Back in December 2016 I ordered a massive pile of parts, to take advantage of the end of year sales. I had them shipped to my friend’s place, since we were working on my car there anyways.




From VinceSE2 on M3 Forum (for my RACP reinforcement stage 2):
• Vincebar, Epoxy & Resin (Original design)
• Epoxy & Resin Install Kit


From FCP Euro:
• Cooling system refresh
• Belts, tensioners
• M3 engine and trans mounts
• E-brake rebuild kit
• Inner + outer tie rods
• Strut & shock mounts, reinforcement plates
• Bilstein B4 shocks & struts
• Oil pan gasket
• Diff fluid
• BMW Performance Shift Lever (correct one)


From ECS Tuning:
• BMW Performance Shift Lever (wrong one, so I had to return it)
• ZHP 6-speed shift knob
• URO Aluminium Water Pump Pulley
• URO Aluminium Power Steering Pump Pulley
• VANOS oil line
• S54 oil fill cap (because I had $$$ from the refunded shift lever)


From BavAuto:
• Viton OFHG


From eBay:
• POR15 starter kit (for Vincebar)
• Smoked front reflectors (to match the smoked side markers from the PO)


I also bought Araldite 2014 epoxy for the Vincebar, but forgot where I got it from.













I also paid a quick visit to Walmart to grab some car wash supplies, as my car was (obviously) in dire need of a wash:





Much better, feels good to get all the road trip grime off:








Installed my smoked reflectors:





I wasn’t very happy with the fitment, as they’re flatter than they should be, so the leading and trailing edges stick up a bit. Unfortunately I cracked one of the original ones taking them out, and I did get a partial refund on them due to the bad fitment. Given how the paint on my front bumper is original at this mileage, the reflectors are far from the ugliest part in that area, so I wasn’t bothered enough to buy higher quality ones.





I also had a flickering passenger’s xenon, which turned out to be a broken wire. Cut, soldered, & heat-shrinked the offending wire, and all was back to normal.





I then sprung a leak at the plastic neck on the radiator for the upper rad hose. Impeccable timing too, since it happened about a week before I was planning on doing my cooling system refresh. A small dose of JB Marine Weld got me through the week (and probably would’ve lasted a whole lot longer):





Unfortunately, I have no pics from my cooling system refresh. We did the following:


• Radiator (Behr)
• Water Pump (genuine BMW)
• Thermostat (Mahle)
• Expansion tank (Modine) & E30 1.4 Bar expansion tank cap (Behr)
• Both the primary & AC belt tensioners (INA) and belts (Continental)
• Expansion tank return hose (Rein)
• Power Steering & Water Pump Pulleys (URO Aluminium)
• OFHG (Viton, so hopefully it lasts a lot longer than stock)
• VANOS oil line


I didn’t intend on replacing the upper or lower rad hoses, since they were done in 2014 and still soft. To reuse them I bought o-rings and replaced those instead, which worked fine on the lower rad hose, but still leaked on the upper rad hose. So I just bought another upper rad hose anyways and left the lower one.


I then started stripping the rear end of the interior, in preparation for the Vincebar.
Crumbling sound deadening:





Score! Found some spare change under the rear seats:





I’ve no idea why I bagged the sound deadening (that I was tossing) so nicely:








I had a bunch of packing supplies leftover from all the parts I bought. For some reason, instead of removing the rear seat belt receivers, I left them in and wrapped them in bubble wrap to prevent them from rattling around:





My friend and I planned to do the Vincebar on a 3-day long weekend in mid-June (I forget what long weekend it was for) because we weren’t sure how long the whole job would take. So on Friday, June 16th after work, I pulled into his garage and put my car up on jackstands for the next 3 days.