[dragon43]

6/4/2023
Kind of slacking on M2 content for the weekend, I’ve been selling parts off like crazy recently and have numerous replacements chilling in the garage.

That said, it was a nice weekend for the M5. I said before after getting the car there would be some nice upgrades on the way…and the mods are finished (for now, we’ll say). Thought I’d take some nice pics after giving it a wash the day prior. We want to keep this thing fairly stock, 'OEM Plus', only taking on a fraction of the parts as the M2.








M5 Modification List

- Vossen HF-3 21” staggered wheels in Satin Bronze
- Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires
- Eisenmann Race exhaust w/ resonated mid-pipes
- Eventuri dual carbon fiber intakes
- KW height adjustable springs
- OE M5 CS carbon fiber rear spoiler
- M Performance gloss black front and side grilles
- IND paint-matched front reflectors
- IND gloss black painted M5 emblem
- Acexxon rear reflector inserts
- XPEL Prime XR ceramic window tint (35% sides/back, 80% windshield)

Still to come is a full 2-stage paint correction. From the few washes I’ve put in now, it’s evident there is an older ceramic coating applied by the previous owner. It’s not slick and does more water-sheeting than water-beading. My best guess is something like Optimum Opti-Coat Pro. So I’ll remove it and apply Gtechniq CSL and the new 5th version of EXO. Along with CarPro DLUX and Gliss coatings for the wheels. It looks phenomenal and is absurdly fast. There is a reason these cars hold the reputation as supercar-killing Autobahn cruisers!

[Kevin_The_Clean1]

Donington Gray is a very dynamic color & a superb color choice that suits the M cars really well. I wouldn't have my X3 M Comp in any other paint code.

[dragon43]

Originally Posted by Kevin_The_Clean1

Donington Gray is a very dynamic color & a superb color choice that suits the M cars really well. I wouldn't have my X3 M Comp in any other paint code.

Yes, a lot of complexity with DGM. The bronze Vossens made some of the gold/pewter tones come out, and it certainly looks cleaner for longer than BSM...haha

[dragon43]

6/8/2023
Today was a lot of fun. Not so much with the M2, but just in general. As the eagle-eyed viewer would point out, the setting of the car is different. We moved! Got a nice new home and the M2 is sitting pretty in the garage. Very excited to take on this project as my passion for home/garage solutions is almost as strong as for cars.

Apart from this, the M2 is ready to have some new parts installed. I have received all of the things I ordered and am starting to install them this weekend…so expect a few posts for what I’ve got in the pipeline.



Another fun milestone inadvertently occurred that I failed to see. I crossed the 28k mile threshold while en route to the new house, from our current/soon-to-be-old house. I’ve had the car for nearly 3 months and have only put a thousand miles on it, but that will continually ramp up as I start to do some events and other things with the car.

[dragon43]

6/30/2023
Today was the first step in an exciting sequence. New wheels. It’s time, I got the bug for a new look and have been pretty tired of cleaning the 18s on my car. So, I put up a listing a couple of days prior on a few different BP forums, and within hours, I received a full-price offer from a local guy who was building a track-oriented F80 M3. Got the car in the air after washing it in the morning, and took off the wheels in anticipation. I sold the wheels as a package, that included the tires, TPMS sensors, center caps, and spacers.




Happy 4th!

[dragon43]

7/1/2023
The next thing to do, now the wheels are off, is complete some projects. The first thing I did was change the track pads to the Akebono ceramic pads. The Akebonos were one of the first things I bought for the car because I quickly learned the dust and squealing of the pads that came with it were too much to deal with. And now having changed them out, I feel even better than I thought.



For starters, neither the front nor rear pads had the wear sensors plugged in, so they were just dangling around the front left and rear right brake/wheel/suspension area. Furthermore, the rear pads didn’t match the other side, they were some different brand, and maybe not even designed for the F8X blue brakes…and one of them had a split crack that ran the width of the pad, so I have to imagine I was getting some compromised performance.



The pad install was pretty simple though. Just using a punch and hammer to release the holding pins which hold a spring clip, compressing the calipers, and voila, the old pads came right out. No fancy equipment, and once I figured it out, I took 15-30 mins per corner. Since the previous owner tracked the car a couple of times, he put Castrol SRF when changing the pads, meaning the fluid was only a year old and had 4k miles, so I didn’t feel the need to bleed and change the brakes.



Then I moved on to swap out the old halogen turn signal bulbs in the headlights for LED. This made a surprisingly large difference. They are much brighter and look much better, not dying/fizzling out slowly like the OE bulbs. Moreover, the appearance even when they are off is drastically improved. The surrounding mirrors to increase the intensity of light output would reflect the orange glass, with the LED replacements, they have a white and silver base color along with the orange-ish yellow light chips, so the entire outside corner of each headlight doesn’t look as orange when off…almost like a Euro headlight. Pretty good reward for a $20 modification.

[dragon43]

7/2/2023
Here’s what I’ve been working towards this weekend. It’s time to get my new wheels. Step one was acquiring them, we rented a truck to get down to Austin to meet up with a guy who was selling these. Apex SM-10 with Michelin PSS tires. They were on his M2C (more on this later) for only 3k miles before he swapped them to gold 763M wheels with Cup 2s.



I bought an extra set of OE 68mm BMW center caps to go with the EC-7s I just sold, allowing me to keep the black-painted IND center caps…I can’t quite describe what a nice subtle touch this is, especially on a black car, and now black wheels. As shown in the first pic, the SM-10s came with OE caps as well, so I’ll hang onto them until I’m ready to upgrade again.



Now is the most crucial step with regard to longevity and ease of future cleaning of the wheels. Cleaning, decontaminating, coating, and dressing. I start with cleaning the tires with Stoner Tarminator to remove grime and soap from mounting, then the wheels just as I would when on the car during a maintenance wash, using all the same tools and step-wise processes. Then, as these are wheels, I do an intensive iron/fallout remover. This does not dislodge contaminants like a clay bar, but since almost all you clean from wheels is brake dust, comprised largely of iron, the fallout remover does all the decon you need. Once that’s done, I prep the surface with Gtechniq Panel Wipe before applying first CarPro DLUX wheel coating, letting that cure overnight, then top that with CarPro Gliss. After a few hours, I’ll follow that with a thick layer of tire dressing to absorb into the dry sidewall. A few more hours later, I’ll wipe it flat and they’re ready to go on the car!



As shown previously, I take prep seriously, and not just for the wheels. As the coating and tire dressing were curing/saturating, I focused on the wheel well and all the brake and suspension components inside. I started by soaking the rotor hats and hubs in WD-40 to remove rust and brake dust, then agitated them with red Scotch Brite. I followed that with a brake cleaner and engine degreaser to remove the gunk, agitated that with a stiff tire brush then pressure-washed it all down. I think it looks pretty nice, without going crazy on an area with diminishing returns.



The Finale: time to go on the car. Once the coatings had cured, the dressing was set, and the brakes had dried…I just wanted to be done working on this project. In all seriousness though, everything looked insanely good. It is so satisfying to be done with something like this, they look absolutely perfect. With the car on the ground, I have a few immediate thoughts. I need spacers, so I ordered 10mm Future Classics from IND. As I said, the previous owner of the wheels had them on an M2C, so the rear hub/brakes make the offset weak in the rear for OG M2. Next, and this is a conjecture for now…the ride height is a bit too high. I say it’s a conjecture because the suspension hasn’t fully settled after 48+ hours in the air and I’ll reserve full judgment until I do a few full-lock turns. Even still, I love the way these wheels look. The deep concave is pretty dramatic and I always prefer a simple spoke design.

Apex SM-10 Satin Black - front: 19x9.5 ET22 & rear: 19x10.5 ET45
Michelin Pilot Super Sport - front: 255/35R19 & rear: 275/35R19

[Drifter2090]

Car is coming along great!! Love that you are getting rid of a lot of the "tacky" mods from the previous owner, cant wait to see the rest of the progress

[dragon43]

7/8/2023
I forgot to mention in the last post, but a solid 30-40% of the lug nuts were a chattered mess, so I went ahead and ordered a new set of Apex race nuts. I said it before, but since my wheels are M2C spec, I needed wheel spacers for the rear. I went with the high-quality and innovative Future Classic spacers, and wouldn’t consider anything else. I went with 10mm by measuring the rim of the wheel exactly half an inch sunken into the fender. I could’ve gotten it exactly flush with a 12mm but decided to go with 10. My thought process is I want to be able to tuck a very small bit of tire under the fender. That is part of the reason 275/35R19 was the ideal tire for me, I can retain the taller (35) aspect ratio, but the sidewall is stretched just enough not to rub. However, it does not look like a stupid stretched rubber-band tire on a bagged car. A 285/35 wouldn’t fit now the offsets are dialed and certainly wouldn’t let me tuck some tire, without having to compromise that sidewall chunkiness. I absolutely love this fitment.




Fitment tweaks aside, the first week with version #2 wheels has been a success. They look amazing, and have stayed cleaner due to the coatings and ceramic pads I installed. Furthermore, the tires on the wheels are late-2021 date codes, versus mid-2019s on my previous PS4S, and the road noise is attenuated greatly. I’ll be washing the car tomorrow and am excited to see my preparation steps pay off and see them shine better than before they went on the car.

[medphysdave]

Those wheels look great. Admittedly when I see them off the car I'm never drawn to them, but WOW, on the car looks dynamite 🧨

[dragon43]

Originally Posted by medphysdave

Those wheels look great. Admittedly when I see them off the car I'm never drawn to them, but WOW, on the car looks dynamite 🧨

I had the same feelings exactly. I think these wheels in anything but satin black make the spokes look too chunky. Very pleased with how they look mounted up

[allinon72]

Wheels look fantastic!

[dragon43]

7/27/2023



Ok, some time has passed since I did stuff to the M2. Since I’ve had a bunch of carbon parts sitting around for a while now, I figured it was time to put some on. I started with the more accessible rear spoiler. It’s from AutoTecknic and is a pretty spot-on replica of the OE CS wing. Coming from the E92, where the M Performance spoiler is $400 or so, paying nearly double for the CS spoiler didn’t interest me. Plus, AutoTecknic has yet to disappoint after probably a dozen parts I’ve ordered. I was happy to get the sub-standard quality PSM-style wing off with no surprises and this thing fit quite well.



Next was the front lip. Since I like running this car quite low, spending a lot on a lip also didn’t appeal to me. Once again, choosing in favor of a CS-style lip to replace the weathered MTC. I was a bit less enthused with the fitment of this, the AeroLuxe, as the symmetry of the vertical aero-winglets did not match. Although the carbon weave also wasn’t perfect either, it was a massive step up from what I had. I ended up just using self-tapping screws to fix the lip, absent of any 3M tape.