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      11-06-2019, 08:55 AM   #1
KevM3UK
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My Mineral Grey M2

Having sold my E92 M3 last month(Oct 19) it was time to look at M2's! with only four colours on offer ,I hate white, silly LLB ,dont even go there! so left me with two choices, Black (which i like) or Mineral Grey , in the end MG won!
Bought it yesterday ,was only 20 miles away in Bridgend too! I've been watching it for 3 months and I've been to see it twice in that time too! It was in a high end car dealer on a sale or return,and went off At for a few days and I thought it was sold but last wednesday evening (2nd Oct) in a bizarre twist of fate was back listed on AT from the private seller for 2k less! that was after a 15 hour day driving to Bury St Edmunds, and Horsham area looking at others! still nevermind hopefully I've got the one I wanted!

Here its is taken yesterday after i picked it up, weather was awful though ,good thing was the 1/2 hour drive home was on my favourite coast road that i know inside out , It drove really well considering the wet conditions ,so i went a bit easy(ish) and have to say im impressed, but I've yet to drive it in the dry!
Its a Dec 16 car with a few months warranty remaining along with 2 years left of a 5 year servicing package! And has done 16k

Here's the vehicle spec
steering wheel heating (doubt I'll ever use it)
Reversing camera (doubt I'll use that)
Electric sunoof (havnt had one of those since E36's)
Electric folding mirrors }
Harmon Kardon } The holy trinity!
Heated seats }
Speed limit display
LCI rear lights fitted
Two good option's it hasnt got are no comfort access or silly black sun protection glass
but bizzarley no electric seat adjustment , its manual adjustment, Im glad in a way as once you set your seat position thats it ,I find im forever messing with electrically adjustable seats trying to find the goldilocks setting! I find the 2 series seats really comfy having drove through France last month in our 220i with no issues at all, so I'm happy with the seats, although the leather would be better in nappa!








Note the LCI rear lights












Last edited by KevM3UK; 11-13-2019 at 03:18 PM..
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      11-06-2019, 08:57 AM   #2
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Straight into a couple of mods with some parts I've collected in the last few months
Allways hated the open cup holders in the preLCI cars,did the same with our 220i too, bought an LCI centre console off ebay and fitted it the day I had the car!

New console


Old one removed with the horrible exposed cupholders in veiw


new one fitted



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      11-06-2019, 08:59 AM   #3
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Black grilles and exhaust tips

new tips polished up



old ones removed


new ones fitted







Bought some black grilles from a regular F22 so I just used the outers and kept my centre slats as they have the M2 badge fitted



centres removed and cleaned up the outer's



removed from the car


Nice clean engine bay!


New grilles fitted


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      11-06-2019, 09:01 AM   #4
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Had a little trip up to North Wales this week, out of Cardiff up the A470 ,theres some great stretches on that road , we stayed in Tremadog outside Porthmadog ,I constantly rained for the two days! No I didnt drive the evo triangle, didnt have time as we were with the neighbours for a mini break, he went in his Lexus and I took the M2! , I had to really




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      11-06-2019, 09:02 AM   #5
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Jetwashed underneath and gave it its first wash today, since i've owned it






Brake disc hubs are minging so cleaned them up with a wire brush for the time being





Better





outside all clean, I havnt treated the tyres yet as theres not much life in them









With his little mate, our 220i






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      11-06-2019, 09:08 AM   #6
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For the love of M2’s. Congrats!
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      11-06-2019, 09:13 AM   #7
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Bought a new weapon in the form of Pears soap, 55p in morrisons , in the aid to restore the leather to the nice matt finish, tbh onlty the steering wheel drivers seat and gearknob needed doing, while I was there I gave the interior a good ol' J Edgar too!

I used a nail brush dipping in hot water then a bit of the ol' pears on then work onto the surface to be treated wipe off with a damp microfibre then buff off with a dry microfibre, should of done this to my past cars, still nevermind!








seatbase before


seatbase after, back rest is not done yet






Overall im happy with the results ,can't go wrong for 55p!
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      11-06-2019, 09:14 AM   #8
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A bit of E30 M3 lives on again! I made a short gear lever today, I've always hated the oem M2 gearknob so i used my ol' E30 gearknob, It's been a family heirloom for centuries now and has been carefully passed down through generation to generation of M3!

So after owning three E30 M3's in the past i sort of miss them and I've always liked the gearknob , think its much better than the current ones BMW offer, so I set about a challenge of fitting one (and finding one , they are obsolete from bmw now), so i managed to find one after trawling ebay and came accross and bought this (six years ago now mind for the E46)



Its a bit scabby but after an email before i bought it , jack at royal steering wheels said he could recover it for £25, and recover it he did!

Next thing up now was the lack of a 6 speed emblem to go on top and my ocd wont allow the std 5 speed to remain! so the options are.. buy a 6 speed and make it fit or fit the storm 6 speed one ! not so sure on the font on the storm one and also the colours dont look right either so i took the stanndard round one and double sided taped it back to back on the oval 6 speed and set about filing the shape to match the original round one



when it was all filed to size I then made it smoother with 400 then 200 grit paper ,then i polished it up with some plastic polish.

That was about 6 years ago I made that , fast forward to today and this is how it all unfolded, I couldnt straight swap the E30 M3 knob like for like as it sat about 10-15mm taller and looked silly ,so the only option was to shorten the shaft!

measured the height of the whole shaft



the outer aluminium shaft is bonded or vulcanised onto the steel inner shaft, the only way to remove or break the seal was to twist it to break the seal using mole grips!



once that was removed you're left with this




after removing the console to gain access and to stop it getting damaged I set about cutting the inner shaft, I removed 1" or 25mm




left with this



i also cut 1" off the bottom of the outer shaft and removed all the old rubber , not pictured though

I couldnt really bond it back on yet as it is very hard to keep it all level and dead centre without an intermediate inner bush to keep everything concentric and on the same plane!
I just happened to find two nuts that will act as a guide with an inner diameter of around 12mm that fitted lovely over the inner shaft without too much play/wobble and then push fitted them with some gentle persuasion inside the outer shaft ! before fitting the shaft I filled it full of Tiger seal for a permanent bond!
Its now around 35-40mm shorter now ,so accounting for the extra 10-15mm taller height of the E30 knob all in all the overall height is around 25mm shorter than the oem gearknob !

I carefully removed the alcantara gaiter from the gearknob turned it inside out and cable tied it to the E30 gearknob, here it is all fitted ,havnt driven it yet as its still curing (vulcanising), I always found the oem gearknob to be far to long and looked like something out of an allegro!

heres the new one all fitted








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      11-06-2019, 09:16 AM   #9
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Here's a pic of it all settled and cured now , i have to say its great ,much shorter throw now and feels good
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      11-06-2019, 08:31 PM   #10
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May I suggest this instead?

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      11-07-2019, 02:12 PM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by akkando View Post
May I suggest this instead?

I've also tried the BMW performance gearknob with attatched gaiter, tried it on my 220i , hated it! horrible to hold, too small ,just felt weird, I trialed it on a 6 hour drive through France in sept , sold it on, this one feel so much better to hold ,it'll be staying!
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      11-11-2019, 08:05 PM   #12
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Looks good
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      11-11-2019, 09:23 PM   #13
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Props on cutting the shifter down 👍
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      11-13-2019, 07:03 PM   #14
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Great thread!
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      11-29-2019, 12:36 PM   #15
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New seats now! I've allways hated the cheap (Plastic)leather that the M2 comes from the factory with, It looks really cheap and boring , its exactly the same as my 220i but with blue stitching, comfort wise they're fine and also mine being manual adjustment it got me thinking!
I've allways loved the 1/2 cloth 1/2 Alcantara sport seats the lesser 2 series have, (they eluded me when purchasing my 220i) the alcantara would match the alcantara door cards lovely I thought, and along with the cloth centres its like E30 & E36 M3s used to have, so a trawl through Ebay unearthed these beauties ,alcantara and cloth with blue stitching ,M tricolour flash and electrically adjustable side bolsters , They've only done 11k and from a non smoker car but a 4 hour drive to a BMW breakers in Rotherham to collect them, still its all in a days work! best was I had the lot inc doorcards for £240! they were a bit dusty from being in storage so yesterday I set about cleaning them








I used a steam cleaner and some all purpose upholstery cleaner















Cleaned up the doorcards too although im not using those




stripping out the seats then trialled the passenger seat ,im pleased to say it all worked






Rears fitted



Fronts in















Overall I'm really pleased with the outcome , I think they really suit the car ,lots of nice alcantara now , only gripes are I've lost my heated seats! no great shakes as you dont really need them with cloth and also the blue stiching is more like estoril than long beach blue as on the original door cards etc, but you'd have to look really hard to notice, I did'nt upon purchase as I thought they were all the same colour blue, still nevermind they're in now and staying, might find another set for our 220i !
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      12-15-2019, 09:00 AM   #16
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Bought these Eibach springs a while back , only on Friday I got round to fitting them


fitting the fronts, I undo the top shock nut ,and anti roll bar link ,then lower the whole lot down on a trolly jack and remove the spring like this



heres how it sits now






Had a brief drive yesterday and I have to say its a slighty softer ride than the oem springs but on one roundabout i know well it seemed to understeer sooner , so we'll see how it goes on further testing over the next few weeks
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      12-15-2019, 09:00 AM   #17
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Also finally got round to fitting my plate, with the ultra sticky tape i use the rear plate wasnt a problem,as usual but the front didnt want to know, dont know what type of plastic the plinth's made from but no tape would adhere to it! so had to drill it and use screws , dont look brill but its on now , I'll have to look into it again in the future











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      12-16-2019, 07:51 AM   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by KevM3UK View Post
I've also tried the gearknob, hated it! horrible to hold, too small ,just felt weird
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      12-23-2019, 03:07 PM   #19
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Bought these rear sideskirt protectors a few weeks ago , only now I've got round to fitting them , mine are quite chipped even after 17k , but no where near as bad as other M2's I've veiwed before , im not getting them repainted so I fit this PPF for damage limitation!

PPF pre cut on a roll



Offered up to the sill and taped in place ready to peel off the backing paper



On! other side is the same

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      12-23-2019, 04:07 PM   #20
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I haven't seen that, looks great. I might have to do that myself.
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      12-30-2019, 12:56 PM   #21
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I bought a set of used side grilles off Ebay for £5 plus postage! I wanted to keep my originals ,I then had them painted gloss black to match the front grilles, had them done in 2k epoxy

removed the M2 badges and keyed them to aid paint adhesion



painted



badges stuck back on



chrome ones removed and cleaned up the black plastic base



On





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      02-01-2020, 06:51 AM   #22
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Fitted this wiring adaptor the other day, its an active sound delete harness, got it online from Germany and arrived in two days!
It plugs into the AS amp fooling the car and letting the natural exhaust sound shine through



boot trim pulled back for access






disconnecting the asd plug



removing the connecter outer carcass as you need to swap the oem grey over and use the black one on the new harness fitted on the opposite end of the harness


plugged in



conclusion, I have to say the exhaust is quieter especially at motorway speeds , no droning at all now, goes to show how false it was in the beginning ! its much more natural sounding now, even the HK sounds better now, worth doing for £50 ? Yes! I might need an MPE now to add more volume now!
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