A purists nightmare - E46 drift build

[Tkuhn]

Jdesign said:

That looks killer. Do you have any close up pics of the actual lights?

I don't, but what I like about the xk stuff is the exterior strips are solid ones not a stick on rolled up ribbon if that makes sense.

[Jdesign]

Tkuhn said:

I don't, but what I like about the xk stuff is the exterior strips are solid ones not a stick on rolled up ribbon if that makes sense.

That does. Like this:

[Bassboy3313]

Man! This brings back memories. I installed actual neon tube underglow on my Hyundai Tiburon back in high school. Was the talk of the town.

[Jdesign]

Bassboy3313 said:

Man! This brings back memories. I installed actual neon tube underglow on my Hyundai Tiburon back in high school. Was the talk of the town. 

everything always comes full circle

[Tkuhn]

Jdesign said:

That does. Like this:

Correct, but that is v1, the v2 connects directly at the end of the strips instead of having wires come out of the ends with connections.

[Tkuhn]

Bassboy3313 said:

Man! This brings back memories. I installed actual neon tube underglow on my Hyundai Tiburon back in high school. Was the talk of the town. 

Hell Yea! I'm 25 so when I got into cars I was at the end of all that fun I'd say. Always wanted underglow and once my 7 year build on the civic was at a certain level I pulled the trigger haha and then when I parted the civic I kept the kit for this car.

[patsbimmer1]

I love the underglow!  I had neons on my Jeep Cherokee Sport in high school and almost burnt it down from my terrible wiring job.  Ahhh memories...

[Daggerty]

Bassboy3313 said:

Man! This brings back memories. I installed actual neon tube underglow on my Hyundai Tiburon back in high school. Was the talk of the town. 

I had the tube ones also and the sides shattered in a few days. Purple man

[Jdesign]

Damn!! Im like the only one that hasn't had underglow. I did have a lowrider bike that was purple and I had purple neon underglow on that.  I need to see if I can find (actual Polaroid) pictures.

[Tkuhn]

Been a bit since an update! 

Did a few things before DD72 last weekend.

Put the stock front sway bar back on the car to eliminate some of the body roll in the from end that I believed was causing the car to grip up a bit too much. I had shortened end links that came with my coils but when I ran them on the sedan last year they caused binding due to the angle kit and actually bent the mounting tabs on the shock body. Did some testing with the stock end links and they worked out perfectly!

Also changed up the front tire size from a 205/40 to a 215/35 which in turn gave me alot more room to lower the front of the car, it was killing me looks wise at the original height. Ended up being able to lower the front end 7/8" more with the new tires! 

Oh and unrelated to things that needed to be done before drift day I also snagged a new quarter window motor from a yard since my driver side one was dead. Made me so happy to have both rear windows functioning! 

DD72 went really well and I'm pleased with getting a front sway bar back on the car along with the new height and tire set up in front! 

[patsbimmer1]

I love it!  Looks good out there!

[Tkuhn]

Random update:

Not much to report. Got some new drift spares and the car has been great even after yet another 2 day event of straight beating on the car! 

New drift spares are enkeis from an Evo X. 18x8.5 +38, good specs for bow but definatly want to get some 3 piece spares over this winter.

[Tkuhn]

Another boring update for now. Season closer was awesome! Saturday was dry and Sunday was wet all day but still had a great time and the car didnt skip a beat again

Here's a few photos till the next update!

[Tkuhn]

Aightttt nerds, with winter upon us that only means one thing. It's time to re-vamp and upgrade some things! 

First things first mid summer I moved back to west bend and luckily the place I'm at now has a garage with enough space for myself. So I moved out of my shop and into the new garage, which was one hell of a process. After moving everything first up was putting plastic up to try and hold in some heat along with adding lights. Then getting my bench set up and as much organized as I could. 

It's mostly set up now.

On to the fun stuff though. I picked up some rare BNIB all clear tails

Haven't slapped them on the car yet, but I'm excited about them.

Also snagged up a few things from an M part out for extremelyyy cheap!

OEM M hood, M skirts, a left side fender (still undecided on my plan fender wise but I couldn't pass it up), front and rear door panels with piano black trim, and 2 door seals (which I didnt need but I know the cost of them if I do end up needing them). 

Got the hood and the passenger sideskirt on with the help of @Earl to get a glimpse of what it looked like. And DAMN did it change the way the car looked way more than we thought. 

The car was stupidddd dirty from the last drift event so I put it up on stands, pulled the wheels and bumpers and pressure washed the whole car the day before it snowed. Yes it was dark and yes the water was freezing in places lol.

Also test fitted the M fender. Not sure how I feel about it yet since I dont necessarily want to do M rears yet. For multiple reasons. One being I dont want to spend the money to go wider with wheels, and another being this car is so damn clean I feel bad hacking the rear up so soon since I would most likely do rivet on rear M overs. But for fun here's a pic so I can hear your opinions. 

That's it for now boys, but doing alot of thinking on what direction other things will go.

[wasnt m3]

Hood and skirts look great. Personally, I wouldn't do the fenders. I used m3 skirts on my old touring, totally changed the look of the car.

[Jdesign]

wasnt m3 said:

Hood and skirts look great. Personally, I wouldn't do the fenders. 

I second this. The fenders are too much, and I never was a fan of those vents in the fenders once autozone started selling the "stick on's" that you see everywhere. It just looks like 00's rice to me now.  

The car looks great now and I would just stick to thestock body unless you bang into something. Als congrats on the new space!

[SteelBlue]

Does Felony Form or some other similar company make over fenders for the E46?

Would be a good medium between stock body and Pandem. 

That being said, I do really like Don Musk's E46. Feel like his car is appropriate for this thread.

[ChrisO]

Hard Motorsports makes flares moulded off the e46 m3 body, and they sell just the rears

Here they are on a sedan but they have ones for the coupe

I had there e36 flares on my old m3 and they were also moulded off the e46 m3, perfect imo. Used small color matched sheet metal screws to mount them

[Tkuhn]

To quote all of you.

Number one I would only do the fenders if I did "fake m" rear overs, also the vents would be shaved. 

Also the musk kit gets me going soooo bad haha but its insanely wide (65mm over stock M) and with wide fenders comes wide wheels and wide wheels mean needing power to spin those wide wheels. Which I'd love to do but I dont want the car to be down multiple summers due to being built or budget problems lol I'd rather be in the seat. 

Musk and a few others have made fake m rear overs and that's what I'd be looking at. A few other companies made their own wide body kits but again much to wide for me right now.

I know about ththe hard motorsport flares but I'm not a flare guy, although the price is nice so if I needed just rears due to wanting to run front M fenders (for track width reasons) I'd consider them only for the bang for the buck. But again we are back to cutting up a clean car. Which I must say I dont mind but I also dont see the need to yet and would feel a little bad haha

It's really just a big round about circle that ends me back at DONT DO IT. Lol

[Tkuhn]

Finally test fitted the clear tails