g8jka - 2.0 Progress Journal - Time to say Goodbye

[g8jka]

After 5 months of ownership I feel its time to share my progress of completed modifications I have done to the zed.

It all started out as a pretty standard titanium silver 2.0:

Knowing that I was picking my zed up the following week I started to think of all sorts of modifications I could / would be doing to the car. I was trading in my E36 325i coupe, allowing me to remove some items from it so I could fit them to the zed.

Out came my genuine mtech brushed aluminium gear knob and mtech handbrake handle, completing my first modification after collection of the zed.

The new gear knob replaced the worn and tacky chrome mtech gear knob that was previously fitted giving a better feeling of shift changes due to the increased weight.

Notice in the above picture, gookah (my dad) also moved the roof switch to the centre console giving easier access, this went where the ASC switch normally is, as this was already in position of where the AC switch would be.

Then there was the handbrake to match.

The standard headunit had been replaced by the previous owner at some stage with a cheap MP3 player. This soon came out and was replaced with my Kenwood MP3 player with iPod connection. I routed the iPod cable through to the rear storage compartment as I didn't know where else to put it. Its now in the glove box thanks to a post explaining how to get the cable through and because the rear storage box is no longer in use (which will become more apparent later in the thread).

Gookah gave me an old pair of chrome door handle covers which were fitted and he also brought me a new aerial grommet and S2000 style aerial replacing the worn items.

My first major modification was to install angel eyes and to detango the headlights by removing the amber cover and replacing with chrome indicator bulbs.

LED sidelights also replaced the standard yellow bulbs to match the colour of the angel eyes.

Detangoed headlights freshen up the front of the car and the angel eyes look great. Below shows the car as it looked at the time after my first few modifications.

More updates to follow in the next few days!

 

[g8jka]

Re: g8jkaz - 2.0 Progress Journal

My next modification arrived through the post a few weeks later on and I couldn't wait to get them fitted.

They were listed on eBay for £79.00 plus postage so I took a chance and offered the seller £60.00 which was later accepted :lol:

They are very high quality and they feel nice and solid, coming complete with the correct torx tool to remove the original bolts. Fitting time was around half hour and was very straight forward much improving the looks of the zed.

Since the day I collected the zed, I couldn't believe how windy it got inside the car without a wind deflector fitted. Seeing the perspex wind deflector gookah had fitted to his Z3 I much preferred the look of these to the genuine mesh ones.

Knowing that at some stage I would be upgrading to chrome hoops there was no point me purchasing a wind deflector for the standard roll bars until I had chrome hoops fitted to the car.

Having pretty much spent all of my money on other parts for the car I couldn't afford or justify spending over £100 on a new deflector for what is pretty much a piece of plastic! So out came the cardboard and marker pen, off I went to make a template to attempt to make my own. Costing me about 20 quid for a piece of perspex I thought I would try and make one and if it was no good I would save and buy one from just roadster.

Perspex in hand, template made and armed with a jigsaw off I went around to gookah's. About an hour later, the perspex was cut to shape and the edges were nicely polished up leaving me with one very cheap DIY perspex deflector. Held on with grey cable ties to camouflage against the chrome, it fits perfectly and i was chuffed to bits

So my new headunit had been in a while now but I was still not happy with the sound coming from the terrible standard speakers.

Reading about a few other members' installs I decided to go with Vibe Slick 4" rears and Vibe Slick 5" component speakers upfront.

The front speakers were a straight swap, hiding away the crossovers behind the dash and routing the tweeter cable up through the dash so they could be mounted by the window heaters. I removed the original speakers and amp and wired the new ones straight into the speaker wiring from the back of the headunit, meaning I bypassed the original wiring and amplifier problems.

Tweeters mounted either side of the dash.

Up next were the rear speakers, which were a little harder to fit. As there is no room behind the original speakers it is impossible to get a decent set of 4" speakers in. Because the mounting depth needed to be larger with my new speakers I had to mount them on the outside of the trim. I used a dremel to cut away at the original trim so the speakers would fit flush and screwed them straight through this into the screw holders already in place.

Then came a temporary modification lent to me by gookah. As he had brought new wheels for his Z4, I borrowed the 18" ellipsoid alloys he had fitted previously. Originally I was just borrowing them for the show at Tatton Park but several months later they are still on the car.

Also a home made set of stone guards were fitted.

The zed as it stood in the show at Tatton.

 

[g8jka]

Re: g8jkaz - 2.0 Progress Journal

So my next modification was to carry on with the de-tangoing theme. I ordered a set of clear side repeaters from autotec.eu on ebay. They are great quality and look much better than the standard amber lenses. Completely finished off with a set of chrome repeater bulbs.

Both of the seat belt guides have been broken ever since I brought the car. Knowing how much of a pain it can be to replace these, we tried using heat shrink tubing around the guides to hold them together. This works a treat and I recommend it too anyone who wants to fix their broken guides.

I used to have xenon hid headlights on my previous car and having kept the kit I thought I would fit them to the zed. Unfortunately the bulbs were incorrect but as the ballasts are universal I brought a correct set of 6000k HB4 replacement bulbs. These were fitted in no time and are so much better for visibility at night. They actually look a lot bluer on the picture than what they are to the naked eye.

Carrying on the xenon look, I fitted a pair of xenon bulbs to the rear number plate lights.

The next mod has recently caused a bit on controversy on the forum, some love it, some hate it and having seen the pictures of titantim's car I had to get one. I opted for the cheaper one costing £28.50 plus £15 postage completely painted and ready to fit. As it was a lot cheaper than what others have paid I was a bit wary but comparing the ebay sellers and their feedback it looked as if all the spoilers were coming from the same seller and place, so I took the chance. It turned out to be fantastic and the perfect colour match.

Never leave things to gookah, that was his idea of a boot spoiler!

Now I'm almost up to date with my mods, but the most recent has certainly made a difference to the look of the car. Having given the Z4 wheels back to my dad, I had been searching for some new ones. Narrowing it down to two, I finally chose a set of 18" BBS LM replicas. These cost a fortune for the real deal which I simply couldn't afford but I did some research and found the best set of replicas on the market at the moment.

The specs are:
18" x 8" fronts, 18" x 9" deep dishs rears
35 offset front and rear
Fitted with 225/40/18 front, 255/35/18 rear Falken 452 tyres.

Now I brought them from reeva wheels on ebay, who never seem to get things right. Having made several phone calls to them agreeing they would fit Falkens at an extra cost, they still decided to deliver the wheels without upgrading the tyres. So they went back and over a week later I got the correct wheels and tyres :lol:

The callipers have also been painted red.

They fit pefectly flush with the arches both front and rear due to the staggered set up and dish being deeper on the rears. This meant there was no need for any spacers.

I am well and truly over the moon with them, I think they really suit the car and give it a retro look.

Now is the time for some eibachs I think :drive

 

[g8jka]

Re: g8jkaz - 2.0 Progress Journal

Having previously de-tangoed my headlights I always had the intention of getting proper clear lenses for the indicators to maintain an OEM look.

A set of headlights recently came up on ebay from a sport model, already having the clear indicator lenses fitted and the seller lived only 10 minutes from where I work. So I had a bid and won the auction, collected them the next day and fitted them later in the week.

My interior had a plain black plastic centre console that I found a bit boring and dated and I always loved the brushed aluminium console my dad had on his Z3. They seemed to be hard to source and are expensive from BMW but there is an American seller on ebay who sells them every now and then. 3 weeks later my centre console looked a bit more modern and up to date.

In my first post and ever since I got the car I've always wanted a set of chrome side gills, not to everyone's taste but I like them. Having been ripped off a few months back on a set someone was never selling, I've held on as I didn't want to pay over £120 for some. Then a set popped up at a great price from Dicanio so I didn't hang around.

I had fitted angel eyes to my old headlights and loved the look but the new headlights didn't have any fitted. So my latest mod was to put another set of angel eyes into the new headlights. They are quite hard to picture and look much better in the flesh. Hopefully I can refit my xenon's soon if I can get the one of them working again.

The zed had its first MOT since I've owned it last week so I was a bit nervous in case anything major came back. But it passed with one advisory of both rear brake pipes being slightly corroded which is a simple job and will be done in the summer.

A couple of the car as it stands at the moment :drive

 

[g8jka]

Re: g8jkaz - 2.0 Progress Journal

The last month has been a busy time adding further mods to the zed and it is now almost exactly how I want it to look.

Unfortunately I didn't take many pictures of the different stages so the car has most of the new parts fitted in the latest pictures further down.

Back in November a set of M coupe seats came up on ebay at a bargain price not far from me and I just had to get them! They were very dirty and dusty at first but came up great with some liquid leather. They didn't feel massively different to the sports seats I had but they look fantastic and are the better quality nappa leather. I just need to install the seat belt guides but this can wait until the summer.

He also had the matching door cards from the coupe but they were tatty and had the airbag badges missing but the leather was in great condition so I brought them also. Included came the larger harman kardon tweeters which was a bonus. I stripped them down and took the leather off so I could fit it to my original door cards. This meant cutting away some of the original door cards so that the airbag panel would fit correctly. All was transferred over as well as both tweeters in each panel, leaving me door cards with M nappa leather panels, with the original extended leather across the top and full leather pull handles.

I had new set of Eibach Pro-Kit 30mm lowering springs for xmas along with some brand new OEM Sachs front shocks. Got around to fitting them between xmas and new year and it was fairly simple and much faster compressing the springs and shocks with gookah's new toy.

The drivers side fitted fine and the passenger side was built up and ready to be fitted when we came across a problem. The old shocks looked as if they had been changed fairly recently but we decided to put the new ones on anyway and fitting like for like on both sides didn't seem a problem until we came to the passenger side. Whoever changed the shocks previously had fitted the drivers side shock to the passenger side and vice versa. I can't believe that a garage or whoever fitted them can possibly put them on the wrong sides, surely they would notice as they didn't sit properly and there was only 2 seats for 3 wires to sit in on the passenger side. I'm surprised I couldn't feel the mistake through the steering or it didn't make the car handle horrendously.

So off it all came and was swapped over so that the correct shocks were on the correct sides! The car instantly sat lower and the handling was vastly improved.

Next up came a strut brace to further improve the handling and along with the suspension now lower the car handles brilliantly and the steering feels a lot tighter.

Another thing I had for xmas was a Blaupunkt active sub meaning I could remove my old sub and amp from the boot freeing up some space. Now there isn't many places it can be installed but I managed to squeeze it in behind the drivers seat without compromising my driving position. It sounds fantastic and no bass is lost when the roof is down and the boot is now usable.

More recently I was looking at hardtops and because I use the car all year round I thought it would be practical and it also gives the car a completely different look. I found one on ebay in excellent condition complete with storage bag in titan silver and made the journey a couple of days later to pick it up. Not having the fitting kit on my car meant we had to travel back with it secured via the two front bolts and a couple of ratchet straps around the rear securing handles and down through the seat belt loops. It was solid and not moving anywhere.

Now stupidly I read somewhere that the fitting kits were no longer available from BMW so I went ahead and brought one of the alternative fitting kits listed on ebay. These kits don't look the greatest quality and do not have the facelift HRW switch with the loom needing be cut into the hardtop wiring to get it to become heated. I wanted the covers still so gookah rang up BMW to see how much they were and enquired about the genuine fitting kits out of interest. To our surprise they were still available complete as the retrofit kit so I went ahead and brought one as the quality is unquestionable and everything is genuine. The seller of the other kit I brought was messing me around a little and was taking ages to produce the kit, so when he offered a refund I gladly excepted not mentioning I had already got a genuine kit for just a little more than he sells his kits at! It came and was fitted several days later.

Now complete with hardtop, winter wheels back on and suspension lowered this is the zed earlier in the week.

A couple more updates will be added later in the week

 

[g8jka]

Re: g8jkaz - 2.0 Progress Journal

The list of planned mods is getting shorter and shorter now and the latest two have been fitted.

I wasn't originally going to get ///M mirrors but as my standard ones have seen better days and the bases need refurbishment I thought I would take the plunge.

Got them all sprayed up and fitted but having read about the poor visibility out of the flat mirror I thought I'd fit it anyway on the passenger side. It was so bad and I was struggling to see out of it when reversing into the garage so I purchased a new convex one. After smashing the first one and then breaking the original mirror trying to remove it today I finally have a new convex one in place at the third attempt :head:

The mirrors look fantastic, didn't think they would make much of a difference at first but I love them now and I am pleased I did the mod.

Next up one which has bugged me ever since buying the car! I really didn't like the rear clusters all because the indicator lenses were not clear, stupid I know but I thought the car looked a little dated from the rear. I purchased a new set from Germany, not cheap but they were here within two days and I am very pleased with the car now being completely de-tangoed. I'm still contemplating whether to go for a clear brakelight or not :shrug

That's all for now, I need to fix my leaky passenger side headlight before anything else!

 

[g8jka]

Re: g8jkaz - 2.0 Progress Journal

Haven't updated my journal for a while but have done a couple of mods over the summer.

Firstly I changed all of the badges on the car to carbon fibre ones, all four wheels, bonnet, boot, side gills and also steering wheel. Much prefer these to the standard BMW ones and think it makes the car a little more modern.

Next was a clear 3rd brakelight, finally managed to get one from a breakers completing the clear light package all round.

Also fitted some LED SMD sidelights in the front bumper which are a lot brighter than the previous ones and match the colour of my xenons.

And finally the hard top is one for the winter months.

Winter wheels will be going back on this weekend I think :cry:

Just in the process of doing a couple of interior mods so will update when these are finish maybe next week.

 

[Daz3]

Re: g8jkaz - 2.0 Progress Journal

Zeds looking great and nice wheel choice! Makes me wish I went for the facelift! Those Eibach springs give it quite a drop looks more than 30mm?

 

[g8jka]

Re: g8jkaz - 2.0 Progress Journal

Zeds looking great and nice wheel choice! Makes me wish I went for the facelift! Those Eibach springs give it quite a drop looks more than 30mm?

Thanks mate :-bd

Its dropped a bit lower due to the hardtop being on at the moment as it so heavy. Sits perfectly I think though when it is on but it sits just a little too high with the hardtop off I reckon. Got the winter wheels on now though, with these and the hardtop I have to watch over speed humps as it catches underneath and when I'm going over the top of the driveway ( Doesn't seem to do it with the other wheels on but don't want to wreck them with all the salt on the roads.

 

[Jamezee]

Re: g8jkaz - 2.0 Progress Journal

Nice colour :-bd

 

[z3cade]

Re: g8jkaz - 2.0 Progress Journal

It really is a lovely looking zed mate s Anymore plans for the future??

Another great mod is new Gaiters... ive just ordered a set with blue stitching for mine, there excellent quality (had a set for my 2.8)
they do most colours and stitching even Alcantara..
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-E30-E...r_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item414a25c9f4

 

[Freds Dad]

Re: g8jkaz - 2.0 Progress Journal

Looks fantastic and in the best colour as well s

Lots of mods but all tastefully done. Having seen your new carbon effect badges I may go ahead and get some for mine. Can I ask where you got them from?

 

[TaffZee]

Re: g8jkaz - 2.0 Progress Journal

Lovely Motor, Great Mods :-bd

 

[g8jka]

Re: g8jkaz - 2.0 Progress Journal

Thanks for all the nice comments everyone!

It really is a lovely looking zed mate s Anymore plans for the future??

Another great mod is new Gaiters...

Yes I want some new gaiters just to freshen the interior but doubt I would go for any other colour than black as everything else in the interior is black. Although it may break it up a bit if I got some with a different coloured stitching, what do you think :-?

Next up is a rieger front splitter for the front bumper, but I have to wait for santa gookah to deliver that for me s:lol
Also want some chrome exhaust tips, I have one new one that I brought cheap off eBay so I need to get another from the dealers. Apart from this, it will just be little changes here and there, new door handles and a front mesh grill like on the sport models.

Loving the ///M by the way ^^

Lots of mods but all tastefully done. Having seen your new carbon effect badges I may go ahead and get some for mine. Can I ask where you got them from?

Thanks, that's exactly the look I want, modded slightly but tasteful. The badges were from eBay of a user called daztow I think, he seems to do the best quality badges at a decent price also.

 

[z3cade]

Re: g8jkaz - 2.0 Progress Journal

I think the black gaiters with white stitch would look awsome in yours Dave..
Thats why i linked them for you.. the leather they are made from is really soft like i say ive had them before

The suede ones with white stitch are nice also, would look sB-)
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-E30-E...arts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item5196b8e0cd

Topgaiters are a good company and will make any gaiters to your needs if you ask..
Ive ordered some black leather with royal blue stitch for mine.. should get them tomorrow!

 

[g8jka]

Re: g8jkaz - 2.0 Progress Journal

I think the black gaiters with white stitch would look awsome in yours Dave..
Thats why i linked them for you.. the leather they are made from is really soft like i say ive had them before

The suede ones with white stitch are nice also, would look sB-)
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-E30-E...arts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item5196b8e0cd

Topgaiters are a good company and will make any gaiters to your needs if you ask..
Ive ordered some black leather with royal blue stitch for mine.. should get them tomorrow!

Yeah I clicked that link, they look pretty cool! I think I will be investing in some of them soon. Is the leather like the nappa leather on the ///M seats then as its softer?

Yours will look awesome with blue stitching, perfect combination to match the interior.

I have brought from them before, had a set of red alcantara for my mates Civic Type R. The quality was excellent and service was spot on

 

[z3cade]

Re: g8jkaz - 2.0 Progress Journal

Yes i would say its a softer leather like the nappa.. Get a set bought.. treat zeddy for christmas s

If you want a set click on this link and ask the seller if they can do them in White/grey stitch or what ever you want and they will reply asking you to just pay for the red stitch ones but make a note on payment of what colour stitch you want and your car...
So you`ll get a set for under £14 as i did!! Bargin!!! s

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/230592870740?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649

 

[g8jka]

Re: g8jka - 2.0 Progress Journal - Latest Mods (Jan 2012)

So I have been adding a couple of mods to the interior recently. Firstly I replaced the interior bulb and boot bulb for new SMD LED ones which are extremely bright and not as yellow as the standard ones.

Following on the LED theme, Zeds can be a little annoying at time because unlike more modern cars they do not have any footwell lights, useful for those wanting to hoover in there at night or if you drop anything in the dark. Now that there is loads of different LED's on the market I thought I would install some of the flexible strip type ones in the footwell and wire them to the main interior light.

They simply wire into the positive and negative wires on the interior bulb and come on at exactly the same time as the standard one and dim on / off. Peel off the double sided tape and stick them out of site somewhere.

The footwells now look like this

Also the zed doesn't have a glovebox light which is really annoying at night, another LED strip connected to the others and I can now find what I'm looking for

Had a couple of spares left over, so they went either side of boot, connected to the boot bulb

B-)

 

[g8jka]

Re: g8jka - 2.0 Progress Journal - Latest Mods (Jan 2012)

Had a few parcels recently, some of there contents below

The centre console won't be getting changed until the summer when the weather is better, but the other things will be going on in the next few days when I get some time. A new mesh grill for the front bumper as seen on the sport models, a couple of chrome exhaust trims and some new gaiters with grey stitching, thanks to z3cade for the suggestion!

Also had some new mats at christmas but haven't pictured these as I'm sure you all know what they look like

Installed a new head unit in the car, but yet to take any pictures of this and along with the mesh grill for the bumper there is a little update on the front end now the car has returned from the bodyshop :-bd

 

[z3cade]

Re: g8jka - 2.0 Progress Journal - Latest Mods (Jan 2012)

Wow I love the lights.. What a good idea!

It looks great B-)