[DelaneyE90]

Originally Posted by McPikie

Looking smart as ever

Originally Posted by RajB

Nice

Originally Posted by Chappers 71

Good work

Thank you all! It's getting there now, slowly realising the vision of how I wanted it. Hopefully get it out to a few show's this year too.

Originally Posted by CitizenKane

Another Dubliner!

Car is a beauty

Thanks man! Good to meet a fellow Irishman on here You south Dub?

[CitizenKane]

Originally Posted by DelaneyE90

Thanks man! Good to meet a fellow Irishman on here You south Dub?

Nope North, although most of my mates are South! I'll try to keep an eye out for you. There's a lot of BMWs on the road here at the moment, but very few interesting ones!

[DelaneyE90]

Originally Posted by CitizenKane

Nope North, although most of my mates are South! I'll try to keep an eye out for you. There's a lot of BMWs on the road here at the moment, but very few interesting ones!

Ah ok! yeah definitely, i might see you about.

[DelaneyE90]

Theres nothing better than coming home from a day of college to a package for your car

Bit the bullet and forked out on a ProClip phone holder. Easily the best phone holder out there and I went with the adjustable option for iPhone 7 with the console mount.

I'll throw up some photos of it fitted once my replacement Double DIN adapter kit arrives from Connects2. The original order got lost in Royal Mail somewhere.

[RajB]

Looks good. I just keep mine in the centre console to make it even neater LOL.

[DelaneyE90]

So after 3 weeks, 1 lost package thanks to Royal Mail and delays with customs, the Connects2 fitting kit for the AppRadio finally arrived.

Went out last night to fit the whole system and what a nightmare it was.



The install of the looms and adapters was fine, a slight hiccup to find a permanant live halted me for a few minutes. However the absolute nightmare of routing cables and trying to align the radio and fit the extensive amount of cabling in behind it was a massive PITA.



Finally got it all together and touch wood it works perfect. Have yet to use the car fully to test this.

I routed the AUX input and USB cabling for CarPlay to the gear stick where I'll be mounting the ProClip console mount phone holder.



First impressions, the bongs and chimes arent as attractive as the factory BMW ones. The parking sensor chimes are quite tacky and high pitched. The microphone for bluetooth isnt as good, partly because I have it mounted just below the Start/Stop button and not up near my face.

I have noticed when I got in the car this morning the system had appeared to reset itself, asking me to input a language on start up. So I need to look into that. The settings to change the time and date also must be buried deep into the UI as I cant figure out how to change them at all.

On a positive side,

The system looks alot cleaner and the Connects2 fascia is very nice. I have yet to use CarPlay fully but the few minutes playing around have impressed me already.

The customizability of how it looks is just endless. Pretty much everything about the UI bar the time and date can be customised. Impressive.

I have a 400km round trip coming up this Friday so will test out the whole system fully then. In the mean time though, I'll figure out the little glitches and fit my ProClip.



In other news, I have ordered BMW Performance alcantara handbrake and gear stick boots which will tie in with the wheel trim and finish off the interior nicely.

I also recieved 2 metres of 4D glossy carbon fibre 3M vinyl. So my wing mirrors will be getting wrapped shortly.


Apologies for the lengthy post! I'll upload more photos later too!

[DelaneyE90]

UPDATE

Removed the whole unit again this morning and routed the 12v power loom to a constant live feed in the fuse box using a piggback fuse holder.

I routed my GPS module and fed it into the glovebox along with a USB cable for firmware updates for the AppRadio.

Put everything back together and fitted my ProClip and the whole system is working a treat.

I'll throw up some photo's when I take them!

[Digitalize]

RSE's are turning out to be a very popular wheel, seeing them on anything and everything.

Looks like some nicely chosen mods being carried out well, can't really ask for more than that!

[DelaneyE90]

Picked these up this morning from my local parcel motel. Ordered them from a store called Bowker Lifestyle. Impressed by the cheap price and very very fast postage.

[DelaneyE90]

...And fitted. That's the interior pretty much complete.

- Alcantara boots and steering wheel insert. CHECK.
- BMW Performance shift and handbrake knobs. CHECK.
- Apple Carplay HU. CHECK.
- Brodit ProClip Console Mount. CHECK.









Thanks for looking!

[McPikie]

I'd love a decent head unit like that, but I just can't bring myself to spend a silly amount of money on one ha ha

[DelaneyE90]

Originally Posted by McPikie

I'd love a decent head unit like that, but I just can't bring myself to spend a silly amount of money on one ha ha

€370 all in for everything fitted. Not bad for the quality of headunit and carplay too.

[dest]

They're a great head unit, we have one in our VW Caddy.
As much as I love CIC idrive, I really wish I could add CarPlay to it!
Sometimes I wish I didn't have idrive at all so I could add it hahaha

[DelaneyE90]

Originally Posted by dest

They're a great head unit, we have one in our VW Caddy.
As much as I love CIC idrive, I really wish I could add CarPlay to it!
Sometimes I wish I didn't have idrive at all so I could add it hahaha

Nothing beats idrive for how perfectly integrated it is with the car. Thats my only issue with this install, it's aftermarket and there's a disconnect between it and the car

Tried to keep it as OEM as possible to get CarPlay and I'm very happy how it turned out! Love it so far.

[Simpson196]

I'd love to do something like that for the head unit but in all honesty Im pretty crap with them kinds of things, would probably end up breaking something....

I get frustrated to easily and if you said it was a bit of a pain for you it will be 100x worse for me

[DelaneyE90]

Originally Posted by Simpson196

I'd love to do something like that for the head unit but in all honesty Im pretty crap with them kinds of things, would probably end up breaking something....

I get frustrated to easily and if you said it was a bit of a pain for you it will be 100x worse for me

Yes, you definitely need patience. It's fiddly and working in a tight space with a ton of cables. Having said that, if you have any basic knowledge of wiring/electronics, you will be fine.

[DelaneyE90]

The centre cap hex nuts were starting to become affected by the awful weather and roads we have in Ireland so decided to paint them. To get these in red from Rotiform was €25 per cap plus shipping so I sanded them down and for €15, sprayed and lacquered them myself.





These also arrived, waiting to be fitted in a few days

[RajB]

Nice one on the springs. Will make a big difference to the stance.

Not sure on the centre caps as they need to tie into some other red elements maybe?

[DelaneyE90]

Originally Posted by RajB

Nice one on the springs. Will make a big difference to the stance.

Not sure on the centre caps as they need to tie into some other red elements maybe?

Thanks, yeah intrigued now to see the difference.

Hahaha my thought's exactly when I put them on the car. I had toyed with the idea of doing them LeMans blue but unsure of how that would look too? I like the addition of colour to the nut, just unsure of what colour.

Definitely will be playing around with it because at the minute the contrast is a probably a little too much.

[RajB]

What suspension you sat on at the moment as looking back at some pics she sits quite well but new springs should still be noticeable.

I think colour coded LeMans could be good. Or maybe gloss black to go with the other elements you have. Hmmmm.

[Digitalize]

I'd have done them LMB for sure, the red doesn't really work for me.

[DelaneyE90]

Originally Posted by RajB

What suspension you sat on at the moment as looking back at some pics she sits quite well but new springs should still be noticeable.

I think colour coded LeMans could be good. Or maybe gloss black to go with the other elements you have. Hmmmm.

Originally Posted by Digitalize

I'd have done them LMB for sure, the red doesn't really work for me.

She's just sitting on original M-Sport shocks/springs! It sits well but would like to bring the front down about 20-30mm which hopefully these springs will. Less body roll too

Agree with LMB. I'm gonna do it. Just not feeling the red after putting them on the car. It doesnt work with the Blue/Grey elements I have at the min.