[blksab65]

Ohhh man, the late night shopping got the best of me. I just picked up this entire ZHP exhuast system for $140 bucks. It's even pressure washed clean for me!

Just your standard "quick" 10:00pm adventure 30 miles south.. Plan to install it tomorrow on the lift at work 😃

I drove a steady 85mph back on the freeway, surprisingly wind noise wasn't that bad.

 

[mjweimer]

Hilarious. You win the best use of sunroof award. Seriously though, that is one clean exhaust system and what a great price, plus parts of it will carry over to the 3.2 upgrade.

Oh and no love for the ~'86 Country Squire wagon in the background?

 

[yjsaabman]

Ohhh man, the late night shopping got the best of me. I just picked up this entire ZHP exhuast system for $140 bucks. It's even pressure washed clean for me!

Just your standard "quick" 10:00pm adventure 30 miles south.. Plan to install it tomorrow on the lift at work

I drove a steady 85mph back on the freeway, surprisingly wind noise wasn't that bad.

Love it! I was so bummed when an exhaust for my wife's Mini was like 8" too long to fit in the ski bag!

 

[Bryson]

Where does everyone keep finding these ZHP exhausts?!

 

[blksab65]

Bam! Its installed, and everything I hoped it would be. The car sounds exactly like a ZHP even having the 2.5L engine. To people who haven't heard one, I'd describe the sound being just slightly louder then a stock 330 exhaust. Nothing annoying, 100% noticeable sound difference. Love it.

The benefit to this vs stock 330? The ZHP doesn't have the stupid muffler silencer flap. And ZHP tips look good too.

Before...

After...

Edit: I also replaced the O2 sensors. The car still had the original O2 sensors from 2002!

 

[blksab65]

Hilarious. You win the best use of sunroof award. Seriously though, that is one clean exhaust system and what a great price, plus parts of it will carry over to the 3.2 upgrade.

Oh and no love for the ~'86 Country Squire wagon in the background?

I was in this same exact scenaro once before in my e34 touring lol.. Same thing, stuck the exhaust right out the sunroof! Also.. that was exactly my thoughts. I can use it for now but when I come across a S54 donor car I'll already have the ZHP muffler ready to install 😃

And funny enough, that wagon in the background was owned by the kid who sold me the ZHP muffler. He told me some clowns punctured a hole in his gas tank a few weeks back and stole his gas! Unbelievable..

 

[blksab65]

Some updates...

I know the car pictures well in photos but in person it has some serious clear coat peal. Honestly it's a huge disappointment to me and it'll need to be addressed at some point in the near future. It's sad because the car is accident free, never repainted. I guess the California sun got the best of this red paint..


Since it needs to go in for paint work anyways I figured I'd spend the extra money and stopped by my local dealer to order a full Mtech 2 body kit (aka ZHP bumpers). It cost me a small fortune but I figured since the car needs the roof re sprayed, hood and rear hatch- this would be the time to convert it to Mtech 2.


Not only this but @George Hill made a post a few years back saying there are 128 rear Mtech touring bumpers left in the world, well it's down to 17 bumpers now! I'm sure sometime next year it'll be NLA, and your only options will be aftermarket (if they even make a touring rear bumper). The rear bumper cost $560 bucks for those wondering (not counting the trim pieces).

M-Tech II touring rear bumpers

Just checked on MTech2 rear bumpers, there are (126) in Germany and (2) in the US, FYI. I'm looking to buy a few of these to put on some projects I have going. I might be able to negotiate a better price if I get commitments for more than (5) so I'm checking to see if there is interest for a...

www.e46fanatics.com

In the meantime while I wait on my body kit the car received a little love.

At the junkyard I found the correct "e46 manual transmission" gauge cluster insert piece, a good used BEHR radiator from "2021" (only 1 year old and $20 dollars.. perfect back up till I find my S54 donor car) and the e46 manual transmission electric fan.

I also imported a set of 4x Individual door sill's from the UK.

This is the worst spot of clear coat peal. I've thought it over quite a bit, I'll have the windshield removed so the roof will receive a "glass out" repaint.

I've got quite a bit of work a head of me.. I need to remove door handles, trim pieces, glass, roof rails.. Many items so the paint work comes out excellent.

The LCD screen on the gauge cluster for the Automatic transmission now completely deleted.

 

[blksab65]

I got the radiator installed over the weekend. It was perfect because the radiator was from a manual transmission car so the drain plug was correct.. I also got to finally delete the transmission cooler.. ect.

I also got a brand new set of Bav Sound speakers. I'm not entirely impressed with the speakers but they were having a 22% off sale and my speakers were blown.. so why not. Someone else mentioned on here they have sales frequently so be patient and wait for a sale.. thats exactly what I did.

My biggest complaint- the tweeters. You need to use an adapter harness and the problem is its so bulky, the front door panel(s) don't want to clip in on the two left-most door panel clips. You know, the little white door panel clips..



I'm thinking I'll re install the factory HK tweeters and leave the rest of the speakers Bav sound.

 

[///Mark_D]

This is the worst spot of clear coat peal. I've thought it over quite a bit, I'll have the windshield removed so the roof will receive a "glass out" repaint.

I've got quite a bit of work a head of me.. I need to remove door handles, trim pieces, glass, roof rails.. Many items so the paint work comes out excellent.

I feel your pain with the clear coat peel. It's an issue on both my Japanrot E46's. On my sedan it started on the hood, then the top of the roof like you've got, then the tops of the door handles, and finally the trunk lid. My wagon just has it mostly on the rear hatch, and a few small spots on the roof (for now) It seems to be a really common issue with this color. All the red E46s I see at the salvage yard have clear peeling somewhere too.

 

[Geo31]

I too wasn’t all that impressed with the Bav Sound set-up, but people told me I was wrong, LOL.

It‘s a little bright for my taste and lacking in bass. If I try to compensate for the lack of bass (and I’m talking clear musical bass, NOT thumping) with the EQ it just gets a bit too muddy IMHO.

 

[blksab65]

So everything's been ready for pick up at the dealership for at least a week now, excluding the rear bumper. It's still on a boat heading this way from Germany! I decided to stop by and pick everything else up in the wagon.

This was inside the bag with the bumper, it must be the manufacture BMW use's to produce bumpers.

And this is my total for the entire kit, plus $541.99 (I didn't pay for the rear bumper today because its not here). Also subtract the $23.99 for coolant lol.


Edit: I'm sick to my stomach seeing I just payed $323 dollars for a damn air duct.

 

[blksab65]

I too wasn’t all that impressed with the Bav Sound set-up, but people told me I was wrong, LOL.

It‘s a little bright for my taste and lacking in bass. If I try to compensate for the lack of bass (and I’m talking clear musical bass, NOT thumping) with the EQ it just gets a bit too muddy IMHO.

That's exactly how I feel about it also I'm glad I'm not the only one lol. And it's funny how highly they and everyone speaks about the sound system.

 

[blksab65]

I feel your pain with the clear coat peel. It's an issue on both my Japanrot E46's. On my sedan it started on the hood, then the top of the roof like you've got, then the tops of the door handles, and finally the trunk lid. My wagon just has it mostly on the rear hatch, and a few small spots on the roof (for now) It seems to be a really common issue with this color. All the red E46s I see at the salvage yard have clear peeling somewhere too.

I think your right, I've seen one other red e46 sedan now and same thing.. clear coat peal on the roof, ect. I guess the red paint just didn't hold up as well for whatever reason. Either way I'm still happy to have found a red wagon lol!

 

[Geo31]

That's exactly how I feel about it also I'm glad I'm not the only one lol. And it's funny how highly they and everyone speaks about the sound system.

At some point I’ll replace the rear 6x9s and am hoping that helps.

 

[yjsaabman]

At some point I’ll replace the rear 6x9s and am hoping that helps.

That is the one area the BavSound setup doesn't address with the HK setup. I'd like to add a stealth sub setup to bolster the bottom end. Fitting what I have where I want to put it is the problem. I really should step down to an 8" sub, but I have a 10".

 

[blksab65]

Am I crazy? I'm supposed to drive over to Santa Cruz hills tomorrow morning.. Roughly a 40 mile drive, into the forest where a e46 touring is supposedly being parted out.. due to hitting a tree.

It has a full black interior, I offered the guy $475 bucks for everything interior and he accepted..

-Front Seats
-Rear Seats
-Main Carpets
-Rear Hatch Trim
-Trunk Carpets
-Dashboard
-Center Console
-Various A/B/C pillar trims and door entry trim's
-Maybe the headliner?



My tan interior is in perfect shape so it's kinda a crazy idea..


The black interior looks to be pretty decent.. apart from needing a good cleaning. Honestly I'm mainly going for the complete black hatch trim, dashboard, and some of the main items that don't get "worn out". I can buy the center console and other pieces new from BMW.


The only thing that sucks is the seats aren't power (maybe a good thing?) and they don't have seat heaters. I'm not looking forward to pulling this HVAC box tomorrow.. Because the only way to remove the front carpets "correctly" involves removing it.



(Btw.. not my photos, the seller sent them.) One of the door panels looks a bit tired (typical vinyl interior door panel issues) but I have a full set of 4x black door panels at home.

 

[vtwagon]

100% go for it. I searched out manual sport seats for a while and finally found them somewhat locally, and got the rest of the interior with them as well for double what you’ll be paying. And those front seats look to be in very good condition judging from what we can see above. Hopefully the rear seat bottom isn’t too messed up from the way they have everything stacked on there all caddy womp ass.

I intended to swap my pillars and headliner to black, but with the silver trim the grey up top actually goes really nicely and keeps it a bit brighter inside. That’s the only downside I’d say going from the lighter interiors to the darker ones, it’s not as bright and airy.

 

[Bryson]

Good deal on that interior. I drove to Sacramento and paid more than that for mine!

i know a local Bay guy looking for manual front seats if you’re looking to recoup some cost.

 

[blksab65]

WOW! What a day.. Thankfully everything went smooth as ever, most random wagon part out.. literately in the woods of Northern California on a sketchy one lane road that turned into a dirt road.. in the middle of all these redwood tree's. I considered driving in my wagon but a buddy offered to drive his Honda odyssey van, sure glad we did. We loaded that van to the roof!


The picture's the seller sent me didn't do the interior justice, it's actually a solid 8-9/10 condition. It ended up being a younger guy (around 18 years old) who crashed his e46 wagon into a tree. Nice guy, in fact he helped pull the interior with me and my buddy.

Took about 3.5 hours to remove everything, and I'm sure glad I have a guest room at my place.. Because this room is loaded now with black interior parts and bumpers.

I didn't break one single clip or fastener. I was worried some of the plastic part's might be brittle but with enough patience, skill and the correct tools.. I got everything removed without breaking anything 😃.

It ended up being a very strange wagon. No steering wheel "buttons" for volume/ cruse control. Didn't have wood trim. Manual sport seats.

Here's what the interior was looking like after I removed the heater core "box" to get the carpet out..

After leaving his house I decided to stop by the junkyard.. I got lucky and found a perfect condition manual sport seat also in the "rare" black vinyl. $28 bucks out the door..!

It's a passenger seat but I can remove the black vinyl material and transfer it onto the driver seat from this wagon part out, which has minor wear on the bolster (check out the pics).

(Yes I also took the head rest from the junkyard, it's somewhere in this room..)

Here's the driver seat with minor wear on the bolster, but like I said.. I can use the extra passenger seat vinyl and transfer it over to this driver seat.. to have have a solid 9/10 condition front manual sport seats.

I also found a set of very clean black door panels at the junkyard, $15 bucks each out the door due to the "50% off sale" for Thanksgiving.

The carpet is a bit dirty, but zero rips or tears. After a vacuum and minor scrub it should be in perfect condition.

Edit: He also included a full piano black interior trim set for the which was super sweet! I'm really happy I went, I don't think I could have found a cleaner wagon interior for the price.

 

[Bryson]

I’ll take an extra headliner off your hands if you end up with one! I can give you a few yards of the black veteran co thick and thin OEM matched headliner material in exchange. Also would love to swing by and see it in person.

Great find with that interior.