kloh's posterous

Aluminum M Pedals painted and installed. Before and after pics:

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Aluminum_M_Pedals_painted_and_.zip (350 KB)

Weekend project complete. Saturday morning was spent getting supplies and I took a couple hours in the afternoon to do the install. I expected it to be harder but it wasn’t too bad at all. Thanks to the suggestions on the DIY threads on M3Post.com, I went out and bought some titanium drill bits to make the drilling easier. The brake pedal was the hardest, but was ultimately easier than I thought it would be. I wasn't thrilled about drilling holes into the OEM dead pedal and considered leaving that alone, but I’m glad I went ahead with it. It looks way better all matched up.

View main image large, on black.

The pedals came with outlined M’s which I didn’t like the look of, so I filled them in with black paint. I was originally going to cut frisket and spray paint them, but after not being able to find frisket at the art store, I decided to just get a thin brush and paint it by hand. Since the outlines are debossed, it allowed for a good margin of error. I messed up one time, but a swift xacto blade surgery fixed the blemish.

Here's a before and after shot, along with some closeups:

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0Aluminum_M_Pedals_painted_and_.zip (1004 KB)

My weekend project arrived a couple days too late.

Finally got these in after a week of waiting. Was hoping to install these last weekend but now it looks like it will be next weekend instead.

Still deciding whether I want to go through the trouble of masking/painting the M's though. Not a big fan of the outline. Also considering monochrome stripes but I think that will be too much work. I think I need to do some Photoshop mocks to decide.

Massive blister on my thumb from rubbing gunk off my trunk left by the M3 badge.

The cheap part (which wasn't cheap, actually) left me a little present on my thumb. The adhesive might have been ugly, but it sure was strong. I'm just glad it didn't damage my paint. It's nice and smooth now :D

A few mediocre iPhone pics of my recently tinted windows and smoked taillights.

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tinted-windows-and-smoked-taillights-DnaHCEIpvHvylIbIzEpI.zip (5.63 MB)

I think it’s going to take me awhile before I get around to taking good photos, so I went ahead and shot some with the iPhone camera. It’s a little hard to tell exactly what they look like from these but here are a few quick shots.

All side windows: Formula 1 Pinnacle Ceramic Tints 35
Rear windshield: Formula 1 Pinnacle Ceramic Tints 15
Front windshield: Untinted

None of the shots are edited in any way but the contrast does look higher in these photos than it does in real life. The tints looks black in some shots, but that’s not how it is in reality. The 15 on the back really does helps darken the 35 sides though. The closeup in photo 4 is fairly representative of the real thing. You can also see how much more transparent the tints are when the front windshield is showing light from behind in some of the shots, but all in all I’m happy with how much darker this looks than the same F1 Pinnacle 35 I had on my G35 (all around).

Rear tail lights are smoked with a medium film. I wanted to leave the bottom clear strip uncovered but there is a small area of red underneath so the installers at Tint Plus did not recommend it since they weren't sure how well it would hold up over time.

Finally...success installing the Carbon Fiber Monochrome Side Gills. Here’s some shots of the whole package (for now).

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Finally...success_installing_t.zip (960 KB)

Finally got the CF side gills installed. I was really afraid I was going to break some of the pieces, but heating up the plastic helped quite a bit. There were a couple of areas that bent out of shape and kind of stuck that way after the plastic cooled off, but bending is better than breaking so I’m ok with that. I might need to adjust the gill on the passenger side a little though since I realized after the fact that the light unit didn’t snap all the way in like it’s supposed to.

A few more photos are on my Flickr set.

First few cosmetic M3 mods done. Check out the pics.

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First_few_cosmetic_M3_mods_don.zip (824 KB)

It’s just the beginning, but here’s what the boy and I did so far this weekend:

• Carbon Fiber Kidneys
• Carbon Fiber Hood Roundel
• Carbon Fiber Trunk Roundel
• Carbon Fiber Steering Wheel Roundel
• Monochrome M3 Trunk Emblem
• Smoked Front Reflectors

I also have a set of Carbon Fiber Side Gills with Monochrome M3 Emblems but I’m having a little trouble getting them installed. One of the pieces on the unit that pulls out looks like it’s pretty easy to break so I’m going to do a little more research before I dive in. My fingers kind of hurt now anyways, from all the squeezing, pulling, pushing, etc. Might give it another attempt tomorrow, otherwise, maybe next week. I also plan on getting the windows tinted and tail lights smoked next week if I can get an appointment at Tint Plus.

I have a few more photos on my Flickr account, including a comparison of the OEM chrome and aftermarket CF kidneys.

I think I found the exhaust I want but it's pricey.

 I love the button-controlled butterfly valve system on this bad boy. Nice to have a stealth mode, but is it worth almost doubling the price?

 Will probably be a few years before I get to this mod, but it sure is tempting...

 { Sent from my iPhone }

More parts for my M3

I'm about a week away from my trip and am still collecting some odds and ends. In the photo above are:

• Smoked Reflectors
• iPod Connection Cable
• iPhone Snap-In Adapter

The Snap-In Adapter will charge and hold my phone securely in the center console, route music from my iPhone through the iDrive system, as well as boost the phone signal through the car antenna. The iPhone also connects to the car via Bluetooth so my contacts will be accessible through iDrive.

The iPod Connection Cable won't be used very much since I'll mostly be using the ease and convenience of snapping the phone in and out of the adapter, but in the event someone else wants to connect their iPod (like the boy on our ED trip), it's available. It's a prerequisite for the Snap-In Adapter otherwise I might not have gotten it.

The Smoked Reflectors will replace the OEM orange ones and add another 5HP to my 414HP V8.

{ Sent from my iPhone }

More Monochrome M3 Carbon Fiber Goodness

Side Grills...what’s next? The trip is in about 2 weeks but it's still probably going to be 2 months before I get the car re-delivered back to the states...gah...

{ Sent from my iPhone }

A few carbon fiber goodies for my M3

• 1x1 Black Carbon Fiber Front Kidneys (purchased from JL Motoring)
• Full Carbon Fiber BMW Roundels for Hood, Trunk and Steering Wheel (purchased from Euro Body Kits)
• Monochrome M3 Emblem (purchased from EAS)