After being on the forum for a while now and having my Zed since Aug 2012 i wanted to put together a bit of a project thread.
I initially started looking for the 2.5 incarnation of the Z because i wanted to balance power with economy. After looking at a few i still had this in mind, but one thing i had settled on was that i really had to have the "M" seats, i really didn't like the standard seats and after having my E90 3 series with M Sport seats they didn't feel supportive at all.
After looking for a couple of weeks i saw an advert for a Black 2005 3.0 Z with red M Sport leather, it was firstly a 3.0 and secondly slightly over my budget but looked stunning in the advert and was local so i went to have a look. The car also had a good spec, Heated Red Leather, MFSW, Bluetooth, Xenons, black interior parts like stereo etc instead of grey and the 18" 107's which were my wheel of choice if i could get them. In the end i found the extra cash and took the plunge with the 3.0. I am so glad i did because the fuel economy is not all that bad and i am pleased with the power of the 3.0.
So here she is when i first bought her.
One of the first things i did was to plasti-dip the grills black, i can't stand chrome as i think it looks cheap and didn't want to pay £40 just for black grills. I am pleased with the results and as of writing this the plasti-dip has held up very well indeed. Cost £15 from ebay.
I then fitted a Dension Gateway 300 unit which i purchased from a forum member as i wanted to keep the OEM look and steering wheel controls of the standard head unit but wanted iPod connectivity. Again i am very happy with this bit of kit, it is easily operated from the OEM stereo and controls on the wheel and i can keep my iPod locked in the glovebox. Cost £75 from a forum member.
Before i could proceed with anymore mods my roof motor decided to give up the ghost after just three weeks of ownership, i knew it was going to happen one day but maybe not that soon. On the bright side once it had been fixed i knew it was done and out of the way. I ordered a new motor and housing from Sopers BMW using the forum discount for a total £360 and decided to fit it myself using ShipKiller's guide from here. I found the job a little easier than i was expecting but still a long day.
The old motor and housing were soaked and filthy, when i fitted the new motor and housing i made sure they had a good amount of sealant on.
I also managed to add a Gap-Tech OTH+R Module whilst i was waiting for sealant to dry on the motor casing. Love this bit of kit. well worth the money. Cost £90 ish with forum discount from Gap-Tech
Next up was to de-badge the Z4 from the boot lid, Just to give it that clean look
best of all £Free
Then i added the famous Stubby
hated the whippy look. Cost £7.89 from ebay
My next mod was to Carbon wrap the silver dash and console parts, i used some fairly cheap stuff from ebay and i will soon be re doing this with the 3M Di-NOC stuff. Cost £25 from ebay.
After carbon wrapping the dash i then thought the silver parts on the steering wheel looked out of place so simply removed them and painted them matte black. Very happy with the makeover and i plan on a wheel re-trim in the future. Paint Cost £6.99 Halfords
Next up was interior LED's and number plate light LED's. I couldn't really get a good pic of the interior ones so here is a pic of the number plate ones. All the LED's i used were from ebay and i just made sure i purchased error free can-bus ones. Total cost around £12 from ebay
Next was the De-Tango project. I started with the rear lights, i bought these from a forum member who decided not to use them, In the current state neither did i. Cost £85
So i bought some Savage red tint spray and masked them up and sprayed them. I bought a couple of cans as i wanted to get a good few coats on them to make sure they didn't fade. Cost £19 from ebay
Secondly i moved onto the front lights and as luck would have it a forum member was selling these as he didn't fancy the job of cutting open his lights. So £175 later i had these ready to go in.
I also had these black inners to fit from another member who wanted my chrome inners.
Lights cut open ready to be de-ginged, what a messy job it was cutting open the lights, one burnt out dremel later though.
So my car went from Ginge to Clear
And my latest mod, a forum sticker
I have many more bits and bobs planned for the car, Angel Eyes are on order so more headlight work in the near future. I will update this thread with all future projects. Also some better pics where needed, just been too busy modding recently to clean, polish and take pics.
I initially started looking for the 2.5 incarnation of the Z because i wanted to balance power with economy. After looking at a few i still had this in mind, but one thing i had settled on was that i really had to have the "M" seats, i really didn't like the standard seats and after having my E90 3 series with M Sport seats they didn't feel supportive at all.
After looking for a couple of weeks i saw an advert for a Black 2005 3.0 Z with red M Sport leather, it was firstly a 3.0 and secondly slightly over my budget but looked stunning in the advert and was local so i went to have a look. The car also had a good spec, Heated Red Leather, MFSW, Bluetooth, Xenons, black interior parts like stereo etc instead of grey and the 18" 107's which were my wheel of choice if i could get them. In the end i found the extra cash and took the plunge with the 3.0. I am so glad i did because the fuel economy is not all that bad and i am pleased with the power of the 3.0.
So here she is when i first bought her.
One of the first things i did was to plasti-dip the grills black, i can't stand chrome as i think it looks cheap and didn't want to pay £40 just for black grills. I am pleased with the results and as of writing this the plasti-dip has held up very well indeed. Cost £15 from ebay.
I then fitted a Dension Gateway 300 unit which i purchased from a forum member as i wanted to keep the OEM look and steering wheel controls of the standard head unit but wanted iPod connectivity. Again i am very happy with this bit of kit, it is easily operated from the OEM stereo and controls on the wheel and i can keep my iPod locked in the glovebox. Cost £75 from a forum member.
Before i could proceed with anymore mods my roof motor decided to give up the ghost after just three weeks of ownership, i knew it was going to happen one day but maybe not that soon. On the bright side once it had been fixed i knew it was done and out of the way. I ordered a new motor and housing from Sopers BMW using the forum discount for a total £360 and decided to fit it myself using ShipKiller's guide from here. I found the job a little easier than i was expecting but still a long day.
The old motor and housing were soaked and filthy, when i fitted the new motor and housing i made sure they had a good amount of sealant on.
I also managed to add a Gap-Tech OTH+R Module whilst i was waiting for sealant to dry on the motor casing. Love this bit of kit. well worth the money. Cost £90 ish with forum discount from Gap-Tech
Next up was to de-badge the Z4 from the boot lid, Just to give it that clean look
best of all £Free
Then i added the famous Stubby
hated the whippy look. Cost £7.89 from ebay
My next mod was to Carbon wrap the silver dash and console parts, i used some fairly cheap stuff from ebay and i will soon be re doing this with the 3M Di-NOC stuff. Cost £25 from ebay.
After carbon wrapping the dash i then thought the silver parts on the steering wheel looked out of place so simply removed them and painted them matte black. Very happy with the makeover and i plan on a wheel re-trim in the future. Paint Cost £6.99 Halfords
Next up was interior LED's and number plate light LED's. I couldn't really get a good pic of the interior ones so here is a pic of the number plate ones. All the LED's i used were from ebay and i just made sure i purchased error free can-bus ones. Total cost around £12 from ebay
Next was the De-Tango project. I started with the rear lights, i bought these from a forum member who decided not to use them, In the current state neither did i. Cost £85
So i bought some Savage red tint spray and masked them up and sprayed them. I bought a couple of cans as i wanted to get a good few coats on them to make sure they didn't fade. Cost £19 from ebay
Secondly i moved onto the front lights and as luck would have it a forum member was selling these as he didn't fancy the job of cutting open his lights. So £175 later i had these ready to go in.
I also had these black inners to fit from another member who wanted my chrome inners.
Lights cut open ready to be de-ginged, what a messy job it was cutting open the lights, one burnt out dremel later though.
So my car went from Ginge to Clear
And my latest mod, a forum sticker
I have many more bits and bobs planned for the car, Angel Eyes are on order so more headlight work in the near future. I will update this thread with all future projects. Also some better pics where needed, just been too busy modding recently to clean, polish and take pics.
