Project finished - 'MY22' 318is - bare metal, nut and bolt restoration

[econti]

That car right there is Fucking Nice.
Go put some km on it.

[e30m3s54turbo]

😍😍

[It's Soda Not Pop]

Thanks all for the positive vibes 👍

Aaaaand just like that…. Project is finished 🙌

Front half of the car is PPF up to and including the a pillars.
Whole car is coated in Kamikaze. Zipang on paint, FSC on the PPF.

Great job IMO by both vendors involved, really nicely done. From more than 30 centimetres you cant tell it’s wrapped.


I had two last jobs to finish; the black plastic bumper trim and M3 bumper gaskets.

The bumper trim I had was new and genuine but it had quite noticeable mould flashing on the top edge. So after trying to fit it I relented and sanded it all back to remove all the flashing and part lines and repainted in a urethane trim paint. Looks heaps better

I had both regular M3 and the Sport Evo gaskets to choose from. SE gasket is actually pretty ugly (all function) so I chose the standard one.
The edge gaskets (its 3 pieces across the front) need to be trimmed to fit regular E30 as the guards are not as wide. After trying both ways I chose to stick the gasket to the body rather than the bumper as its supposed to be.
Gaskets have a molded lip to suit application to M3 bumpers. These don’t really work for standard bumpers FYI IMO. So reversed it, sticks good, easy to align. Happy days 😊

Oh, and I got a wheel alignment.

Took it for a spin… it’s nice. Pretty quiet, pretty comfy. Yeah, it’s nice. 😊

As picked up from Auto Attention and Maxwell

Paint is pretty flat.





Really oversaturates the old iphone in direct sun…










Sport evo gasket. Too big.



Regular gasket














The end.
Thanks for watching 👍👍🙏😁

Beautiful Man

[burkey001]

Thanks all for the positive vibes 👍

Aaaaand just like that…. Project is finished 🙌

Front half of the car is PPF up to and including the a pillars.
Whole car is coated in Kamikaze. Zipang on paint, FSC on the PPF.

Great job IMO by both vendors involved, really nicely done. From more than 30 centimetres you cant tell it’s wrapped.


I had two last jobs to finish; the black plastic bumper trim and M3 bumper gaskets.

The bumper trim I had was new and genuine but it had quite noticeable mould flashing on the top edge. So after trying to fit it I relented and sanded it all back to remove all the flashing and part lines and repainted in a urethane trim paint. Looks heaps better

I had both regular M3 and the Sport Evo gaskets to choose from. SE gasket is actually pretty ugly (all function) so I chose the standard one.
The edge gaskets (its 3 pieces across the front) need to be trimmed to fit regular E30 as the guards are not as wide. After trying both ways I chose to stick the gasket to the body rather than the bumper as its supposed to be.
Gaskets have a molded lip to suit application to M3 bumpers. These don’t really work for standard bumpers FYI IMO. So reversed it, sticks good, easy to align. Happy days 😊

Oh, and I got a wheel alignment.

Took it for a spin… it’s nice. Pretty quiet, pretty comfy. Yeah, it’s nice. 😊

As picked up from Auto Attention and Maxwell

Paint is pretty flat.





Really oversaturates the old iphone in direct sun…










Sport evo gasket. Too big.



Regular gasket














The end.
Thanks for watching 👍👍🙏😁

[mjweimer]

Outstanding! I really like the wheels. The whole look of the car is so tidy, all the little details really add up to a significant whole. Just well done.

[Digitalwave]

Looks great, the fitment and ride height are perfect! No need to be more aggressive than that.

[burkey001]

thanks all, feels good to see it almost done.

[nick_318is]

Your car looks amazing, I love the wheels! Can't wait to see it finished.

[Staszek]

Those wheels are amazing! Nice job.

[lukeADE335i]

Looking great Burkey - the wheels really set off the car. I’m sure it will be very satisfying to finally put those black strips on the bumpers!

[2mAn]

Damn that looks great

[burkey001]

Some progress at last. 4 of the 5 wheels I ordered arrived and I had some Pilot Sport 4 fitted in 215/40/17.
NTM forgot to make the 5^th, but they assure me it’s underway soon.

They’re a square setup but I have 3 fronts and 2 rears. The rears have more lip to make them look wider.

Quality of the NTM seems pretty good, I have no complaints. They look on-par with the BBS LM or Forgeline wheels I have.

The fit is conservative, but that’s to be expected because this is intended to be a no-fuss driver. Could have gone another +10mm on offset, but I don’t want the guard grabbing potential pain that comes with that.


Have dropped the car off to Auto Attention and Maxwell Wang for a week and a bit of final love. AA are doing a final paint correction and flatten over _everything_ Then Maxwell is wrapping the whole car up to the A pillars and then the rest up the rubbing strip along the side. Then AA will ceramic coat the whole lot.

Picked these two vendors because they both appear to be absolutely on top of their game.


Really looking forward to installing the black strips in the bumpers.









Test look




These pics are before the final paint correction. SO the paint looks good here, but it’s not finished. Every remaining surface, curve and edge will be flattened. It should glow when done 😊


I might drop it a little bit more, but I think the height is pretty every day usable, so it wont be much more.







So close, I actually smiled when I looked at it. I am really happy with these wheels. For me, it’s a great look.

[burkey001]

Wheels look great, what are the specs?

Nothing crazy, just a solid driveable spec. So i can putt about without worrying - too much - about pulling a front guard lip when going up a driveway on an angle etc....
17x7,5 ET20

[AusScare]

Wheels look great, what are the specs?

[Tzantushka]

Good luck with the relocation.
What a shame won't be able to see the car in the flesh...

And can vouch for the PilotSport 4s shoes - I have these on the Polestar and they are fantastic.