E46 Touring - Clean & Bagged Daily Driver

[austinscottphotography]

Antenna/amp module.

I like how your taking care of the mechanicals in the process of modding. Welcome to Texas, where abouts in Dallas are you staying? Coffee & Cars at Vintage BMW is this Saturday. You may want to check it out.

I thought it had something to do with the antenna but wasn't sure.

I love Cars & Coffee...i'll def be there. thanks so much for the heads up.

car can't work properly if the basics aren't taken care of.

I'm actually in Dallas off Preston Oaks road.

i didn't find Vintage BMW but c&c website for dallas says they meet at 6800 Dallas Pkwy, Plano, TX 75024. is that correct?

[uvebeenrobd]

anyone know what the hell this little box is for?
I disconnected it and nothing has happened.

Antenna/amp module.

I like how your taking care of the mechanicals in the process of modding. Welcome to Texas, where abouts in Dallas are you staying? Coffee & Cars at Vintage BMW is this Saturday. You may want to check it out.

[austinscottphotography]

I moved from Baton Rouge, La - Dallas, Tx on January 28, 2014

-1 month of packing boxes everyday
- 13 hours of loading the truck with just my friend Nick and myself (David was able to help the last 5 hrs)
-2.5hrs sleep
-12 hrs of driving a 26ft uhaul with a trailer carrying the M3 on completely frozen roads through a snow storm (its usually a 6 hr trip) while David bravely drove the wagon behind me.
-10 hours of only 2 people unpacking the uhaul (6 of which were up 3 flights of stairs)
And I'm almost finished!!!
Now I just have to unpack boxes and find room for everything...lol.




literally the entire body was covered in a thick sheet of dirty ice




the wagon was even nastier than the M3 so before i got to my new home I had her washed



and we all finally made it

[austinscottphotography]

Really like where you are going with this. I really wanted an E46 touring back in the day but it was still in it's infancy as a model run which made them hard to find and expensive as all hell when you did. The Alpine white on black is the best. Keep it up.

thanks for the love. they're still hard to find...especially in RWD only.

[F31Dingus]

Really like where you are going with this. I really wanted an E46 touring back in the day but it was still in it's infancy as a model run which made them hard to find and expensive as all hell when you did. The Alpine white on black is the best. Keep it up.

[austinscottphotography]

My bad, read that completely wrong.

I agree about the chrome door trim, nice work on that detail.

no worries

thanks man. it's all about the details

[austinscottphotography]

Care to elaborate how the upper trim comes off? I've been waiting for the snow to disapear in order to do something similar to my wagon

just pull...lol
I used a flat head wrapped in heat shrink to pry some of it up.
it comes off pretty easily but the door pieces don't.

[1badg35]

Care to elaborate how the upper trim comes off? I've been waiting for the snow to disapear in order to do something similar to my wagon

[gallopingford]

I actually said that the leather was Very High quality

"I bought a new leather shift boot, e-brake boot and armrest for the M3 but decided it looked so good I wanted it in my wagon. very impressed with the quality and the perfect fit. I used contact cement and patience to install."

My bad, read that completely wrong.

I agree about the chrome door trim, nice work on that detail.

[austinscottphotography]

I've always disliked the chrome trim on the E46 and after seeing it painted black on my M3 i just had to do the same to the wagon.



all the big pieces were easy to remove but the pieces under the windows would not budge and i didn't want to bend them. I'll mask them off and paint them when I have time.

[austinscottphotography]

my e-brake was non existent so i had to change the e-brake pads ASAP



my roommate's dog couldn't resist helping



rotors were still in good shape





The pads were in MUCH worse shape than I had imagined
there was nothing left on the passenger side!!

[austinscottphotography]

so after the fiasco with the M3 bumper not fitting i decided to go with a bumper that was made for the car.

The M-Tech 2 bumper was also pretty and gave the wagon it's own personality as opposed to just trying to emulate a M3.

I ordered the bumper from Khoalty.com and even emailed them to first to ensure that the bumper was made to fit my wagon.

They assured me that it was so i bought it. But of course, it didn't fit.



i dry fitted the bumper with no brackets or anything holding it in place except for the push screws and there was a huge gap



also, this was causing problems once i did put the brackets on to try and hold the bumper in place



and of course, poor craftsmanship and plastic welding failed me again. the bumper mount fell off with very minimal force


2 bumpers down and i'm still where i started.
i decided to just have the ugly black moldings painted.

[austinscottphotography]

I like your idea about using plasti dip on the trim, I've thought about it but wasn't sure

Very nice, while you said that shifter and ebrake boot was not high quality, the pictures fooled me.

I agree with the woodgrain trim, it did not belong there. Did you think about a permanent paint solution though? Maybe hydrodip the pieces?

Looking forward to the build. I love wagons.

I actually said that the leather was Very High quality

"I bought a new leather shift boot, e-brake boot and armrest for the M3 but decided it looked so good I wanted it in my wagon. very impressed with the quality and the perfect fit. I used contact cement and patience to install."

I can look up the seller on ebay if anyone is interested. I've seen other leather products being sold for more that people claim to be less than acceptable quality but the items i bought were better than OEM.

The plasti dip looks great for now but is obviously not permanent. I have called for price quotes on hydrodip and am seriously considering it in the near future.

[gallopingford]

Very nice, while you said that shifter and ebrake boot was not high quality, the pictures fooled me.

I agree with the woodgrain trim, it did not belong there. Did you think about a permanent paint solution though? Maybe hydrodip the pieces?

Looking forward to the build. I love wagons.

[Chasen88]

I like your idea about using plasti dip on the trim, I've thought about it but wasn't sure