Road trip story & Project thread: 2001 Titanium Silver e39 M5

[Sreten]

Thank you, fellas!!!!

And sorry for not being active lately. This is my favorite forum and I love posting here. I just don't have the time as I used to and I also suck with time management :D

Thanks again and try to be more active!

[wstr75]

Sreten, love your videos! I live vicariously through your adventures.

There were two times in the E60 video that were alarming to this farm boy and later factory guy. I knew folks who died in farming accidents involving clothing and rotating components. Similarly, factory accidents occurred at my Fortune 500 company involving clothing and rotating components. It happens so fast

The two safety items: The first was when you initially fired up the engine for a few seconds and later when you ran the fully assembled engine bay. Both times your hoodie string/rope dangled down into where there were external rotating components at the front of the engine. You are known for practicing excellent safety techniques. With the hoodie string situation, string capture by a pulley could pull the head/neck down with sufficient force to do irreversible damage to head, face or neck “components “. I encourage everyone to either pull off the hoodie shirt/jacket or tie up the drawstrings to where they cannot reach a rotating component.

All the best.
Bill

[Galapolis]

Great video as always! Having gone through a similar process on my E46 (base model to full MSport) I could really relate to a lot of your journey (both the joys and annoyances).

I may be getting ahead of both of us here but if you end up getting rid of the exhaust I would be interested in buying it. I don't think the TÜV will appreciate my California catback and your exhaust sounds similar to my current setup, which I didn't think I would be able to replicate back in Germany but perhaps this might be the way.

[cakM3]

Thank you, fellas!!!!

And sorry for not being active lately. This is my favorite forum and I love posting here. I just don't have the time as I used to and I also suck with time management :D

Thanks again and try to be more active!

Sreten, you always get a pass as far as I'm concerned You have been making lots of awesome very informative YouTube videos. Just happy to see you here


Sent from my iPhone 11 Pro Max using Tapatalk Pro

[t.er]

Great video as always! Having gone through a similar process on my E46 (base model to full MSport) I could really relate to a lot of your journey (both the joys and annoyances).

I may be getting ahead of both of us here but if you end up getting rid of the exhaust I would be interested in buying it. I don't think the TÜV will appreciate my California catback and your exhaust sounds similar to my current setup, which I didn't think I would be able to replicate back in Germany but perhaps this might be the way.

When are you headed back to the motherland?


I also enjoyed that video - actually I can relate as well, since I'm getting my rear bumper painted. I found a one-man show shop with 45 years of experience and perfect reviews, and the guy uses the colour code only as a base, to which he tests it out on spray cards (like you have shown Sreten) and tints by eye until it matches. Quite a time-consuming process, but very necessary to get a perfect match without blending!

[Galapolis]

When are you headed back to the motherland?


I also enjoyed that video - actually I can relate as well, since I'm getting my rear bumper painted. I found a one-man show shop with 45 years of experience and perfect reviews, and the guy uses the colour code only as a base, to which he tests it out on spray cards (like you have shown Sreten) and tints by eye until it matches. Quite a time-consuming process, but very necessary to get a perfect match without blending!

Sometime next summer. I should probably have things planned out better but I feel like your 20s these days is just wandering around the world with a vague sense of what you're actually supposed to do.

I used to have a full replica set of bumpers, and before anyone says anything Taiwanese molding and plastic quality is shockingly good these days (some of their parts surpass OEM quality), but I had them painted at the cheapest body shop in my area. They looked good for the price but more like Sreten's first set of bumpers in terms of color match. My side skirts were "eBay painted" and are quite far off but they are always so dirty that you can never tell. When I smashed my front bumper I got a genuine one that I had refinished and painted at a very reputable body shop that works on a lot of classic cars, and they did a really good job with the match using just the paint code. Makes my other bumpers look a lot worse. I might use this as an excuse to also get a genuine rear bumper one day but that's a low priority.

[t.er]

Sometime next summer. I should probably have things planned out better but I feel like your 20s these days is just wandering around the world with a vague sense of what you're actually supposed to do.

I used to have a full replica set of bumpers, and before anyone says anything Taiwanese molding and plastic quality is shockingly good these days (some of their parts surpass OEM quality), but I had them painted at the cheapest body shop in my area. They looked good for the price but more like Sreten's first set of bumpers in terms of color match. My side skirts were "eBay painted" and are quite far off but they are always so dirty that you can never tell. When I smashed my front bumper I got a genuine one that I had refinished and painted at a very reputable body shop that works on a lot of classic cars, and they did a really good job with the match using just the paint code. Makes my other bumpers look a lot worse. I might use this as an excuse to also get a genuine rear bumper one day but that's a low priority.

Yeah, I haven't really looked into importing my car to the US, can't imagine the logistics of having it shipped across the pond. I'm sort of hoping I don't have to get a US cluster, but I'm doubtful, since the Canadian cluster is basically the Euro one, so just km/h.

How much was paint for your genuine bumper, do you happen to know what paint is used? I got a quote to get a new euro front bumper painted - $575 CAD, and he uses Sikkens paint which is one of the best from what I've read. Minimal prep work though since it's new

[Galapolis]

Man too bad we don't know anyone who has imported a Canadian ZHP into the US.

*cough* *cough*

Whoops, how did that get in there?

Anyway, not sure what California is like but whatever you need to initially get done, I'm pretty sure that nobody will care what you do after that. I know NC is probably quite different but man the stuff that I've seen people drive around here. It's like inspections don't even exist.

The genuine one was $450 to paint. It was in very bad shape with a lot of deep scratches, dents and missing chunks, so the fact that it looks like new now makes me feel like it was really worth the price. No idea what paint he used though. You might enjoy going through the shop's Facebook page, the owner posts a lot on there: https://www.facebook.com/Youngsautobody/

[t.er]

Man too bad we don't know anyone who has imported a Canadian ZHP into the US.

*cough* *cough*

Whoops, how did that get in there?

Anyway, not sure what California is like but whatever you need to initially get done, I'm pretty sure that nobody will care what you do after that. I know NC is probably quite different but man the stuff that I've seen people drive around here. It's like inspections don't even exist.

Yeah, the Canadian cluster will be going back in - looks much cleaner and it was fine for me 4 months when I was over there. But somehow I did see @704sw mention in his thread, how he didn't actually need to swap in the first place, which seems odd. More so I'm just lazy if I need to swap, then there's going to be a slight difference in mileage for the short time the new cluster will be in there and whatnot... can probably code it properly, need to look into it

The genuine one was $450 to paint. It was in very bad shape with a lot of deep scratches, dents and missing chunks, so the fact that it looks like new now makes me feel like it was really worth the price. No idea what paint he used though. You might enjoy going through the shop's Facebook page, the owner posts a lot on there: https://www.facebook.com/Youngsautobody/

That's a great price for the quality of work done! I was actually thinking to go with the cheapest shop in town I found on fb marketplace, at $450 CAD for both front AND rear bumpers to be refinished. My front is the same, tons of rock chips, a scrape on the top corner and lots of scrapes on the underside. In the end I was worried about durability and matching. Also coupled with the fact that I have more $$$ coming in it just made sense to go to a proper shop

[fredo]

Man too bad we don't know anyone who has imported a Canadian ZHP into the US.

*cough* *cough*

Whoops, how did that get in there?

LOL ... too funny !