.flickr.com/photos/96814698@N02/
https://flic.kr/p/Gezm61https://www.flickr.com/photos/96814698@N02/
https://flic.kr/p/GeJY8nhttps://www.flickr.com/photos/96814698@N02/
https://flic.kr/p/H1LD5shttps://www.flickr.com/photos/96814698@N02/
https://flic.kr/p/H78QL5https://www.flickr.com/photos/96814698@N02/

I know I said I would do maintenance first but I figured this was a deal I could not pass up. As far as mods go, this is probably as far as I will go. A few more things here and there but that's about it. I don't want to go over the top. Now I can focus on maintenance :)
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top