[DR-JEKL]

Originally Posted by Socket

Awesome write up and glad to see your build thread back on the first page mate lol. Car looks absolutely stunning, literally looks like it just rolled off the showroom floor. Second best space grey in the country hahaha

Lol I feel honored to be recognised by the great socket

Originally Posted by AUSf22

Wow the paint job looks phenomenal, good to see those black kidney grilles finally on!

Take some proper photos soon pls

Yeah sorry man, the pics look shocking I know I havent had time to take any decent ones and the car isnt 100% finished yet. Figured I need an update and they were the quick point and shoot pics i had on my phone.

Originally Posted by JB4-335

Looks awesome Shane. What a front end transformation.

Cheers Ed! Feel like a major M3 wannabe, but really we dont have any other options in terms of aftermarket bonnets and bumpers fenders etc like most jap cars

Originally Posted by Coupes33

Car looks really smick Shane.

Cheers mate

Originally Posted by EB89

Those exhaust tips look wicked, where are they from?

ali!!

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/2PCS...608.0.0.w4Rxx0

[DR-JEKL]

Got the rear quad diffuser on and the tips fitted, certainly looks a lot tougher from behind now!

The exterior is almost completed now in terms of cosmetics

[DR-JEKL]

Tips fitted

[Socket]

Looks great mate

[tawfeeqh]

Before and after transformation of the M3 kit is amazing

[Coupes33]

Looks great Shane. After looking at yours and Sockets Space Grey machines, mine looks very ordinary. Good work.

[DR-JEKL]

Originally Posted by Socket

Looks great mate

Cheers el president!

Originally Posted by tawfeeqh

Before and after transformation of the M3 kit is amazing

It's a fair chunk of cash but I think its worthwhile!!

Originally Posted by Coupes33

Looks great Shane. After looking at yours and Sockets Space Grey machines, mine looks very ordinary. Good work.

I have the looks you have the go and socket has the full kebab (once he gets his ST tuned!)

[MMM335]

i so need to upgrade my rear diffuse.

[DR-JEKL]

I've had my NBT installed now for just on 12 months and at the time I decided to go with the more modern looking NBT touch style idrive controller.

This posed as a problem as the E9X was never released with this style controller so a custom centre console trim had to be done to house the new controller style.

Initially I thought I'd mod my CCC trim to suit but the cutout is too big I would have to fibreglass it up, so decided to source a CIC trim and mod that to suit. It took me a while to source a CIC trim as these are in demand and seek high prices and by then Id just mounted the controller to the centre console sans trim (I got used to the 'race car' look with exposed alloy SSK gear shift etc haha)

Recently decided to dedicate some time on my weekend to get this foshizzle done!

I had borrowed a trim from a mate who had upgraded his M2 trim to gloss carbon fibre so he had this oem touch style trim laying around for me to use as a template. From the template I could then see how the CIC trim was different and then use a pneumatic dremel to open up the cutout to accomodate a larger touch controller.

OF course nothing is ever easy the touch controller has unique mounting tabs to the CIC so none of the holes line up, I had to glue small pieces of timber to the trim and also the CIC lugs were too high not allowing the controller to protrude through the trim enough so i had to file them down.

Once the timber was mounted with adhesive it needed to be sanded down slightly to get the controller protruding to the correct height through the trim. I then sprayed the timber black and had to use some tiny timber screws I had laying around (8mm long by memory)

I then wrapped the trim with 3M brushed black aluminium to get rid of that timber!

[DR-JEKL]

With the new trim mounted it almost looks as good as factory

[Coupes33]

Great job Shane. It looks excellent.

[Montye90]

Very nice work, looks awesome. I am keen to do this soon...

[EB89]

Interior looks very clean

[Socket]

Great job mate... wanna do one for me now??

[DR-JEKL]

Originally Posted by Coupes33

Great job Shane. It looks excellent.

Thanks Coupes

Originally Posted by Montye90

Very nice work, looks awesome. I am keen to do this soon...

NBT is sooo much nicer than CCC, unsur eif its worth the extra $ and stuffing around for over CIC. Having said that I have no regrets but if youre after BFYB CIC is probably the superior selection. The NBT does offer a few features that the CIC doesn't but yeh you pay quite a bit for them!

Originally Posted by EB89

Interior looks very clean

It's almost complete I just need to do a black anthracite trimming of the pillars and interior roofliner next (wish I'd bought a M sport!)

Originally Posted by Socket

Great job mate... wanna do one for me now??

Lol sure, and can you do a ST install on my car in return?

I seen you can buy the large NBT style rotary dial to retrofit to the CIC controller recently on ebay for like $25 AUD!

The touch feature is a bit of a wank, but I'll admit it does look nicer compared to the older CIC or CCC controllers...

[Aus335iguy]

Im trying hard not to be jealous and failing mate. The car looks great and the fastidious nature of the work done shines through. Well done!

[_ink]

Well done mate! Looking tops inside and out!

[DR-JEKL]

Originally Posted by Aus335iguy

Im trying hard not to be jealous and failing mate. The car looks great and the fastidious nature of the work done shines through. Well done!

Originally Posted by _ink

Well done mate! Looking tops inside and out!

Thanks guys it's certainly been a long time coming (Ive wanted to update the bodykit and idrive since buying the car 5 years ago!)

Over the years Ive changed a few of the typical culprits as preventative maintenance (hpfp, waterpump thermstat valve cover & gasket, ofhg, coils plugs etc) but the cooling system not so much.. Ive seen a few N54's with seeping radiators and coolant res tanks leaking and since I have planned to join the guys on the tasmania trip in November I have a 4500km round trip I dont want to be caught out in the middle of isolated tassie with a blown res coolant hose etc.

I've always had my eye on the CSF radiator as whilst its a nice piece of shiny bling, the aluminium end tanks shall provide a much more reliable core (the oem are plastic and over time become brittle from the heat cycling and start to leak) and it also has proven cooling benefit from its enlarged core. As we all know the N54 run very high coolant and oil temp so anything to improve cooling efficiency is definately a good thing for reliability IMO especially in summer downunder.

A nice review here:

http://oppositelock.kinja.com/my-tho...ato-1745809742

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1121751

Pics below of the rad and associated parts (ignore the bilstein box they're for the VW)

[EB89]

Hmm I have a leak at the moment, I might need to source some of these hoses

[Socket]

Originally Posted by DR-JEKL

Thanks guys it's certainly been a long time coming (Ive wanted to update the bodykit and idrive since buying the car 5 years ago!)

Over the years Ive changed a few of the typical culprits as preventative maintenance (hpfp, waterpump thermstat valve cover & gasket, ofhg, coils plugs etc) but the cooling system not so much.. Ive seen a few N54's with seeping radiators and coolant res tanks leaking and since I have planned to join the guys on the tasmania trip in November I have a 4500km round trip I dont want to be caught out in the middle of isolated tassie with a blown res coolant hose etc.

I've always had my eye on the CSF radiator as whilst its a nice piece of shiny bling, the aluminium end tanks shall provide a much more reliable core (the oem are plastic and over time become brittle from the heat cycling and start to leak) and it also has proven cooling benefit from its enlarged core. As we all know the N54 run very high coolant and oil temp so anything to improve cooling efficiency is definately a good thing for reliability IMO especially in summer downunder.

A nice review here:

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1121751

Pics below of the rad and associated parts (ignore the bilstein box they're for the VW)

oooo nice I want one

[Hoper]

Hmmm, 3m brushed black aluminium, I'll have to have a look at that, been trying to figure out what to do with my trim

[DR-JEKL]

reserved