[FullTimeD]

Welcome!

I'd like to introduce you to Earl Grey; my 2006 Sparkling Graphite Metalic BMW 330i. You may have seen me posting sporadically across the forums, but I wanted to actually sit down and catalog all the time and effort (and money ) I've put into my car. So anyway, enjoy!


I've always been a hands-on, DIY car guy, and I've had a bunch of cars/jeeps/trucks/bikes in my younger days, but never a bimmer. To be honest, after a few friends and family bought and sold theirs with nothing but trouble, I really didn't think much of them.

That is, until I met Earl Grey...


This is the day I bought the car. Body/Paint was near flawless, I could select my own gears, sitting on 19's, and only 57K on the clock! Look how happy I am!




I was immediately hooked. I had driven BMWs in the past, and in fact, every generation of 3 series except for the E90. As soon it was mine it really felt like mine, ya know?

I was in love. Especially with the wheels!
Style 437M 19x9.5 245/35 Front - 19x10.5 275/35 Rear




I had custom built my own intake scoops from sheet aluminium, and installed myself, but I guess I either forgot to document, or I lost the pictures... Dammit.


Anyway, I loved to keep it Clean. It damn near became an obsession.





After getting better at detailing, I liked to go out and snap glamour shots whenever I could.





At this point, I had owned the car for a few months, and we had done some traveling. Drove from Philadelphia to Tennessee in summer 2017 to see the solar eclipse. Then down to Virginia Beach for my cousin's wedding. A few trips to Jersey and Maryland beaches. Back and forth to visit family back home. The miles, and wear were starting to accumulate.

The front end was getting marred with rock chips, and people (re: assholes) that can't park in the city. The bumper thankfully had PPF on it, but it doesn't protect against everything. The headlights, however, were left to their own devices. So I decided it was time to brighten them up a bit (get it?).


Yellow DRL's, Beamtech LED fog lights, and V7 LED halos, along with a good ole fashioned Mother's Headlight Polish.






By now, it was getting colder out, and if you know anything about Pennsylvania, you know the winters can be dogshit. Since this was my only car, and since I preferred RWD to AWD, I needed something to get me through the winter.

Enter Craigslist Run-Flat Bridgestone Blizzacks supposedly from an M3. (245/18 F, 255/18 R)
And of course, not being content, they had to be dipped.





They certainly got put to use that winter, and my god were they beastly! Where I live has some pretty legit hills, and these tires just chewed them up. If you're ever on the fence, I would highly recommend the Blizzacks.




Since Earl had his work sneaux shoes on for the winter, it gave me the opportunity to really go nuts on the 437's (remember how I said I was a little obsessed?).

Chemical strip, then IronX decontamination, then Mother's clay bar, then compound and polish with the DA polisher, and finally an SiO2 (ceramic) coating from McKee's 37.

The one on the left is fully treated, and the right is just cleaned. Can you tell the difference?? I can.




I will definitely say that it was a shit ton of work, and tedious as all hell, but absolutely worth it! They shine so hard, even days after a wash, and even through weather. Hands down though, the number one advantage is cleaning. It's still a process, but you don't have to dig into anything. It all wipes away so easily! All's I'm sayin'.


Moving on! It's spring now, and after the dead, cold grey everything of winter, I was kind of getting tired of Earl Grey being grey on grey on grey. Grey wheels. Grey paint. Dove grey interior. It was just... It was a lot of grey.

Back to Craigslist!!




Somehow, I was able to source a black, sport interior from a local guy online. There were still some parts that would need paint though, because he didn't have any plastics, dash, or center console. No worries though, because Dupli-Color actually makes some pretty great Vinyl/Leather/Fabric paint.

I know what you're going to say, ok? I know! I should have sourced the parts, and done everything right! Right?

Well, that's not always an option. Always gotta keep budget in mind. And besides, since I was painting all of my OEM interior stuff together, at the same time, on the same day, everything matches absolutely perfectly.


See for yourself, smart guy!







Not bad, amirite?? Jesus, was that a lot of work though. But I couldn't be happier with the results! Well, that's not entirely accurate.... I still have those Dove Grey seats and door cards sitting in the basement. What to do with those, I wonder


So by now, I had the interior right wear I wanted it. No longer a sea of grey! Now we have contrast with the beautiful polished aluminium trim, instead of it disappearing into the vast expanse of pure grey nothingness! Also, the M series shift knob, alcantera boot with silver stitch, polished silver handbrake with matching alcantera and silver stitched boot really set everything off. I loved it!

But, I still wasn't happy. I'm sure many of you can relate. There was just something about it that was making me fall out of love with the car. I had been spending a ton of time on the forums, and seeing all of your amazing cars just compounded my feelings. I felt like no matter what I did, it just still wasn't quite.... there. Then I figured out it was the Pre-LCI front and rear.





That's when I decided it was time to update the sled. It was LCI time...
Back to Craigslist, and various other vendors, and I had everything I needed! Then it was off to paint, and I could not be more excited!!






It was all just so beautiful. Seeing the Sparkling Graphite Metalic in all it's brand new glory really brought me back around to loving the color. I mean, just look at it!!

Also, since I had the front end completely disassembled anyway, I decided it was time to Properly polish the headlights.

Took them off the car, and wet sanded starting at 120, all the way up to 5000. Then compound and polish, and well.. the results really speak for themselves.




And now we put everything back together, and just... wow.









It's honestly a shame that they never made the LCI cars in this color from the factory. It really does look great. I absolutely loved the way the car looks now! It's everything it always should have been.


But then... disaster.



We got some really serious rain, and when driving home from work, I had to wade through a few inches of water, enough that it was up to the fog lights. I took my time, and everything was fine, but just as I got to the center, some dick in a truck decided to hit the water from the other direction going about 30. Which caused a huge wake that smashed into the front of my car, and ended up ripping the splitter right off. I was so f*cking sour at that guy. Especially since the car was only fully together for a few months at this point.


I'll be getting another lip probably in the coming spring, and for now, it still looks good with just the carbon splitters. But it's just not the same...





After all that, I'm pretty well set with where the car is at. I would move onto performance mods, but honestly, it's probably not all that worth it. I did a K&N air filter with charcoal filter delete (oh and muffler delete a long time ago - sounds awesome, btw), but beyond that, I can't really invest much into the performance of a 330.

Most recently though, I decided to play with some vinyl wrap on the interior trim. It was my first time, and it didn't go great, but for the time being, I enjoy the look. I just can't stop tinkering, it would seem :




And of course, the red start/stop button




That's about it for now, and if you made it all the way down here, hopefully you saw something that you liked. Either way, thanks for checking out the journey of Earl Grey! I just wanted to show that patience, and hard work can go a long way, even on a budget.


Oh, and one more thing....

(mid-strip. What color should I go with??)

[bkwld]

Stunning!! Never a fan of 437 (looks too modern for our cars) but on your car and color combo its perfect match. Maybe yellow or silver calipers will finish it off. I would say no red.

[tcphoto]

I am a fan of the 437’s and hope to find a set for my E92.

[colorado.e9x]

I think the cool thing about all this is Sparkling Graphite wasn't offered for LCI cars (correct me if I'm wrong)

It's my favorite color on an E90, and seeing the LCI conversion is very satisfying. And with it being a 6MT with as low mileage as that, what a great find! Congrats! All the hard work you put into it really made it worth it. As for the calipers I think a darker blue would work well

Few suggestions for next mods:
Smoked LED sidemarkers
get your headlights freshened up (black out housing and maybe even some bavgruppe halos, they also have switchback halos that act as a blinker)
mtech rear bumper
light smoke on the taillights

okay done thread jacking lol

[Silnismo]

Well done!

[samui]

your bnw looks stylish

[King Rudi]

Dude! Great job! That thing looks amazing!

[Volasko]

Damn dude love a good update story, lots of quality work here. Well done! Now if you really want to liven her up I would suggest a final drive swap with an AT rear diff. Bolts right up and gives you about 14% more torque to the ground with the sacrifice being higher RPM while cruising.

[FullTimeD]

Thanks for all the kind words, everyone! I wanted to catalog the journey mostly for myself, but also hoped that I could maybe inspire someone to try that thing that they've been wanting to do. Not that this car is too wild, but some of the stuff that you think is impossible, really isn't.


Also, I would have been replying more timely, but as luck would have it, disaster struck again, literally on the same day that I started this thread....




Earl was parked on the street, two spots in from the curb, and a Uhaul cut the corner, and nailed the Jeep that was parked behind me, which then pushed the big metal front bumper into me. :'(
It hit so hard, that it pushed the bumper up into the trunk, and you can see near the right inner tail light it actually pushed that bodyline out and cracked the paint. It also raised the decklid from the rear quarters too, so I'm scared to see what's actually there...

So all this week, I've been dealing with my insurance, Jeep's insurance, Uhaul, police.... and just generally not having a great time. I really hope everything works out, but i'm just not sure it's going to.

Either way, thanks for checking out the thread, and all the kind words! I'll keep this updated. Who knows, maybe I will actually end up with the M-Sport bumper after all?

[colorado.e9x]

Originally Posted by FullTimeD

Thanks for all the kind words, everyone! I wanted to catalog the journey mostly for myself, but also hoped that I could maybe inspire someone to try that thing that they've been wanting to do. Not that this car is too wild, but some of the stuff that you think is impossible, really isn't.


Also, I would have been replying more timely, but as luck would have it, disaster struck again, literally on the same day that I started this thread....

Attachment 2176554


Earl was parked on the street, two spots in from the curb, and a Uhaul cut the corner, and nailed the Jeep that was parked behind me, which then pushed the big metal front bumper into me. :'(
It hit so hard, that it pushed the bumper up into the trunk, and you can see near the right inner tail light it actually pushed that bodyline out and cracked the paint. It also raised the decklid from the rear quarters too, so I'm scared to see what's actually there...

So all this week, I've been dealing with my insurance, Jeep's insurance, Uhaul, police.... and just generally not having a great time. I really hope everything works out, but i'm just not sure it's going to.

Either way, thanks for checking out the thread, and all the kind words! I'll keep this updated. Who knows, maybe I will actually end up with the M-Sport bumper after all?

Sorry for the loss man! Hopefully insurance will pay for the MSport bumper, and the trunk to be repaired. If it works out, hey free upgrade!

[phillycx]

Great build!! Thanks for sharing. I hope everything works out well regarding the rear bumper/insurance.

[Partymarty]

Small world. I walk my dogs by this corner and see your car and always love it! Sorry to see it got banged up. Stupid Philly street parking.

I’ve got a z3 mcoupe and a white e91 you might see me driving around in. Would love to cruise sometime when you’re fixed up!