RobZR

And she's back together!  Only hiccup was I forgot to order the front bumper bolts for the MTech bumper.  The stock one are too long, but will work until the new ones come in. 
She still needs a good paint correction and wax, but I'll save that for another day.
Feels good to save another E46...

For sure, the mess under the intake is definitely on the to do list!  I have the VCG and oil filter housing gaskets as well. 
Just got word it's gonna be done tomorrow!  I plan on transmission, transfer case and diff fluid change this weekend.  
Shes had some serious work done to her this week!

Great progress, love seeing these getting some attention. 
Has the plastic pipe under the intake been addressed?   They are notorious for leaking at the least opportune time. 
But,  that's a project with an intake reseal, OSV update, heater valve and lines, and starter,  in a shotgun parts blast.
As you, we did the pump and hoses on my son's 330 vert, only to have the pipe start leaking a month later. 
Whoever decided that it was a good idea to replace a metal pipe with a plastic one that is buried under the intake should be shot.
 

+1
 
The z3m roadster and coupe are mechanically the same, basically a beefed up version of the 318ti. Front suspension is e36m, rear suspension is similar to an e30 but with e36m rear brakes, much stronger axles, and everything reinforced everywhere. 

KW coilovers, Ground Control camber/caster plates, lower control arms,  TC Kline rear shock mounts, sway bar links and bushings all installed the past week or two. Had some time to do a paint correction yesterday as well as install a paint matched rear wiper delete. Getting closer to being satisfied...for now. 

Why didn't they just copy the whole design the patent has run out a long time ago.
 

Came up with a solution for subpar light output on the e30 when all other options were unavailable or undesirable. Once I install them and confirm fitment and function, I am going to offer them as kits (minus the projectors). Been working on these for a long time and just received my stack of SS mounting plates in the mail yesterday. 

Sorry guys, busy weekend/week!

I was pretty fortunate my travel plans didn't get affected by the storms, got into Newark about 20mins late on friday afternoon. Ironically my Lyft was a E53 X5 and holy hell was it a hooptie. Made it to the dealership though and literally just grabbed the keys and went after adding the temp plate on my iPass account. Motor fired right up, added my phone into the bluetooth connections and I was on my way. I of course wasnt too shy on the first on ramp.

I was heading to the Hartford, CT area for the weekend and decided to take the scenic route. I had seen a recommendation for Bear Mountain state park which wasn't too far out of the way and kept me off the George Washington bridge as well. The park was beautiful in winter, would love to come back in summer. This area is equivalent to Devil's Lake for us, a older resort from the early 20th century turned into a park. There is even a public pool nestled into the cliff which is pretty neat. I wanted to see the bridge and rail lines as well. Hiked down the *closed* path to the boat dock to get this view of the bridge. It was a little icy but worth it. Overall did about a 2mi hike which was a nice break after flying and driving. 


Made it up to Hartford friday night without seeing any snow on the road which was good, but next day was a different story. Its snowed all day but luckily I was just at an expo. No complaints about driving this in 4in+ of snow though even with all seasons. Winter storm Keenan ended up dumping 9”+ that day.

Made it over to Newport, RI Sunday night. Had to stay at The Wayfinder while Ben's wife was still in town and I would highly recommend it for anyone looking to visit the area. The rooms were incredibly nice and the most friendly staff I've encountered at a hotel.

First task Monday was to address the hood latch, at some point between the inspection and me picking it up the cable decided to not work anymore. Of course HF doesn't sell any cheap radiator picks so I got the ICON set and was able to push the drivers side latch hook and get in. The iDrive system said the oil was over capacity so I verified it WITH A DIPSTICK! I had seen mentions of the dipstick on the FB group but its not listed anywhere in the owners manual. I had to actually check the parts diagrams to find it hidden under the intake. Turns out the car lot just overfilled it ever so slightly so its good to know that level sensor is still in calibration and I'm ecstatic to have a dipstick. If I knew these had one back in the day I had certainly forgotten. 


After that it was back to vacation time. After Ben got off work we headed to the Newport Car Musuem. Very nice collection of ~100 cars including all the recent mercedes and lambo's, a Z8, all generations of corvettes, all the Porsche speedsters except the original 356 and probably the best group of Shelby package mustangs I've seen in one place. 

71BD74A5-2364-4F0C-80F3-7B4AB53A322B.MOV
Tuesday was a meh day but I got my exercise in at least. Stopped by the BMW dealership in Newport as this was the last place the X5 was serviced on the carfax before trade in which was convenient for me. I had to twist the service advisors arm to get ONE service record. The first advisor scoffed at me saying "they couldn't do that for me since it would be a HIPPA violation". What the hell does that have to do with anything at a car dealership? After dickbag passed me off to the guy next to him he was a little more accommodating after I told him the main dealership this X5 was serviced at told me it was no issue to get all the previous service records from them after showing proof of ownership. I didn't want the customers info either which was the concern apparently but after 20 min he finally got it printed and redacted their info. I'll start another post with the records once I get the other ones but yikes. It just sucks my first dealer experience sitting on that side of the desk went that way. I begrudgingly bought a keychain and some rear license plate screws.
I was told there was free public parking at Easton's beach so I posted up there for the day. Even in winter the beach was still a relaxing sight.

I walked downtown Newport to visit the Audrain Automotive Museum. I was a little bummed by the size of whats actually on display, although they were all very interesting and high quality cars. I'd literally seen 5/10 of them the previous day at the other museum and saw 10x the amount of cars for the same $18 admission price. The Audrain functions more like an art gallery which rotates its exhibit every 3 months, so if planning a visit I would check to see what would be on display first. If I were to make a trip out here again I think it would be far more worth while for car specific activities to visit during their concours week. Complaints aside seeing a 1800 mi 904 Carrera acquired from the original owner with the original purchase documents was extremely cool. 

From there I walked down Bellevue Ave to the coast past all the old mansions. Unfortunately most were closed for renovations so I continued on to the end of the Cliff walk. This was pretty treacherous in the snow but I was determined and it was worth it for the views of the houses and the ocean itself. Basically its a 2.5mi public access trail connecting two beaches along private land. I did stop to tour the Breakers though which was the Vanderbilt family summer home. My self guided tour would have been more informative if the ticket lady had told me about the accompanying app for audio tours. Still an incredible place to vist even seeing very little of the 140k sq/ft. The truly unlimited wealth is clearly put on display for a home they spent 6-8 weeks a year in  Side note though, I highly recommend the James J Hill House in Minneapolis, MN. The MN Historical society does a fantastic job touring that 40k+ sq/ft mansion with very detailed explanations of what daily life was like in that house, hence my disappointment with the Breakers. Hopefully the tours will improve more once some of the covid restrictions are laid off.



Made the walk about to my starting point totaling 18k+ steps in, great for a warmer winter day on the coast  Im in town for the rest of today and then head out for Lake Placid tomorrow. Got right around 400 miles driven so far with no major complaints.
 
 

The time has come to replace my wife's W body Impala and we both wanted a SUV as a replacement. I kept in mind that I wanted to go used BMW over newer economy because while I find the interiors nice in newer economy cars the road noise still speaks to the quality underneath.  It's the curse of growing up with these fine used automobiles knowing how things could be. The goals for this vehicle were really for long trips on vacations or at least day trips. After being impressed with that F10's condition I rented off Turo and @timmer's diesel thread, a E70 35d was the only vehicle we considered looking at. The desire also formed long ago when I worked at the dealership too, I loved driving the E90 and E70 diesels when they were new. They were my go-to errand runners when I had the choice. Father @andyhundley also told me they regularly service 10 of these at his job with no major issues after the EGR is "fixed".
I know its a pretty crazy car market right now but I don't feel like the prices on these have inflated much if any. The v8 X5's are the bottom because of their reliability and the diesels are just above that because its different. I saw many 80-120k examples for $12-15k on the market. CoPart auctions were often going for $8-10k as well for clean titled vehicles. Cinnamon Brown Nevada Leather interior was a must for me so that narrowed my search by quite a bit though. I initially looked in November and prices were a little lower on average then but I didn't see any winners at the time. Around the holidays this popped up in New Jersey though and after a week of contemplation I finally made the call. 
Being a 1 owner, clean carfax with recent service and being at a Euro specific car dealership really sweetened the deal. I'm really glad I looked back on @suspenceful's E70 thread as well because he mentioned using Lemon Squad for a PPI. Jeff at Torch Light Motors was happy to have them come out and inspect the vehicle and I was impressed with their report. I've attached it for those interested, really detailed and 94 pictures all around and under along with 3 short videos. 
Timing worked out pretty perfectly too as @BMWben is currently stationed out in Newport, RI for training before he moves to Japan. Along with a few other things out east I wanted to do, I figured why rent when I can buy? That and along with the Impala giving my wife some more trouble we decide to pull the trigger. Im flying out to Newark, NJ on the 28th and I'll spend a week out east and drive home on the 6th after a weekend of skiing in upstate New York at Whiteface. 
2013 BMW X5 xDrive35D
Deep Sea Blue Metalic
Cinnamon Brown Nevada Leather
Convenience Package (ZCV) - Comfort Access was a must for me
Cold Weather Package (ZCW) - Same with heated seats, heated rears was a bonus. 
Premium Package (ZPP) - All included in ZCV - The Rear view camera with top view I always loved using. 
Option 300 Space Saver Spare, not originally equipped but it has it! Thrilled this doesn't have run flats anymore. 
New Continental ExtremeContact DWS tires

LemonSquad460341.pdf

I made a table
It was plenty of work, and I love the way it turned out. 
Turns out I still don't have any good pictures of it, here's what I've got! 

We're making things over here! ABS plug worked great and a spacer for the otherwise flat 944 booster.
 




 
Played around in Cura and found how to make multiples and it placed them for you. Super neat. 
 

Glad it made it! USPS folks working the counter were a bit confused about the mailing address. In the time it took to explain that yes it was an actual street address, I felt I could have almost driven out and left it on your porch.  

Kind of forgot to post this, but anyways my secret Santa found me an old German m coupe dealer brochure, AutoWeek magazine from 98 featuring the m coupe, and a CCA beanie. Love it all!

My Santa showed up today to hand deliver my gifts. I had to frame them right away, but got the wrong size frames (doh). These will look killer in the shop once I get better frames. 

Met up with @P_Roloff last week for a parts sale. These guys make pretty decent stuffed crust pizza. 

Welp, bought a family hauler for the wife to DD and for us to use for roadtrips, hauling, etc. 
She was amenable to something 'enthusiast' and a car I am very happy to own - a Toyota 4runner. We needed an SUV that could tow, hold a lot of gear, and be reliable. I love their simplicity, capability and aftermarket parts availability.  They have approx. the same amount of technology as a 90s e34. The only two nits I have with this model are the electronically controlled drivetrain selection and the rust-prone frames. 
I got lucky that it ended up being white. After months of searching, I found this rust free example in Tennessee - flew down from MKE at 6am on a Saturday and was home by 10pm same day.
Here she is in the beautiful mountains of TN on the day I drove her home. its a 2007 Limited, white with gray interior. Super clean, daily driven by an old lady, garaged, Toyota parts used for maintenance, blah blah. 

I got right to work with a few upgrades before letting it hit the road.  I did a tune up including oil change, air filter, spark plugs and boots. I plan to change all fluids (both diffs, transfer case, transmission) in the spring, I'm out of time now. 
look at that frame. i was stunned how clean it was. similar age/mileage Wisconsin cars I looked at had fist sized holes in the frame. 

 
I removed the pinstripes then gave the paint a full detail with clay bar, polish then wax. 
 
Of course, the truck got a bixenon retrofit, which I kept from the e30. TRS Mini-D2S 4.0 with 50w ballasts and custom foreground limiters. 

I also smoked the headlights while they were open, and restored the lenses. 


GROM Bluetooth adapter with aux-in and charge port (bottom black box with white plug)

I ran the aux-in and usb charger to the dashboard below the RAM mount which I installed based on Dave's recommendation. It works great at holding a big heavy phone. 

I cleaned out the POs filth in the console.  Lady must have ate fries everyday - greasy crumbs in every nook and cranny. bleh! 

 
I found some used 5th gen 4runner TRD Offroad wheels, plastidipped them black and added General Grabber snow tires for the winter. 

I added a 1.5" lift kit to the front of the 4runner. They come from the factory with quite a bit of rake, and it levels it out. It is simply a 3/4" spacer than goes on top of the front strut, and due to the geometry it nets a 1.5" lift. 

and the most important bit of work i did was to try and prevent future rust for future me.  PB blaster has recently come out with a new rust-protectant coating that has an optimistic 2-year life. most of the products (Fluid Film, motor oil, etc) have a 1 year recoat time. There's a guy on Youtube who tests all of the undercoating products and he says it is now the king of the castle. Its also only $10/can and I used 5 total for coating everything. 
I jacked the car up, removed the skid plate and spare tire and sprayed every nook and cranny on the underside.

I also I removed the front bumper and sprayed all the steel inside

i also removed all 4 wheels and sprayed all the suspension and frame inside the wheels. 

 
On the exterior i also painted the lower front valance black, added a Yakima roof rack, debadged the doors and in the future will black-out the rear badges. 
Here's the final product!



with any luck ill be back here with some stuff within the next year or so 

Today was a great day to get out for a little back roads drive! Since picking the car up, I've swapped wheels/tires, stock headlights, added wheel spacers, Gruppe M carbon airbox, bimmerworld intake elbow to delete ASC, AC Schnitzer leather steering wheel, and installed a BMW motorsports golf ball weighted knob.
 
 

So this should be arriving next week:
https://bringatrailer.com/listing/2003-bmw-m5-131/
 
Easier to just post the listing so I don't have to type up a diatribe. I stumbled across this auction which only had 3 hours left on the timer. So I scrambled to pore over the photos and documentation and come to realize this is actually a super legit Dinan car with everything except the wheels and flywheel. (dinan flywheel was installed but removed later).  lol @ $29k when the car was new in 2003 for all that Dinan shit. Even has the 3.45 differential. 
I have utterly 0 plans for this car other than to get stock wheels or apex arc-8 - basically something that allows me to run BMW centercaps - and then drive the shit out of it. 

SOLD

interior back together including new ZHP shift knob

valve cover gasket replaced, car washed, trim touched up, engine bay detailed, door jambs detailed, trunk carpet shampood


new tires are getting mounted tomorrow. should be able to get pictures this weekend and post the ad

keep it.
 

It sucks that he didn't have insurance,  but at least he stopped so you got his info. Most these days wouldn't.
If I was you I'd go buy some lottery tickets, hoping your luck is still holding out.
From reading your account of the accident. I would have figured the "M" was toast, and you had his bumper in the side from the rear door handle up to the roundel on the hood.  You got lucky.
I had a tangle with box truck about 30 years ago. Hit me in the same corner,  but hard enough to send me spinning like a pinball, bouncing of 2 other cars and finally t-boned by a van. Wound up in a ditch with the van teetering on the edge ready to roll over on top of us any second. My Mustang didn't have a straight panel left and the passenger seat was ~9" wide.   I'm lucky to be alive. 
Looks like most of the damage was simple bolt on stuff, and with a good paint match it will look better then new. 
Good to see everyone was OK,  M is on it's way to healing, and the upgrades continue.
 

It sucks that he didn't have insurance,  but at least he stopped so you got his info. Most these days wouldn't.
If I was you I'd go buy some lottery tickets, hoping your luck is still holding out.
From reading your account of the accident. I would have figured the "M" was toast, and you had his bumper in the side from the rear door handle up to the roundel on the hood.  You got lucky.
I had a tangle with box truck about 30 years ago. Hit me in the same corner,  but hard enough to send me spinning like a pinball, bouncing of 2 other cars and finally t-boned by a van. Wound up in a ditch with the van teetering on the edge ready to roll over on top of us any second. My Mustang didn't have a straight panel left and the passenger seat was ~9" wide.   I'm lucky to be alive. 
Looks like most of the damage was simple bolt on stuff, and with a good paint match it will look better then new. 
Good to see everyone was OK,  M is on it's way to healing, and the upgrades continue.
 

It sucks that he didn't have insurance,  but at least he stopped so you got his info. Most these days wouldn't.
If I was you I'd go buy some lottery tickets, hoping your luck is still holding out.
From reading your account of the accident. I would have figured the "M" was toast, and you had his bumper in the side from the rear door handle up to the roundel on the hood.  You got lucky.
I had a tangle with box truck about 30 years ago. Hit me in the same corner,  but hard enough to send me spinning like a pinball, bouncing of 2 other cars and finally t-boned by a van. Wound up in a ditch with the van teetering on the edge ready to roll over on top of us any second. My Mustang didn't have a straight panel left and the passenger seat was ~9" wide.   I'm lucky to be alive. 
Looks like most of the damage was simple bolt on stuff, and with a good paint match it will look better then new. 
Good to see everyone was OK,  M is on it's way to healing, and the upgrades continue.