[marksandygill]

So earlier in the year after my wife left the employ of BMW, we decided to go for something completely different and get a BMW...

I thought I would do a quick write up on what I have done so far, although I'm probably a bit late to the party!

I have to admit I'm slightly in love with her, pretty much spot on in terms of power, size and only 16k miles, the only thing lacking was looks, with so little to differentiate between a 220d and an M240i I felt the need to make her look pretty!!

So sorry for the longish post, I'll get on with it;

Black front grilles, £35 from eBay. No great difficulty in fitting, was a pain getting the first one out and ended up almost cutting my wrist open, I probably should have wrapped the front strut bars at the same time though!

Larger IDrive controller, £10 from eBay. Cheap and it shows, will be replacing this at some point, but looks better than the tiny original one!

Wing Mirrors, £40 from Underground Parts. Easy, just popped the old covers off and 2 minutes later new ones were on. Only problem is I'm now thinking are they too boring, should I go for the M2 style ones?

Carbon wrapped interior trim, £50 3M textured from Amazon. Looks better than the silver interior, took me an evening to do with a paint stripping gun and trim tools. Not difficult, just have to take your time.

Carbon gear trim, £42 eBay. Not actually keen on it, just clips over the original one, but I struggled to find an affordable replacement and wasn't sure about wrapping the original, but it'll do for now.

Rear Spoiler, £40 from eBay. Not bad quality but no great, took an hour or so to replace, fish wired off the original and then WD40 to remove the double sided tape. A word of warning, I used the supplied tape and it started to lift after a couple of days, I removed it and bought some proper exterior scotch tape and it hasn't moved since!

Gloss black badges, £23 from eBay. Again same process as the spoiler (but lots more WD40 as it doesn't sit on the vertical surfaces) but I have noticed the rear badge BMW colours are fading so will replace them at some point.

Side skirts and decals, £126, again, from eBay! Skirts were pretty easy to fit with tape and self tapping screws, the decals I probably used too much washing up liquid and they took ages to set in place. Oh and I used silver screws and annoyingly you can see the heads when you are standing back from the car!

Front splitter, £85 eBay. Pain the the arse to fit, I jacked the front up so I could use an electric screwdriver, but getting the screws back in, whilst lining it up and getting the taped parts in the right spot was a nightmare. It was a 3 part splitter, maybe a 2 part would be easier or maybe it was the fact it was from eBay, but I got it on in the end.

Rear diffuser and carbon/gold exhaust tips, £70/£140, eBay/Carbon Factory. Wife hates the gold tips, I don't know why but I love them. Easy to fit both, took about 30 minutes. Only pain was the top part of the diffuser which just didn't want to clip back into place, some mild swearing ensued!

Focal 100L front speakers/sound deadening, £150/£30, Audio Visual World/Amazon. Literally the best thing I have done to the car! I have the base speakers and adding these has improved the sound clarity no end. I can sit in my wife's M240i with Harmon Kardon and get into mine and the sound is so much clearer in mine now. Pretty easy to fit, door trims were okay, the connectors as ever were fiddly, I don't even think I need to install an amp etc!

Oh almost forgot, I removed the little sliver front grill vane things and spray painted them black, gave them far too many coats!!

Anyway that's my journey so far, I don't intend on doing anything mechanical as I have a warranty from BMW, maybe an aFe Magnum air filter and a front number plate holder but I feel pretty happy with her now. Or maybe some new Alloys and a wash...

[Frosty]

I have to say I like the gold tips on a white car, it works!