So sold my BMW compact 316ti. Was a great little car, really loved it. Loved the interior. But decided I wanted a new car, I couldn't think of any car I really wanted to replace it with, so decided to stick with BMW and the E46 and decided on a 3 series coupe. I decided on a 330ci. Sold my car on the Friday and picked this up on the Saturday. Want to get the interior as good as on my compact.
Thanks. Yes mate I do that car was amazing tbf. Something I'd love to do. Just dunno if I could live with coilovers :/ had then on my clio and was really bumpy. But I love what they look like with the style 32's on.
Nice looking car:thumb: I have an 03 reg E46,(4 door) are the wheel arches all good ? I'm looking for a coupé now, wanted one for ages, might even try and get me an E30 !!!
You going to do the cluster needles in red, like you did on your compact, its a nice touch and looks particularly good with the chrome dial surrounds.
Any chance you could post what you used on your shadow trim, mines has went all petrol-on-water-esque, if you see what I mean, and I have never sussed out what to use to bring it back up nicely again.
Literally just done the needles ha. Will update with pics now. But I do like it. Subtle but adds a bit to the inside.
I just used a DAS 6 with a mixture of black, white and orange hexlogic pads. Started of with black to see how bad it was then dependant on how bad varied the grade. With the compound I used menzerma. And mixed until I found a good solution and it vanished but a picture....
As I liked the red needles in my compact I thought tonight I would do the same in this. Didn't need the silver rings which was a bonus as they were a pain last time. Looks quite nice. A subtle little touch.
Before:
After:
Also have the gear gaiter a clean with warm soapy water. Came up better than before. Hoping to replace the gear knob and probably gaiter soon.
Before:
After: (not a huge difference, just took the shine of it)
So phoned up the BMW garage by my house and queried about the gear knob and the cup holders. To my delight they said I could pick them up at 4, I only phoned at 12. Pretty impressive service and not too expensive considering, believe they was more on eBay.
So the gear knob, previous gear knob is in previous posts. I had the bluetooth holder but seen as I have an aftermarket stereo it's pretty pointless. Had the sliding tray in the compact so wanted the cup holders in this as it was annoying not having any. Also it holds my phone quite well too.
Gave the steering wheel a clean with warm soapy water. Came up a treat.
Pics are all below:
Gear knob before:
After:
Phone holder:
Started peeling and looked terrible
Cup holders:
Hopefully next thing will be the heater relocation, also going to paint the brake callipers black, and want to give it a good detail. So more updates soon.....
So today was the turn of painting the callipers and giving all the wheels a full clean. And the arches and dress them. Wheels were basically bonded on ! Could undo the bolts or when I got one set of the wheel was then stuck. Was terrible !! Had to pop to the local tyre place to use the gun on them. After that they were ok. But the wheels were still bonded on. So once off. I pressure washed the arches and cleaned them then dressed them with AG, rubbed the hub and back of the wheel with a wire brush. Then cleaned all the back of the wheel with AG wheel clean and iron x. Came up ok but highlighted the wheel corrosion and bad paint jobs. Clean tyres to remove previous tyre gel. Then protected them with just AG super resin and extra protection. Only thing I thought to use. As haven't got any actual wheel wax. But tbh they never came up great well the backs. Just highlighted how bad they was. Maybe changed wheels or a full acid dip. Fronts came up nice. Hopefully be easier to clean.
Onto callipers, rubbed them down with a wire brush and cleaned them. Then painted them with black hammerite. Also gave the nuts a coat of satin paint as was sick of rusty bolts. If I did change or get them painted I would get new bolts hopefully polarised.
Picked up my new Radio and fitted it this weekend. Really please, looks much better than the kenwood, sold that on eBay so that was money towards this.
Does everything sat Nav, bluetooth, freeview, DVD, iPod,USB etc.
Also got some fresh plates and stuck them on with sticky pads not screws. Also a new front badge as previous was pretty warn.
Just need to get silver visions to finish the front end.
Really is a great colour tbf. Stays clean which I like the most ha. Thank you !
E46 is a great all round car tbf, worth looking at ha.
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