[shirakiphoto]

WHAT // 2009 E90 328i SULEV
WHY // I wanted a dependable daily driver with low mileage with the insane SULEV warranty and something that looked great at the same time.
DETAILS // Only 79k miles, $9k, clean title, LCI, tons of maintenance records, and qualifies for the SULEV warranty.

WHERE IT ALL STARTED // 6.28.2018


After:






After:

[shirakiphoto]

INTERIOR //

I absolutely needed to have the sport package which includes the exponentially better seats, sport steering wheel and also wanted the nav hump.

The interior appeared to be in good condition but...

I use warm water and woolite to clean all my interiors - learned this from Lambo's head detailer. Its very safe, cleans all materials well, and you can see how nasty it was before using a two bucket system. (straight diarrhea water lol.)


The leather was super dried out and almost crusty. Leatherique to the rescue. I repeated the treatment twice over a 3 day period and the results were night and day. The leather was completely restored and healthy looking again. (Left: Before/dry/ashy. Right is after.)


Next step was reconditioning/fixing various interior odds/ends which include:
-Trunk Latch Button
-Window Regulators - rear left and right were broken
-Door Pull handles - these get nasty and gummy
-Trunk Struts
-Rear Right Window Trim
-Carpet and Shampooing

I then proceeded to pull the interior apart to get rid of that old man wood and replace it with some 5D carbon


iDRIVE // Overhaul & Update

The iDrive control unit was hammered and it looked so dated in the car. So I removed the black paint on the buttons to prepare to overhaul it.


I put on metal buttons and the f30 control wheel. It really updated the look of the interior and it looks great at night too.


Carbon Trim + New Door Pulls + Red Pinstriping


I bought a bmw Dakota Leather Manual Shiftboot + the Macht Schnell MS97 shift knob to clean up the interior even more. The shift knob is amazing and made out of milled nylon so even on hot days you don't have to worry about your shifter being too hot.

Zero to Hero on the interior if I do say so myself

[shirakiphoto]

EXTERIOR //

I then took my car to Bentley Las Vegas to get the freon recharged and have a complete inspection of all mechanicals.


Had an oem MSport rear bumper prepped/installed while I was there too.


Now off to the exhaust shop to get a custom dual outlet made. I did a ton of research in advance and thanks to all the members here for showing me various ways of snaking the exhaust pipes to achieve this look.


I then put on the vivvid techart rear diffuser to complete the rear bumper




Smoked the taillights slightly to give it that deep red, added a CSL spoiler and painted the rear bumper. Extrememly happy with the way the rear turned out.

[bkwld]

Great post! You have AT or MT? Looks like car started off as AT and MT later.

[///Mik3]

interior trim looks great! What did you use for the pin stripe?

[colorado.e9x]

More pics of the CSL spoiler please! Also did you use vvivid tint film for the tails?

[dakine_surf]

Originally Posted by bkwld

Great post! You have AT or MT? Looks like car started off as AT and MT later.

I believe he said it is just a manual shit boot and knob on the auto... does look clean

Props OP!

[cpie168]

Looks awesome! What a beauty! Keep posting more pics pleeeeeass

[shirakiphoto]

Originally Posted by bkwld

Great post! You have AT or MT? Looks like car started off as AT and MT later.

Originally Posted by dakine_surf

I believe he said it is just a manual shit boot and knob on the auto... does look clean

Props OP!

Yessir. I just loved the look of the Macht Schnell MS97 shiftknob and the manual boot really cleaned up and modernized the interior. Everything was a direct swap over with no additional modifications.

Originally Posted by ///Mik3

interior trim looks great! What did you use for the pin stripe?

Check amazon for "Car interior moulding Trim". Looks pretty rice in the product pictures but if you just use it as accents like where the f30's use the pop of the color, it ends up looking pretty great.

Originally Posted by colorado.e9x

More pics of the CSL spoiler please! Also did you use vvivid tint film for the tails?

Will have more pics of the CSL spoiler soon. I ended up spraying the tails instead of doing an overlay film

Originally Posted by cpie168

Looks awesome! What a beauty! Keep posting more pics pleeeeeass

More pics to come today stay tuned

[dakine_surf]

How does the exhaust sound, it's just a muffler delete and tips, correct? Or did you add another resonator back there? Any freeway drone?

Love the plate, I attempted something similar here in Komifornia but they say no since it was too hard to read... I said that was the point and they didn't take it very well.

[shirakiphoto]

FRONT END //

The last part to clean was the engine bay. There is really no point in doing any type of performance upgrades especially for the SULEV so I just wanted to get the engine bay as clean as possible to match the rest of my car.

Before:

After:


The next task was to remove the headlights and front bumper.


I refinished and repainted the front bumper and added the hamann style front lip.

[shirakiphoto]

HEADLIGHT RETROFIT //

This is the single worst mod I've ever done in my life lol. I would gladly pay large sums of money to never have to do this ever again. Thankfully my buddy and fellow member asquared was a complete hero in helping me get my headlights together. You can see his tutorial here.

The headlights were yellow and scratched up. I bought new oem lenses and covered them with xpel so this doesn't happen again. This is the before shot.


After a lot of planning this was my final mock up. The only thing that changed is the headlight surround was switched from satin dark gray to a high gloss metallic black which looked way better with the all metal flake glittering in the reflections.


asquared cracking open the e90 lights.


Dissasembling the lights:


Strip, sand, and prep all pieces once disassembled


Primed and sanded.


Wiring the new halos. I've seen a bunch of hack job retrofits and anything less than perfection is failure in my eyes. So I made even the parts that weren't going to be visible pretty and perfect.


Mocking up the lights. You can see the metallic flake in the black here.


I tinted the inner lenses with VHT which made it look a lot cleaner and kept the bezels around it chrome.


Halo Fitting.


Perfection or failure.


New OEM lenses + Xpel clear bra are looking pretty.


Carbon eyebrows with red pinstripe are in and lenses are sealed.


Final Result. Zero to Hero. I did a foglight grille delete which cleans up the front end and tinted the foglights. Did an all black emblem and finished everything off with Vivvid Techart carbon kidney grilles.

[shirakiphoto]

Originally Posted by dakine_surf

How does the exhaust sound, it's just a muffler delete and tips, correct? Or did you add another resonator back there? Any freeway drone?

Love the plate, I attempted something similar here in Komifornia but they say no since it was too hard to read... I said that was the point and they didn't take it very well.

Yessir just muffler delete. Sounds good. Anything else is way too aggressive sounding for such a slow car lol. I have a 600hp M3 with a valvetronic ipe straight pipe and that car is okay if it makes a lot of noise. But for my low and slow daily, the muffler delete was perfect.

Also for the plate I made up a story saying my grandpa had a saying he instilled within all his grandchildren: Enjoy Friends and Family in Everything Faith Encouragement Everlasting. EFFEFEE. lol. Cut my plate so the frame covered the bottom to make it ever more difficult to read.

gg cops. troll level: 10/10 lol.

[asquared]

Good stuff Jordan! Hope all is well brother!! Car came out looking great!

[bkwld]

Originally Posted by shirakiphoto

Yessir. I just loved the look of the Macht Schnell MS97 shiftknob and the manual boot really cleaned up and modernized the interior. Everything was a direct swap over with no additional modifications.

BTW that front lip makes the otherwise boring stock bumper sporty. Great choice!

[colorado.e9x]

Great job on the headlights! A project I could never even attempt

[WatchWolf34]

Everything looks amazing. I love the red pinstripe for the interior and how you continued it with the headlights. Very tastefully done.

[Liam1106]

Looks totally revitalized! Nice work man. The headlight work is awesome. Where’d you get the lenses from? I’m thinking of tackling this job myself.

[shirakiphoto]

Originally Posted by asquared

Good stuff Jordan! Hope all is well brother!! Car came out looking great!

Originally Posted by colorado.e9x

Great job on the headlights! A project I could never even attempt

Me as well, never again. It took me over a month in my spare time and driving my car only during the day because I had no headlights lol.

Originally Posted by WatchWolf34

Everything looks amazing. I love the red pinstripe for the interior and how you continued it with the headlights. Very tastefully done.

Thanks! That inner asian in my loves that ricer red. haha

Originally Posted by Liam1106

Looks totally revitalized! Nice work man. The headlight work is awesome. Where’d you get the lenses from? I’m thinking of tackling this job myself.

My buddy is a bmw tech and got me the lenses for me. Not really sure what the part # was.

[shirakiphoto]

WHEELS/SUSPENSION //

Sponsored wheels just got in!


All mechanical work was done at either Bentley Las Vegas, BMW Henderson, or Royalty (exotic car shop, yes thats a bugatti and mclaren in the pic too getting worked on lol.)


I chose ST coilovers (made by KW and phenomenal bang for your buck)


Triple measuring to make sure everything is dialed in.


Shes's finally home and complete. Full photoshoot to come soon.

[1sicke92]

Very nice work love the build! How hard was wrapping the interior with the 5D vinyl? I hear it's difficult to work with, especially around edges and corners. Did you have previous experience with wrapping before?

[King Rudi]

Nice work man! Very clean! I am not a fan of carbon fiber, but really like what you've done with it here. Very tastefully executed.

I cracked open the headlights on my G35 and painted them a few years ago, I can relate on what a pain in the ass it is and will never do it again & mine didn't have half the work you put into yours. Will follow on insta.