Long time lurker (though I only signed up recently). Had the Z4 for a couple of years now and was on the brink of selling it and moving on to something else but for some reason, the damn thing pulled me right back in and now I'm obsessed with it again (gotta be that straight 6 sound
).A bit about my car and me... (bit long sorry!)
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My very last car before the Z was a 2008 Astra SRI 2.2 that I owned from new.
It had some really light mods to it:
- Eibach prokit
- Whiteline rear swaybar
- Whiteline caster bushings
- Whiteline rear shim plates
- VXR Nurburg wheels
- Enlarged VXR intake pipe
- DIY colour coded front grill + black
First attempt at actually trying to colour match a rattlecan spray job!
After having the Astra for about 4 years, I sold it and went with no car for a while
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I had always wanted a Z4 so after a few months of no-car-life, I decided to start looking and doing research (and a lot of z4-forum daily browsing!).
I wanted a bit of a tidy-upperer to work on (something that was mechanically OK but maybe had some cosmetic issues) and after a bit of searching and seeing a couple of Zs, I found this one!
She was a 2004 3.0i manual with relatively high kms (140k+ km) but she was in a good colour and the price was a bit of a steal. The car also just had a brand new clutch put in, new tyres (absolute garbage no brand tyres I nearly crashed multiple times in the wet doing 40kmph and hydrolocking shifting down) so I just had to take a punt.
The fella selling it also claimed that he had an engine swap because the last one had some issues and the new one only had 30,000kms on it. He didn't have any paper work for this but I did call up the shop that allegedly sold him the motor from a wreck and they said he did buy one... so make of that what you will. I err on caution treat the motor as the same age as the chassis.
Come to think of it I also did the deal in a backstreet where the gentleman had his garage in a slightly shadier suburb in but... it all worked out! I ran a revs check on the car and it was good. Not stolen or anything weird.
The car did have some issues though which explained why he didn't want to bother with it anymore (he upgraded to an E89)
- Steering was totally wonkers. Loose as heck (front control arm bushings)
- Headlights were mismatched
- Rear brake light was cracked open
- Canvas roof had a slice + patch job on it
- Filthy interior
- The bit above the rear storage compartment has a crack
- Leaking coolant sensor
- Old spark plugs
- Faulty coilpack
- Dead washer pump
- Weird clearcoat/paint protection? peeling on the boot lid - If anyone has this similar thing and know what it is plz tell me it drives me nuts
Anyways, i realise I've just become super wordy. Here are some pics over the last few years of some tidy-ups to the car:
Scrubbed up the interior. EVERYTHING was covered in grease and sticky....
The bit around the gear stick was really badly worn so I resprayed it. I wanted to spray it to look like the interior black plastics.
Replaced this though the new one after over a year of driving is starting to fatigue. I read I need to change the springs but I've just glued and put some red film over it for now so it doesn't shatter as a stop-gap.
Plastidip all the things!
Cup holder arm was broken so I had my friend CAD up a copy and 3D print it!
Sprayed black and seems stronger than the passenger side OEM
Not all cheap ebay badges are created equal... it just... disappeared.
After over a year I finally found a replacement light to match up. Wouldve liked to keep stock with the spec but it was the only affordable option I had at the time.
I was hoping to get some new tips but thought I'd try and polish them up first. Turned out great!
Shiny!
And that's about it for now! Nothing else planned except doing some more tidy-ups. I did want to change the gear knob as the metal surface is peeling and kinda all edward-scissorhands but I discovered today that it's been cemented on (i pulled so hard I was afraid the shaft would dislodge from the gearbox... then I found all this residue between the knob and gater cover). So I'll probably hack it off later.
Thanks and I look forward to getting to know peeps on the forum!
