lloyd_330 Posted January 17, 2015 Report Share Posted January 17, 2015 Welcome All! I bought this car at the end of September from a dealership in kent and used my E90 320d in part ex. When i bought the car the mileage was 109k with FSH mostly at BMW Main dealers and indys. As soon as i saw the car for sale i instantly fell in love with it, the colour combination was one of the nicest ive seen and i knew i had to have it but at this point i was at home in Leeds! I waited till i got to my barracks in windsor a couple of days after speaking to the dealership to go see it, the test drive went brilliantly and i handed over the cash. The spec was as follows: 2004 Imola Red 330Ci Sport Manual 6 Speed 109k FSH 12months MOT and no tax as the day i bought it was the day the law changed! Full extended hellbeige leather interior, non factory, OEM look satnav (probably erisin) Bi Xenon headlights, 6 CD changer which wasn't there and full Harmon Kardon audio! The only modifications the car had were Cades Tyrus alloy wheels and a scorpion back box. PICS: As we all know, we only care about pictures so here are the pictures of the car as it was advertised on Auto Trader! As you can see it was in stunning condition so i was very happy indeed and i enjoyed the drive back to my barracks and then finally home at the weekend! Since then the car has changed quite a bit as i have done a few mods but i will chronologically go through them in my following posts but for now ill leave it at that until later on when i can get back on the laptop! All comments welcome and thanks for reading! GRE608Y, Lockman_321, 2202mike and 4 others 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark_F Posted January 17, 2015 Report Share Posted January 17, 2015 Very nice, I like this a lot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pauly123 Posted January 17, 2015 Report Share Posted January 17, 2015 Great car - love the colour? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimp Choker Posted January 17, 2015 Report Share Posted January 17, 2015 Very nice vert Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lloyd_330 Posted January 17, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 17, 2015 Very nice, I like this a lot Great car - love the colour[emoji106] Very nice vert Cheers lads, im gonna update the thread with my mods and how its looking right now when i get all my photos together later on Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lloyd_330 Posted January 17, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 17, 2015 When i got it home i didn't do much to it apart from just enjoy it for what it is! i managed to get a fair few lovely days with the roof down but getting closer and closer to the british winter i decided to start a hunt for a hardtop but in the mean time i had car audio to think about! Although my car was fitted with a Harmon Kardon set up from the factory, i still thought it needed a bit more clarity and bass. I had previously opted in my E90 for a 3 way component set up from Rainbow consisting of 2 6 inch woofers paired up with a couple of tweeters, an amp mounted nicely in the boot and two 8 inch shallow subwoofers fitted under the front seats! This was a great set up and i decided to go for similar! I took a drive down to my local audio specialists who'm my family have been customers since the mid 90s and the ones who did my e90 and had a good chat. I settled on reusing the same Rainbow iPaul 4.300 amplifier i had in my e90 and pairing that up with some nice rainbow door speakers/tweeters and a lovely heavy 10 inch Rainbow SL S10 subwoofer. I arranged a time for fitting and they got to work! 4 days passed and i got a phone call saying they would be finished friday night if i wanted to pick it up, of course i said yes and it wasn't till 11pm that i got the final call to come pick it up. The 11 oclock pick up time didn't bother me as we both wanted it finished on that night so off i went to go get it. Below is how it was waiting for me outside the shop. I was VERY happy with what i saw. Here is how it looks in the day time. All comments welcome as always! L4nky808, Lockman_321 and 2202mike 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CharlE46 Posted January 17, 2015 Report Share Posted January 17, 2015 Absolutely stunning mate, has to be the best E46 colour Chimp Choker and lloyd_330 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lloyd_330 Posted January 17, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 17, 2015 Absolutely stunning mate, has to be the best E46 colour I have to admit i do love the colour mate! I love how imola changes in certain lights, it can look dark and deep but also very bright in other lights! CharlE46 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lloyd_330 Posted January 17, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 17, 2015 Now that i was happy the audio side of things was sorted i decided to start on the looks! My first thought was lighting. I got on ebay and bought a pair of these: Phillips D2S Xenon Bulb with a 6000k colour temperature, at £48 a pair i was happy, expensive for bulbs but i knew i was getting quality and a 1 year warranty. I paired these up with some £5 ebay LED sidelights that would make do a week or 2 until i got around to doing angel eyes. Before: After: Then came the angel eyes... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay. Posted January 17, 2015 Report Share Posted January 17, 2015 Lloyd, just curious did you have to put any money to or did they put any money in your pocket from the e90? Stunning car as you know I think! Chimp Choker 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lloyd_330 Posted January 17, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 17, 2015 Lloyd, just curious did you have to put any money to or did they put any money in your pocket from the e90? Stunning car as you know I think! Hi mate i put in £1k towards, my E90 was lovely but mileage was 164k pal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimp Choker Posted January 17, 2015 Report Share Posted January 17, 2015 If I can get the imola beast near in condition as yours Lloyd I'd be a happy man Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lloyd_330 Posted January 17, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 17, 2015 If I can get the imola beast near in condition as yours Lloyd I'd be a happy man Thanks chimp i love how yours looks mate! Look forward to seeing it in the flesh these upcoming months maybe?! [emoji106] Chimp Choker 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lloyd_330 Posted January 17, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 17, 2015 When it came to angel eyes i had 2 choices, CCFL or LED? The look i was after was a nice glow, not overly bright but not dim either. I decided to go for LEDs as i wanted the remote feature where you unlock your car and the angels come on with your interior lights so i ordered some from ebay. They arrived shortly after and i opened them up and got my head around all the wiring and everything i needed to do to fit them. I got myself a week off from work and started the job, i wired up all i needed to wire up and tested the lights, they worked! Then i got the headlights out and took them inside. Pre heated the oven and put them in, i was wary about doing this as the idea of putting anything from your pride of joy in the oven just doesn't seem normal but in fact this was the easiest part! Now, ever since i'd opened the package up i'd had a niggling thought that these LED angel eyes i'd recieved were too big, I was right. By the looks of things i'd been sent M3 size angel eyes even after specifically ordering these. So i was left with stripped and open headlights ready to get the angel eyes they wanted but the wrong bloody size. So off i went with my uncle who was helping me to get some replacements. The place i ordered them from unfortunately were down south so there was no chance i was going there! I went to a place called creative auto in Leeds and went to see what they had in stock. They had plenty of 2 door facelift angel eyes in stock, but in CCFL form at a very good price. I was left with not much choice as i'd wanted to get this done and dusted by now so i bought them. Got them home, tested them and they worked! Fitted them in the headlights and got them back on the car later that night. This was the day after, playing around with number plate on/off The next thing i wasn't happy with was the grills, i liked the black grills i'd seen on other imola red examples but for mine i wanted a cleaner look and chrome went perfect with my alloys and what i had planned in the future. So i was back on flea bay and ordered a set of brand new genuine kidney grilles. Next step on my list was the hunt for the hardtop... Lockman_321 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pauly123 Posted January 17, 2015 Report Share Posted January 17, 2015 Was it a happy hunt? lloyd_330 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
e46 330ci vert Posted January 17, 2015 Report Share Posted January 17, 2015 finally I guy with a sub facing the correct way.the installers defo know there stuff!!! lloyd_330 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lloyd_330 Posted January 17, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 17, 2015 So I trawled through ebay and other selling sites for a mint condition imola red hardtop not too far away that didn't cost the earth. I did finally find one and it was in lovely condition and about 50 miles away. The only problem was that it wasn't a buy it now it was a bid and by now the bids had gone up to £550, this was by no means expensive when it comes to hardtops it was about average so i thought i'd stick a bid in with an hour to go. I ended up in a bidding war with 1 minute to go and i set my max bid to £600, the hardtop sold for £615. I was gutted at the time but then i thought screw it who needs a hardtop anyway i bought a convertible and i intended to use it as such. A couple of weeks passed and i knew we weren't gonna get much better weather and everyones photos on instagram of 'winter mode' got me a little jealous as i think the hardtop look is beautiful so i looked again. 5 minutes later i had secured a deal for a mint condition hardtop that was an hour away from my work in windsor for a nice £400 cash. Safe to say i was very happy. The next day i skived from work to go pick it up from a very nice man called Terry who owned a telecom business and an Imola Red E46 M3. I spent a good hour talking to him about all things BMW and he told me about the E36, E46 and E92 M3s he'd had in the past and the fact he had a day trial run in the new M4 from his local BMW dealer. He ended up not buying the M4 as he said they would 'only' offer him £12k for his current E46 and he preferred it anyway, he said the M4 lacked feel and emotion, very fast but emotionless. So we swapped over the hardtop and cash and i took a quick snap of it as soon as it was on Instantly i noticed the extra weight but at the same time the ride had stiffened up so much more and the car felt very good in the corners, it was never bad however but that slight body roll you got with convertibles was all but gone. Now i had the hardtop sorted I had to sort out the stupid arch gap you get at the front on convertibles which i really didn't like, i loved how the car looked now but it definitely needed to be lower! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lloyd_330 Posted January 17, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 17, 2015 finally I guy with a sub facing the correct way. the installers defo know there stuff!!! yeah they are great guys mate and with the 10 inch subwoofer that was the only option and i much prefer it! the boot acts as the sub box! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paddybrown23 Posted January 17, 2015 Report Share Posted January 17, 2015 Love your car mate, I'm following you on Instagram I think Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lloyd_330 Posted January 17, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 17, 2015 Love your car mate, I'm following you on Instagram I think Aye mate same here! Yours is the imola tourer? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paddybrown23 Posted January 17, 2015 Report Share Posted January 17, 2015 Love your car mate, I'm following you on Instagram I think Aye mate same here! Yours is the imola tourer? Certainly is! Really is the best colour isn't it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lloyd_330 Posted January 17, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 17, 2015 Yeah mate i love this colour, it works well on all shapes! How long have you had your car pal? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lloyd_330 Posted January 17, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 17, 2015 Love your car mate, I'm following you on Instagram I think Aye mate same here! Yours is the imola tourer? Certainly is! Really is the best colour isn't it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paddybrown23 Posted January 17, 2015 Report Share Posted January 17, 2015 Must have had mine about 3 or 4 years now. Longest I've ever owned a car! Chimp Choker 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lloyd_330 Posted January 17, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 17, 2015 Must have had mine about 3 or 4 years now. Longest I've ever owned a car! Nice one mate, says a lot about e46s anyway! I've only had my 46 since end of september but im loving it mate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
