Hello hello hello, my name is Ridge and I live in Seattle, Washington. On November 3rd, 2016, I purchased an Imola Red on Alcantara 2003 ZHP with a 6 speed manual. I'm loving the car so far and have slowly been making repairs and upgrades.
Here is a picture of the car; They're not great but you get the idea. Will take better pictures with my DSLR from now on hopefully.
Here's a picture of the car next to my E39 that I am selling. I love the E39 but I was missing a manual transmission. It was a 530i so I'm used to the M54. Beautiful engine and it's a blast to ring it out in this smaller body size. Also, the E46 is the car that made me fall in love with BMW's when I was a teenager and I got to drive my dad's 328i.
Here's a picture of my interior too. I have all the basic fabric failing symptoms on the A,B, and C pillars; as well as a torn drivers side bolster. It's no biggie though. Just gives me something to do.
All in all, I'm excited about the adventure with this car.
I've already started improving it. I removed these blind spot mirrors that I hated. Thankfully, the previous owner used a nice adhesive that didn't leave any residue behind.
Getting it emissions tested. Passed! So I have it in my name now. Sweeeeet.
Also, I took a fabric shaver and a magic eraser to the E-brake boot and the Shift Boot. They look worlds better.
Before:
After:
Another thing I did was I took the shift knob out. It is well used but I wanted to bring some life back into it. So I took the insert out. It was peeling and flaking and gross underneath, so I scraped all the old adhesive and paint off. I repainted it in black. I lost the M Stripes but it's no biggie as I plan on replacing it in the future anyway. Looks better in my opinion. Not perfect, but better.
Before:
After removing the emblem insert:
Emblem cleaned of old paint:
Here's an idea I played around with, but I decided on black in the end. It hid more imperfections.
Painting the emblem:
And the results: Not awesome but definitely better.
Other than that, I've ordered a bunch of parts already. Mostly just maintenance stuff.
Here's a list:
- Castrol Edge 0W-40 LL01 Oil. It's due for an oil change and I want it on my maintenance schedule. I have leftover oil filters from my E39.
- Also got some interior trim clips for the dashboard trims. They are all broken. Easy peasy.
- Mann Air Filter
- Bosch Charcoal Cabin Air Filter
- A new hood roundel (OEM)
- Front all weather floormats. Will get rear ones in the future, but I never have passengers in the back so it can wait.
- New fog light trims. Both were missing. Easy peasy.
- New Zimmerman front rotors. The ones on here are shot and they have a pulsating. Ew
- And lastly but not least! A contitech idler pulley and tensioner/belt kit. I love these kits and it makes me feel good getting all this basic maintenance done.
And I do have some bad news. The starter in the car is worn out. It won't start randomly and my battery is testing fine. Also, different keys don't change the ability to start. And my ignition switch isn't doing anything wonky. So I'm hoping it's the starter. The car wouldn't start today so I got it towed to a local mechanic I like. I didn't want to tackle the starter right now especially after reading the DIY's. I don't have the space at my condo, and if I want to do any procedures, I need to go to Camano Island up north of Seattle to my mom's house as she has the garage. Other than this, I plan on doing everything myself. It was worth my money to not have to deal with this headache.
And I finally get to use the towing service I have through my insurance. I've been paying for it for awhile so it's honestly not even bad to use it.
Here's a pic of my beautiful ZHP on the flatbed.
Future plans include:
- Restore headlights (new lenses most likely)
- Patch seat bolster for now (Will get professionaly done soon but it bugs me)
- Cooling system. I know how these BMW's work so it won't be long. The expansion tank was just replaced and all hoses look good for now.
- Suspension refresh with new shocks, control arms, etc. These seem so much easier to work on than E39's. In E39's, you have to rip out the whole backseat and rear interior to get at the rear shock mounts. Such BS. So I'm excited it's so much easier to do the rear suspension on this car.
- Possibly a respray of the front end. Has some minor rock chips and stuff. Not a top priority but will be done in the future most likely.
- New fog-lights.
- Refinish Style 135's. I know they're heavy but they just look so good.
- Akebono Euro Brake Pads. Had them on my E39 and it's nice to not clean the wheels every 10 miles.
- Differential fluid, transmission fluid, coolant etc. Just get it on my maintenance.
- Dynavin possibly. We'll see.
- New taillights. I think the previous owner slightly tinted the turn signals. Not something that bugs me super bad but I might just replace them anyway.
- Paint detail. SOOOOOO many swirlmarks.
- New interior pieces. Cupholders, console, etc. They have the typical BMW soft touch scratches.
- Re-wrap A,B, and C, pillars in suede or faux-suede.
- Possibly change from the black cube trim to something lighter. The interior is very dark in my opinion, especially with the tint. Might want to do a brushed aluminum or something. Not super important right now, but nonetheless, it might happen.
Anyway, thanks for reading guys. I can't wait to participate in this forum. Everybody seems cool in the posts I've seen so far. And this car is such a little beast, I love it.