Getting the car from paint left a lot to be desired and in hindsight I would have chosen a different painter. There’s nothing wrong with the paint, but given the fact that I had to wet sand myself left a sour taste in my mouth; not to mention I had to get some areas redone. Lastly, the amount of time it spent getting paint and body work was ridiculous.
The final assembly of the car was straight-forward, but time consuming like everything else with this project. I installed the Bilstein shocks and replaced the usual wear items of struts mounts and bushings. Secondly, I replaced the rear bushing in the control arm since it was torn up and I was in there anyways. Next I installed the Stoptech calipers and the fender liners. The rear bottom of the front fender liner cannot be used since the E9X subframe has that extra wing. For the rear liners, I used the E8X liners as they fit pretty well albeit with a gap. I will eventually grab the one from the 1M, but I will need to modify those since I didn’t cut the OEM fender all the way, but that minor. The trickiest part had to do with the windshield washer tank since it was too long and hitting the front passenger EDC sensor. I shopped the tank, sealed it up, and it went in smoothly.
Underneath, all shielding on the side was retained along with the E8X brace. I have seen some people fit the E9X brace, but I didn’t see a need. To wrap up underneath, I installed an MPorium aluminum belly pan since it allows for proper ducting of the engine oil cooler.
For the exhaust, I installed the ACM Test Pipes using v-bands so I could swap out the OEM cats since I’m not a fan of the catless fumes. I had 2 AR25 resonators welded in as well so help with the drone. Lastly, the catback is v-banded as well so everything can be taken off in pieces.
I will throw pictures of underneath the car shortly.
Interior wise, I installed the Bavsound Speakers and added Logic7 subwoofers. I’m on the fence about installing an amp, but the audio is much improved over the OEM setup. I installed a rear view camera and an Android HU as well. I primarily installed the HU for the camera as the rest of the features don’t mean much. Audio wise, playing music over the Android HU is garbage so I’m plugging into the AUX port and using the OEM CCC interface; not ideal but it works. A plus of the Android HU is that I have navigation now thats current and can work offline if I don’t have my hotspot on. The biggest difference in the interior is that I swapped over the E9x dash and center console. I will install the E9x M3 seats eventually or put in a set of STATUS seats I have in the basement, but for now the E8X sport seats suffice. I installed some extended paddles shifters and a red start and M button.
The build is 99% complete. I’m replacing my throttle body actuators tomorrow (I should have done it while the car was apart), installing a different spoiler, and one more performance mod.
