[thatonetime]

Wagons are either loved or hated. Some people see no point to them, while others think they are awesome. Mine personally, does everything.

The Beginning:

Got the car from a lady in Santa Barbara. This was sign unseen. She had posted two crappy photos on Craigslist. After settling on a price with her I made the trip from Cupertino area to Santa Barbara. About a 4 hour drive.

When I got there I found out the wagon was actually the sport model. Every single option minus HID lights and heated seats. I did not want Xi as I live in sunny California. Car had 112k miles and still running strong. The lady I got it from was the original owner.

First day I got it home.



I told myself the car would be left alone and used as a DD, but whats the point of a daily driver if it's not somewhat fun. That being said I got E90 M3 wheels.
This is where my love to keep meaty tires on this car started. This was the stock M3 size. 245/40/18 front and 275/35/18 rear





The front bumper was damaged underneath from the previous owner so I had a good excuse to buy a different bumper. Thank you SpeedElement.



Three weeks later I came up on a cheap set of megan coilovers :shifty



My buddy at SSCustoms decided to help me wrap the car. Wrapping the whole car with his help was cheaper than getting the front bumper painted by a good shop.



I threw the stock wheels on for now. Also I got M3 sideskirts. Have no photo of them off the car. We decided to try the full side in one shot.





Girlfriend put in a lot of work. She got really good at wrapping while learning from my friend



In the process I ended up getting Depo Projector headlights and HID's.



Boom! Done



Doing a lot of driving and one of my commutes being a mountain road (since I'd rather take that than get stuck on the freeway) I decided to go crazy and get a set of KW Clubsport Coilovers. SpeedElement hooked it up big time and I'm still thankful for their support.



And here it is with KW Coilovers



Then the next thing that came was wheels. BBS CH wheels are always a classy go to wheel



I hated the stupid curb rings on the wheels so I took them off, also my NEW plates came in. WGNLIFE





Then came the Falken RT615 tire, Whispbar's and Inno Case roof box



At this point my girl and I decided to go on a Rally. We decided to take the wagon over our E36 M3 and E46 M3 we currently had at the time.







Yeah, we had the cheapest car on the rally and we had a blast. People kept asking us questions about it. They could not believe we kept up with them through the mountain roads we had driven through. Guess the KW Clubsports and Falken RT615k tires really did their job





And on the way back home from the event. Still proud of this car. 1000 miles along supercars and it did not skip a beat. :alright



After the Rally we decided it was time for a color change. We decided to do a darker color



And here it is



And decided to go a different route on wheels.





And different coilovers. Eibach R2's with external reservoirs and Vorshlag race camber plates



Stay tuned

[e90Nate]

what a proper introduction nicely done and very tasteful mods!

[Ruddigger]

Love it. Hopefully more coming soon.

[Jozy]

nice. the kw clubsports were already external reservoirs right? are the eibachs better?

[thatonetime]

Originally Posted by e90Nate

what a proper introduction nicely done and very tasteful mods!

Thank you. I honestly did not realize I had that many photos saved on my phone.

Originally Posted by Ruddigger

Love it. Hopefully more coming soon.

Plenty left. Only issue is I have a few cars to split parts between. I have to budget appropriately

Originally Posted by Jozy

nice. the kw clubsports were already external reservoirs right? are the eibachs better?

No. The Clubsports are non external reservoir and they are twintube. The Eibachs are monotube with the externals so the ride and adjustability should be superior. Im super excited to get them on. They rode amazing in my 135i.

[F22_Raptor]

Wow what a transformation. But wait there's more! Lol

[Jozy]

oh, didn't know kw clubsports have 2 way and 3 way versions.
3 way version has the external reservoir and 2 way doesn't. that's why i'm confused.

[BrandJas18]

You sir are not messing around...Well done!

[thatonetime]

UPDATE
tires on, wheels on, coilover cleanup, photos

So my new spoke stickers and blue valve stems came in.



Sorry for the crappy photo, I was too excited



I love this place. These guys are super nice and good about matching up the correct color dots to the valve steams.



Gotta clean up the garage real quick



CLEAN!



Getting the wheels clean so we can do the tires



All the bullnose studs are officially on.



Pulled the coilovers apart to clean them. Here they are



So on the 1 series there is no room in the front. It's really hard to have a combination of good fitment and wide tires. I had to shave the blue piece off so I can clean the 245/40/18 on a 18x8.5 ET35 with no spacer. Even a 3mm spacer made me rub under hard cornering. So I shaved the part and Sharpied it blue so I can see if the wheel would rub.....nope. It was perfect



Since now I have them apart I'm going to clean this up so it's cleaner and there is more clearance.



Wheels are going to go back on



Love the wheels. Concave looks cool.







End result guys.
Eibach R2's are not currently on. I'll have them on soon enough.
Falken is done in oil based silver sharpie (no white, so hopefully it won't yellow out, plus I don't run tire shine so I should be good)

Wheel Specs:

Advan TCIII's
Front 18x9.5 ET35 +10mm Spacer = ET25 245/40/18 Falken RT615k
Rear 18x10.5 ET25 275/35/18 Falken RT615k

[soursamo]

Fantastic choice in wheels! Love it

[Mähks]

I need to change my Setup now. This looks perfect.

How big is your roof Box? Looking for a Flat one like this but I can't find anything like this in Germany

[Digitalize]

Looks awesome man, can't wait to see more photos!

[E92TTCoupe]

So nice! What's the color of the wrap in the beginning? Not white right?

[BrandJas18]

Very nice, how do you like the Quick Jack?

[thatonetime]

Originally Posted by soursamo

Fantastic choice in wheels! Love it

Its funny cause I almost got rid of them before putting them on but they even feel better than the BBS CH's. They are wider and lighter.

Originally Posted by Mähks

I need to change my Setup now. This looks perfect.
How big is your roof Box? Looking for a Flat one like this but I can't find anything like this in Germany

I got the lowest/slimest set up I could buy.
The roof racks are the Whispbar in between the bars set up.



The roof box is Inno Shadow 15



Disclaimer: only issue with this set up is you cant pop up the dual panoramic sunroof with the roof box on. You can slide it back but not pop it up. That being said I never open my sunroof and I even had it tinted with 5% so I can keep it closed but sometimes drive with the sunshade/cover open.

Originally Posted by Digitalize

Looks awesome man, can't wait to see more photos!

They will come.

Originally Posted by E92TTCoupe

So nice! What's the color of the wrap in the beginning? Not white right?

Correct. Its was a super lite solid grey. I liked it but for these wheels I decided to wrap it the black pearl gunmetal color.

Originally Posted by BrandJas18

Very nice, how do you like the Quick Jack?

It's fantastic. I put it to use so much. If you check out my 135i build, to adjust my coilover height, I went up and down so many times. It works great, I just gun on 2 lug nuts on each wheel, put a wheel chuck in the front and leave the e-brake down. this way I can put it down, see the ride height and put it back up, adjust, put the wheels back on and repeat till its set where I want it at. Plus the lift has self locking legs so its perfect for one person jobs.

[Mr. Tasty]

images gone?

[thatonetime]

Originally Posted by Mr. Tasty

images gone?

They are all still up. At least I see them

[Mr. Tasty]

what site are you hosting them on? maybe its one blocked by from my work computer.

[Ruddigger]

All images work for me.

[Digitalize]

Originally Posted by Mr. Tasty

what site are you hosting them on? maybe its one blocked by from my work computer.

Looks like they're linked from Facebook.

[thatonetime]

Originally Posted by Mr. Tasty

what site are you hosting them on? maybe its one blocked by from my work computer.

Originally Posted by Digitalize

Looks like they're linked from Facebook.

Thats correct. They are in a facebook folder. I figured facebook would be the one not going under anytime soon soooooo....

UPDATE
Roof box creativity, kinda

So I wanted to play around with some of the extra vinyl in my garage.
This is the outcome.

Pulled the roof box off, cleaned it and tossed inside since its hot outside.



Setting up the cut lines



One color done... I wanted orange but had none



Then the white



Our dog loves to chew on the scraps, he's eyeing the piece on the box



and some layered stickers



Boom... on the roof





And since some people after and PMed me for some fitment photos... here they are.

Rear:





Front:



Hope that helped. Again the fitment is:

Advan TCIII's
Front 18x9.5 ET35 +10mm Spacer = ET25 245/40/18 Falken RT615k
Rear 18x10.5 ET25 275/35/18 Falken RT615k

[Ruddigger]

Looks like a Kawasaki jetski landed on your roof.