ATL ZHP v2.0 - A Silbergrau Owner's Chronicle

[static667]

Very nice! When one isn't enough...

[Dugan.REC]

Nice car! How much did you pick it up for? I may be interested in your DICE connector - if you take it out PM me and let's see if we can strike a deal.

Ryan

[dinanm3atl]

Very nice! Bring it out to the weekly BMW meet tomorrow night. Casey Withers from the forum is here in town.

[zj96sc]

I paid right at KBB excellent value, with 2 sets of wheels and oem amber lights included. In hindsight I think it should've maybe been a little lower given the cosmetic condition of the car, but what's done is done. I'll post up when all the stuff goes up for sale.

Slammed this week. Otherwise I would.

[ranger]

No links for the demise of the TIAG. It was a shitty day that I just don't want to really broadcast on the net. No injuries, just a collision that caused a lot of damage to the ZHP because of its low bumper height versus a minivan.

Yeah, it should get it set for a while. Only parts I'm still waiting on are the headlight lenses and bumper mesh. My Leatherique showed up today.

Ranger - I believe we met at Shane's.

I remember - congrats on the purchase. I am very interested in results of your Leatherique,

[zj96sc]

So since this ZHP didn't have alcantara seats like my first one and had already had its Alcantara wheel replaced with a leather M3 wheel under CPO years ago, I was a little sad.

I figured to throw myself a bit of a bone I'd rock an alcantara wheel as long as it would hold out, while also doing my best to keep my hands washed and wear to a minimum.

Rather than pony up the $1200 for a ZHP alcantara wheel, I did a little reading. As it turns out, the ZCP alcantara wheel can be had for almost 1/3rd the price of the ZHP wheel, with the added bonus of tri-color stitching. Price I ended up paying was the same price as a tri-color stitch alcantara rewrap + core from Coby, and I figured a great condition leather wheel would go for more than the core value if I wanted to sell it. Still debating on that one - may keep it around for the inevitable degradation of the alcantara. TBD.

All that it takes is swapping the full multifunction button panel over from the ZHP wheel to the ZCP replacement....beyond that, plug, play, enjoy.

Pics:







Remove the switch panel loosening these two sets of torx screws:





(each side)

and you get:





Reassemble and you're done. Took about 45 minutes, if that.





The astute among you will note that the wheel appears slightly turned to the right. This is because I got it off one tooth. I figured since the wheel has a keyway on it that the column would as well, meaning you can only put it back together one way, right? Right?! No. So, the next day I blew it all apart, clicked one tooth CCW, all is well.

[zj96sc]

I swapped my headlight lenses. Stockers were pitted and gross:







While I had the headlights out I noted my lenses seemed a bit hazy. I noticed this while doing the bowl swaps on my last ZHP as well - not sure if its years of dust or just residue or what, but there was definitely some kind of film on my lenses when I pulled them out. You can just barely see it here (with a clean smudge through the center where I wiped it off:



So, not much of a DIY here but just swap on the new lenses. There are tons of headlight disassembly DIYs out there so I figured there was no point in spelling out the steps:

[zj96sc]

I also swapped the lower grill.



To remove the old one, just push back on it. It is retained by clips around the perimeter of the opening (somewhat visible here):



Once its loose, it becomes a frustrating exercise of fitting a large square peg through a small round opening. You have to separate the grill from its backing by releasing a second set of retaining clips, then wrestle it around left and right, eventually it will come out. Then wrestle the new one in, snap it back onto its backing plate, then snap it all onto the bumper. It was a total fawking PITA. I finished in the dark so no pics of the new one.

Doable, just be prepared to spend some time on it. Very. Frustrating.

[zj96sc]

I also realized like 30% of my photos are out of focus. Stupid P&S.

Oil change this past Tuesday with BMW Synth and a Mahle filter.

I also removed the DICE ipod thing from the PO and wired in my OEM aux audio input. All pretty standard stuff here so no pics.

Anyway, comments, questions, thoughts all welcome.

Next weekend is expansion tank, tstat, water pump, hoses, plugs. And maybe a window regulator if i'm feeling sprightly.

[johnrando]

Very nice stuff.