Hi all,
Just wanted to start a progress thread on here right from the get go instead of what I did with my last car on e46fanatics where it was a struggle to remember when I did shit to it and in what order lol Although this is going to be a bit different because this isn't my car. lol It's my friend's, Samantha (technically we both own it). For the purposes of this build, we will be referring to her as SamBam. Anyhow, I'm basically going to do most of the work on the car anyways. This way is much better imo because she will be paying for the mods muahaha
I don't expect to mod this car anywhere as crazy as I did the E46, so updates will be rather boring.
Here's a link to my e46fanatics build thread if you're
really bored:
https://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?t=1026101
Here is her current mod list (as of 9/4/2022)
Vehicle Info- 2018 M240i
- Alpine White with Black leather interior
- Automatic
Exterior- BMW M Performance black grilles
- BMW M Performance diffuser
- BMW M Performance front lip (Painted AW)
- BMW M Performance trunk spoiler (Painted AW)
- IND M-Sport Painted Front Reflectors
- IND Painted Keyhole Cover
- Painted OEM Mirror Covers
- XPEL Ultimate Plus PPF - full front w/ wrapped edges, door cups, mirrors, rear luggage area
Interior- 45% Spectra Photosync (sides/rear)
- Aluminum Hexagon trim w/ Estoril Blue matte highlight
- BlackVue DR750S 2CH dash cam
- Removed visor warnings
LightingExhaust- VRSF 90mm Chrome tips (straight cup, single wall)
So to start off…
I was actually looking at this car as a potential new car for myself. But nevermind that. SamBam, tells me she's ready to get rid of her crappy Scion tC and get her dream BMW. But she didn't really know which car she wanted. Originally the 4 series. Then I told her what car she "shouldn't" get because I like it. Then in my efforts to persuade her from not getting it, somehow I got it backwards and convinced her it was an even better idea than the 4 series. From then on, she was determined to get that car.
Fast forward to the last couple of days of Sept. 2018. I was looking for her car half-assed until one day SamBam forced me to actually look hard. We've already looked at a few locally and found what options we wanted from the car. There was a few must haves that I forced on her haha. Found one in Fremont BMW. It had almost all the options we wanted and a few we didn't need. And also wood trim..ugh. Really wanted to aluminum, but I think we made a good decision on it since the aluminum felt or is plastic?
Here's some pictures that was sent to me by my buddy, Jon, that I asked to check out the car for me before I flew up there to drive it down. They aren't great quality sorry.
Car looked good from what he told me. So I made the deal so that we could come get it. You can bet SamBam was excited.
So the internet sales guy tells me to bring personal check, ID and car registration for the BMW loyalty discount. Personal check…just keep this in mind for a bit.
I took a single picture of the car in the showroom. Figured I would someday post this.
So we go though the more haggling bit, then get down to signing the finance papers. They tried to pull one over me. The numbers don't add up. I ask them and they were like oh that's right. Tries to explain it to me, and his numbers don't even match up. I'm not signing that.
Got that changed, we're all good. Then we get to the check to pay the deposit. Now remember I told you to keep that in mind? They tell me they don't accept checks that are numbered under 150. WTF?!
I asked why, they told me that checks below that might bounce. Uh…dude any check can bounce. WTF you smoking.
Well, why the hell didn't you tell us this before we flew here? Ok we only brought one check because no one told us shit. They told us they don't accept wire transfers and that we had to get a certified check from somewhere. I honestly never had this problem anywhere else I bought a car from before. Well except Tesla where they don't accept personal checks at all. But at least they accept wire transfers. So we spend the next 4 hours driving around to find her CU branch bank so we could get the check. Barely made it to the bank before it closed. Seriously if we didn't find one. I was just going to walk away. I swear my buddy, Jon, who joined us was even more pissed at them than we were lol Honestly, it probably would have been a lot easier had I not moved most my money from my BoA account to CU savings account before
Anyhow after that debacle. Took some pictures of the car while we waiting for Jon's gf to come by so we can go eat.
Purchased 9/27/18
Jon's other friend with the yellow M4 came too. I forgot his name already. I don't even remember where we ate lol Set up an impromptu BMW meet. Damn it sucks that I didn't have my car. But it would have totally messed up the numbering anyways.
Which car messed up? lol
The other photographers…
Said our good byes, and it was time to get the car ready to drive back from Fremont to Orange County. We bought some painters tape from Lowes (I think) and got to work taping the edges of the car. What we were using was Road Warrior Plus temporary PPF paint. I actually semi-researched it and tested it on another car before we left to Fremont. Seemed like it would work perfectly for what we need it for. The product paints on white, then dries a clear matte finish. When it dries, it feels pretty solid. Since we did it closer towards night time, we just chilled a bit longer for it to dry. Generally it only takes an hour, but we gave it twice the amount just in case.
Next day, after we came home and had some sleep. It was time to take off the tape and paint and wash the car. The paint is not as easy to take off. The majority of it peels off. But there are a lot of little bits left behind. If we had a pressure washer, this would come off rather easy. Also, it was hot as hell outside so that didn't help too much. It probably took the both of us like 3 hours to get it all off. But the good news was that there were no rock chips. There was a shitload of bugs and stuff on the film though. Every time I peeled a section off it looked like that might be the one with the rock chip, but nope. So it seemed to do it's job
Car looks good. SamBam wanted to get clear bra done right away. I tried to convince her that she didn't need it, but since I had it on my car she wants it. So made an appointment for it. The problem is that they would want us to have to painted reflectors installed before they do the wrap.
10/9/18
So a little over a week later. Her first mod.
Ordered from my friends at European Auto Source. Painted reflectors from IND. Installed by SamBam, herself. She's a car gal, so she knows how to drive a lowered car and DIY some car stuff. Oil changes are her thing. But I make her do anything else that's easy. We also threw on an EAS license plate thing. Forgot what they are called. Getting rid of the Fremont BMW crap. Don't want to be driving around advertising for them.
Forgot pictures of them installed. But you'll see them in the other pictures anyways.
10/15/18
The following week. It was off to get clear bra done by Protective Film Solutions. Coverage would be exactly like my car. So full front coverage, door cups, and luggage area in XPEL Ultimate Plus. I've been going here for quite awhile. They seem to always be expanding and getting new people every time I come here. They did a great job as always. Of course when I went to pick it up. It rained out of nowhere. So I didn't get any pictures right after install.
That was pretty much it for awhile. I did buy reverse LED bulbs because it looked like they were still incandescent bulbs. But it was raining and I couldn't figure out how to do it. Didn't find any DIYs so I did that later. Off to work I go, for a month.
11/20/18
It was time to do the break in oil change. Actually, it's a little overdue because well, I was still working far far away and she didn't want to go pay someone else when we could DIY. I don't remember much of this oil change because, well, I didn't do it. I set up the lift and put her car on it. Then SamBam did the rest, figuring out where the drain plug was and all that.
She's going to be pissed when she sees these pictures. I picked the two that didn't make her look fat
Shit is a blur after that lol I'm pretty sure I worked until mid December. I'm modding like 3 cars at the same time so I had to go back to my other build threads to figure out when I did stuff on this car.
Sometime in December...
We started talking about doing tints. I had a $100 deposit tied up at Extreme Autowerks. Originally, I put down a deposit for my Model 3, but I ended up refusing delivery on the car due the condition. So they told me it will be there until I decide to use it. Well applied it to Samantha's car as her Christmas present. I did say that she would be modding the car with her own money right? What am I doing?
1/9/19
Lol So then, last Monday, dropped it off to get it done. She didn't know what she wanted in terms of darkness. So I told her what I would get when I redo the tint on my E46 again. That's what we got. They did an ok job tbh. Originally, there was a lot of bubbles and some stuff that I knew wouldn't come out. I pointed it out before I left. They told me to wait a bit. It's not my first rodeo, I already know that it's not going to go away. A couple of days later, I went back and had them fix all the issues. It came out way better. Their support has been great so far.
Spectra Photosync 45% sides/rear
It came out darker than what I thought, given that I have 35% all around on my car. But I think it was due to it being cloudy. It should look a bit lighter. But since it's been cloudy and raining since forever. It's taking a long time to dry.
At the same time, while the car was drying. I got around to installing those reverse LED bulbs. Turns out you have to take the tail light out just to replace the bulb
Luckily the tail light is rather easy to take off. I guess that's why there wasn't a DIY. The other issue I ran into was that I couldn't put the car in reverse and get out to check the bulb. The LEDs only go in one way so I have to check to make sure it's on each time. I ended up asking for help so that someone can put it in reverse while I do the install.
I don't know why the whole tail light is LED except for the reverse bulbs. The ones I installed were way brighter, and it's a nice straight white color.
Then I bought the Bimmercode app and BT OBD2 thing. Coded a few things that I hated on her car even though I don't really drive it. I could have used E-sys. But I was too lazy to set it up so I just bought the app. I got rid of the warning you have to click OK on every time. Couldn't figure out how to get rid of the welcome gongs. I think they took out that option in the LCI models? I enabled door lights on reverse, should help with some light on the curb for parallel parking. Changed reverse lights to LED even though there's no warning. Oh the other thing I didn't like was the damn radio. It stays on at whatever the current volume is until you close the door and lock it. I made it so that it turns off the moment you open the door. My model 3 does that shit too, but luckily the volume goes down when you open the door and instantly turns off as soon as you close the door. Coded some other things too, but I forgot already. See, this is why I'm writing this shit down early
1/13/19
Fast forward to Sunday. She hit a pothole and blew out her tire.
She told me she didn't see it. Just this puddle
Why do you think there's a puddle in the middle of the street? Lol At least she knew what to do and pulled over unlike this other friend I have. His reaction would have been more like "oh shit tire popped, must swerve into a median or something to total car."
Luckily, it happened locally. I tried throwing on my 18 x 9.5 ET35 ARC-8 as a spare and just drive it to my house which was only a couple streets down. It was definitely going to scrape from what I felt. Did it anyways and yelp shaved off some of the wheel lol It's been sitting in my driveway the whole week since it's raining. Meanwhile, EAS now sells Michelin tires, so I hit them up to order one.
I can't figure out if I like her car on ARC-8s or not.
Probably need to lower the car a bit first to know for sure. But I flip back and forth every time I pass by it to do something outside.
What do you guys think? I know, blurry picture.
F
inally brings us to yesterday…
On Thursday, I dropped by EAS and got them to install the new tire. Tire looked like it shit itself when they took it off.
They told me there wasn't any bends/cracks. Dammit, ugh…I mean..whew.
can't convince her she needs new wheels now.
Now that it's dry-ish. I'm ready to swap the tires. Well I already ran into a snag. The ARC-8 tire is flat. Can't find tire pump. Dammit, both the units are in the other car (SamBam calls it the spaceship) she's driving and she's at work
So I have to swap the wheel on the incline in my driveway.
Checking how bad the scrape was on the wheel. I guess not to bad. Iono what this clump came from though. But that explains the knocking sound lol I'll just shave it off and throw it on my E46 when I get that back. Figure that out later.
All finished up. Drove it a bit and I heard a clunk. Um..what was that? Went away as I drove around to get the TPMS to reset though. Went back and threw it on the lift. Everything looks good. Some paint scraped off from where the wheel rubbed but otherwise, everything looks good. I wiped the front down snapped a picture or two.
Then parked it next to the Model 3 that I just got back from clear bra. Snapped a picture, and I'm done.
Next install will be hardwiring a dashcam. She already bought it, I just never got around to installing it due to the weather prolonging the dry time of the tints. I'm not looking forward to the install. I have the same unit, still haven't installed it on the E46
Also, I wish there were some better smileys on here. Like the :facepalm: one. I would use that one a lot. and like a :hmm: one lol