S50 Z3M Pearlescent Journal

[Lee]

Wish me luck guys. My car is in pretty good shape other then an annoying rattle located on top of my fuel tank.

This weekend i'm taking her off the road for a couple of weeks to remove whole rear end and drop the tank.

While im under there i will be replacing all the bushings and couplings for goodmeasure.

I will get a few pics up along the way and keep you guys posted. Here are some teaser photos for a guy who did it in the states.

Lee

 

[t-tony]

That looks like a proper job done. Reminds me of a spitfire chassis I rebuilt many moons ago. Had to go to finance buying the plot where we have lived for 34 years. To quote Jim " That's when the fight started"

 

[EnthuZiaZT]

Wow! Lee that looks awesome. When you've finished can you come and help me do mine?

Thanks
Mike

 

[Aceman]

I would be wary of doing the the swing arm bushes with poly ones as they are known to start squeezing badly after a few hundred miles so best sticking with eom for those.

I would love to do this too sometime so would be grateful if you would post up some pics and a little writeup.

 

[Lee]

I agree about the poly bushes. It will put to much strain on the rest of the car so OEM is where i will stay.

Lee

 

[Lee]

Quick update,

Last night I finally gave up and repaired my existing fuel tank. (Long story) Once in "which was quite fiddly" the axle followed. Picture shows its cleaned state. Tonight’s jobs are to torque every nut and bolt then test drive.

 

[swamper]

brave...keep us posted im watching with interest

 

[Lee]

Its all back together mate, Used it this week for work. Only need to adjust the hand brake cable as its rattling a little.

Read the Step by step article Swamper.

Hope you all find this useful. Next job is my Vanos overhaul.

 

[t-tony]

Hi Lee, please show the Vanos job in as much detail if possible. It would be very interesting, thank you, Tony.

 

[Lee]

This job may take a little longer. I'm planning on going through it and may alter things. If i do it will be an in-depth article.

 

[Lee]

Little update. I made a temp repair on the fuel tank so i can fix it at a later date. This was done at the start of summer. Ideally i need a new fuel tank.

So far this year i have done the following:

2x Full service's
2x sets of tyres (Falken 453's)
Wheels spacers (20mm rear 15mm front)
Re wrapped the front bumper and mirrors
Carbon ariel
Hardtop plus fitting kit
Refurbed all four seat motors (from home)
New stereo (Alpine)
Stormworks gearknob/handbrake
Replaced boot tools

I also found airfolow problems a few weeks back, only to find half a pigeon in my intake and a very blocked filter. I even had a fern cone in there. I'm thinking this has been my problem since getting back from Le'mans earlier this year.

Pictures to follow.

Titanium finish.

This is how she sits at the moment.

Plans for the coming year.
Slight warped front disc (front Black Diamond discs)
In the coming weeks my hardtop should be wrapped to match the car
New kidney grills
Custom designed LED halos
Seats need some TLC
VDO guage reading the temp needs a new sensor

Lee Out.

 

[GazHyde]

Everyone needs a bit of Storm Motorwerks in their Zed

 

[Lee]

Small update, Added some halo rings. These are the 131mm LED rings. You need to shorten the inner ring to fit. Comes with a remote choose your colours etc.

Lee

 

[g8jka]

Looks good Lee. Did you mange to get them to fit ok behind the lenses? I found that the white setting started to look more of a blue colour after the car had been running for a bit. They are pretty bright though!

 

[Lee]

Yeah thanks @g8jka I trimmed 6 LED's on the inner rings. The rings sat perfectly against the lense with the help of some gorilla glue.

Yeah they have gone a little bluey, I turned the bightness down a little and all is well.

Lee

 

[Aceman]

You got a link to the supplier of these Lee (ebay?). Always fancied fitting halos but been put off with the unreliability of flourescent tube ones so these seem a good alternative. Any chance of a close up shot of the headlight in daylight without them switched on just to see how obtrusive or unobtrusive they are behind the lenses when not switched on.

Cheers

 

[Lee]

They are ok but at the limit of what I can tolerate visually. Will see how I get on with them.

(Ebay: Xenon headlight RGB Multi-Colour LED Angel Eyes For BMW) £17.69

Apoligies on the filth on my car.

 

[Aceman]

Mmm see what you mean, your first pics of them at night also look too bright but not sure if that is the camera telling a lie. I suppose they operate better as DRL's for use through the day and switched off when you have the headlights on.

How did the Mrs take to you using the oven btw

 

[Lee]

@Aceman She was not impressed

The Halos are bright but you can adjust how bright with the remote and what shades of each colours, the options are almost endless.

Lee