Mods.

The first mod i did was to remove the chrome trim around the windows, Black trim from Bmw cost about £600 which is way to much, i thought about getting the chrome painted ,but managed to come across the black surrounds at a breakers for a good price, fitting only takes 15 minutes as they are just clipped on, and makes a big difference when fitted.

Replacing the standard roundels for some genuine carbon ones was another simple mod with good end results.

Not being a lover of chrome i replaced the front grills for Black ones, Simple but effective mod, which i have done to all my Bmw's right back to my E30 days.

I always fancied a rear camera after seeing them fitted standard to some Mercs etc, and managed to get a rear cam for a good price, i have seen them fitted in place of the boot lock , but wanted a more subtle look, and had to be the rear badge, the cam came with a cutting bit to fit in the drill, then all that was needed was to drill my new carbon badge and feed the wires through to the screen which i was fitting at the same time.The camera works great in day and night, and has a nice wide angle to cover any blind spots etc, overall very happy with this mod and its one of my favourites.

Getting power to the front screen was the easy part, the hard part was having to make surround, i started off with a cardboard template and after a few trial and errors, managed to get a good base to be transferred to carbon fibre, the carbon was a bit hard to cut and took 2 attempts to get it right, but the end result came out very well.The screen itself had a couple of menu buttons that i did not want to be seen,so i managed to buy a remote link from the states, which fits behind the surround and sends a signal from the remote to the screen, it works 100% and is a great little mod, with everything fitted the screen works great switching from rear cam to dvd with ease.

My son liked the look of the front screen and wanted some for the rear, so he could watch dvd's when on journeys etc, so some new rear leather headrests and screens , where fitted, end result he's happy and quiet which can only be a good thing.

I actually bought these before i got the E46, i was looking to buy an E36 M3 evo and had these custom made while i was on the lookout for the evo, but after months of looking for one and travelling the length of the country to find so terrible evo's i put the lookout on hold and came across this E46, anyway i thought i would make use of the gaiters as they were still unopened and just sitting there, so i popped them in place and think they look really good.

The remap was carried out by customtuning.co.uk these lads have been in the remapping business for years and really know there stuff, it all started when i won one of there promotional offers they had on a custom remap on good old ebay, now i am not new to tuning cars and to be honest this Bmw is the only car i have not went mad on, most have had big turbo's and standalone ecu's etc,and the Bmw apart from a couple of tweaks is standard. I traveled down to customtuning in West Yorkshire and was given a nice warm friendly welcome when i arrived, they then got quick to work and connected to car up to there laptop to read the ecu etc and explained throughout the process exactly what they were doing which i always enjoy, as i said i have had cars mapped before so i have a good idea of what goes on, but very few companys take the time to explain exactly what they are doing and customtuning really excel in this department, once the ecu had been read the mapping could begin, the Bm has always had a flat spot about 4k and after mapping the new map was checked and double checked before being written to the ecu, and the result is very very impressive the 4k flat spot is totally gone and the car pulls a lot faster and stronger throughout the whole rev range, so much so i had to check i was in 5th and not 4th on the motorway drive home as it so much more eager in every gear,very impressive, so if your reading this thinking about a remap its worth giving customtuning a call, they will map your car to suit your own driving style, friendly and professional what more could you ask.

Update- The car made 208.7 Bhp and 230.2 Ibft on Rolling Road

www.customtuning.co.uk

I decided to fit some rings to the dials, you can get the chrome rings from many places , but i wanted matt silver, which proved a little difficult, but managed to get a set shipped from the states, while fitting these i also fitted a carbon surround and done the needles red (the sharpie mod), i also fitted a ///M Logo in place of the asc/dsc symbol, it illuminates when the dsc is switched off just like the original, and looks better than a symbol of a car doing a skid.

It was now time to concentrate on the exterior of the car, i started with the suspension, it was already fitted with Bmw sports dampers, so i knew they were up to the job of working with lowered springs, my first choice was eibach, i have used these on 3 of my previous Bmw's without any fault, but after driving an Audi fitted with Spax progressive springs i decided to try them, i went for a 40mm drop and i am very impressed, i find them just as good as the eibach's i previously used, and the ride height is just what i wanted , they don't give a harsh ride and to be honest you would be hard pushed to know they were not standard until you get to some winding rounds and the perform great.

I decided to change the wheels to go with the look i was after and came across a set of 18" M3 style alloys which had a polished finish, i knew i wanted them a dark colour, so set about doing a refurb myself, the new wheels were rubbed down and all primed, i just needed to find the colour i wanted and i spotted a classic 205 gti in Graphite grey metallic, and that was the colour for me, i got some paint made up and set about painting them, and the colour came out great and really work well with the car.

I never liked the spoiler on the car, but it was part of the M-Tech package, so left it on until i could find a replacement boot lid in the correct colour, and one came up on ebay, so i snapped it up, i also ordered a lip spoiler, while the spoiler was getting painted i swapped the boot lid over, along with the lock and lights and rear camera, pretty straightforward swap, and once the spoiler was fitted gave a much more subtle look , just what i was after.

I have always liked the M-Tech 1 kit which the car came factory fitted with, but prefer the sport front bumper, so i was on the lookout again and managed to find one from a breakers, only needed the fog light covers, which i picked up from the Dealers, the rest of the mouldings just swapped over including fog lights, really happy with the end result.

Decided to change the rear bumper to the match the sport front bumper, very easy diy and pleased with the result.

Spotted these dials from a company in the USA, www.360infiniteusa.com and really liked the look of them,they arrived quickly and were pretty straight forward to install and look great once fitted the pic does not do these dials justice

Picked up these 8000k angel eyes from alltronix.co.uk, straight forward to fit and very bright, i also wired them in the the remote alarm, so they come on and fade out when activating the alarm, which is a nice touch and looks pretty cool.

This is the 3rd fascia install in the car, and my favourite up to now, while searching for a E46 double din, i came across a post on a Rover 75 forum, where they were modifying the E46 double din to fit there dash, as no Rover 75 double dins were available, and the Bmw 1 fitted perfect in there dash with only minor tweaks to the back of the fascia, i never thought anything more about it until caraudiosupermarket.co.uk started to sell a double din for the 75 for a bargain £20, i knew if the E46 double din fitted the 75 then i could make it work, and the price difference is about £80 extra for the E46 one, so it was worth a try,i ordered the fascia and it arrived within a few days and the finish was perfect , a trial fit to see what was needed and i had to trim a little from the rear brackets, which was 10 minute job, and then it fitted without a problem, it is for a double din head unit but at the moment i am still running my original screen, which i managed to get a good fit behind the fascia, and switches from rear cam to dvd, the dvd head unit is located in the coin tray and works via remote.