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After owning an E85 2.5i for just over 3 months, and actively lurking in the forum and going to meets, I couldn't help myself but fall in love with the shape of the E86. It's just so damn beautiful; such a sexy looking car.

I felt quite guilty for owning a car that I loved but constantly day dreaming of having a Coupe. It got to the point I started looking constantly on AutoTrader and enabling the day dreaming, then I started getting insurance quotes as I thought the quotes for a 23yo would knock me right back into reality... But, no... It turns out it's almost the same price to insure an E86 with exhaust/suspension/brakes declared as mods than it was to insure my E85 2.5i (exhaust mod declared). My mind was made, I started actively looking for one, and now, a couple of weeks later, I own what once was a very shabby looking E86 whose owner just didn't care about cleaning and caring for the interior of the car -- but never neglected the car mechanically, so it came with great service history.

I intend on posting the things I've been doing to this car on this thread, some of which I'll be posting today. But first of all, a shot to introduce her:


Things done to the car so far (chronological order):

• ZHP knob installed
• Changed wheels to my refurb'ed 108s wrapped in Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 5s
• Changed kidney grills for OEM black ones w/ chrome surround
• M-Sport seats restored + full interior detail
• Fixed ash tray lid & door card
• Gave fog lights a light refurb and installed LEDs
• Full engine detail
• Lambda sensor (Bank 2 Sensor 2) replaced
• CDV Delete
• Grom BT-3 installed
• Static short number plate installed (these are removable for shows)
• Headlights sanded & polished with AutoGlym's Headlight Restoration Kit
• Bi-Xenon projectors removed from headlights and cleaned
• Calipers painted in Graphite Grey
• M-TEC Drilled Discs and Greenstuff pads installed
• Interior cable management w/ QC3.0
• Replaced starter motor
• De-badge
• Change Valvetronic Motor's gasket due to an oil leak
• Inspection 2/Full service
• Bilsteins B4s w/ Eibach Pro Kit Installed - No longer in the car.
• Eibach Pro Spacers (12 fronts, 15 rears)
• Exhaust mod
• 4-wheel alignment (CSL geo)
• Morimoto Mini 5 Bi-Xenon Projectors customised for OEM-like fitment and installed
• Replaced boot and front bumper badge
• New Centre Storage flap from BMW installed
• Steering Wheel Trim restored
• Royal Steering Wheel Re-trim and custom gaiter installed
• Changed exhaust tips
• Oil Filter Housing and Oil Cooler gaskets replaced
• Ultralight 3-Point Strutbrace installed
• BC Coilovers Installed
• Adjustable Rear Camber Arms and RTAB Limiters installed
• Wavetrac ATB LSD installed
• Front wishbones and steering arms changed (Meyle HD)
• Sump Gasket Changed
• Sound deadening inside doors and around speakers
• aFe Intake
• Re-modded Exhaust
• EBC YellowStuff pads installed w/ new front drilled discs

To do list:

• All done.

Dream list:

• ESS Supercharger

Current photo of the car:

Thoroughly enjoyed my montego blue E86 , really comes to life with little effort & always looked great whether clean or dirty .
Enjoy it

Looks like a lovely car you've got yourself

mr wilks wrote: ↑Wed Jul 03, 2019 9:29 pm Thoroughly enjoyed my montego blue E86 , really comes to life with little effort & always looked great whether clean or dirty .
Enjoy it

So far it has required a great deal of effort! You were the only person who commented in the For Sale post for this car, actually. "A rough diamond needs polish". And oh boy did the seats require a clean... I'll post some photos later.

lucasxdiniz wrote: ↑Wed Jul 03, 2019 9:34 pm

mr wilks wrote: ↑Wed Jul 03, 2019 9:29 pm Thoroughly enjoyed my montego blue E86 , really comes to life with little effort & always looked great whether clean or dirty .
Enjoy it

So far it has required a great deal of effort! You were the only person who commented in the For Sale post for this car, actually. "A rough diamond needs polish". And oh boy did the seats require a clean... I'll post some photos later.

Cosmetic condition can be turned around pretty swiftly & often for little spend , just requires time , effort & of course to see the gem that you could have once the work is done .
Sure you will get great rewards from it

Looks really well- for a tin top

ha! i knew you couldnt hack the littel 177bhp 2.5i its so woefully underpowered! Good luck with the coupe, looks like its in good hands

The interior of the car was absolutely filthy. So filthy that as soon as I drove away with it, I stopped around the corner and wiped all the touching surfaces with some alcohol and put driving gloves on because I could see a crust of dirt on steering wheel, and the rest of the controls.

As the car was sold:





I had to wait until Monday to properly strip the interior and give everything a deep clean, but while I couldn't do this, I scrubbed the seats using a leather brush on a drill attachment, which worked extremely well and gave me the hope I needed to order more products to restore the seats:

sh***y IKEA 'drill' with the brush attachment:


Half clean, half dirty:


After 15 minutes of work:


This greatly improved the interior, but by no means was satisfactory to me. So last night I took the seats out of the car, and deep cleaned them and detailed the interior:






Rails before and after:




Seat on the left is fully clean and I had already started the restoration with a colour matched kit from FurnitureClinic.



After both were cleaned and restored (+cleaned interior):







I also had a go at repairing the door card just until I get a new one (hopefully by the end of the week it arrives):

Lovely. Nice work on the seats. and 50p richer.

I didn't think it would be long after reading one of your posts after the last Black Swan meet!

So welcome to the Montego Blue Coupe club.

Looks like you've found good one - after all as it's much harder (sometimes impossible) to rectify mechanical neglect than cosmetic neglect - as it looks like you're right on top of that!

Hopefully we can catch up again at the Black Swan on the 14th.

buzyg wrote: ↑Wed Jul 03, 2019 10:19 pm Lovely. Nice work on the seats. and 50p richer.

Thank you! Actually got almost £3 richer for removing the ash tray to see if I could fix it and avoid spending £40 on another one. I ended up fixing it too, so very happy with that.

Mr Tidy wrote: ↑Wed Jul 03, 2019 10:19 pm I didn't think it would be long after reading one of your posts after the last Black Swan meet!

So welcome to the Montego Blue Coupe club.

Looks like you've found good one - after all as it's much harder (sometimes impossible) to rectify mechanical neglect than cosmetic neglect - as it looks like you're right on top of that!

Hopefully we can catch up again at the Black Swan on the 14th.

Thank you! It is quite fitting how I ended up with an E86 of the same colour of the very first coupe I saw in person. I remember mentioning to MontegoJones how the colour of his car was my favourite colour for Z4s (not including ///Ms, as Interlagos blue is possibly might favourite colour).

lucasxdiniz wrote: ↑Wed Jul 03, 2019 10:43 pm Thank you! It is quite fitting how I ended up with an E86 of the same colour of the very first coupe I saw in person. I remember mentioning to MontegoJones how the colour of his car was my favourite colour for Z4s (not including ///Ms, as Interlagos blue is possibly might favourite colour).

Now you're making me feel guilty!

I really like the lighter seat colours with Montego Blue - yours looks like Champagne (now you've cleaned it) plus you got Piano Black trim which is a great combination IMHO.

If you find yourself with some time to spare a forum member put together this database so you can see how many of which colour combination got registered in different countries:- http://perso.numericable.fr/tonyz4c/index30si.html

Looks a lovely little motor lucas. Well done.
Very impressive re the seats. Was the colour restoration difficult?

Z4C_er wrote: ↑Thu Jul 04, 2019 8:19 am Looks a lovely little motor lucas. Well done.
Very impressive re the seats. Was the colour restoration difficult?

No, I didn't find it difficult, it was just very time consuming. I started cleaning at 6:30pm Tue and finished at 4am Wed. I did clean the interior and other bits between each dye application (15min between each application) - the driver's seat probably took around 10 applications or so to look perfect.