I don't have a project car but I do want to lay out the things that I have done to my car.

I bought the car in August 2010. It had 56,700 miles on it.

These are the pictures that the seller was using when I became interested:

















As you can see, the interior was in immaculate condition. The exterior, meanwhile, looked great as well. But it was the interior that caught my attention. The interior was so clean that it looked as though no one had ever sat in the back seats. The passenger seat looked rarely used.

Anyhow, I contacted the seller on August 5, 2010. We struck a deal within 12 hours of the ad going online. I was in Denver picking up the new car on August 6, 2010.

Jeff, on the left, was a cool cat. One of the nicest guys you'll ever meet. This picture was taken about five minutes before I drove off with my new car:



When I got the car home, I knew that there would be some things that needed to be done on the car.

The first thing I did was the coolant overhaul (since I was so close to 60,000 miles). Everything was swapped out (water pump, expansion tank, expansion tank cap, upper hose, lower hose (plus temp sensor), thermostat, coolant level sensor, idler pulley, belts, etc. I won't swap out the radiator until about 90,000 miles.

I also immediately changed the oil, even though the oil had been changed 4500 miles before I picked it up (something about me just wanting to make sure that I had the oil I wanted in the car).

Additionally, I noticed that the center cup holders in the car were slightly warped. I replaced them with a brand new center unit.

I also replaced the windshield wipers at this time.

With the maintenance stuff out of the way, I started tackling the cosmetic things that I thought needed attention.

Before I got the ZHP, I knew that I wanted to put OEM M3 mirrors on the car. I've never been a big fan of the stock 330 mirrors. I did not want to pay retail for the mirrors so I exercised some patience here. Eventually, the right deal came along. Best of all, the guy who was selling them lived just 40 miles from me. I took a quick drive up the freeway and grabbed the mirrors ($250; steal).

The mirrors came from a carbon black M3 that had been rear ended. Therefore, I needed to have them painted. I had 2M Auto Body do the work. I dropped the mirrors off on Monday and I picked them up about five days later.

The mirrors, meanwhile, were not plug and play. Indeed, the M3 mirrors are 12 pin. My ZHP had the ribbon style connectors. I wanted fully functional mirrors, so I had Shane, owner of Euro Auto Spot, make them work. He had the mirrors all day. He is not a hack, so he wanted to do these perfectly. After procuring the parts, he customized the interior of the mirrors. The result is that my mirrors work perfectly. Just like factory. Couldn't be more pleased with the work (shout out to Steve Yurkovic, a tech at Euro Auto Spot, who played point on the mirrors).





Similarly, I didn't like the orange reflectors on the front bumper. I had 2M Auto Body paint them in imola red.

The original tint needed some attention, so I had Lou -- over at the Tint Source -- put 15% on the front driver, passenger, and rear windows. Turned out well, though it is more difficult to see out of them at night.

The BMW kidney grills come in chrome. I didn't think that chrome tied in with the car very well.



I bought matte-black grills from Khoalty and put them on. Looks much better.



Meanwhile, this car did not come with a factory alarm (it was only pre-wired for it). As such, I had a factory alarm installed when I had the coolant overhaul done.

The car also needed a radar detector, so I invested in a Valentine One. All of my cars have one; it's what I know.

The final touch was my license plate. I got a customized plate: 05 ZHP.



I also added a German plate for the front of the car (pictures taken by Droid X):











Finally, a few months ago I installed the BMW Performance intake and the BMW Performance strut brace. We've all seen how these look. Here's a picture of mine:



You'll notice, though, that I had to relocate the terminal post (we all do when we get the BMW Performance strut brace). Steve Yurkovik, master tech over at Euro Auto Spot (San Diego), fabricated the terminal post and the alarm switch. It really looks like it came that way from the factory. Nice work by Steve.



Today, my car looks like this (only thing missing in these pictures is the black grills):























Recent pictures: