[Mark e90]

Well after 6 months on the hunt for a car would you believe it i have bought my old car back ! My BMW 325i satin pearl white ! I sold the car just under 1 year ago and its only done just under 3k miles in that time the owner is now moving abroad. Picked it up a few days ago and its still just as good as when i sold it apart from a few minor cosmetic issues that need sorting. As much as i loved my Range Rover you really just can't beat how the e90 drives, no slowing down for corners etc. The car still has the wrap that i had done but i think i will be removing this and thinking of satin metallic grey but we will see. I will post up my plans and keep use updated on its progress. Anyway I'm well chuffed with getting it back, spent a lot on it when i had it originally so it wants for nothing

Plans are, Remove wrap and possibly re wrap, refurbish alloys, red tint on rear lights and see where it goes from there

I have been busy.... wrap has been removed, as good as it looked there were a few area i wasn't happy with at corners etc ( this was the first car i wrapped ) plus being white satin you really need to keep on top of it to keep the dirt from staining which i don't think the previous owner did and it looked a little grubby in areas.



Wrap Removed




The paintwork was immaculate i had corrected the paint just before it was wrapped so just a once over with a finishing polish and it looks great, the roof was pretty rough though.... so much swirls the paint actually looks grey you can see from this photo the half i had corrected and the other half that was still left todo


Polished half


Polishing complete and ready for wax

[RU54HEL]

Looks good dude

[Sbm007]

Looks better without wrap IMO

[RajB]

Spot on now the wrap is removed. I like freshly detailed black. Just a shame you literally drive down the road it starts to look dirty again.

[Mark e90]

Yeah I am liking it myself ! To be fair though the photos of the wrap don't do it justice, my plan was to re wrap straight away in satin grey metalic but I have missed the paint so it will be staying like this for now. The front bumper and bootlid are going to need resprayed at some point so need to make the desicion weather to get this done as there is no point if I'm going to re wrap. that's the thing although the paint is in very good condition It is a 10 year old car so lots of little imperfections that's the benifit of the wrap it hides all of these....

[Soul_Glo]

Not trying to thread jack but is it legal? As in the car is black and the wrap was white.

[Mark e90]

Yeah wraps are legal as it classed as temporary change so same rules don't apply to a respray colour change. I got pulled in this car when I last owned it and police were fine with it, think they must see it all the time

[Wobble]

Originally Posted by Mark e90

Yeah wraps are legal as it classed as temporary change so same rules don't apply to a respray colour change. I got pulled in this car when I last owned it and police were fine with it, think they must see it all the time

Hi bud the laws recently changed,if a car is wrapped then the log book colour now needs to be changed,now sure exactly when it changed but saw it a magazine and also at a RS focus show x

[Mark e90]

Now all waxed/sealed using Soft 99 Fusso coat, for anyone looking for a good wax give this a try its amazing stuff, beads like no other wax i have used and only £20 a pot

[Mark e90]

Got the car up in the air and gave the callipers and hubs a tidy up, sprayed them silver but forgot to get photos. Also i wasn't liking the look of the tyres, the fronts only had around 2mm and the backs had cheapest of the cheap Sunny tyres which were horrid in the wet so just replaced all 4.

Having a few other bits and pieces taken care of on Monday. I noticed under the bonnet the oil filter housing is leaking as well as the valvetronic gasket so having these replaced as well as valve cover gasket, oil+filter change, coolant flush/change, drive belt and diff oil change

expensive week ! but has to be done. When i add it up its still not bad considering what i paid for the car and i will be happy knowing the car is 100% heading into the winter and with a few long trips coming up. Its certainly being treated well since i took ownership !

[Jimmy-M2OG]

Looking good bud that's the kind of garage I want

[The0pportunist]

Originally Posted by jimmy-320d

Looking good bud that's the kind of garage I want

+1 Awesome garage man. 1 day

[Mark e90]

Cheers guys. yeah its a great big garage only issue with it though is its pretty cold this time of year. due to its size it's impossible to heat.

[Joshbm]

Nice garage! Mines like that but full of shit!

Car looks much better in black too!

[Mark e90]

Got another few things done on the car, decided to wrap the front grills with some gloss black vinyl i have lying around and tinted the rear lights with some red tint from eBay, not sure if i like the red lights yet they look a little pink in the photos but not as bad in person, just trying it out with the film and if i like it i will spray them. As for the grills i can't believe i didn't do this sooner it looks so good in person i was alway put off when looking at photos of black grills but the photos just don't seem to show it right, as soon as i stepped back from the car after fitting them i was sold, looks much meaner Wish i had done this while the car was satin white !

[Wayne-G]

Another vote for it looking better un-wrapped, looks 100000x better in black!
Grills look spot on too.

Wayne

[Mark e90]

cheers, to be fair they photos of the wrap in that lighting don't show how it looked at all i will post one that shows it better, it was very nice/expensive vinyl, another wrap could be on the cards but would be after xmas it will either be another wrap or front end plus bootlid respray i will need to make a decision at the time but if I'm sorting the paintwork the car won't be getting wrapped again. I have a few long trips planned throughout the winter so no point doing anything until after that. Thats the thing i like about the vinyl its like a new car after with hiding all chips and imperfections. Im thinking satin metallic grey, a full wrap would definitely be a fair bit cheaper than the paintwork....

[Mark e90]

Not done much else to the car recently except replaced the battery, I had got the Carly app to register it but ordered the wrong adapter ( bluetooth, my car needs the cable ) so its just parked up looking rather sorry for itself waiting for the correct cable to arrive. Its in desperate need of a wash but not in this weather !

I also paint corrected the gloss black interior trims ( looks like the previous owner had been a little careless with keys etc but I'm actually thinking of wrapping the centre gearstick surround trim in black carbon as the gloss black get marked very easily in this particular area. i want to keep the rest gloss black but dont know if that will look daft, whats your thoughts ?

[Joshbm]

Looking good, regarding the carly adaptor. What gen did you order as the second gen works with all cars including pre 07. I only know because I have one and was told I'd need a wired one.

[Aragorn30d]

carly works over bluetooth on my '06, but only for reading fault codes. It doesnt work for coding.

[Joshbm]

Originally Posted by Aragorn30d

carly works over bluetooth on my '06, but only for reading fault codes. It doesnt work for coding.

Mine works for both coding and fault codes.

[Mark e90]

it wasn't an official Carly adapter it was one off eBay, new cable arrived in post this morning and thats the battery registered and a few other bits and pieces messed about with