What have you done to your car today?

[Skillmister]

Not sure if buying one that's been tracked is a sensible idea but I assume you've taken good care of it so get in touch in September if you've still got it

 

[Rainagul]

Got my head back today from machine shop and happy with the results

Loving the smooth finish, almost don't want to put it back on the car

Head had a basic clean, with the valves cleaned and regrounded before being leak tested again.

New valve stem seals are also in

Once head is back on the car I will spend some more time cleaning it, but looks a lot better than what it was already

Also cleaned to cams back to metal before applying new cast iron vht paint

Also got round to installing new fuel filter. No idea if the old one has ever been changed so will cut it open on the weekend and see what's inside

got the bank holiday weekend coming up, will focus on getting the engine fully rebuilt and hopefully ready to back into the car. can't wait!

 

[Swifty55]

Gone in for an MOT and Service.

Failed on the rear disc and pads.

More money to spend!

 

[Biffa]

Ugly? Its gorgeous and has so much presence. I'm with you though, I'd have one over an Impreza any day - or an Evo for that matter.

Appreciate the comments guys. Its also relatively practical. This chest of drawers was just a bit too big to slide all the way in. But still managed to drive it an hour back from where we picked it up from like this:

 

[Mart2912]

Replaced the standard air box with Forge Induction:

 

[Clarkey]

Popped up to driftworks to get some springs.

Ringo's car was looking pretty..

Fitted Springs to car..

Going for a softer suspension because I'm getting fat and the jiggle is too much

 

[Cookeh]

Any sneak peeks of the DW82? Some major working happening on her from the updates Ive seen!

 

[Clarkey]

No, I'm not really aware of anything going on with it. I know they assembled the whole thing in less than a week and made it to BDC Rd1 where it retired with an electrical problem IIRC.

 

[Demon]

I bought a set of second hand oem lights for the M3, when they arrived, they had some pretty bad scuffing that you could feel with your fingernail so pretty bad.. and of course normal dulling with micro scratches..

SO I contacted the guy I bought them off and agreed to a £30 refund against the pair of lights (there was an even deeper scratch on the other one)..

So I went and bought a £25 Meguars Headlight Repair Plus kit, and after some wet/dry and polish the same area shown above now looks like..

Still some very very minor micro scratches, but they look absolutely pristine!

I will order some of the plastic/rubber end guards which I think are pretty cheap and these will be a nice replacement of my current lights which the passenger side had a few of LEDs die..

 

[T0pPredator]

Nicely done, I'm going to see if I can rescue my headlight lenses in the same way at some point soon.
What causes the LEDs to die? Have you checked your replacements for dead ones or just fingers crossed until fitted?

 

[mrk]

I would never bother wasting time bringing back headlamp lenses, because once the oem protective layer is polished off, they will dull even faster and scratch easily.

Lenses are fairly cheap and will last many years when replaced with new.

Disabled the mildly annoying flickering of the front LED indicator bulbs. Git tired of people telling me "Why are your lights blinking??" when starting the car

 

[Mart2912]

I would never bother wasting time bringing back headlamp lenses, because once the oem protective layer is polished off, they will dull even faster and scratch easily.

I'm sure you could just use a type of clear coat to prevent them from dulling down again once treated.

 

[mrk]

The lenses are plastic, you will never get the OE finish back after that point.

 

[Diagro]

I bought a set of second hand oem lights for the M3, when they arrived, they had some pretty bad scuffing that you could feel with your fingernail so pretty bad.. and of course normal dulling with micro scratches..

SO I contacted the guy I bought them off and agreed to a £30 refund against the pair of lights (there was an even deeper scratch on the other one)..

So I went and bought a £25 Meguars Headlight Repair Plus kit, and after some wet/dry and polish the same area shown above now looks like..

Still some very very minor micro scratches, but they look absolutely pristine!

I will order some of the plastic/rubber end guards which I think are pretty cheap and these will be a nice replacement of my current lights which the passenger side had a few of LEDs die..

I would get someone to lacqure them now. They will go dull asap

 

[[TW]Fox]

My E39 lights went like this when the car was 6 years old. I bit the bullet and bought brand new Hella lenses and then kept the car clean as much as I could.

8 years and 50,000 miles later and they still look perfectly clear.

 

[Demon]

Nicely done, I'm going to see if I can rescue my headlight lenses in the same way at some point soon.
What causes the LEDs to die? Have you checked your replacements for dead ones or just fingers crossed until fitted?

I've already checked these ones are OK< just unplugged the wires from the back of my current ones, and laid the new ones in teh boot, connected them up and they all work.

I don't know exactly how the LEDs died, all I do know is that the lens had been removed prior to me getting the car, but it's not uncommon looking on the forums.

I'm sure you could just use a type of clear coat to prevent them from dulling down again once treated.

I will see how it goes, honestly I don't think the rear lights have any coating on them, hence why they scratched so easily in the first place, but I'll keep an eye on it, they will be protected with oodles of wax/sealant and detailing products.. if they do get a bit dull, the plastx just gently applied by hand is all that is needed, 5 mins max.

 

[Demon]

I would never bother wasting time bringing back headlamp lenses, because once the oem protective layer is polished off, they will dull even faster and scratch easily.

Lenses are fairly cheap and will last many years when replaced with new.

Yeah, having seen your before/after shots in the other thread, I'll be doing that to mine!

Disabled the mildly annoying flickering of the front LED indicator bulbs. Git tired of people telling me "Why are your lights blinking??" when starting the car

Carly is great, I've been coding the Mrs Mini Countryman with it, so easy!

The lenses are plastic, you will never get the OE finish back after that point.

I tried a small section of mine, far too pitted and they also 'burn' on the inside slightly or thats how it looks..

 

[Demon]

Next job today was number plates..
- The rear was delaminating
- Cruddy BMW logos where fading
- The rear plate looked like it cost £2.50 and was made by a school kid.
- I'm not a fan of the 3D lettering


So I decided to try some press ally plates, a Whopping £20 from eBay and allegedly legal, with reflective paint, postcode of supplier, bs stamp and correct font/letters.

Front Before:

After:

I will say that it took 30 minutes to get rid of the previous 3 or 4 sets of sticky pads left behind! but googled and tried a few things, by far the best was
1. Use a hairdryer and a small plastic scraper, this will remove 90%+ of the pads, just leaving small amounts of residue
2. Use white spirit to remove the residue, damp it down with white spirit first, then use your nail to remove the residue, and keep wiping clean with white spirit.
3. Use water and a good degreaser (I used Tesco worktop cleaner) to then rinse/clean the white spirit and any remaining dirt.

That should get you a nice clean surface for your new sticky stuff.. I used Harris Number Plate Tape, which was brilliant and since it's thinner strips you can pretty much put it entirely around the edge of your plate.

 

[Will]

Collected my MX5 from BBR, the spec is now as follows:

BBR/AT Power DBW 42mm shaftless individual throttle body conversion
BBR 'Super 225' optional intake plenum
BBR 'Super 200' specification uprated camshafts
BBR custom ECU recalibration (EcuTek)
BBR PCV/breather system with catch can
BBR 2.5 inch stainless steel exhaust mid-pipe with 200 cell sports cat
BBR 2.5 inch 'GT' stainless steel exhaust silencer
Racing Beat 4-1 stainless steel exhaust manifold
Supertech uprated valve springs
Supertech uprated titanium valve spring retainers
K&N drop-in air filter element (inside modified factory airbox with 3 inch MAF housing/outlet pipe)

Stock power is 158bhp, this being a naturally aspirated 2.0 engine (Mazda MZR family, so very similar the popular Ford Duratec as found tuned in various Caterhams, Ginetta G40 etc).

Obligatory engine bay pic:

And the power graph:

Now I have 221bhp, pretty epic improvement from stock when staying naturally aspirated

Thats with the airbox/plenum too, if I ran open trumpets it'd be the 228bhp graph, so may experiment to see if I can come up with a less restrictive intake and get some of that power back. There's not much more to give though, not without a ported and polished head which is very very expensive, and you'd probably want to forge the bottom end too for longevity if pushing much further. I could stick one of the large motorsport style sausage shaped filters on, it would sound incredible then but perhaps a bit much day to day. Not really had much chance to have a play with it given the bad weather today, however I can confirm it sounds great and also goes rather

 

[Diddums]

Looks great, and very tidy too! Good job