Tkuhn

Got a few part in the mail recently. No photos but nothing extremely exciting. The new clutch came in, intake manifold gaskets, a cv boot rebuild kit and a rear plastic thing (idk what the proper name is haha) and then the covers for the low beam side of my headlights.

Also got my abs plastic in to finish the rear bulkhead too. Used my CAD (cardboard aided design) template traced it out and started cutting.

Got everything trimmed right then drilled some holes. Used M5 nutzerts and some stainless M5 hardware to secure it. 

Got a few part in the mail recently. No photos but nothing extremely exciting. The new clutch came in, intake manifold gaskets, a cv boot rebuild kit and a rear plastic thing (idk what the proper name is haha) and then the covers for the low beam side of my headlights.

Also got my abs plastic in to finish the rear bulkhead too. Used my CAD (cardboard aided design) template traced it out and started cutting.

Got everything trimmed right then drilled some holes. Used M5 nutzerts and some stainless M5 hardware to secure it. 

Got a few part in the mail recently. No photos but nothing extremely exciting. The new clutch came in, intake manifold gaskets, a cv boot rebuild kit and a rear plastic thing (idk what the proper name is haha) and then the covers for the low beam side of my headlights.

Also got my abs plastic in to finish the rear bulkhead too. Used my CAD (cardboard aided design) template traced it out and started cutting.

Got everything trimmed right then drilled some holes. Used M5 nutzerts and some stainless M5 hardware to secure it. 

And it has begun 😍

Finished up disassembly, cleaning and swapping in all the xenon stuff on the other headlight yesterday. Also got my new lenses! Super hyped on how good these look all cleaned up with new lenses. 

I swapped in oem xenon headlights in a prefacelift e46, which were a direct plug in. Everything functioned perfectly, just had a headlight error until I turned them on. Didn't bother me enough to recode.

That has crossed my mind lol. I believe the my will still work for sure. Just not sure how the car will react, like it might think that the headlights are burnt our or something since the data being sent back would be different. It might just say theres a headlight burnt out or something. I need to do the end of that research yet. Either way I know it can be coded in if that is a problem, just need to do the research to get that knowledge. I was going to try and plug it in but the battery is not in the car since my garage isnt heated and I didnt want the battery to freeze up haha

Thats good to know, and it looks great!

Made an exciting discovery that I can't believe I never thought of before. I've been wanting to get projectors in the low beams on my headlights, after doing some research i found that the OEM stuff can be transferred between housings and all the housings are the same with the same slots and markings for holes whether it was a halogen housing or not.
It just so happens I still have both of the xenon headlights from my 330i along with one of the ones with a broken housing.
I started by taking apart the broken one for investigative purposes. Things looked good like they would work!

Stock halogen coupe headlight before:

 
Took this existing light completely apart and deep cleaned it (it came with my car so it had 200k plus of road shit that I couldn't completely scrub put before). I dont have a before photo but here it is all cleaned up.

 
I cleaned up the rest of the parts then drilled a hole for the igniter wires to come our of the housing which then connect to the ballast. 


The ballast slid right into the coupe housing just like on the original pre-facelift sedan headlights. (No photo but you get the point).
Once the igniter was secured in and all the wires were ran I cleaned up the projectors and the reflective housings. Installed them into the coupe housing and put the shroud into the housing.

 
Now that I know it works I have to do the other headlight but I was extremely happy to find I had basically all the parts to do this.
Next up is to order some new lenses to get rid of the nasty faded ones, I tried to polish them out but new ones are cheap enough. 
 

Made an exciting discovery that I can't believe I never thought of before. I've been wanting to get projectors in the low beams on my headlights, after doing some research i found that the OEM stuff can be transferred between housings and all the housings are the same with the same slots and markings for holes whether it was a halogen housing or not.
It just so happens I still have both of the xenon headlights from my 330i along with one of the ones with a broken housing.
I started by taking apart the broken one for investigative purposes. Things looked good like they would work!

Stock halogen coupe headlight before:

 
Took this existing light completely apart and deep cleaned it (it came with my car so it had 200k plus of road shit that I couldn't completely scrub put before). I dont have a before photo but here it is all cleaned up.

 
I cleaned up the rest of the parts then drilled a hole for the igniter wires to come our of the housing which then connect to the ballast. 


The ballast slid right into the coupe housing just like on the original pre-facelift sedan headlights. (No photo but you get the point).
Once the igniter was secured in and all the wires were ran I cleaned up the projectors and the reflective housings. Installed them into the coupe housing and put the shroud into the housing.

 
Now that I know it works I have to do the other headlight but I was extremely happy to find I had basically all the parts to do this.
Next up is to order some new lenses to get rid of the nasty faded ones, I tried to polish them out but new ones are cheap enough. 
 

Bumper is all trimmed up where it needs to be and mounted nicely. Not a whole lot of progress lately, slowly but surely.

New bumper came in today 🤗
And I opted to not do what every non M e46 owner does and get a M bumper lolol 
Quick mock up because i was excited. The bash bar and rad support are not on the car.

New bumper came in today 🤗
And I opted to not do what every non M e46 owner does and get a M bumper lolol 
Quick mock up because i was excited. The bash bar and rad support are not on the car.

New bumper came in today 🤗
And I opted to not do what every non M e46 owner does and get a M bumper lolol 
Quick mock up because i was excited. The bash bar and rad support are not on the car.

New bumper came in today 🤗
And I opted to not do what every non M e46 owner does and get a M bumper lolol 
Quick mock up because i was excited. The bash bar and rad support are not on the car.

New bumper came in today 🤗
And I opted to not do what every non M e46 owner does and get a M bumper lolol 
Quick mock up because i was excited. The bash bar and rad support are not on the car.

UPDATE.
Rolled the front fenders and rear quarters a bit, I never rolled them before and I wanted to get a little out of them. Not worth showing photos they are just rolled fenders lol.
But I got the rear panels put back together and installed. And I am hyped to have rear panels back in the car.


 
Also got a start on making a rear seat delete panel. Made up a good ole cardboard template.

Gotta pick up some plastic to cut out but that's it for now.

SMALL UPDATE.
My awesome girlfriend got me this HoldFast usa steering wheel that I've wanted for awhile.

 
I've also been wanting to get rear door panels back in the car, never really liked the fully stripped look and honestly never felt like dealing with it last summer lol. But with that being said I messed around and found the perfect way to fit the rear panels with my harness bar! 


was able to use a hole saw to create a round section on the bottom and then my badass new m12 milwaukee dremel to cut the straights 😁 These panels were the ones that came with the car so I did the same as the front panels. Removed the arm rests and used interior paint to make them black. Kinda hack... I'm aware. But I didnt want to cut into my pristine black panels I got with the M stuff. Plus since the fronts were sprayed black they will match better. I'll save the other black panels for when a cage is put in the car in the future sometime.


And since it was 40 degrees and January I decided to back her out of the garage to sweep up while I had the chance. 
I have mostly everything off the car as I am getting ready for the color change.

Looks damn good from here!

SMALL UPDATE.
My awesome girlfriend got me this HoldFast usa steering wheel that I've wanted for awhile.

 
I've also been wanting to get rear door panels back in the car, never really liked the fully stripped look and honestly never felt like dealing with it last summer lol. But with that being said I messed around and found the perfect way to fit the rear panels with my harness bar! 


was able to use a hole saw to create a round section on the bottom and then my badass new m12 milwaukee dremel to cut the straights 😁 These panels were the ones that came with the car so I did the same as the front panels. Removed the arm rests and used interior paint to make them black. Kinda hack... I'm aware. But I didnt want to cut into my pristine black panels I got with the M stuff. Plus since the fronts were sprayed black they will match better. I'll save the other black panels for when a cage is put in the car in the future sometime.


And since it was 40 degrees and January I decided to back her out of the garage to sweep up while I had the chance. 
I have mostly everything off the car as I am getting ready for the color change.

SMALL UPDATE.
My awesome girlfriend got me this HoldFast usa steering wheel that I've wanted for awhile.

 
I've also been wanting to get rear door panels back in the car, never really liked the fully stripped look and honestly never felt like dealing with it last summer lol. But with that being said I messed around and found the perfect way to fit the rear panels with my harness bar! 


was able to use a hole saw to create a round section on the bottom and then my badass new m12 milwaukee dremel to cut the straights 😁 These panels were the ones that came with the car so I did the same as the front panels. Removed the arm rests and used interior paint to make them black. Kinda hack... I'm aware. But I didnt want to cut into my pristine black panels I got with the M stuff. Plus since the fronts were sprayed black they will match better. I'll save the other black panels for when a cage is put in the car in the future sometime.


And since it was 40 degrees and January I decided to back her out of the garage to sweep up while I had the chance. 
I have mostly everything off the car as I am getting ready for the color change.

SMALL UPDATE.
My awesome girlfriend got me this HoldFast usa steering wheel that I've wanted for awhile.

 
I've also been wanting to get rear door panels back in the car, never really liked the fully stripped look and honestly never felt like dealing with it last summer lol. But with that being said I messed around and found the perfect way to fit the rear panels with my harness bar! 


was able to use a hole saw to create a round section on the bottom and then my badass new m12 milwaukee dremel to cut the straights 😁 These panels were the ones that came with the car so I did the same as the front panels. Removed the arm rests and used interior paint to make them black. Kinda hack... I'm aware. But I didnt want to cut into my pristine black panels I got with the M stuff. Plus since the fronts were sprayed black they will match better. I'll save the other black panels for when a cage is put in the car in the future sometime.


And since it was 40 degrees and January I decided to back her out of the garage to sweep up while I had the chance. 
I have mostly everything off the car as I am getting ready for the color change.

SMALL UPDATE.
My awesome girlfriend got me this HoldFast usa steering wheel that I've wanted for awhile.

 
I've also been wanting to get rear door panels back in the car, never really liked the fully stripped look and honestly never felt like dealing with it last summer lol. But with that being said I messed around and found the perfect way to fit the rear panels with my harness bar! 


was able to use a hole saw to create a round section on the bottom and then my badass new m12 milwaukee dremel to cut the straights 😁 These panels were the ones that came with the car so I did the same as the front panels. Removed the arm rests and used interior paint to make them black. Kinda hack... I'm aware. But I didnt want to cut into my pristine black panels I got with the M stuff. Plus since the fronts were sprayed black they will match better. I'll save the other black panels for when a cage is put in the car in the future sometime.


And since it was 40 degrees and January I decided to back her out of the garage to sweep up while I had the chance. 
I have mostly everything off the car as I am getting ready for the color change.

SMALL UPDATE.
My awesome girlfriend got me this HoldFast usa steering wheel that I've wanted for awhile.

 
I've also been wanting to get rear door panels back in the car, never really liked the fully stripped look and honestly never felt like dealing with it last summer lol. But with that being said I messed around and found the perfect way to fit the rear panels with my harness bar! 


was able to use a hole saw to create a round section on the bottom and then my badass new m12 milwaukee dremel to cut the straights 😁 These panels were the ones that came with the car so I did the same as the front panels. Removed the arm rests and used interior paint to make them black. Kinda hack... I'm aware. But I didnt want to cut into my pristine black panels I got with the M stuff. Plus since the fronts were sprayed black they will match better. I'll save the other black panels for when a cage is put in the car in the future sometime.


And since it was 40 degrees and January I decided to back her out of the garage to sweep up while I had the chance. 
I have mostly everything off the car as I am getting ready for the color change.

What did I win?