[tarz]

Hey guys,
I've been a member since July 2008, but never actively posted. I posted a few items here and there, but I mainly utilized this site for the technical knowledge and ideas. After reading all the build journals, I felt it was time to share what I have learned with the rest of you. I understand that not everyone will like the mods I have done to my M3, but as they say, "beauty is in the eyes of the beholder".

Here is the first picture I have of my car the same day I purchased it from Circle BMW in Eatontown NJ.

[tarz]

Next step was the blacked out side vents, grill, badges, and color matched reflectors.

[tarz]

Luckily for me a friend of mine had CSL reps he was trying to get rid of, so for $400 I was able to pick these up.

[tarz]

Staying with the exterior I then went on to purchase a Carbon fiber diffuser and the EAS Angel Eye kit. I was torn as whether to paint the outside of the diffuser and leave the part around the exhaust with the carbon look or leave it totally exposed. I decided to leave it for now and maybe down the road I will have it painted. The wonderful thing about Carbon black is at night all the black pieces of my car that I have not had painted, like the diffuser, grill, vents, and fog light covers, all blend seamlessly.

[tarz]

Well...I've never been a fan of keeping a car stock, but sometimes in the effort to modify, some changes just don't work. I've always been a fan of eyelids on cars, just because it gives the car a "mean" look, so I went ahead and purchased some eyelids. After a few days with them on, I just couldn't firmly decide if I liked them or not. For me, if I don't like it initially, then it needs to come off.

[tarz]

Well I was pretty much satisfied with the exterior mods....for now...I'm just waiting to find a good deal on some coil overs before I pull the trigger. I've been told that it's ok to just replace the springs, but I think I would rather wait until I find a good deal on coil overs.

Next i moved onto the interior. I really like the look of the oem nav, but I haven't seen any aftermarket dual din (The Dynavin one looks nice, but it's still too new for me to jump on board) setups that I really like, so for now I just went ahead and installed a USAspec ipod adapter and ran the cable to the center console. I replaced my dual cup holders with the euro sliding tray, which now houses my ipod.

After that I went ahead and replaced the shift know with the ZHP knob and alcantara shift boot.

[tarz]

Continuing with the interior I decided to try my hand at wrapping the aluminum trim with carbon fiber. I purchased a roll of carbon fiber wrap from Koalthy and proceeded to wrap the three pieces of aluminum on the dash as well as the piece that surrounds the shift knob. I chose not to wrap the armrests on the doors, as those would be a high wear item. Unfortunately the center panel that goes over the radio will need to be redone, since the grains are not going in the same direction...oh well another thing to fix later on.

During this time I also decided to hardwire my radar detector and run an extra cigarette adapter into the center console. I purchased a cigarette adapter from Radio shack and just spliced that into the wiring in the center console...I found a DIY here on how to do that.

[tarz]

I was pretty much happy with the interior....for now, so I decided to look into some performance mods. I've done a bunch or reading and researching on power mods, and it's pretty much the same story everywhere, Intakes do nothing for you, just gives you a nicer sound. Everything i read led me to purchase an aFe intake kit, which included a high flow filter, intake scoops, and a streamlined elbow. The first picture is a stock picture from the vendor, I made sure the filter was a dry filter, since I read that the oiled filters can damage the MAF sensor after a while.

To round out the mods I also added a rear strut bar, which was purchased from a friend, along with tinted Lamin-X film for the rear lights. I know many people are not fans of the tinted tail lights, but...to each his own.

[m3freak86]

Looks good man. Nice to see another modded CB local around here. Never seen you around though. I go up to Circle when I need to go to the dealer.

[tarz]

After reading more and more about people posting "Which intake is best?" posts, I read somewhere that someone(in know this is very vague, this is what happens when you write a build thread after everything is done) was looking to run a hose directly from the hole on a CSL bumber right to the air box. So i decided to give this a try.
1. First I inspected what needed to be removed and how everythign was put together. From the pictures you can see there is a stock tube that protrudes down from the air box to the top part of the opeing next to the fog light. (pics #1,2)
2. To get better access I decided to remove the fog light cover, as well as the air box. (Pic #3,4,5)