Tweet
This is my build thread of my 330 coupe which I have owned for nearly 4 years now. Its pretty much finished in terms of what I wanted to do on it. I have a another project an E30 Cabriolet as well but thats for another thread and put it up soon. Its going to be a long first post so here goes!
To start off, got a set of 18” E90/92 M3 replica alloy wheels with a polished face with anthracite centre.
Fitted CCFL angel rings along with halogen xenon type bulbs to match the CCFL's.
Pics:
By this time I felt it needed something more. Didn't want to go down the M-Sport route at the time so looked around on the web for some lip kits which attach to the original bumpers.
In the end I found a company who supply Hamann style lip kits off the web. So I got a full kit, front rear and skirts made from PU plastic.
Rear lip didn't even fit so had to be sent back as it only fits the 4 door model. They didn't do a coupe version of rear lip as later found out and they offered me a Breyton rear lip in exchange which fitted!
I wanted to drop the car and was deciding between Eibach Pro kit or Sportline. Went for the Pro kit as the roads around London are a bit crap with all the speed humps.
This gave a subtle drop to the car and didn't change comfort wise.
Pics:
I then got a little bored with the look and had an itch to do something else.
So went down the sport route (sort of).
I kept the rear bumper as it is with the Breyton rear lip as its quite a rare item now and changed the front bumper and side skirts over to the Sports.
The sports front bumper looks pretty good on its own but I felt it needed something extra just to separate it from the rest so managed to obtain a set of brake cover ducts and clubsport corner splitters from ebay cheap. They are reps but made of plastic and have to say are a good fit!
Had to replace both front wings as they had rotted away from inside which apparently is quite common on earlier models. All fitted up and sprayed, pics:
Next, decided on making it look a little meaner and moody. Fitted a black front grill along with smoked Depo indicators, smoked side repeaters. I swapped over the inner headlight shroud from the silver one to the black one. Rear lights decided on tinting the red part of the lights. While I was at it I added my boot lip spoiler too.
Pics:
Decided on changing my alloy wheels. Seen quite a few E46's with BBS LM's which pretty much sold me.
Pics.
Next I got my rear exhaust sorted with a new one with fresh tail pipes that come out properly out of the bumper.
Pics:
Took some proper pics of the car all washed up and waxed. These were my last pics of the car with the LM's on:
I decided on one last change of wheels for the car. LM's being a sweet wheel so many on the BM scene have them plus ride quality on 19's wasn't nice at all. The car looked great but I didn't like driving the car much. So I managed with a bit of luck find a set of 18" AC Schnitzer Type 3's.
These were my original first choice of wheel when I decided on changing wheels but only thing I could find at the time were replica split rim racing versions. These were picked up cheap but they badly needed a refurb as they were scuffed all round and the barrels needed re-doing as well.
After the refurb wheels came out nice and were wrapped in Falken 225/40/18 all round. I re-tinted the rear lights opting for a light smoke on the indicator/reverse part and kept the red's clear which came out better than the previous job.
Here is how it looked.
Next I decided to go a little further and went down the coilover route. A lot of people raved on about the JOM coilovers so I went for them and out came the old suspension. It kinda made sense as well as my MOT at the time mentioned I had leaky shockers. At the time there were 13 threads left on the front.
Along with that I got a carbon fibre CSL style bootlid installed and left the tip carbon which was inspiried by Ali-G's velvet blue coupe. I also changed the mirrors and managed to bag a pair of genuine set of AC Schnitzer ones so on they went as well.
7mm AC schnitzer spacers were fitted all round as well to bring the wheels out a little as well as the original ET is 43.
I managed to ditch the chrome window trim and replaced it with a matt black set. I wound down the coilovers a bit more on the rear and front has 8 threads on the front.
In the pics below I fitted 15mm spacers at the rear bring it down to ET28 still had enough room and no rubbing at all which suprised some people!
I then got an opportunity to run a set of 19" AC Schnitzer type 3 wheels and so they were freshly refurbed as well and wrapped in Kumho KU31 235/35/19 all round. I was a little worried at first when they were fitted on as the tyres were close to the arches and honestly thought it might needed raising but thankfully there hasn't been any issues thus far. These are running the 7mm ACS spacers. I managed to get a replacement interior as well and got rid of the half leather seats in mine and got full leathers in as well. Here is the final stage of how it stands now.
Hope you like and thanks for reading.
To start off, got a set of 18” E90/92 M3 replica alloy wheels with a polished face with anthracite centre.
Fitted CCFL angel rings along with halogen xenon type bulbs to match the CCFL's.
Pics:
By this time I felt it needed something more. Didn't want to go down the M-Sport route at the time so looked around on the web for some lip kits which attach to the original bumpers.
In the end I found a company who supply Hamann style lip kits off the web. So I got a full kit, front rear and skirts made from PU plastic.
Rear lip didn't even fit so had to be sent back as it only fits the 4 door model. They didn't do a coupe version of rear lip as later found out and they offered me a Breyton rear lip in exchange which fitted!
I wanted to drop the car and was deciding between Eibach Pro kit or Sportline. Went for the Pro kit as the roads around London are a bit crap with all the speed humps.
This gave a subtle drop to the car and didn't change comfort wise.
Pics:
I then got a little bored with the look and had an itch to do something else.
So went down the sport route (sort of).
I kept the rear bumper as it is with the Breyton rear lip as its quite a rare item now and changed the front bumper and side skirts over to the Sports.
The sports front bumper looks pretty good on its own but I felt it needed something extra just to separate it from the rest so managed to obtain a set of brake cover ducts and clubsport corner splitters from ebay cheap. They are reps but made of plastic and have to say are a good fit!
Had to replace both front wings as they had rotted away from inside which apparently is quite common on earlier models. All fitted up and sprayed, pics:
Next, decided on making it look a little meaner and moody. Fitted a black front grill along with smoked Depo indicators, smoked side repeaters. I swapped over the inner headlight shroud from the silver one to the black one. Rear lights decided on tinting the red part of the lights. While I was at it I added my boot lip spoiler too.
Pics:
Decided on changing my alloy wheels. Seen quite a few E46's with BBS LM's which pretty much sold me.
Pics.
Next I got my rear exhaust sorted with a new one with fresh tail pipes that come out properly out of the bumper.
Pics:
Took some proper pics of the car all washed up and waxed. These were my last pics of the car with the LM's on:
I decided on one last change of wheels for the car. LM's being a sweet wheel so many on the BM scene have them plus ride quality on 19's wasn't nice at all. The car looked great but I didn't like driving the car much. So I managed with a bit of luck find a set of 18" AC Schnitzer Type 3's.
These were my original first choice of wheel when I decided on changing wheels but only thing I could find at the time were replica split rim racing versions. These were picked up cheap but they badly needed a refurb as they were scuffed all round and the barrels needed re-doing as well.
After the refurb wheels came out nice and were wrapped in Falken 225/40/18 all round. I re-tinted the rear lights opting for a light smoke on the indicator/reverse part and kept the red's clear which came out better than the previous job.
Here is how it looked.
Next I decided to go a little further and went down the coilover route. A lot of people raved on about the JOM coilovers so I went for them and out came the old suspension. It kinda made sense as well as my MOT at the time mentioned I had leaky shockers. At the time there were 13 threads left on the front.
Along with that I got a carbon fibre CSL style bootlid installed and left the tip carbon which was inspiried by Ali-G's velvet blue coupe. I also changed the mirrors and managed to bag a pair of genuine set of AC Schnitzer ones so on they went as well.
7mm AC schnitzer spacers were fitted all round as well to bring the wheels out a little as well as the original ET is 43.
I managed to ditch the chrome window trim and replaced it with a matt black set. I wound down the coilovers a bit more on the rear and front has 8 threads on the front.
In the pics below I fitted 15mm spacers at the rear bring it down to ET28 still had enough room and no rubbing at all which suprised some people!
I then got an opportunity to run a set of 19" AC Schnitzer type 3 wheels and so they were freshly refurbed as well and wrapped in Kumho KU31 235/35/19 all round. I was a little worried at first when they were fitted on as the tyres were close to the arches and honestly thought it might needed raising but thankfully there hasn't been any issues thus far. These are running the 7mm ACS spacers. I managed to get a replacement interior as well and got rid of the half leather seats in mine and got full leathers in as well. Here is the final stage of how it stands now.
Hope you like and thanks for reading.
Comment