BMW Z3 2.8 - OEM+ long term project

[5harp3y]

Not masses of thing have happened with the Zed for a while. Work has been manic and i've been putting off jobs due to the weather.

I have recently developed and fitted an induction kit however, no benefit apart from the noise which is massively addictive.

[5harp3y]

Yazza54 said:

Serious development there I do love induction noise though... better than a farty exhaust

its 100% better than any exhaust.

[5harp3y]

GrantB5 said:

Could you not make a heat shield of some sort??

Bet it sounds wicked though

does sound great

i could but i'm not sure it will make a bit of difference. i think they are made by companies to warrant silly prices on a cone filter and some pipe.

[5harp3y]

e21Mark said:

That's enough to make it worthwhile though.

[5harp3y]

GrantB5 said:

Fair enough, I've had headsoak on a cone filter before and it's not fun ha.

im going to keep an eye on it over the summer months and if it gets bad i might have to build V2

[5harp3y]

This Sunday i got a few more bits done to the Zed, its been too cold and wet to do any mechanical work and my garage really isn't big enough to do anything meaningful on jack stands.

First job was to change the brace on the induction kit, this solution is cheaper, easier and lighter but is still stainless steel.



After that i wanted to crack on with a job that I've wanted to do for a while. My car is a 1998 Pre-Facelift so comes with small rear speaker as standard, the later facelifted cars come with larger rear speakers.

I wanted to do this to avoid fitting larger aftermarket speakers in the panels themselves.

So i picked up some rear facelift trims with speakers from Andy and set about fitting them.

Here are the original trims, note the tiny speaker



The task is quite involved but not hard, lots of screws and bits of trim need to be removed as you need to remove the entire roll hoops and trims, along with the sub box / cubby hole.

Here it is all removed.



Next i cleaned up all the old and new parts and affixed Silent Coat absorber and Silent Coat mat where appropriate as the factory sound deadening measures aren't up to much.



Whilst the hoops were out i took the opportunity to clean and sound deaden the parcel shelf as its really hard when the hoops are in. This area was also coated





one that was done and i fixed a twisted seat belt it was time to reassemble

all back together and treated with some Poorboys natural look dressing



Sound quality is massively improved and it is 100% OEM which i love.

Next weekend i'll also be sound deadening to boot floor as ran put of time this weekend.

[5harp3y]

Podie said:

Nice touch. I do like OEM upgrades - strangely satisfying.

me too, best way to modify in my eyes

[5harp3y]

Grant20V said:

I have some silent coat to stick on my car, heard good reviews for it!

so far it has made a difference and i haven't even started on the boot yet

[5harp3y]

n3il123 said:

5harp3y said:

n3il123 said:

Brilliant, thanks for that, i'll now spend the summer looking for a set on e-bay, just in time to put it away in the winter!!

mine will be for sale when i get the wheels i want!

Did you ever get round to selling your Style 18's?

No they are still on the car as i have only just had the m3 wheels stripped of their tyres ready for paint.

[5harp3y]

n3il123 said:

5harp3y said:

n3il123 said:

5harp3y said:

n3il123 said:

Brilliant, thanks for that, i'll now spend the summer looking for a set on e-bay, just in time to put it away in the winter!!

mine will be for sale when i get the wheels i want!

Did you ever get round to selling your Style 18's?

No they are still on the car as i have only just had the m3 wheels stripped of their tyres ready for paint.

No worries, was just curious as I am trying to get mine in shape for spring/ summer and the first thing on the list is a new set of wheels before I get it four wheel aligned etc.

you don't want my wheels then, they are curbed / badly painted

[5harp3y]

5 minute mod today

replaced the e36 mirror with this mini mirror. Still auto dimming

going to mod the mount next to move it higher up to improve visibility



[URL='http://s255.photobucket.com/user/Gruppe_1875/media/Z3/DSC_0400.jpg.html'][IMG]http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh130/Gruppe_1875/Z3/DSC_0400.jpg[/IMG

[5harp3y]

Started to refurb my new wheels yesterday as had the day off.

Genuine Style 24 LTW forged wheels .... these are the super rare 1995 only wheel



as you can see the lacquer has gone



starting point



this stuff is evil! paint on and leave for 10 minutes then start scraping off.



Lacquer bubbling up

[5harp3y]

So small weekend update and then i'll have a mega update in a few days as something very very exciting (to me) has just happened

Was replacing the radiator on my mum's mini this weekend as her local mechanic wanted £300 for what is 2 hours work!

Friday and Saturday i rectified and modified my carbon (fake) centre console.

As you may have seen i have swapped in a complete facelift console and then wrapped it in 4d carbon. i was never happy with the wrapping and bought some proper 3M dinoc carbon to do it in.

all i can say is i'm 1000000000% happier and the 3M stuff is so much easier to use.

here's a before with the 4D stuff



and then the 3M dinoc







and i also fitted this awesome dual USB port that also comes with a voltage meter in it. I've replaced the cig lighter with it. love it and shows a spot on 14v when driving and 11.8 when off.

it even lights up the correct orange!

[5harp3y]

so this is really exciting for me. I've finally got the Style 24 wheels refurbed and mounted and i'm completely over the moon with them.

I started the refurb myself but quickly realised that was going to take far too long. a quick trip to MyAlloys in Basingstoke and they are done.

New centre caps from our good friends [USER=688]@Soper Parts Lincoln[/USER] and some eBay bolt caps and we are good to go.

They are BMW OEM Style 24 which came from a 1995 BMW M3 LTW

These are the rarest style 24s available as they are 1995 only LTW wheels

Forged
Perfect Z3 fitment (Same as standard wheels)
They weigh 10kgs (as a set) less than the originals so some good unsprung weight savings

My tyres are still cheap cack but have loads of tread so not going to waste that






also treated the car to some snow foam




next jobs:

Rear beam bushes
Rear trailing arm bushes
Front ARB bushes
Front ball joints
gearbox oil

[5harp3y]

OldSkoolRS said:

That's looking great with the new improved carbon fibre trim and refurbed alloys, I like the USB volt meter too.

You mention gearbox oil: On my (now sold) Z3 3.0 I changed the oil due to a stiff change, especially when cold and it made a huge difference despite it supposedly being long life and my car was at 60k miles at the time. I didn't buy BMW's oil though, instead I searched for the equivalent version which was about 25% the cost for exactly the same oil. If you haven't sourced the oil yet, let me know and I'll try to retrace my steps to find the supplier (I gave the receipt to the new owner).

Thanks for your message, i've gone for Redline ATF as prescribed by Opie Oils which should improve the gearchange massively as when cold its very notchy

[5harp3y]

Podie said:

Mwstewart found the cigar lighter thingy and put one on his Ferrari.

The revised carbon centre console and the later ASC and hood switches look much better - really nice job.

Alloys look good too - and 2.5kg lighter per corner is not to be sniffed at!

Thanks, the car feels better with them on and the facelifted interior is so much nicer

[5harp3y]

vsonix said:

+1 like the volt meter - where did it come from?
Like the Style 24s too, I just bought a set... and then sold them again. I've gone over to Style 18s for the moment as I think they look great on a Z3. I'm holding out for some more interesting aftermarket 5-spokes with a bit more shape to them, either Brock B1, Azev A or Racing Dynamics if I see the right fitment set pop up for the right money...

Carbon fibre looks nice. The carbon fibre gear knob I just fitted would finish the look perfectly.

eBay and it came from Hong Kong in about 10 days. Was the only place i could find with orange illumination.

[5harp3y]

So my exhaust tips were always horrible and i didn't want to pay the money BMW wanted for some new ones.

So i made my own:

Start with this


Take some 304 stainless pipe



chop in half



protect with tape, mount in vice and mark three holes, then struggle like crazy to drill the 304 with cobalt drill bits



mount your drill and polishing mop





get your uncle to weld on some nuts (stainless)



attach to the car with stainless bolts and spring washers

[5harp3y]

shalmaneser said:

Exhaust tips look great!

Maybe would be cool to stagger them like the e36 M3:

I can measure the difference in length if you want?

Thanks for the offer, i tried them staggered but didnt like it

[5harp3y]

HugoFastmann said:

Lovely project you've got there. You've made some really nice modifications and upgrades, all of which work perfectly with the Z3 looks. Very nice indeed!!

thank you, trying very hard to make it look relatively standard unless you know