Danny's Oxford Green ZSP 330i 5-Speed

[dannyzabolotny]

Hey all,

I'd like to introduce myself and my newly-acquired car. I'm a BMW mechanic/web developer living in Phoenix, AZ, with a strong love for BMW's from the late 90's and early 2000's. I've owned an E39 M5, half a dozen E39 540i/6's, an E38 750il, an E36 M3, a few Range Rovers, an X5 4.6is, and now I've got this, a 2003 330i/5 in Oxford Green.

The backstory is that I had a Techno Violet E36 M3 for a little bit but didn't love it as a daily driver; it was just a bit too unrefined for my tastes. My friend bought it the minute I thought about selling it, and so I was on the hunt for a car that would make a better daily driver for me. I had been curious about the E46 for quite some time, and while I would have loved to pick up a ZHP, my budget was nowhere near that. So I started looking for manual 330i's. Before long, I found this car on Craigslist in Sacramento, with the following maintenance work done to it:


Koni Yellow sport shocks and Eibach Sportline springs
New front and rear shock mounts and bumpstops and other hardware on the shocks
New sway bar endlinks in front
New ATE brake booster
New ATE type 200 brake fluid
New heater core
New AC evaporator
New AC expansion valve
New fuel cap
New upper and lower intake boots
New final stage resistor
New block coolant hoses (the hard plastic ones)
New thermostat
New expansion tank
New jack pads
New fuel door lock
New fuel door filler pot gasket
New AC drier receiver
Freshly refilled AC
New front wheel bearings
New fuel filter and vacuum line
New Z4M lower control arm bushings
New water pump
New hydraulic belt tensioner
2 new idler pulleys
2 new rear tires (Federal SS595)
Front and rear shock mount support plates (BMW in front, Turner in rear)
Turner hex tip stud conversion
Rebuilt driver door lock mechanism
VANOS seals fixed with Beisan systems
Both airbag recalls done
New center support bearing
New flex disk
E46 M3 engine and transmission mounts
600w subwoofer with amplifier
New Pentosin coolant
ZHP 5 speed shift knob
E46 330d short shifter
Shifter mechanism rebuilt completely
New valve cover gasket and grommets
New intake cam position sensor
New BOSCH 120amp alternator, not rebuilt
Transmission shift pins replaced


It also had the engine rebuilt by the owner 30k miles prior, with new rings, new gaskets, etc. I immediately called up the owner and had a good long conversation with him about the car. He was very straightforward about the condition of the car, mentioning both the good and the bad. Some of you guys might know him, his name's Dario (Avetiso) and it looks like he posted a bunch on here. I actually found the build thread for this car from back in the day here: http://www.zhpmafia.com/forums/showthread.php?17594-Dario-s-Oxford-Green-ZSP

This is how the car looked in the ad:

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4863/45921487465_5e0e9440ed_z.jpg

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We agreed on a price over the phone and I booked my plane ticket to Sacramento for the following week.

[dannyzabolotny]

I arrived in Sacramento around 9:30am on the January 27th, after a fairly uneventful flight (which is good). On the way to the Uber pickup area, I saw this intriguing sculpture in the baggage claim area:

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4840/33032302788_433ea49cb1_b.jpg

A 20 minute Uber ride later, I arrived at the seller's house. The car was exactly as described, no surprises, thankfully. Dario was super honest and I respect that greatly.

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The paint really pops in the sunlight!

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7814/46182704814_6f02fef189_b.jpg

I had already worked out the price with the seller over the phone a week prior, so the transaction happened pretty quickly. After that, I was on my way down to Fresno to pick up a set of seats for a friend, and I got my first impressions of the E46. Compared to the E36 that I had been daily driving prior, it was much quieter at 80mph on the highway and much more refined overall. Having brand new suspension helped too!

Really the only complaint I had was the alignment being iffy (due to new suspension components, which was disclosed by the seller) and the front tires being pretty worn. Once I got to Fresno I picked up the E36 M3 Vader seats from a fellow enthusiast— it's rad to meet cool people all around the country! I wasn't sure how I'd fit the seats since this E46 doesn't have folding back seats, but that turned out to be a non-issue. By 69'ing the seats together, they fit into the back seat perfectly:

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4874/46182709344_f8bb397f70_b.jpg

While I was in Fresno, I called around and got an appointment for an alignment + front wheel balancing at Firestone. They had a good deal going for the lifetime alignment so that's what I got. While the alignment was being done, I walked around and found a good burger place for a tasty lunch.

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7912/46182709924_9d3ee393a2_b.jpg

On a side note, I love the wheels. Usually I'm not a fan of cross-generational wheel swaps, but these E90 wheels look awesome on the E46, and the ride quality doesn't suffer as much as I thought it would, given that they're 18's. Part of why they look good is because they kinda look like chunkier CSL wheels, haha.

After the alignment the 330i drove a whole lot better. It'll still need new front tires very soon, but I was able to drive home much more comfortably. The only nuisance at that point was the short shifter, which was from some 330d and was way too low so it scraped the driveshaft when shifting. I'll have to replace that soon.

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7832/45993100725_0bb09cf413_b.jpg

The sound system sounded pretty darn good, especially with the aftermarket subwoofer in the trunk. My drive home was just an endless medley of pop punk and metal, good times. I averaged 28mpg (calculated at the pump), not bad at all considering I was doing 80-85mph the whole time with no real overdrive gear.

I snapped another pic of the 330i at a gas station close to the Arizona border. You can see the main visual flaws of the car— the foggy headlights and the primer gray mirror cap. Both are easy fixes though, so I'm not too concerned.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4908/45993103855_40ab622fc4_b.jpg

One awesome thing about the E46 is the headlight output. Coming from a whole bunch of E39's and an E36, the stock headlight output is just fantastic. I could actually see ahead without needing to use my high-beams nonstop, which was definitely a novelty for me.

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I made it back to Phoenix around 1:30am with no issues. The car was just a champ, eating up mile after mile with no qualms. It reminds me of the good parts of my E39 (ride quality, insulation, creature comforts) without most of the negatives (poor gas mileage, heavy weight, heavy steering). In total, I drove 12+ hours from Sacramento to Phoenix on 5 hours of sleep the night before... and I did it all without a single drop of caffeine.

With the car back home, I could then proceed to my favorite part of car ownership— fixing things up and making it my own.

[dannyzabolotny]

The first thing that needed to happen was installing an armrest... the previous owner had removed it so there was a big hole in the center console where it used to be. I happened to find an excellent condition one at the local junkyard for under $20 total, score! Installing it was relatively straightforward- I'm used to taking apart the interior from my experience with owning and parting out multiple E39's, and this E46 was no different.

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The next order of business was replacing the shifter with one that wouldn't scrape the driveshaft while shifting. I bought a Z3 shifter from a local enthusiast, it made the shifting feel pretty awesome. The old shifter was a 330d shifter, and it was way too long below the pivot point, hence the scraping issues. This is what it looked like:

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4894/39960450083_7d42cee3a0_b.jpg

With the Z3 shifter installed, the shift knob sat nicely:

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7826/33049735028_7f064b6179_b.jpg

[dannyzabolotny]

About a week into owning this car I finally got to do my favorite thing after buying a car: giving it a thorough detail. With the help of a friend, I detailed the interior, vacuuming everything carefully and going over all the leather/vinyl surfaces with Ammo Lather (cleaner) and Ammo Mousse. It was nice to get all the dust and dirt out, as the car had sat outside for a bit. With the interior all cleaned and conditioned, it looked and smelled nice. The seats are still pretty worn but they'll get replaced the minute I find a nice set of black sport seats with heating, power, and lumbar support— I don't want to lose any features! In the meantime, it looks like this:

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After the interior was sorted, we moved to the exterior. The wheels and paint were given a thorough cleaning with Ammo Plum + Ammo Brute on the wheels and Dawn dish soap on the paint (to strip any old wax). I used the two bucket method with the Grit Guard and a microfiber wash mitt, along with a power washer. After the car was clean, we went over it with a set of Meguiar's clay bars, which removed a surprising amount of dirt. The paint was quite rough when we started, and we got it to be pretty darn smooth.

With the paint perfectly clean, we turned our attention to the hood, which was looking quite faded and dull from all the UV exposure (the car wasn't garaged from what I can tell). I did a quick test on the hood, doing one area with just Meguiar's M205 polishing compound and a microfiber finishing pad, and the other area with Meguiar's M105 cutting compound and a microfiber cutting pad. The polishing worked okay, but compounding gave the desired result, so that was the strategy we chose to go with.

The next day, we pulled the car into the shop and got to work with the DA orbital polisher. Here's a few shots of what the hood looked like before:

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After an hour of hard labor, I had half of the hood compounded + polished, and pulled off the masking tape for the ever-so-popular 50/50 shot. It was quite the difference!

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After some more work, the rest of the hood was completed. It looked amazing, especially considering that it cost nothing to do this (I had the polisher and all the materials from a previous detailing session).

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My friend compounded and polished the trunk as well, and it was quite the improvement. It wasn't faded or cloudy, but it had a lot of surface scratches from objects being placed on the trunk lid. I'm happy to report that 75% of those came out, and I'm confident that the rest would come out after some more cutting. I wasn't aiming for perfection though, since this is a daily driver with 191k miles.

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By the time we were done, it was sunset, so I quickly cleaned up at the shop and went to a nearby culdesac for some beauty shots. Yes, I know the headlights really need polishing, and I'll address that soon enough— I was pretty tired after a long day of customer work and polishing the car.

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I love this angle on the E46, it just looks so handsome:

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7879/46225554414_48d9675c16_b.jpg

The next order of business will be to restore all of the black trims. I'm waiting on new clips for the trims since I'm sure they'll all shatter the minute I touch them. The rear diffuser has a bit too much sun damage to just restore, so I'll probably remove it and hit it with a few coats of SEM trim paint. The driver's side mirror cover is still primer gray, so at some point in the near future I'll get it painted along with the front bumper.

[dannyzabolotny]

One day I had some time after work so I headed out to the junkyard that's at the far west side of town. It took about an hour to get there, no thanks to heavy stop-and-go traffic. What's surprising is how easy it was to deal with the traffic— the clutch is nice and light, the M54 has plenty of torque, and the AC works great. I've daily driven manual cars before but none were as easy to live with; the last manual daily driver that I had was an E39 M5 which just felt like overkill in every way.

I didn't regret the drive at all though, because this junkyard yielded quite a few goodies. My main goal was to find a set of the OE Harman Kardon subs with their amp, since those were missing from my car. Literally two minutes into walking through the yard I spotted a red E46 with a black interior and a fully intact HK system, score! I also nabbed a black glovebox cover (which was still gray at that time), and a set of A-pillar trims. As I mentioned before, the car came with an aftermarket subwoofer, but after it started misbehaving I elected to remove it and go back to the stock HK subs so I could gain back the trunk space— I do a lot of grocery store runs, parts hauling, and junkyard runs in my car, so I couldn't have a sub taking up a quarter of the trunk, haha.

I installed the HK subs + amp in the parking lot of the junkyard since I was super excited and didn't want to wait. They worked perfectly and were plug and play since my car had the factory HK system. For stock little subs, they put out a good amount of low end, especially for the music I listen to (rock/metal) which doesn't require insane amounts of bass.

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[dannyzabolotny]

The other day I did a little more interior work— I love doing little things here and there.

First were the a-pillar trims, which I reinforced with epoxy to keep them from falling apart as much. The fabric isn't in great shape but these will do for now until I buy some brand new ones. It's still quite an improvement from no trims at all, I'd say.

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After that, I installed the black glovebox cover. Super easy to swap over, and it really ties the black dash together nicely.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4866/47023784961_bc6b0d5efa_b.jpg

I found a black leather shift boot in a 325i at the junkyard, so I cleaned it up and installed it. The faded M-color stitching is a little cheesy but the knob was super cheap and it's much nicer than the dried-out gray original boot.

Before:

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7826/33049735028_7f064b6179_b.jpg

After:

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The finishing touch was a black parking brake boot:

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During the most recent junkyard run I scored a nice condition black armrest, so I'll be installing that soon. I put together a list of all the parts needed for a fresh black center console, and it's only $222 for Genuine BMW stuff (center console, ashtray, ashtray trim, cupholders, and coin holder). I think it'll be worth holding out for that instead of installing beat up parts from the junkyard— I can never seem to find a clean black console at the junkyard, they're all either peeling horribly or are cracked/broken.

I also scored a black rear carpet, black lower b-pillar trims, black dead pedal, and a few other bits. Pretty stoked to install those once everything's cleaned up and prepped. During the carpet swap I'll also be swapping in a set of E53 X5 4.6is black front seats, since my friend has them and they're in great condition. They've got all the same specs too— powered sport seats with lumbar support and heating.

I thought I'd take it easy with the interior stuff and just live with the gray interior, but finding parts at the junkyard has just been way too much fun.

[ZHPizza]

Damn this was an awesome read. Glad to see that you're restoring an amazing color. I'll definitely be following along.

FYI the peel-happy rubberized coating on the black console parts can be removed with hot water and a rough sponge. I did it on mine and it came out great. I'll edit in a link to the post when I get to my computer.

Edit: there it is
http://www.zhpmafia.com/forums/showthread.php?19536-ZHPizza-s-red-car&p=566584#post566584

[dannyzabolotny]

Damn this was an awesome read. Glad to see that you're restoring an amazing color. I'll definitely be following along.

FYI the peel-happy rubberized coating on the black console parts can be removed with hot water and a rough sponge. I did it on mine and it came out great. I'll edit in a link to the post when I get to my computer.

Thanks for reading! I like to write about my cars a lot, haha.

I've heard about removing the rubberized coating and I'll do that for the parts that are prohibitively expensive to replace, like the armrest assembly ($500+ new). For the center console and cupholders though, the new parts are still affordable enough that I'll just buy them new and enjoy having a factory fresh look.

[johnrando]

Welcome. Wow, quite thw detail. And yes, we know Dario. Good to see his (former) car is in good hands.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

[fredo]

Welcome, sir. My 2005 Mini Cooper was Oxford Green as well ... Great color ! :thumbsup

[dannyzabolotny]

Welcome. Wow, quite thw detail. And yes, we know Dario. Good to see his (former) car is in good hands.

It was quite the detail indeed, and it was extremely satisfying to get the hood shining nicely again. I still need to do another round of paint correction on it, but I'll wait until I have some better detailing tools— the Harbor Freight DA is super noisy and rough on my hands. For now it looks pretty good.

The funny thing is that I'm Russian as well. That was one of the first things Dario and I discussed on the phone when I initially called him, haha.


Welcome, sir. My 2005 Mini Cooper was Oxford Green as well ... Great color ! :thumbsup

Oxford Green all the things!

[dannyzabolotny]

Today was a good day! First I started out by cleaning the carpet that I got from the junkyard. My friend (also the guy I run the shop with) helped out with everything. The carpet was pretty nasty initially, with several sticky stains and just general filth.

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After some TLC with a shop vac and repeated scrubbing with Ammo Shag and a stiff-bristle brush, 95% of the grunge was gone. It's not perfect but it came out super nicely and is just right for a daily driver.

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7902/40103492543_5d4d3aab11_b.jpg

With the carpet all prepped, we took apart the interior, removing both front seats, lower B-pillar trims, door kick panels, back seat bench, and center console. Everything came apart nicely with minimal drama, much to our delight. This is how it looked with everything removed:

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7885/40103491593_b682bbbc3a_b.jpg

With the new carpet:

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7922/46344569194_f8d60a64e9_b.jpg

With the new carpet in, we reinstalled the center console, except with a black armrest that I had scored in my most recent junkyard run. It's much less creaky than the previous junkyard armrest that I had, so that's a win in my book. We also installed a black dead pedal and driver's side black kick panel.

Next up was installing the X5 4.6is seats. As some of you may know, the E53 and E46 use pretty much the same seats. There's a slight visual difference with the head rests and bolsters (the X5 sport bolsters go all the way up whereas the E46 sport bolsters kinda stop halfway up the seat back), but electronically the seats are pretty much identical. We chose to keep using the stock E46 seat belts, so we had to swap the seatbelt receiver/pre-tensioner from the E46 onto the E53 seat, since the E53 seatbelt receiver didn't work for the E46 seat belts. The actual wiring for the seatbelt receiver was identical, so it was a matter of tracing the wires to the main seat harness and disconnecting them. There was no actual wiring required, it was pretty much all plug-and-play. I'll make a post about it in the general section in case somebody wants to use E53 seats in their E46, since it seems like there's not a ton of info on the little differences between the two.

For reference, here's what the interior looked like before the work:

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4860/46950125011_127cae6c52_b.jpg

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4892/46225552824_bfbffbfa01_b.jpg

And here's what it looked like after all of today's work:

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The X5 4.6is seats are really comfortable, since they use a much softer grade of leather than the E46 seats. In a way, they hold me into the seat better since I'm not sliding around on hard leather. The best part is that literally everything works— I've got lumbar support, seat heating, seat memory, and all the usual power adjustments. I didn't give anything up, and I don't have any errors or airbag lights either. That's a win-win in my book!

[ZHPizza]

Nice work! I would have thought that e53 seats would be pretty different...taller...i dunno... Should be easy to find a black leather or even vinyl rear bench in the junk yard to finish it out.

[johnrando]

Wow, very nice werk!

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

[racer2086]

I recognize that name from the E38 forum! Nice work and love the story.

[dannyzabolotny]

Nice work! I would have thought that e53 seats would be pretty different...taller...i dunno... Should be easy to find a black leather or even vinyl rear bench in the junk yard to finish it out.

Thanks! Nah, the E53 seats are the same height, the floor is just raised in the E53 to make them sit higher. BMW really raided the parts bin for the E53 X5— E46 seats + E46-ish door panels, E39 cluster + electronics, E39 engines, E46 window switches, E39 HVAC, and so on.

It's proving to be rather difficult to find a nice condition black leather back seat, all of the ones at junkyards are trashed/torn up by idiots trying to get to the fuel pump (the seat pops off, there's no reason to cut it open!) or they're leatherette which I don't want. I'll keep looking though, I'm sure a nice one will pop up eventually.


Wow, very nice werk!

Thanks!


I recognize that name from the E38 forum! Nice work and love the story.

Yep, I'm everywhere!

[dannyzabolotny]

Earlier today I went on a fun drive up north to Prescott, AZ with my friend. He bought a Z3 M-Roadster up there and I came along for the ride, mainly because there are a lot of fun driving roads up there. We took a super twisty route on the way back via route 89, it was fun to really push the 330i for the first time since I've owned it. I definitely need new front tires, but I had lots of fun nonetheless. The car would also benefit from some thicker sway bars to dial out some of the body roll in the tighter turns, but that'll be later down the line once the more important stuff is taken care of. Overall though, the 330i was awesome today— it handled twisty mountain roads and 80mph highway cruising superbly, and it was even more comfortable with the X5 seats that I put in the other day.

A few pics while on the mountain around sunset:

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I really need to polish the headlights and condition the black trims, that's the last real eyesore on the car.

[az3579]

I think those lenses are too far gone to look great - might I recommend replacing them? Thankfully our sedans have replaceable lenses. :)

[Vas]

Bratan, Welcome :)

[dannyzabolotny]

I think those lenses are too far gone to look great - might I recommend replacing them? Thankfully our sedans have replaceable lenses. :)

I do eventually want to replace them, but the priority right now is maintenance and getting new front tires... cosmetic stuff has a low budget at the moment. I have a DA polisher, pads, and Plast-X, so I figure I'll give polishing a shot just to clean it up in the meantime. FCP Euro sells a pair of new lenses for like $100, so I'll bookmark that and buy it in the future.


Bratan, Welcome :)

Privet bratan, spasibo!

It's cool to see so many Russians on here, haha— I didn't see any in the other E46 forums I'm on. Reading through Dario's past threads and the thread for this car, we have a similar mentality to maintenance and whatnot. The main difference is that I keep my cars for a long time and I spend all of my money and time on them, since I don't have much else going on in life.

[ZHPizza]

What tire sizes do you have on there? Looks like diameter of the fronts is quite a bit less than the rears.

[dannyzabolotny]

What tire sizes do you have on there? Looks like diameter of the fronts is quite a bit less than the rears.

225/40/18 in the front and 255/35/18 in the rear. They're stock E92 328i wheels (8" front, 8.5" rear) in their standard tire sizes. It might just be the different sidewalls of the tires, the fronts are not the same brand as the rears, and tires do have some variation even within standard sizes. The front also sits a little bit lower than the rear (Eibach lowering springs) so that might be contributing to the illusion.

[Sreten]

Nice to see you on Mafia, Danny. You'll love it here, great bunch of guys!

Great write up and progress. After owning several e46's, I find them to be phenomenal DD cars and might I add a bit easier to wrench on than on e39.

[dannyzabolotny]

Nice to see you on Mafia, Danny. You'll love it here, great bunch of guys!

Great write up and progress. After owning several e46's, I find them to be phenomenal DD cars and might I add a bit easier to wrench on than on e39.

Thanks! I'm glad to be here, seems to be a lot more active than the other E46 forums at the moment. Lots of rad build threads here too.

I daily drove an E39 540it for over 2 years, and I have to say I'm definitely enjoying the E46 more as a daily. It's lighter and gets way better gas mileage. I get 22mpg with beating it around town, and 28mpg on the highway, whereas in the 540it it was 15 city and 19-20 highway (calculated at the pump, not the OBC).

The only thing the E46 is missing at the moment is bluetooth, but eventually I'll put in an Avin Avant-3. I had the Dynavin N6 in my 540it and it really modernized the car and made it super convenient.

[Gordo_GT]

I am really digging the write up. You’re giving me motivation to do my own write up since I just got back into an e46 seven days ago.

That color is great.


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[dannyzabolotny]

I am really digging the write up. You’re giving me motivation to do my own write up since I just got back into an e46 seven days ago.

That color is great.



Do it! I love seeing build threads :)

And thanks, I'm loving the Oxford Green. Never thought I'd own a green car, but it's such a subtle color that I can't help but love it.

[dannyzabolotny]

I've been driving the 330i a bunch, just enjoying it every day. I passed 193k miles last week, so it's due for an oil change pretty soon (Dario mentioned that he changed the oil at 187k or so). I'll probably go with 0W40 or 5W40, those seem to work pretty well for non-M engines in Arizona.

A gracious forum member on Bimmer Forums sent me an Oxford Green mirror cover, and I finally got around to installing it a few days ago. It's a huge improvement to have a matching mirror, it really stood out in a bad way before. The paint match is pretty good and it's fairly weathered so it matches the other mirror quite well.

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I also got a new set of front tires to replace the awful front tires. I went with Riken Raptors in 225/40/18, and they feel quite good. Noticeable less shaking at 80mph, and triple digit speeds are now doable without being absolutely terrifying. I tested out the new front tires by going up to 125mph on my favorite road in Mexico ;)

The other day I went on a night run to rip the 330i around a bit (it's great to have a car that makes you want to drive just because). As I was banging through the gears at redline, the engine suddenly started running a bit rough, being extremely choppy when accelerating and idling poorly. The CEL came on as well. Thankfully I always have a little code reader in the car, so I was able to tell that it was just a simple misfire and not anything more serious. I cleared the codes and the engine calmed down. I then drove to my shop at like 1am to do some quick repairs.

The code reader showed cylinder #1 and #6 misfiring, so I swapped the coils out for some known good BMW ones. The ones that came out of the 330i were Bosch coils from 2005, so it might be worth it to just buy a new set of coils once my budget allows for it. The nice thing about pencil coils is how easy they are to swap, I love it!

While I was under the hood, I also noticed that the vacuum line going to the secondary air valve had rotted apart. That was probably an extra vacuum leak and the likely culprit of my SAP codes that I often got on cold startup. I had plenty of bulk vacuum line at the shop so that was a quick and easy fix— the trickiest part was not burning my hand on the cylinder head, haha. I can't wait to delete that damn SAP system, but that's a plan for another day.

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Earlier today I had a bit of free time in the morning so I gave the 330i a good wash. It had been raining tons the past few weeks (highly unusual for Phoenix) so the car was extra dirty. I used Dawn dish soap to strip off any remaining wax, followed by a good drying with a microfiber towel. After that, I applied Ammo Skin, working panel by panel so as to not let it dry off too much (it gets harder to remove when it's too dry). I love Ammo Skin, it does an excellent job at protecting paint from bird poo and the sun, which are the biggest things that ruin paint here. For example, my old X5 4.6is that my buddy is parting out, it still has excellent paint even after sitting outside for years neglected, all thanks to the Ammo Skin that I put onto it in late 2016.

Obligatory clean car pics:

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It almost looks black when parked in the shade:

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I then wrapped up the day with an IKEA run. My girlfriend kept insisting that a standing mirror and dining room table wouldn't fit, but I proved her wrong very quickly. Even without folding rear seats I fit everything in with room to spare. People always seem to underestimate how much room the E46 interior and trunk have, haha. That's the magical thing about BMW's from this era, they've got so much room inside them despite being so much smaller than most cars nowadays.

[johnrando]

Great updates!

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[az3579]

Gorgeous.

If those two coils were original, you might as well do all of them. They are way overdue!

[dannyzabolotny]

Gorgeous.

If those two coils were original, you might as well do all of them. They are way overdue!

Thanks! I don't think they were original since they were stamped as 2005 whereas my car is a late 2002 build. More than likely they all got replaced under a warranty or under a recall back in the day. A brand new set is $173 so that'll happen at some point soon, along with spark plugs if they haven't already been done.

[dannyzabolotny]

Saw a fellow 330i with the exact same M-Tech I body kit, so I had to get some pics. A lady came up to me in the parking lot and was like "my husband is a car guy and does the same thing!" Good times.

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[johnrando]

Nice!

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[3LiterStraightSix]

Saw a fellow 330i with the exact same M-Tech I body kit, so I had to get some pics. A lady came up to me in the parking lot and was like "my husband is a car guy and does the same thing!" Good times.

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7856/47238649082_793283ef86_b.jpg

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7921/46376047595_be2711e0e5_b.jpgLove me some Stahlblau Metallic [emoji4] a very underated color IMO.



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[Oli77]

Enjoyed reading about the progress and the car Danny!

[dannyzabolotny]

About a week ago, I went on a fun drive with two of my BMW-owning friends. We went on a twisty road called Tortilla Flats, a little east of Mesa where I live. The 330i was a blast to drive because of how light it is, though I did feel a fair bit of body roll so upgraded sway bars will definitely be a future upgrade. Despite only having 225hp, the 330i didn't feel slow or underpowered on the twisty roads— if anything it was more fun than the E34 540i/6 and Z3 S54 Coupe that my friends were driving since I could push it pretty hard without getting into a dangerous situation. The only thing I'd change at this point would be the gearing... the 2.91 makes for good highway gas mileage but in spirited mountain driving I find myself having to shift between 2nd and 3rd constantly, whereas with something like a 3.38 I'd be in the sweet spot in 3rd gear.

Naturally, pictures were taken:

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I love how all of the cars in our group were made in an 8 year span (1995, 2000, 2003) but look and feel like radically different cars. This era was truly the pinnacle of BMW.

I also did a bit of a photoshoot with my friend's E36 M3 that we had just finished detailing after two days of hard work. We cut, polished, and waxed the paint and the results were fantastic. It's cool to see my old M3 being taken care of :)

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Going back to the 330i, the most recent development is that I've ordered a bunch of parts for it from FCP Euro. I got brand new headlight lenses, headlight gaskets, a manual transmission fluid change kit, cabin air filter, engine air filter, and rear lower control arms. It'll be nice to give the 330i a much-needed round of maintenance, it certainly deserves it for being such a good car to me over the past 4500 miles.

[Vas]

Ended up selling the car?

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