I have put off making a build thread, but maybe it is time. After owning 5 different cars in less than 24 months I finally found a car that doesn't have me thinking about what will be next. I purchased the car in January of 16'. Unfortunately, since I have wait so long to make this I have not kept all the pics of the pains I have endured along the way. Nevertheless, here it goes...
I picked the car up with a Joe Z intake elbow, PTS exhaust, tinted windows, and LED interior lights.







Just like every other car I said, "this one I will pretty much keep stock". That didn't last. I bought the car in the Chicago are and live in central Illinois near Peoria. On the drive home my friend and I both commented that the headlights aimed extremely low. Meanwhile after getting the car home I wanted to get busy on the paint as paint correction is something I enjoy. With the help of forum member, good friend, and detailing genius zmcgovern4 as well as a couple of other friends. The car received a 2 step paint correction and CQuartz Finest coating. Once completed the car looked the way that it should.







Getting back to that headlight thing. I wanted to start blacking out some miscellaneous items on the car and I figured why not start with the headlight housings. I have done 12-15 sets before and found these to be some of the easiest to pull apart. But, when removing the headlights it became obvious why the headlights aimed lower than the fogs. Two of the tabs on both headlights were broken. I went ahead pulled apart the grill and surround to spray those black in the process. It turned out well, but didn't fix the issue of the broken tabs.





I picked up the Mini Cooper trim wrap and wrapped the window trim the same week.





The car came with a set of Blizzaks which was great for Illinois. Snow tires on stock wheels and aftermarket with summer tires seems to be the go to for most of us in the area that drive our cars year round. The problem is that I found because of a bunch of toe the front tires were shot. Yippee. So, I grabbed some Conti DWs from friend and forum member ping83. I added some spacers and that got me through spring.



I also grabbed a set of Tein H Tech springs which was all the drop I needed.

 

Then it was on to address the headlight issue. I found a like new Sewell set of 12+ lights and added a BaysonR that I had painted to match.



I pulled apart the cluster to cover the AFS slot.



Then summer was approaching and I was off to find a set of wheels. Long before I ever owned an ISF I always loved LC818s on the Fs. So, that seemed to be the best fit. I did a square setup and I love them.



zmcgovern got a high res pics for me.





The fenders needed rolled, but the Eastwood roller would not clear the quarter panel, so I had it cut down and a new nut welded in. After rolling and removing the OE seam sealer I taped off the area to apply a new bead of seam sealer.





My calipers were in poor shape and I decided to do a DIY. I ordered a can of BMW Sakhir Orange as well as GSF/RCF style caliper stickers.

 

I picked up a Tom's rep diffuser and had it sprayed in satin black.



Then it was on to the next issue. Ticking from the exhaust meant that I had the problem many others did. My passenger side manifold was cracked. Caymandrive came to the rescue by selling me his V1 Sikky headers. The butt dyno loved this modification.





As you remember from the first pics the exhaust was in sad shape. So I pulled it down and brought it back to life. Quality stainless always comes back...



I then picked up some urethane side splitters. After getting them I thought they needed to be stiffened up a bit, so I had a steel strip panel bonded to the bottom before paint. I grabbed some rear splitters and color matched them as well. I still need to adjust the sides in a little bit, bit it will get done.





Then I started hassling ISFPower to get rid of his car so that I could take some of his parts. I was able to snag his steering wheels and black pearl badges.







Now here we are in November, back to winter mode.

 

Latest issue. The previous owner decided to tighten the clamp on the airbox at 200 ft lbs. He crushed the box. I fixed it with JB Weld once, but last weekend I threw codes for rich banks on 1 and 2. Since it was highly unlikely both O2s would go bad at the same time I looked at the airbox and had a substantial leak. RR airbox and tune is on the way. This isn't the first time I am trying to make the best of a bad situation.

 

Love this car... but I don't want to ride in it after your intake & tune... I have a feeling it is better for my wallet that way.

 

Looking good Nick. Its funny how our conversations go from "I'm done and happy with the car" to you buying about 10 new modifications.

Nick has made me spend about 70k this year alone. I love him but my my wallet hates him.

 

Good start car looking nice .

 

Your RR-Racing package is on its way!

-Josh

 

We need to stop talking to each other if we ever plan to retire!

Thanks for the help Josh. This week is going abnormally slow after placing that order.

So we are going for a ride tomorrow?

 

You know it.

 

Very nice!

Like every change and improvement you've done so far.

Interested to hear what you think once you've installed the RR-Racing tuned intake. Guessing you'll be adding the tune as well?

Nice to see your doing right by the car. Had a lot of annoying niggles from the previous owner of my car as well when I got it.

Keep up up the great work.

Cheers.



Peter

 

I love this.

Did you get the rep toms from that guy on ebay? how is it fitment wise?

 

The intake and tune are in. A big thanks to Josh at Meraki for a quick call during the install and for Simon at RR getting the tune back to me promptly. Time was ticking until I needed to pick up my kids and these guys came through. I haven't had much of a chance to drive the car, but thus far the gains feel even greater than when the headers were installed.

 

Car looks real good and I'm happy to see my old headers in such a nice new home!

 

where did you pick up the sakhir orange paint can?

car looks great btw