My New Low Mileage E46 M3 Convertible
 

I thought I would start a journal as no doubt I will be doing a few bits and pieces to the car over the following months.

A few pictures as the car stands at the moment, totally standard and untouched from new. It even had the plastic wrapping on the sill protectors and the original date stamped conti m3 tyres.

So far since owning the car I have detailed it inside and out and did the following:

Paintwork/exterior

Snow foamed exterior
Iron x applied to paintwork and alloys
Snow foamed again
Washed with two bucket method with dodo juice sour power
Rinsed and towel dried
Clayed all over with bilt hamber regular clay
Polished with menzerna 203s
Sealed with dodo juice supernatural hybrid

Tyres dressed with Meg's endurance gel

Interior

Leather cleaned with Dr leather cleaner
Leather protected with ltt ultra
Plastics dressed with Poorboy's natural look trim dressing

Engine bay

Engine cleaned with bilt hamber surfex hd
Plastics dressed with Aerospace 303




Fitted some new side repeaters and oem cup holders.

The car is then going to have 3m venture shield paint protection film applied to the front end and other vulnerable areas prone to stone chipping as the paintwork is original and wanted to try to protect it as best as possible.

Then perhaps a repaint of the calipers in satin black and and new oem disks and pads all round at a later date (these ones have hardly any lip just slightly corroded)

Pictures copied over from my other thread in new members..


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Wow that's very nice.. Even like it on the smaller wheels

What a superb example you have there :cry:

Thanks mate, i wasnt to sure on the alloys at first and was going to change them to the 19" type. But they have grown on me and think they will be staying now as are the original ones and have never been refurbed.:top:

8k miles :eek: :eek:

needs the 19's though....just for the looks

The car is an 03 model and had one lady owner up until 2012. Do agree the 19s look lovely. Might get myself a set and keep as spares. The ride is much more comfy on the 18s mind you.

Looking good mate! Always liked your cars :DD:

Thanks mate that's very kind of you to say :top::top:

Looks Nice :top:
I'd be changing the tyres at 11 years old though...

I did wonder this too but bmw gave it a good check over a couple of weeks ago and they said there is nothing wrong with the tyres at all and have plenty of life left in them.

Keep the alloys don't change them looks stunning :top:

Cheers mate, they are a bit different to the the 19s that the majority of m3s have plus non of the problems of them corroding as there not diamond cut.

Not seen one that mint for years take it it's never seen the rain

It has been used in the wet but not through the winters etc. :top:

Towing eye and wrench is missing from the tool kit, only joking take it theres a can of foam and the pump to pump it into tyres.

Very nice ,with the low miles what sort of money was it

I did wonder at first but apparently it's correct. There is a Towing eye under the boot floor with the tyre inflator and guess you don't need a wheel brace as no spare wheel to change.

Cheers mate, I paid a fair but decent price for it and will hopefully hold its value well as lots are getting tatty now

Lovely car mate, well done :grin: was looking at these a couple of years ago, get the 19's on there :DD:

Oh and check out horsepower freaks turbo conversion :shocked:

Very nice mate, and spankingly clean :cool:

Is that titan silver? if so its the same as mine(although not quite an M3!)

And i noticed the missing tools, check that the tow hook is indeed somewhere in the boot, pain in the arse if the worst happens and you need towing/or need to tow someone else.

Looks nice. So the rear sub frame should be ok then.

wow thats a belter.... 8k you lucky bugger. mind you all your cars seem to be mint

Cheers mate and it sure is titan silver :top:I thought this about the toolkit but apparently its correct and how they come. The towing hook is under the boot floor and there is no wheel brace as no spare wheel, i think the m3 uses the same plastic case as all the 3 series models hence the gaps.

Cheers Glenn, the subframe all been checked twice recently by two different bmw dealers and is all good. I think they tend to go more on cars that have been driven hard and tracked etc but dont think the old dear that owned this would have done either in the middle of London :cry::cry:

Cheers buddy, do you still have your s2 mate? hows she coming along if so?

very nice mate,very good cars:grin: my mate sold his not long ago and misses it

What a steal Jamie :) Smashing motor!

Where the hell did you see this advertised? 8k miles, what a result! :DD:

Can't be that many around with mileage as low as that! :top:

I had seen the car end of last year for sale and spoke to the owner but it needed an inspection 2 doing and at the time he wouldn't get this done or budge on price. He then called me a couple of weeks ago to say that the car had been into bmw and had this done and at a cost of nearly £1500. Felt more assured that the car had a clean bill of health after this and after looking at several others that I wasn't happy with due to me being so picky, I went and viewed this and couldn't fault the car it really did look like a year or so old m3 :top:

That's a brand new car in my book. Looks spot on.

There is alot of rusty E46 out there

8k!! fair play bet it still smells new.

I had a carbon black e46 m3 vert. best all rounder I've ever owned!

yes mate still got it...just replaced a single pass cooler and pipe work and a new actuator. gunna tax mot soon then after summer full strip down....paint bigger box and a few other bits possibly. nice move on the bm tho not many like that

very nice mate, your escort was always a fav of mine. Still got my 16i though and looking forward to going to some shows this year fingers crossed :top:

Nice :top: do like carbon black with red interior looks ace. Considering how many e46 m3s they actually made finding a nice one isn't easy.

I like. They look so much better on the diamond cut 19's though. I can afford one (i have about 12k left) but the problem is here it is known as a drug dealers car, not the image I want at all. A pal has one and he is constantly getting pulled and the car getting searched, never happened to him before he bought one. Same with range rover sports :/

You got the best alloys on it the other style look really chav and after market never really look good

thanks mate. 16is are gorgeous cars Spesh in white or caspian blue. get it to some shows and i can have a ganders

Stunning. I am hoping to get an M3 coupe later this year if things pan out at work.

Will 100% be taking the 16i to some shows this year as last year it didn't make any is only a couple of months till central day :top::top: