2004 E46 M3 SMG

Author
Discussion

Waitey

Original Poster:

1,022 posts

229 months

Sunday 18th August
quotequote all
New project is here to keep the 300k mile Alpina and my Cobra company.

Since selling the GR Yaris (since it was a bit boring..) there's been a gap on the drive.

The newbie is here, she’s beautiful.





2004 M3 SMG

104k miles

Circa a million owners

Previous owner was a car forum friend who was really kind and spent £10k on it in the last two years.

The chap before him was a certified mentalist, spending just over £20k on it in 2019. Inc a full glass out respray.

Spec isn't too crazy:

Genuine CSL intake
Borla Exhaust
Four Genuine CSL rear wheels
KW Variant 3 coilovers
Poly bushed throughout
Fancy camber arms and top mounts
Amber front indicators
Rare LCI Led Amber rears

Issues:
Rusty rear arches

My plans:

Sort the rust.
Fit CSL bumper and boot
Cobra Nogaros
Apple Play headunit
Refurbished interior trims
Do skids.

Watchthis

315 posts

69 months

Sunday 18th August
quotequote all
Lovely!

pidsy

8,198 posts

164 months

Sunday 18th August
quotequote all
Stunning!

God I miss mine.

mwstewart

8,025 posts

195 months

Sunday 18th August
quotequote all
That's nice, and a great pic.

danb79

9,644 posts

79 months

Sunday 18th August
quotequote all
That's stunning! Superb stance to it also... How well does it drive / handle?

Mr Tidy

24,297 posts

134 months

Sunday 18th August
quotequote all
That stance looks fantastic!

Enjoy the S54 soundtrack. thumbup

essayer

9,616 posts

201 months

Sunday 18th August
quotequote all
Tidy. CSL software update for the SMG?

Bright Halo

3,240 posts

242 months

Monday 19th August
quotequote all
Very nice!
From the time when BMW knew how to design a good looking car.

Waitey

Original Poster:

1,022 posts

229 months

Monday 19th August
quotequote all
danb79 said:
That's stunning! Superb stance to it also... How well does it drive / handle?
Really well considering how low it is. Its fully converted me to KW variant 3's.

Waitey

Original Poster:

1,022 posts

229 months

Monday 19th August
quotequote all
First job was to put some cats back in it.



Sounds and drives far nicer now.

danb79

9,644 posts

79 months

Monday 19th August
quotequote all
Waitey said:
danb79 said:
That's stunning! Superb stance to it also... How well does it drive / handle?
Really well considering how low it is. Its fully converted me to KW variant 3's.
They are excellent coilovers

Never ran them myself; I decided on Nitron R1s for my DC5 many mons ago; but it was between them and the KWs and glad I went for them; superb coilovers

But I've been out in a few cars with the V3 coilovers and they've driven/handled superbly

Mr-B

3,876 posts

201 months

Monday 19th August
quotequote all
That looks nice. Shame it's an auto. Seems to be a decent mini project with the other stuff that has already been spent on it. Full respray in 2019 and rusty arches already?confused

Tommie38

803 posts

201 months

Monday 19th August
quotequote all
Love the ambers and the silver grilles! Looks great in the pictures.

Less keen on CSL wheels that aren’t on a CSL (or any other CSL bits to be honest…) but appreciate that is not going to be a fashionable view.

Do consider the Recaro Sportster too. Great in any car.

Looking forward to seeing the progress.

Waitey

Original Poster:

1,022 posts

229 months

Monday 19th August
quotequote all
Mr-B said:
That looks nice. Shame it's an auto. Seems to be a decent mini project with the other stuff that has already been spent on it. Full respray in 2019 and rusty arches already?confused
The people who did it, left the inner lips on the arches. So they've filled with crap again and taken the arches with them.

CKY

1,921 posts

22 months

Monday 19th August
quotequote all
Waitey said:
Mr-B said:
That looks nice. Shame it's an auto. Seems to be a decent mini project with the other stuff that has already been spent on it. Full respray in 2019 and rusty arches already?confused
The people who did it, left the inner lips on the arches. So they've filled with crap again and taken the arches with them.
Of course - why wouldn't you, when doing a complete respray of the whole rest of the car...? Christ - well, hopefully that owner's loss was your gain OP, looks a nice example of the E46.

K5tealth

104 posts

161 months

Monday 19th August
quotequote all
Waitey said:
My plans:

Sort the rust.
Fit CSL bumper and boot
Cobra Nogaros
Apple Play headunit
Refurbished interior trims
Do skids.
Looks lovely

I had a similar plan not long ago - watching with interest.

Waitey

Original Poster:

1,022 posts

229 months

Monday 19th August
quotequote all
K5tealth said:
Looks lovely

I had a similar plan not long ago - watching with interest.
I am slowly going off the CSL front bumper, as I've looked at a lot and well, I like the standard one more and more, it might be the symmetry.

Bootlid is a must though, as the back just doesn't look as good without a ducktail!

rsnissan

40 posts

265 months

Monday 19th August
quotequote all
Looks great. The CSL bumper works well with the carbon airbox and OEM ducting to it though you can modify the standard m3 air duct to work.

Waitey

Original Poster:

1,022 posts

229 months

Tuesday 27th August
quotequote all
Lots of work has been done by me recently.

When I collected it there was a light scratch on the front wing.



So I gave it a going over with the polisher to remove it.



Next job on the list was a seat refurb.

Starting with the tilt handles. Which had gone white somehow...?

Cleaned and repainted with rubber paint.



The bolsters on the seats also carried some wear.





Worn areas stripped right back and re coloured with Scratch Doctor products.

They look a lot better






I also did the arm rests.






Edited by Waitey on Tuesday 27th August 11:49

Waitey

Original Poster:

1,022 posts

229 months

Tuesday 27th August
quotequote all
A very expensive car package came from Sytner.



First thing was to replace the A pillar covers. These have ended up with the traditional cloth sag.



Much better after the swap



Next job was the steering wheel.

The Alcantara had gone very flat and a bit grim....



Cleaned and the pile re bushed back up



Amazing how grim these get, this was a new cloth when I started.



The SMG have this colour trim, which is painted over the standard colour, so it wears horribly on the wheel.



None SMG black trim fitted.