Nice job on the cube trim restoration. Boy am I glad to have silver cube - scratches aren't as apparent. My dash and centre stack are fine, but the armrests have definitely seen better days
Great job on the bi color sawing!
325i, 2005, 5MT, Silvergrey, leatherette, Sport package; CDV delete, KONI STR-T & KYB Excel-G, Weisslichts, Stewart H2O pump
328i, 2010, 6MT, Spacegrey, dakota leather, M-sport packages; has a 330 intake but no tune - yet
I donated a few parts towards Botond's Orient Touring project tonight:
- a part for his upcoming manual conversion that I had from my first ZHP which will now live on in his Orient touring
- a full set of M-door sills which will be used on his touring
It's nice to be able to help a friend like Botond out since he's always willing to give me a hand when I'm working on any of my cars
Last edited by cakM3; 03-06-2021 at 05:15 PM.
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Randeaux/Rando/John/jr - '06 Cic ZHP; Southern California
"ZHP or not, I still like you"
ZHP Performance Package, Cold Weather Package, Leather, Jet Black/Black/BlackCube, NAV, Anthracite Black "my individual" interior trim
ESS Stage 1 Twin Screw Supercharger, Sprint Booster, BMW Perf Intake, Magnaflow Exhaust, Dinan TB & STEP S/W, UCC Sway Bars, Apex EC-7 18x8.5 ET38
Suspension: AST 44100 dampers, Bimmerworld front adjustable end links, Swift springs (8K front, 10K rear), Vorshlag camber plates
Dynavin D99+, Hardwire V1 (w/V1 Connection), BSW Stage 1 Speakers, Kicker Amp/Subwoofer
BMW Performance Strut Brace, Orion V2 Angel Eyes, No-holes License Plate, SMG Paddle Shift Mod, Besian VANOS, Gold DISA, Fan Delete, M3 Side Mirrors
Note: Actual car no longer resembles signature picture
Time for some updates. I'm not good about doing that, and I guess I never will, but here goes.
One of the things I did quite a while ago was paint the mirror covers. When I got the car, the unpainted mirror covers looked really sad (both sides looked like this):
I decided to go a different route for the mirrors and will likely follow-up the side window trims and the outer ring of the kidney grilles with the same color:
I painted the covers myself. It's not perfect as there is a good bit of orange peel, but my efforts at wetsanding my test mirror cover ended up in me easily going through the paint layer, so I decided to not wetsand these much. "It'll do" for now. I will most likely choose a factory BMW color for the mirror caps for the 2nd go-around and the window trims when the time comes.
Sometime a few months ago, I started getting some vibrations in the driveline while accelerating. After checking bushings and mounts, it was determined that the driveshaft is faulty. The u-joint has play in it, and has gotten to the point where the whole car shakes pretty badly when accelerating. Instead of paying someone to do half the labor of a manual swap only to replace the driveshaft and still have an automatic car at the end of the day, I decided to go the "fuck it" route and started collecting parts for a manual swap.
Finding a reasonably priced manual 6-speed transmission was proving difficult, but I did find one for $750, which was a solid $350-450 cheaper than the next cheapest one I found. This one is the correct transmission, a ZF GS6-37BZ from a late 2003 330i ZSP. I found out that while the 2006 330i transmission is the same model, it is slightly different, so I also assumed that the E60 transmission would also be slightly different. To make it as easy as possible, I stuck with an E46 one. Unfortunately I did have to drive all the way to Ohio for it, and that in itself was one hell of an adventure, involving a dead fuel pump, a car rental with accompanying runaround the city of Columbus because of an error from said agency, and a return trip the following weekend to pick up the touring, which I left in Ohio. Sigh. Thankfully Charlie was with me on both trips, which made all this much more manageable!
Finally, I made it back home with a transmission.
By the time I had arrived home, I had popped a check engine light. I couldn't imagine what for, 'till I got home and realized.......
... that I had forgotten to put the oil filler cap back on after topping up on the trip. It was completely missing. That is the perfect excuse to get the proper style oil filler cap:
Here's a quick reminder why I despise Depo tail lights. The quality generally is GARBAGE. This isn't the first set of Depo lights that has done this in my ownership; my sidemarkers are doing the same thing. I wouldn't have ordered these if I knew they were going to be Depos (ordered them from Schmiedmann, with no brand listed). Mind you, these are only about a year and a half old and have been doing this for several months now.
I've had a spare instrument cluster lying around for a long time, and never once thought to make use of it, so a few days ago I decided to take it apart and swap the face with the silver rings on it. Much better.
Before:
After:
Finally, I'll close this post out with some of the parts needed for the 6-speed swap. I have the transmission already from the aforementioned Ohio trip. In this last order from FCP, I acquired an OE clutch kit (Luk), new 6-speed ZHP shift knob, transmission mounts, bronze pivot pin, and some other stuff.
Next paycheck I'll order the flywheel, slave cylinder, lines, etc.
If anyone is interested, I'm tracking the parts that I'm buying for this project in my maintenance sheet located here. Check the Part # Reference tab:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing
This is a living document so I'll be adding stuff as I find it, as well as updating what has been acquired.
Last edited by az3579; 04-09-2021 at 09:08 PM.
Oh man, this is awesome. Congrats on the MT.
Something for your possible consideration:
If the Luk clutch kit is anything like the one for the e46m3, many on the old m3forum.net (now nam3forum) think the way to go is LUK pressure plate and disc, but a OE BMW throwout bearing and pilot bearing.
No quantitive data on mean time between failure for the OE BMW vs LUK parts, but there was a noticeable difference in feel to the quality of the parts. The OE pieces seem to have tighter tolerances, smoother feel (especially for the pilot bearing).
The E46 M3 is a different transmission (Getrag 420G). Are you saying this also applies to the ZF S6-37BZ that I have, or this applies specifically to the M3 transmission?
This is the throwout bearing that came with the kit:
FCP shows this part as an OEM supplier to BMW. Is this the throwout bearing that people are having issues with? A quick search shows some people saying it's fine and others saying to get it from BMW. Some say the minor wobbling is normal and doesn't wobble when installed, others say it sounds like a can of rocks. I'm very confused...
You gonna need a third pedal BP! Great update.
325i, 2005, 5MT, Silvergrey, leatherette, Sport package; CDV delete, KONI STR-T & KYB Excel-G, Weisslichts, Stewart H2O pump
328i, 2010, 6MT, Spacegrey, dakota leather, M-sport packages; has a 330 intake but no tune - yet
I just picked up a set of Megnetti Marelli clear/red tails for my touring from Amazon. If you need to replace the depo tails I believe there are still in stock.
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