Modding Advice

[stefanvalletti]

Hi Guys I've got an E82 120i and want to add some subtle mods to give it a more aggressive look.

Been thinking about putting M2 style kidney grilles.

Headlight upgrade

15mm Spacers all round

Getting my wheels powder coated to charcoal black

What's your suggestions

[Esteban]

I would not powder coat those 313s. They look great the way they are.

[stefanvalletti]

I love these wheels!

[Esteban]

Originally Posted by stefanvalletti

I love these wheels!

I had them on my 1er and I think they are the nicest looking wheels that BMW makes for the 1 series.

[stefanvalletti]

Originally Posted by Esteban

I had them on my 1er and I think they are the nicest looking wheels that BMW makes for the 1 series.

Absolutely agree. My mate has a 135i competition (E82) and has the 182 wheels I'm not a huge fan of those

[wu2x]

How about a performance spoiler or M4 style spoiler?

[tracer bullet]

I am not familiar w/ those particular grilles, but perhaps. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. They aren't expensive or difficult.

Headlights are failry expensive, I don't think I'd touch them. But it depends on what you have now (i.e. adaptive xenon's), maybe they aren't so much. Besides, you have the clear (not orange) corners and eyebrows, the thing most people change TO not FROM. Blackline tail lights are a consideration if you don't' already have them.

Spacers - be cautious w/ your wheel offsets, you can push them too far and rub.

Agree not to powder coat the wheels, aside from already being nice my experience w/ powdercoating is that it's good but not great and over time will peel here and there and look bad.

I like the spoiler idea. A little window tint and blackline tail lights?

What package do you have as far as M-Sport goes? I wonder if there's an OEM spring option to lower you about 1/2 inch / centimeter or so. It'll be subtle but apparent.

[stefanvalletti]

Originally Posted by tracer bullet

I am not familiar w/ those particular grilles, but perhaps. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. They aren't expensive or difficult.

Headlights are failry expensive, I don't think I'd touch them. But it depends on what you have now (i.e. adaptive xenon's), maybe they aren't so much. Besides, you have the clear (not orange) corners and eyebrows, the thing most people change TO not FROM. Blackline tail lights are a consideration if you don't' already have them.

Spacers - be cautious w/ your wheel offsets, you can push them too far and rub.

Agree not to powder coat the wheels, aside from already being nice my experience w/ powdercoating is that it's good but not great and over time will peel here and there and look bad.

I like the spoiler idea. A little window tint and blackline tail lights?

What package do you have as far as M-Sport goes? I wonder if there's an OEM spring option to lower you about 1/2 inch / centimeter or so. It'll be subtle but apparent.

Sorry I'm a bit of a noob with all this but what are black line taillights.

I have the sport plus package.

Think lowering is a great idea.

[tracer bullet]

Originally Posted by stefanvalletti

Sorry I'm a bit of a noob with all this but what are black line taillights.

https://www.google.com/search?q=bmw+...hrome&ie=UTF-8

[Esteban]

Originally Posted by stefanvalletti

Sorry I'm a bit of a noob with all this but what are black line taillights.

I have the sport plus package.

Think lowering is a great idea.

Blacklines are LCI European taillights for the 1 series that most of us love here in the US, and if I'm not mistaken (which I could be, looking at your pic on my phone), it looks like you already have them.

[stefanvalletti]

Ohh yes I have those taillights 😊 and they are a little smoked.

I'm not sure what colour the car is exactly it's a black with a blue luminescent I would love to find out what this colour is

[tracer bullet]

It looked like you might have the blacklines already but wasn't certain.

My 2015 X3 is "carbon black", and as you described. If it was available for your model / year it's likely what you have.

[Esteban]

Originally Posted by stefanvalletti

Ohh yes I have those taillights �� and they are a little smoked.

I'm not sure what colour the car is exactly it's a black with a blue luminescent I would love to find out what this colour is

You can check your VIN in a VIN decoder such as this one http://bimmer.work, which will give you your color, plus everything else.

[ShocknAwe]

Window tint

Blackline/Darkline tails, looks like you have these already. Make sure you lightly tint the center brake light too.

Measure for spacers, don't just install some. Post your offsets and we can help on where to start.

Don't powdercoat the 313s, if you want different wheels, buy different wheels.

Find a M-sport spoiler, or go with the BMWP spoiler. Not a fan of the M4 spoiler (notch looks dumb IMO). Body-color match this.

Big single exit exhaust tip, thinking 110-120mm would look nice on the muffler you have. Or convert to dual tips. ~80mm each is what you want there.

Diffuser (BMWP style can't be beat), go with gloss or satin black with your color. Can also cut out the center section and replace with mesh, after rattle can painting the diffuser body itself.

DEPO smoked sidemarkers

Gloss or satin black kidney grilles. M2 style double slat will look off unless you also do full headlight conversion, check some scrapyards for xenons.

IF you can find OE xenons, then use your rings as fogs with yellow H8 bulbs and delete those fog lights in your lower valence, install Msport brake/cooler ducting.

[carscatscoffee15]

Originally Posted by Esteban

I had them on my 1er and I think they are the nicest looking wheels that BMW makes for the 1 series.

Style 496 reigns supreme

these were made for the last run of the E82s in the US (I have them on my car as it came with this package)


313s are my second fav followed by Style 269.

don't powder coat them. leave em as is they're gorgeous!

Mods that can be done:

- Front bumper can be changed to an M Sport with fog delete as mentioned above with brake ducts.. for a more aggressive style search for the BMW Performance Aerodynamics front kit

- Front lip spoiler, a good search will yield lots of results with varying degrees of quality. Find what works for your budget. Forewarning, the OEM BMW Performance front splitters are only for the BMW Performance Aerodynamics bumper.

- LCI Blacklines but these look like they're on your car

- swap the M Sport side skirts to the Kerscher, Rieger or RW Carbon ones.. if you look hard you'll find replicas of the BMW Performance Aerodynamics side skirts (no longer available). I skipped these out of premise as I wanted an OEM look (went from base skirts to M Sport ones, that you have)

- halogen to Bi-Xenon swap. this is costly but worth it.. definitely changes the look of the car completely.. PM if you want before and after pics, part numbers. A more cost effective route would be to retrofit projectors, get custom shrouds, good quality bulbs and the AE set of your choice (OEM Angel Eye rings, 3/4th DTM, etc etc)

- as ShockNAwe has mentioned, BMW Performance replica diffuser or anything that you like that isn't the plastic valence cover on the M Sport bumper. I mention replica as the OEM BMW Carbon Fiber diffuser is NLA (I bought the last one in the states after contacting many sites that stated they had it but later turned out to be incorrect inventory). I would get the CF BMW spoiler instead of the plastic one/body painted.

- tints, mirror caps are subtle but noticable as well.. grills should match the grills of the era as the M2 ones/anything newer will look out of place unless you modify the rest to match.

don't put M colored stripes on the grill.. that's a criminal offense!

congrats and enjoy the beaut of a car ya got!