MXA's build thread! Jerez on Fox Red E92 (update 12/22 GTS/Test Pipes/Dragon's Tail!)

[mxa121]

PAINT CORRECTION DETAIL
When I bought the car, the paint was in terrible condition. The normal swirls were present but in addition, there were deep buffing swirls ALL over the car. These were done by the previous owner in his attempt to wax the car. I was embarrassed in direct sunlight, when I should be proud of Jerez.

A friend Joe works with a local detail establishment and he took the car in for a couple of days to do his magic. Full chemical strip, clay bar, polish, and opticoat were performed. The Opticoat finish is warrantied for 2 years.

The results were very pleasing. I was having some reservations on my color choice and car, but somehow, after seeing the car looking how it should boosted my love affair with it. I am now just eating it up, love the way it looks, and direct sunlight is my friend again. The blue used to show up a little, now it just GLOWS.

Before close up

After close up

Roof

Side Panel (previously, super swirled)

Overall

[Airbus///m3]

Nice car. In the market for a similar model. Mind posting how much you paid for it?

[BLACK OPS]

Very nice. You'd be happier with black powdercoated wheels.

[Shredicus]

Sex on wheels!

[Tracyis300]

Nice come-up! And you got it with some mods you were planing to do. But I'm not a fan of the wheels though.

[jblaze21]

Sound is very tame but sounds good!

Also love a fellow extended fox red interior! Looks great on black!

[tony093]

congrats man...good looking car

[mxa121]

Originally Posted by Airbus///m3

Nice car. In the market for a similar model. Mind posting how much you paid for it?

around 37k

Originally Posted by BLACK OPS

Very nice. You'd be happier with black powdercoated wheels.

Ya know, I have been wanting to get some OEM ZCPs. Black would look sick.

Originally Posted by Shredicus

Sex on wheels!

Originally Posted by Tracyis300

Nice come-up! And you got it with some mods you were planing to do. But I'm not a fan of the wheels though.

Thanks! Which wheels do you recommend?

Originally Posted by jblaze21

Sound is very tame but sounds good!

Also love a fellow extended fox red interior! Looks great on black!

Thanks! The fox red gets tons of appreciation. Honestly, not sure I want anything louder on the low rpm, I would like it louder in the upper revs though. I plan on getting test pipes.

Originally Posted by tony093

congrats man...good looking car

Thanks! Enjoying it more and more.


NEXT ITEMS
-Test pipes, going to find a used set or buy new and put them on sometime this winter.
-Tune, to smooth out the low rpms and sharpen the dct.
-LCI tails, just to modernize the look, followed by led coding.
-Blinkers
My front blinker lights are white LED. I think they look nice, but want to switch back to Yellow blinkers. Then corner delete coding.
Other option is to keep white up front and white LED the side marker coded as a running light, I think that would look cool.

I want a synchronous look front to back.
Euro LCI tails (ylw blinker) - Yellow side marker - Yellow front blinker
or
USA LCI tails (red blinker) - white side marker - white front blinker (easiest route since I wont have to mod my headlights any more)

Thoughts?

[mxa121]

Originally Posted by Petros

what do you mean the front is lowered a bit? you should maintain the same ride height reduction front and back to maintain the balance of the car. if only the front is lowered you will affect the weight distribution and handling of the car.

After reading more into this, I am going to change my springs to a factory rake setup. I almost feel the nose hanging too low and want a more upright feeling in the corners.
I am trying to decide which springs to buy, but I have no clue what is already in my car.

[Bruuuce]

Sweet ride

I just picked up one as well, same color. Thinking njdrive might of seen me in the cumming area a few weeks back. If njdrive was in a white M3.

[Tracyis300]

Originally Posted by mxa121

After reading more into this, I am going to change my springs to a factory rake setup. I almost feel the nose hanging too low and want a more upright feeling in the corners.
I am trying to decide which springs to buy, but I have no clue what is already in my car.

I recommend the H&R race springs. They have the exact ride height you are talking about?
Heres a pic of my E90 with them as well w/TE37 RT's

[mxa121]

Originally Posted by Bruuuce

Sweet ride

I just picked up one as well, same color. Thinking njdrive might of seen me in the cumming area a few weeks back. If njdrive was in a white M3.

Congrats on the pick up. We need an Atlanta M meet, are you in the cca?

Originally Posted by Tracyis300

I recommend the H&R race springs. They have the exact ride height you are talking about?
Heres a pic of my E90 with them as well w/TE37 RT's

That looks good. I actually just bought the Eibach Pro Kit from a forum member. I will be installing that with E36 bump stops (edit: no to the bump stops) this coming weekend if everything arrives on time.
REALLY looking forward to the new setup!

[Cbozz]

Originally Posted by Tracyis300

I recommend the H&R race springs. They have the exact ride height you are talking about?
Heres a pic of my E90 with them as well w/TE37 RT's

h&R is a way to go

[Cbozz]

Originally Posted by Tracyis300

I recommend the H&R race springs. They have the exact ride height you are talking about?
Heres a pic of my E90 with them as well w/TE37 RT's

btw this is my car on H&R Sport and Strasse 20''

[Tracyis300]

Originally Posted by Cbozz

btw this is my car on H&R Sport and Strasse 20''

That's a clean set of wheels you got on her. It's aggressive too!And I'm a little surprised that the wheels sit just above the well from the size rims your running!
I got 265F & 295R! How about you?

[Finmysta]

Congrats & Welcome..

[Bruuuce]

Originally Posted by mxa121

Congrats on the pick up. We need an Atlanta M meet, are you in the cca?

I use to be, guess I should start it up again.

[mxa121]

Check out the photoshoot in the mountains this weekend!

http://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?p=16908591

[Boostin FD]

Car looks awesome man! Keep taking more pics. ;-)

[mxa121]

Originally Posted by Boostin FD

Car looks awesome man! Keep taking more pics. ;-)

Nice to see you found your way over here! Thanks for the compliments. The plan is to pick up a DSLR this Christmas and take plenty more photos next year.

[mxa121]

EIBACH PRO KIT INSTALL

This weekend I got around to installing a set of Eibach springs front and rear. The front was already lowered, but the rear was OEM. I wanted to balance out the car by replacing both with a matching set. (The fronts were already Eibach's but I went ahead and replaced them with the newer set.)

I kept OEM Bump Stops. I know a lot of armchair engineers use E36 bump stops and, for a more aggressive drop, it might be OK. In this case, these springs were designed to ride on the OEM stops, and by removing stopper material, it would make the springs feel lighter than designed up front, compromising the performance. For this reason, I kept OEM.

The install was fairly straight forward, requiring some tools that I didn't have, and some finesse with jacking it up, but overall, I am happy to have completed my first major DIY project. Many more to come.
I used this guide to do the install, Love this site:
http://billswebspace.com/M3HRSpringInstallation


I also pulled the strut alignment pins to increase the camber on the front wheels. I have already noticed an improvement in turn in response and stick. More tire wear on the inside is probable.


AFTER PICS
The drop in the rear is minimal, claimed 0.6 inches. In person it looks much better than before, and to me, the drop is perfect.

[mxa121]

AMBER CREE LED BLINKER BULBS

When purchased, the car had White 17 LED blinker bulbs installed. I can see how the whited out front look is appealing, but I dont like white blinkers. Makes me think ricer. The color temperature of the blinker also did not match my halos and projector. And they flickered and gave dash errors on startup.

Notice the different color of the white blinker to the rest of the headlight?


So, I decided to go Amber again with a bright LED that did not look 'egg yolky' but was clean when off, then bright and crisp when on.
I settled with the Cree 80W Amber LED bulb from www.HighPerformanceBulbs.com
They are very bright and look much better than the OEM corners. Plus, no bulb check or errors yet.


Install was easy with the included instructions although I recommend taking the wheel off for access. I did them with the wheels off while doing springs, but I had to re-install one of the access panels after the wheels were on and it was a very tight.

See the difference: 'CLICK'




Now I need to decide.. With coding, should I delete the corner and have just the projector/halos on at night? Or, keep the yellow on since I think they look much better than the factory setup, plus yellow looks OK on black?
So hard to decide!

NEXT UPDATE 12/3/2014 LCI EURO TAIL LIGHTS!!!!!