White_Lady_170
RMS Regular
Decided to throw a thread up covering the purchase of the car in September 2015 until now.
Having sold my 2010 E92 335d M Sport with the intention of freeing up some money to put towards building a house, I purchased this, 2004 E46 M3. Imola red, manual and fully loaded.
Nice amount of money in back pocket and a fun car for the summer which i thought by limiting the miles I do in it as I drive a Landrover Discovery as a daily, would be a sound investment and I wouldn't have to put much money into it.
A few pictures of the car after purchase to begin with.
With my Reg transferred and after noticing a minor rust issue hiding behind the rear number plate.
Worth noting at this point when I purchased the car I was informed it had previously been painted, if memory serves, everything except the bootlid and the roof. More on this to come...
A trip to JKC to log a request for a respray under BMW corrosion warranty proved fruitful and they had it treated and sprayed. I also noticed the bootlid handle was faulty and had them replace this at the same time. They noted the car had not been seen at the time of the airbag fault recall so this was also arranged for a later date and carried out.
When I had a look around the car before I bought it, I had missed the fact that the rims were finished in 2 different styles with the drivers side being finished in what i think is probably a diamond cut with lacquer on top and the passenger side appearing to just be a bare metal polished finish with no lacquer whatsoever.
Drivers side
Passenger side
I had decided these would need sorted eventually, however, I was willing to leave them until such times as a refurb was required (none of them were in particularly bad condition) or potentially a new or different set would be purchased.
What i had noticed before buying the car was the rear/backbox section of the exhaust had rusted clamps that needed replaced, a common issue which my mate had with his and as he viewed the car with me, we quickly had a look to see if this one needed a new set too. One of the first things I did was to break off what was left of the old clamps and replace with new I6 Automotive clamps, which were a complete pain for all involved, including several members of a local tyre and exhaust company I ended up having to go to as some grinding was required.
Unfortunately this was only the beginning of the long road ahead, to get the car to the level I really had expected it to be at when i initially purchased it, naivety on my part perhaps?
I'll stop here to try and break the thread up into posts instead of having everything contained within one post.
Having sold my 2010 E92 335d M Sport with the intention of freeing up some money to put towards building a house, I purchased this, 2004 E46 M3. Imola red, manual and fully loaded.
Nice amount of money in back pocket and a fun car for the summer which i thought by limiting the miles I do in it as I drive a Landrover Discovery as a daily, would be a sound investment and I wouldn't have to put much money into it.
A few pictures of the car after purchase to begin with.
With my Reg transferred and after noticing a minor rust issue hiding behind the rear number plate.
Worth noting at this point when I purchased the car I was informed it had previously been painted, if memory serves, everything except the bootlid and the roof. More on this to come...
A trip to JKC to log a request for a respray under BMW corrosion warranty proved fruitful and they had it treated and sprayed. I also noticed the bootlid handle was faulty and had them replace this at the same time. They noted the car had not been seen at the time of the airbag fault recall so this was also arranged for a later date and carried out.
When I had a look around the car before I bought it, I had missed the fact that the rims were finished in 2 different styles with the drivers side being finished in what i think is probably a diamond cut with lacquer on top and the passenger side appearing to just be a bare metal polished finish with no lacquer whatsoever.
Drivers side
Passenger side
I had decided these would need sorted eventually, however, I was willing to leave them until such times as a refurb was required (none of them were in particularly bad condition) or potentially a new or different set would be purchased.
What i had noticed before buying the car was the rear/backbox section of the exhaust had rusted clamps that needed replaced, a common issue which my mate had with his and as he viewed the car with me, we quickly had a look to see if this one needed a new set too. One of the first things I did was to break off what was left of the old clamps and replace with new I6 Automotive clamps, which were a complete pain for all involved, including several members of a local tyre and exhaust company I ended up having to go to as some grinding was required.
Unfortunately this was only the beginning of the long road ahead, to get the car to the level I really had expected it to be at when i initially purchased it, naivety on my part perhaps?
I'll stop here to try and break the thread up into posts instead of having everything contained within one post.
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