2003 BMW 330 CI E46 Imola Red

[michelinman]

Following on from my Civic EE9 thread (link here: 1991 Honda Civic 1.6i-VT / EE9 (LHD)), I think that my daily driver E46 was feeling left out of the limelight! The convoluted time line between my two cars is explained on the Civic thread, but I thought that the E46 deserved its own chance to further prove my ineptitude to plan anything

I've owned this 330 for about 2.5 years now and it seems that with all my recent vehicular purchases, there is another small story to share with you It seemed that TÜV was also not quite yet finished with me either (also see Civic thread)

In November 2017, I was browsing the usual online ads for a replacement car and I got in touch with Ricky Boyd (who sadly passed away last year). He had an E46 for sale in Imola Red and in Germany (where I had moved to), Imola Red is really rare! After viewing the pictures and talking to Ricky, I agreed to buy it sight unseen so I could drive it back from Ards to Aachen

Ricky emailed me dozens of photos and also put a short video of it onto Youtube:

Here are a few of the photos he sent:

The only obvious blemish was the leftovers from some dirt bird on the bonnet, (above and to the right of the BMW badge), which has been previously polished in a effort to undo the kind deposit left by the offender

I wired the cash over to Ricky and arranged a date for pickup and then tried to come up with a good excuse for why I was flying over to pick up a car from Ards on the wife's birthday Needless to say, I could add that attempt to my list of extreme failures However, the mrs really liked the look of the E46 and so a promise was made for her unfettered access to the keys

I flew over the night before and met Ricky on the morning I was due to get the ferry back to Europe. Of course, it was lashing when I lifted the car - but somehow Imola Red still looks good wet

After getting it taxed in Dundonald at the post office which was really handy, I stopped off to meet a mate for lunch at the Omniplex. For those of you who know that car park, there is a great parking spot next to the electric chargers, which meant that I could park my newly acquired daily without fear of getting a "ding" by some other dirt bird

Now that I had a really full belly (Blue Chicago grill Style!), it was time to get on the road and head to the docks to get the 3.30pm Cairnryan ferry. I was going to get very accustomed to this view for the next umpteen hours

Bear in mind, that at this point I had driven less than 20 miles in an unknown car (to me) and now I was headed for the boat with a full tank of super and a full head of anxiety!

At least I found a quiet spot to look through my route plan and enjoy the quiet before the potential storm!

It was a really beautiful crossing, very smooth and I took a moment to say goodbye to my home of 40 odd years...

I was really eager to get going and start getting to know and enjoy my first owned BMW I had driven quite a few BMWs before, but had never owned or lived with one before. But I got hooked after driving Rumplestiltskin's (see Civic thread ) E36 and I was itching to gel with mine!

Patiently awaiting its new adventure! I think someone else on here stated that if you don't take a ferry photo, did it even happen??

Off we growled into the night and I decided to head East and away from the M6 towards the M1. I ended up on the outskirts of Newcastle for some reason, but I trusted google and later found out that there was some issue on the road over the Pennines and I probably saved myself a couple hours of delays. I was diverted onto the purple line which added about 40 miles to the drive, but at the time I had no idea because there were other things on my mind

My eyes were glued to the temperature gauge and to the cluster for any hint of an cooling issue, or a battery fail or anything out of the ordinary at all!! I must have looked at the dashboard every 30-40 seconds But mile after mile, none of the instruments reported any news, other than the fuel gauge and I burned up all of the super and pulled in for more after having driven over 440 miles in one stint At the time, I couldn't fathom having nothing to report and I kept burning super all the way to Folkestone and I arrived over two hours ahead of my scheduled train time

I had never been on the Channel Tunnel before and I had no idea what to expect! It was a really nice surprise to arrive there at 03.20 to be told to keep on driving and that I could get on the 04.00 train instead of my pre-booked 06.00 slot

This was all a new adventure to me and I was really curious as to how we were getting on this train

But it was all very slick indeed, with the really helpful staff directing traffic, the only scary moment was how narrow I thought the drive through the train was! I was so scared about scratching the alloys on a car I had just bought! But slowly, slowly and all was thankfully scratch free!

I found myself parked up in the strangest place I have ever parked in

We were instructed to (in several languages ) to keep the engine off and to lower the windows halfway. Apparently this is to prevent the pressure from travelling in the tunnel from blowing either your ears or your windows, but I was too spaced out to argue and I just sat there wondering how much water was above our heads and how it was all such a weird feeling sitting in my car, while in a train, travelling under the sea....

Again, I have literally nothing to report from this train ride and it was only a matter of finding a mobile signal and getting sat nav busy figuring out how to make my way out of Calais I can definitely say that taking the train was much more enjoyable than the ferry and the flexibility of departure alone, outweighed taking the ferry in my opinion

The next part of the journey was more of a challenge! I didn't have to make any stops, but negotiating France, Belgium, The Netherlands and Germany in one single drive was "interesting"

France was more or less easy at 0430, but my journey led me to Brussels at the worst possible time of the day! Around 0630, all hell broke loose and the Belgian rush hour is something I will never repeat again! Complete lack of lane discipline, complete lack of respect to other road users and no inclination of sticking to speed limits was the tip of the iceberg I was in stop and go traffic for over 2 hours and by the time I got to the Dutch border, I was a complete Basket Case I don't like to generalise, but driving in Belgium was the single worst driving experience of my life and the only piece of advise I would give would be travellers, is to fly over Belgium, or drive through it between midnight and 4 am

I took a short break in The Netherlands to regain some sense of reality and I made the mistake of filling up with more super, just to give myself a distraction. I had enough fuel to get to Aachen, but I was stopped anyway. Little did I know that petrol is about 20-30c more expensive in The Netherlands than in Germany But I put that one down to experience too

Honestly, the 330 gave not a single bit of bother! I was able to test everything during this single drive; AC, Cruise control, etc and not a single thing failed to work! I was so over the moon that I had literally just driven 777 miles from Ricky's shop to my work car park, I had already fallen in love with my E46 Even my average consumption was way higher than I expected and I later found out, was never to be repeated

I can't say that my day in work was very productive, but I was still running on the high of the success of my purchase! So it was with immense pleasure I was able to drive home in my own car and not having to borrow the wife's Surprisingly it was still relatively clean, but I stopped off to pick up a birthday present for the mrs and then finally show her my new car

Waking up to this new view the next morning, it was so nice to see the facelift E46 "smile", ready to start its new life in Germany! Yes, I have always had this weird idea that cars smile when they are happy and it just looked that way to me when I opened the garage

It performed flawlessly as a daily driver through the winter of 2017 and as springtime started to wise things up weather wise, I took some time to give it some tlc and pay back the good fortune the 330 had given me.

If you made it this far, thanks! I seem to be making a habit of long winded threads, so true to form, watch this space for the next instalment

 

[Father Stack]

Yes! Love your threads

 

[Steve750]

That’s gorgeous

 

[NickR]

Still such a fresh looking car and great thread!

 

[da.murf]

very nice, loved my e46 whilst I had it

 

[Odhran]

Very nice indeed and an enjoyable read. Interested why you a RHD car here though and bring it to Germany, was it solely because the colour? Did you eventually put it onto German plates?

 

[southsky sunrise]

Hold the phone..... nova in the background Bms nice too like

 

[michelinman]

Yes! Love your threads

Ah, thank you very much!

That’s gorgeous

Cheers, its an oldie, but I love it

Still such a fresh looking car and great thread!

Thank you! I do love Imola Red and it suits the coupé so well IMHO

very nice, loved my e46 whilst I had it

Thanks! Yeah, I definitely love this one!

Very nice indeed and an enjoyable read. Interested why you a RHD car here though and bring it to Germany, was it solely because the colour? Did you eventually put it onto German plates?

Thank you! Well its a bit of a long story, but basically I needed a car quickly and cars seem to be generally much dearer in Germany vs NI. Then I decided to stay on in Germany (took a full time job after contracting initially) and I had to register it locally to stay legal. Yeah, its been "Germanised" since October last year and most of the rest of this thread will go into why and how Hope you enjoy the rest of the story

Hold the phone..... nova in the background Bms nice too like

I wondered who would notice that first! I took that photo on purpose, to get the Nova in frame I am also a bit of a Nova head too

Thanks!

 

[colin84]

That is superb. There is something about the drive of a manual 330ci.

 

[MarkM]

Love it, Imola’s such a great colour

 

[mcmurray]

Definitely one of the best colours available in the E46.

Looks lovely. Good read too.

 

[southsky sunrise]

But the nova!! Yeah had seen yours actually when was I was searching the forum for novas previously, man of good taste like myself then lol, iv two bms here also

 

[dempster__]

Lovely car Shaq! I remember seeing this for sale at the time. I do love an E46

 

[michelinman]

That is superb. There is something about the drive of a manual 330ci.

Thanks! Its the most satisfying car I've driven to rev match

Love it, Imola’s such a great colour

Thank so much, I have only ever seen one other Imola Red in Germany before

Definitely one of the best colours available in the E46.

Looks lovely. Good read too.

Thank you (twice ), I Imola in love with it! There's a bit more to this story, which I will get online shortly

Lovely car Shaq! I remember seeing this for sale at the time. I do love an E46

Cheers! From memory, I had the deposit wired within an hour of the ad going up

But the nova!! Yeah had seen yours actually when was I was searching the forum for novas previously, man of good taste like myself then lol, iv two bms here also

@southsky sunrise Hahahaha!! I still think about my Nova and how stupid I was to let the project go. I had the shell complete and it just needed paint. A friend of a friend offered me cash for it after I hadn't touched it for about 3 or 4 years in the end

Unfortunately my Nova build thread basically died, because I had all my photos hosted on photobucket and now they are all censored because I am too cheap But I still have every picture I took of the build on several hard drives - maybe they will motivate me to get another

@southsky sunrise - I have also recently displayed a slight addiction to BMs too and perhaps I have developed another problem/fetish for ancient old things

The poor 330 was thrown into the deep end and it became my:

daily hack/
shopping trolley/
b road blaster/
autobahn junkie/
dependable slave/

Right through the entire winter into spring! I shamefully did not give it any love and I was feeling really guilty

It literally just got petrol, very dirty and miles, but every one of them was enjoyed as much as the conditions would allow!

When spring eventually graced us with its presence, I gave the 330 a much needed cleaning and this summer, I will take it off the road for a couple of weeks and get it waxed. I was genuinely surprised how much I had forgotten what Imola Red was supposed to be like

Somehow without realising it, I had also managed get hold of another dirt bird and I found this in the engine bay

Honestly, I have no idea when or how I picked this up, but it was "Ming Garden" style crispy and other than being too well done, it was just missing some pancakes and Hoisin sauce

I finally treated the 330 to a spending spree and we both patiently awaited delivery...

I also spent some of my saved brownie points for my family absence slip to get approved and I was able to book some quality workshop time

I also noticed that the driver side suspension seemed to ride lower than the passenger side. Although from this side it looked like a great ride height, I was sure the springs on the right side were becoming worn out (either a sign of me getting fat, or it was matched evidence that the previous owners drove alone, because the passenger and rear seats looked unused).

So I ordered some new standard SACHS dampers, new top mounts and a H&R spring kit (supposedly 35mm lower than std, but I think that's the same as the M Sport Suspension which my car had from factory). The most important aspect, is that the spring kit came with a TÜV approved certificate which I would need to get it to pass the German inspection

I also fitted some new drop links because it was cheap and easy to do during the suspension renewal, but according to the instructions, I had to improve on the skills that only my ape like hands could provide...

But all my ape hands could manage was to make a "special tool" from an old piece of string

To stop the nut spinning the thread on the ball joint, I had to shave a 19mm spanner to able to slide between the bracket and the joint. The hexagon end of the thread was really narrow! But I like my metric set of spanners (they "get" me) and I butchered a 3/4" open end instead (because imperial just doesn't understand my OCD )

While giving the engine a service, I noticed a small coolant weep at the top radiator hose. As I started to take it apart, I recalled how I try to remind myself to look for the obvious simple fix first...

Luck would still be my friend as is so happened and all that was leaking was the bleed screw on the same hose So I changed out the coolant while I was there to thank lady luck one more time!

Fit again for another few miles!

The next part of the story reminded me that lady luck is not always 'that easy' She likes me to scratch my own head and put in some effort in myself from time to time I can't complain, up until this point, it had been plain sailing! But TÜV was waiting around the corner and it was not a fan of my 'lil lady luck

I needed TÜV and lady luck to get back on speaking terms, because ze auzorities demanded that I ditch my NI plates. I was so busy starting into and working on the Honda at this point, that I missed the deadline and I had to take the 330 off the road and go back to borrowing the wife's 530 again

The next instalment will be with you shortly!

 

[michelinman]

My 330 had made a lot of fwends between parking at our head office and our factory All of them were very generous and courteous with their parking and it was nice to see a lot of respect in the car parks in Germany. The locals tell me that there are 3 really important things to most Germans = cars, beer and football - so I was safe with 2 out of 3 I work with some other British contractors too and they were equally as fwendlee

Some of my work colleagues also became my close fwends and the 330 welcomed them at home too

I was literally surrounded with like minded petrol heads (or as the Germans say, Benzin Blut!!).

But now the 330 had to say a temporary farewell and it had to stay grounded at home because its owner was too inept to quickly progress 2 cars at the same time

I was getting congratulated in work for having started a new home enterprise - a red car only scrappage scheme

 

[Lostinspace]

Loving this thread, keep the updates coming! Had a pre facelift 325ci imola red, always wished I had held out for a facelift 330ci!

 

[thomas_lad]

Jeeze, thats a lovely looking car and well kept. Would love a clean e46, but hard to come by

 

[Big Pimp]

I had an imola red 330Ci pre facelift too - my first foray into BMW many years ago, and i loved it.

I put on a GruppeM replica intake and it sounded awesome!!!

 

[michelinman]

Loving this thread, keep the updates coming! Had a pre facelift 325ci imola red, always wished I had held out for a facelift 330ci!

View attachment 267781

Thank you very much! That's a lovely example you had - the coupé just suits Imola Red so well IMHO! I was very lucky to get the colour and spec and honestly, mine just fell into my lap!

Jeeze, thats a lovely looking car and well kept. Would love a clean e46, but hard to come by

Cheers! The previous owner felt like he was getting too old for a manual and that's the only reason he sold it. But he did look after it and yeah, I didn't wait more than hour after seeing the ad to put a deposit down Not too many e46s to choose from

I had an imola red 330Ci pre facelift too - my first foray into BMW many years ago, and i loved it.

I put on a GruppeM replica intake and it sounded awesome!!!

Haha, this was also my first BMW and now I have three I actually find it very logical to work on and the driving experience for such an old car, is sublime. I have regularly driven around 8 hire cars for work over the last two years. All were less than a month old. All quite nice spec. But not one of them drove as sharply or made me smile like my ancient teenage e46

I am actually considering a G Power supercharger kit for it and I think the GruppeM intake would also work with that. I am seriously craving a little boost and the supercharger whine will be a bonus I hope!

---------

Sorry that I have been a bit slow writing the next instalment of the repatriation of my BMW to Germany!

As I have mentioned previously, I needed to make some changes to the BMW to convert it from UK spec to German spec and pass the roadworthiness test known as TÜV. The actual changes were very simple, but TÜV is a notoriously stringent test, so I also took the opportunity to take my time and check over everything else.

But to get a UK registered BMW, re-registered in Germany - you basically only need three things:

• Left side rear fog light (to match LHD norm for cars)
• Right facing beam pattern on front headlights (also to match LHD norm for cars)
• EC Manufacturer Certificate of conformity (homologation)

Sounds pretty simple and it should have been! Of course, when it comes to me and cars, nothing ever really is simple

I had the 330 off the road in December 2018 and had officially exported it from N.I. (which was just a matter of informing the DVLA). My original plan was to use the Honda while converting the 330. But for those of you who have read the Honda thread, you will already know that those plans were posted to the South Pole, never to be heard from again

Then I decided to make matters even more complicated Apparently my wife is completely correct about my stubbornness, but obviously I completely disagree and think that there is nothing wrong with buying another car which is not roadworthy I might as well start a collection and it was a complete and total co-incidence that I ended up buying a 3rd unregistered red car

I still don't know why I made life harder for myself, but when I look at this picture, all those thoughts go right out of my head The e30 is also 4WD (325ix) and another rarity in Germany, so there was no way I was going to pass that opportunity despite what my beloved thinks of my stubbornness I was keeping them all Muhahahahahahahaha!!!

The only downside was, that I had to borrow her 530 again - so of course I was always collecting brownie points whenever they became available

So I had her lunch all ready for her to enjoy as she arrived home, before she had to go back out again leaving me with a perfect afternoon to start into the 330 (or so I thought).

Literally 25 minutes after the photo above was taken, I went out to see this

Where we live is about 1500ft higher than Aachen and occasionally we get freak dustings, but its also 4-5 degrees colder, so....

Yeah, maybe I am stubborn (btw, no I am not), but sometimes I also pride myself in my lack of stupidity too.

Work on the 330 he said.

Nope he said.

Stubborn he is not.

Ha, see told you!

Yes, I appeared to be talking and arguing with myself

So I consoled myself by further taking apart the (garaged) Honda instead and made the journey to TÜV for all of my cars slightly longer

Tick tock, tick tock, the 330's time came a few days later! As I waved goodbye to our only road legal car (again), I had already made a little progress early that morning and put the e30 away, to save up brownie points for it, in some parallel universe, in a galaxy, far, far, far away

Front bumper off and the headlights easily came out I was planning to send them away to a local company who would convert them to LHD beams for about 250 Euro. Comparing this with the cost of replacement LHD OEM BMW headlights, was very favourable. That would to almost 1000 Euro, so there was proof again that I was not so stubborn!

To pass TÜV, I would need to fit headlights that were "E" marked (basically OEM approved only and after market/Chinese "SHALL NOT PASS"), so I wanted to stick to OEM and the headlight company would fit LHD OEM parts. Therefore the headlights would basically be OEM, despite having been modified with OEM parts.

Next task would be the rear fogs and initially I was expecting it to be really easy For years I assumed that e46s had both rear fog lights. Mine was only working on the right, but sure, that just needs a new bulb?

Because...

The light cluster is symmetrical.

BMWs are a "premium" brand.

My wife's e39 has both rear foglights.

I have never seen an e46 with a bolted on rear foglight, or one inserted into the rear bumper.

...I am sure you are seeing a theme here...

Yes, I was also wrong about that!

At least I had some foresight and I had already taken out the bulb holders from the rear light clusters. What I found really surprised me! These are the standard rear bulb holders as fitted to my e46!

I mean, BMW would have had to go to more trouble to make another part number, manufacture two different metal backing plates and then organise the parts in the factory, to ensure the RHD cars get a unit that basically just doesn't have the hole stamped out for a bulb!!!

I am sure they build both RHD and LHD on the same production line and there must be enough other parts that are different! Why bother making a completely new bulb holder! Surely, just not fitting the bulb would be cheaper! Ah, what the hell do I know - maybe BMW is just as stubborn as someone else I know

BUT, at least on the flip side - BMW would have made a 3rd part number, where the hole is stamped (surely?)! For a brief moment, I considered buying a dremel and making the hole myself! But yeah, I am definitely not that stupid and/or stubborn, so a quick surf online and for 5 Europops, I was able to buy that LHD only holder and desecrate some German engineer's excel based requirements sheet

It even came with working bulbs

Then it was just a simple matter of testing the existing harness and piggy backing a wire to make a parallel connection between the original rear fog light positive circuit and the replacement one, (which I had just bought for less than BMW's hourly spend on post it notes (probably) ) The replacement unit would use the common earth with the existing connection, so only one new wire needed to be routed.

Yellow with black stripe turned out to be the foglight (good old brown for earth)

Instead of depinning the existing connector (read that as couldn't be ar$ed ), I made my own "cheap as chips" bullet connector and directly attached it to the appropriate part of the backing plate

A quick test to make sure I didn't get "+" and "-" confused

Please excuse the winter rear end! I daily'd this poor BMW throughout the winter and stupidly neglected to go the car wash before taking it off the road! So I was only after looking at these pictures, I realised how bad it was Eventually it got a quick soapless blast from my Kärcher to keep the local authorities happy!

Back onto the bootlid with some cable ties to tidy it all up

Just a quick sanity check to make sure the 330 was not in worse shape then from when I started (no, that has never happened to me before )

Everything back together with just the battery tray left out so I could quickly disconnect the battery for the next round of work...

So the next instalment will be on the way. Safe to say that it also didn't go (at all) according to plan and there's another bit of a story to tell!!

 

[michelinman]

Resuming the saga of the 330 and how I forgot how long it took me to get it back on the road last year! My drive into work this morning was so peaceful with hardly anyone on the roads (just corona things ) and the 330 is running perfectly today! The growling torque of the 6 cylinder is too easy to enjoy on the quiet streets and off the Autobahn, it's an earhole orgasm to wind the windows down and hear the exhaust reverberating off the buildings in the city I had the noise all to myself

As I mentioned in a previous post, I had taken the headlights out and sent them to a company about 500km away, called Reflektor Klinik. They offered a service to convert my RHD headlights to LHD and for about 250€, it was way cheaper than buying a replacement set.

My only mistake was relying on Hermes to get them safely delivered

After a few days, Reflektor Klinik emailed to say that the headlights had arrived. But on opening the package, they found both of them damaged. From the outside, everything looked fine. But one headlight rattled like a bag of spanners and the halogen reflector on the other headlight, was desperately trying to emulate Clint Eastwood's character from "Escape from Alcatraz"...

I also relied too heavily on the company's description, because Reflektor Klinik in name, does not mean Reflektor Klinik in practice. They informed me that my headlights were irreparable and that I could:
1) come pick them up (500km one way...)
2) ask Hermes to come pick them up (once bitten, twice shy)
3) let Reflektor Klinik put them in the bin (what the f@ck?)

So now I had a 330 with no headlights, a set of broken 330 headlights (approximately 30 days away by pony) and a small, but noticeable hole in my wallet thanks to Hermes.

While I grumbled to my wife about what a mess this was turning into (amidst great advice from her, like: "why don't you just buy a Hyundai?" ), I started looking at my favourite online "wallet hole" enlarging service!

Of course, e46 coupe (facelift) headlights are completely unique to e46 coupes (facelift)

Meaning that e46 saloon/touring (facelift) headlights won't fit! They are two piece compared with one piece for the e46 coupe (facelift) headlights.

This means that e46 coupe (facelift) headlight sellers, can charge whatever the dickens they want

It also seems that German registered e46 coupe (facelift) cars mostly came with silver infills and not black like mine (which look way better IMHO).

Euro Bleurgh!

U.S.A. Bleurgh!

Another...

Yup, there was a theme developing here

Eventually I found a pair for sale with the black infill

BUT they weren't Xenon like my old ones

Weeks of my life were disappearing here!!

Then, good 'ol "Reflektor can't Klinik" was hassling me to come get my old headlights, which I couldn't blame them for.

But I still had some luck left in the "Banko de Lucko" and you'll have to forgive me for the convoluted connection:

BUT

my friend's;
girlfriend's;
sister's;
boyfriend (I am honestly not joking about this social connection)

lives about 10 km from "Reflektor doesn't Klinik"

Long story short - a guy (I never met), drove to a guy (who I never met) and took my broken headlights to his girlfriend (who I never met), who then gave them to her sister (who I eventually met), who then gave them to my friend (who I had met two years ago), who then met me again to reunite me with my totally useless set of RHD (broken) headlights. Now, breathe!

In the meantime, I found more headlights for sale:

Black infill - check!
Xenon - check!
LHD - check!

Unbelievably expensive - very much check!!

How does 450€ plus delivery grab you?

Not by the hair of my chinny, chin, chin!!

This went on and on...

At this point, my Civic was on the road - so I was mobile again! But my motivation to spend around 1000€ on used headlights had almost but faded.

I couldn't bring myself to spend over a quarter of the value of the entire car on headlights, be it facelift or not

Somehow, during all my headlight searching, I completely missed the fact that many sellers were also offering broken headlights for sale, at very much cheaper prices. I started to wonder if I could find myself enough parts between them all and make up a good set.

I started by taking my headlights apart and figuring out what could be re-used

mmmm.... not this

or this...

or these

But this seemed salvageable!

In for a penny, in for a Hermes pound. I started browsing specifically for broken e46 coupe (facelift) headlights...

Tune in shortly to see what I did with them

 

[michelinman]

I took a chance on a few sets of broken headlights for sale and stripped them to see what parts I could upcycle

I also bought myself a plastic stapler for about 40€ to see if I could repair some of the lamp levelling joints that had broken

All of these had either snapped or where in the process of snapping

The staples seemed to make these wee buggers quite strong!

There is nothing quite as good as taking things apart, to learn how they go back together and it became obvious to me, that all I actually needed to convert a set of RHD headlights to LHD, were the projector beam units. It wasn't immediately obvious, but when I compared my RHD units with some of the LHD versions, there was a subtle difference in the metal plate which is used to "throw" the beam towards the passenger side verge and away from oncoming traffic on the driver' side.

These two small plates (which fold flat when you hit full beam) are all that is different between RHD and LHD. But the entire projector can be changed out with only 4 torx screws, so the conversion price of 250€ now seemed to be quite easily saved at home

So I swapped out one of the projectors onto one of my still good headlight bases

Then I managed to find two good headlight buckets between all the ones I had now accumulated

Then refitted the repaired levelling joints:

Now I had one good headlight with LHD conversion completed for less money than Hermes took for breaking my originals

Before I even thought about resealing it, I took it over to the car to make sure I hadn't completely fubaru'd the headlight

Managed to time at least one photo with the indicator to prove to myself that everything was functional

Bought a new roll of butyl rubber to ensure the headlight could be resealed with fresh material

Everything clicked and cajoled back into place! I took my leisurely time with this, because I was so afraid of breaking something else! The threat of needing to spend 1000€ was still in the back of my mind!

Got busy with the other headlight...

And then I put a big fööking TICK in the box when I tested the 2nd rebuilt headlight

Boom!

Boom Boom BOOM!!

Ahhhh, I had missed that wee face!

 

[Boydie]

Thats the best parking spot in the Omniplex!

 

[swansty]

Jeeze, thats a lovely looking car and well kept. Would love a clean e46, but hard to come by

Mine will likely be for sale shortly 325ci convertible manual in black. 77k miles. PM if interested

 

[neil#66]

So glad you have started another thread, enjoy reading every post, your determination/stubbornness/humour makes this a great read, bravo good sir

I await the next chapter

 

[michelinman]

So glad you have started another thread, enjoy reading every post, your determination/stubbornness/humour makes this a great read, bravo good sir

I await the next chapter

Why thank you for your kind words sir!