I never did a project thread for my 200sx and i had it nine years .
Roll back 3 months ago i had itchy feet for something else. The 200 was getting old and to keep it on the road it will need the underside doing in a couple of years. I spent so much on the car getting it to 3a and it was an excellent car and I will miss it but no more money was going to be spent (apart from upkeep) and started putting some aside for a replacement a couple of years ago.
After much deliberation I kept on coming back to m3's. Love the shape, the sound and the fact that BMW did a pretty good job, good service intervals, makes great noise, an engine that you cant really get much more out of, the same mpg as the sx and pretty reliable....mad grasp for wood...
here she is 2005 reasonable spec not every option but it drove nice and had good history few stone chips but pretty good for the price i thought.
darth vaders bathroom
had a week then got on the bay for some cosmetic touches lol. I swapped the chrome side vents for some black ones. Pretty cheap came with in a week and took five minutes to fit not the best photo cars dirty they look better on the flesh.
my front and rear badges looked a bit sorry for them selves so to continue the black theme I got the chav spec back and white ones. Divide opinion these, but i like them so thats all that counts
next up was the gearshift, if you look at the interior shot earlier the stand shifter is really long. I looked into short shifters to tighten up the throw, and M tax came into play £300 for a kit and it was a pig of a job to fit so that was cancelled. searched a bit and a common thing is to replace the knob for one from the e46 330 clubsport. It shortens the lever by an inch and looks better as the old one was starting to show its age.
next when cleaning the car i was not happy with the front lights they were cloudy
I looked at kits to sort it out but they seem like hard work and 26 quid, a bit more searching revealed that bmw made the lens replaceable. GSF stock them £50 delivered for both, Ill do that then.
bit fiddly as the washers mean you do it on the car or else it gets even worse. magnet on a stick is you freind for this job!
dropping bolts
the results
happy with that
also updated the sat nav for not a lot of money with the 2013 maps
so thats were I am now hope its not bored you too much,
I have some smoked indicators coming they were cheap at £21 quid, and K sport brakes are coming on the slow boat from china as the standard ones are plop and I'd like to track it now and again. After that Its going to be wear and tear.....well probably not we will see.......