ChasR
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Feb 14, 2021 15:23:32 GMT
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I don't think I've seen any of that shape M3 with gingicators fitted before There's not many of us. It's a decision I umm'd and ahhh'd about for a while. Very early E46s had them, IIRC for around 1 year . The early S reg cars had them, as did the Ts. Around the V reg was when the first of the minor 'facelifts' came in, and they had clear lights then. E46 M3s from the pre-production models in 2000 never had them. But to me anyway, the ambers work incredibly well on some colours on an M3 .
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Last Edit: Feb 14, 2021 15:27:50 GMT by ChasR
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ChasR
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2000 V6 Ford Cougar comebackChasR
@chasr
Club Retro Rides Member 170
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Feb 14, 2021 15:14:22 GMT
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A great project this! I'm hoping my ST220 won't be quite as involved as this, but we will wait and see! Good to see another car being rescued .
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ChasR
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BMW E46 M3 : That's the ticketChasR
@chasr
Club Retro Rides Member 170
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Feb 14, 2021 15:08:03 GMT
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Statement of the Obvious, but submitted with your best interests in mind: find a way you’re sure about to verify that the BMW and Renault SRS components all talk to one another properly as a system: the air bags and seatbelt pretensioners, sensors and control unit. Maybe they’re all from the same vendor and that makes such substitutions plug & play? I’m sure you’re on top of it. This is always a great project to follow. John Very good point! There is nothing wrong with raising the concerns. It has to be welcomed when dealing with airbags. Pre-tensioner won't be a problem. They'll be the BMW ones on the car. The only 'foreign' SRS bit will be those airbags, which Recaro supplied to the seats for everyone, both what they sold to Renault and also to Recaro I believe. I am however, speaking to enquire about this to make sure that is the case. Recaro do sell a variety of things for the seats however, including -airbag emulation devices (i.e a resistor to go in place of the factory airbag plug, so no airbag would be used -airbag connection harnesses ; You can buy these seats new from Recaro with the airbag mine comes with . It seems the OEMs didn't mess too much with them, which is refreshing. -Seat occupancy device (passenger side) ; most folks have recycled this from their old seats or used the emulation device (i.e the car thinks there is always a passenger on board).
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Last Edit: Feb 14, 2021 15:10:46 GMT by ChasR
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ChasR
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BMW E46 M3 : That's the ticketChasR
@chasr
Club Retro Rides Member 170
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Feb 14, 2021 15:02:24 GMT
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Looking forward to seeing how the seats turn out, having an E46 Touring an M3 is a dream car so always enjoy your updates, Have to also give a second vote for either a separate Mondeo thread or occasional updates included in this thread, Nigel Cheers! You might be waiting a while! It seems there is no cheap way to put these seats into a car that didn't have them, but that doesn't mean savings can't me made. Having these seats come with the frames however has saved a small fortune. Recaro charge £260 a frame to convert the seats to a Generic Recaro base. That's not to say, I don't have a plan. My plan is as follows with these - List item 1
Decide on which slider-frame assemblies I want. I know AMX sell a bunch of parts to make these fit for around £300(ish) and they mount the lowest of them all. Sounds great! Except, I'm not the tallest person in the world, so as long as they are at least as low as the factory seats I will be OK. Furthermore, peeps can run into issues with how they sit in the car (i.e they can be offset). AMX do modify these, but with Brexit and delays (of which my Mondeo isnow affected by a parts holdup), this route could potentially now get expenisve and time consuming, not to mention have hassle.
Some are happy to ditch the pretensioners. For some reason, despite them being old, I fancy keeping the safety features .
This brings me onto the second option. Recaro sell slider-frame assemblies that bolt the seats with the VDB I have directly into the car, and allow the pretensioners to fit. Some moan that they sit too high, but it seems alot of that is down to folks fitting the spacers Recaro provide for them. Remove the spacers and they then sit lower, like duh! I guess it's not obvious until it's explained to be fair. This does mean rear passengers can go in the back fine and have some space for their feet however, similar to the OEM seats. I don't always have rear passengers to be fair, but I've done a few long trips in this car with other folks inside. Being Recaro, they kind of are in the same family with the seats too I guess . A pair of frames however are £500. I think these have a bit of a kick to them in the squab section too. Hard to deliberate without seeming them however.
The other choice? Corbeau do a similar slider-frame assembly to Recaro. I'd need to see if my Recaros could bolt onto these. If they can, these work out to £300, a little more pallatable. I guess I could machine spaces to get the kick on the squab or to my tastes if the Recaro seats have that. I'd want machined spacers over just washers on this application, but it's something to think about. These look similar to the slider-frame assemblies OMP used to sell 5 years ago, which are now discountinued from them.
Finally, VAC Motorsports/Macht Schnell do floor adaptors to make the Recaro sliders (not the frames) bolt onto the seat and then onto the adaptors, which are on the floor. At £200 each without sliders, the Recaro slider-frame assemblies look cheap however. The VAC items do however mount the lowest out of the lot and are arguably the lightest
Some will say to go with the Polish AMX mounts, but I'm sure others will say on such a key part of the car, it's not worth cheaping out and instead going with the Recaro floor assemblies. I will wait and see the comms!
I might see if I can make my electric-slider assembies mate to these. Obviously, only the sliding function would most likely work, but it's potentially an option
- With the floor mounts decided I can then fit these into the car. Granted, the colours will be wrong, but the purpose of this will be to see if the seats work in the car. I suspect they will, but it's good to check before committing to other things that will make the seat solution semi-permanent, like trimming etc. If I do like them and don't want them out of the car, I'll for the timebeing put some £50 cover protectors onto them. A shame to hide the seats, but at least I'll have made a decision. Hopefully, unlike RoadKill, the covers won't become a permanent addition!
- Once I decide on the floor mounts, I'll need to get these retrimmed. This will be the most expensive part. My mate who got me the seats suggested I take out the grey interior and go with black, and sell the grey on, since mine is in great condition, albeit with wear on the driver's seat. That said, I like the contrast with the outside and it does brighten up the interior nicely IMHO. Odd, I know to many. It's also original to the car and in superb condition generally, even compared to low mileage cars out there. So I'm tempted to retrim these grey.
Since this is the most expensive part, I'll probably leave the trimming until last, either the end of this year or maybe even next year. If I don't like them, I'll buy some black leather seat covers, which are cheap for these, and sell them on. Being black, they will sell well
Did I say alot? Yes I did! Hopefully, that long-winded logic makes sense, or others may talk sense into me! We'll see how the ST220 gathers momentum from others prior to spilling more here. That as you can tell, will be a slow project . I do know of a couple of E46 Tourings made over the years. I first saw one being done back in 2013 in Rugby via a then-known specialist. BMW even made one! I used to dream of owning an E34 M5 Touring. With prices the way they are now for them however (£40k+!), I'm not so sure. I do still hanker after an E61 M5 Touring, but I don't want a car where the bills and fragility dominate the car experience . Maybe one day mind you... I did almost buy an E36 M3 Touring off this very forum around 7 years ago. However, two things happened -At £2.7k, it wasn't cheap for an E36 back then, but cheap enough. So it went quickly -The insurance companies wanted £2.5k off me a year at the time. I could not justify buying it as a result. But then again, what could have been eh? Since I've helped with creating this one, at least I know what to do to make a Touring mind you.
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ChasR
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Club RR Member Number: 170
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Feb 14, 2021 11:47:15 GMT
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ChasR
RR Helper
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Posts: 10,195
Club RR Member Number: 170
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BMW E46 M3 : That's the ticketChasR
@chasr
Club Retro Rides Member 170
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Feb 14, 2021 11:37:27 GMT
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It seems one person wants to see a thread on the ST220. However, I shall refrain for unless there is more interest for it. The idea behind that car is basically how we used to buy retros. That is: -Cheaply (i.e Sub £1k) -Fix it right but to a budget, but using decent parts where possible and at times taking a risk on it. On a £600 car, it's easier to do than on a retro costing £4k+ for most I'd imagine for most folks. -Where to choose your battles. So, where spares are either unavailable or pricey, see what options are out there. Be it you adapt something, buy the right part, or even try something yourself. Given that even a half decent Allegro or Marina is now £2.5k+, it does change the scope a little! It could just be that I'm stuck in the past with prices and ideologies! It's not to say I don't want an Allegro. But merely that for a second play car, something has to give (y). Speaking of which, it doesn't help when you occasionally loosen the wallet on your ride, especially when you shouldn't be! So, back to the M3... Some here will know that I have always fancied a set of particular seats for this M3. When I looked into the expense of what I wanted a while back, I gave up on the idea. I know, losers talk, but sometimes you have to choose your battles. Sometimes, the battles come to you! With said seats last Monday, I had a good friend call me up. He mentioned to me that he was going to buy these seats of seats cheaply with the required frames to get the seat vaguely into an installable manner into my M3. So, what are these seats? Well, they're not the prettiest of things at the moment. Guessed it yet? For those wondering, these are not some random seats out of a Renault, fresh from Halfords. Oh no! These are a set of Recaro Sportster CS seats out of a RenaultSport Clio 200 (I think....). However, there are a few problems with these seats! -Driver's seat has bolster wear -They're the wrong colour for my M3 -The frames won't fit in the M3 I think monty400k has done something similar in his. Being out of Renault, it seems Recaro made frames to mount the Sportster CSs directly into the Clio. The CSs from Recaro came with generic bases to tie the seats together, hence why once of the seats is split in two. Why is it split in two? That's because it needs these frames from VBD to make the seats become a 'generic' Recaro. Below we have the Renault frame. And here we have the generic "Recaro" frame. So that's some good news. I'll have to decide on which slider sets/conversion frames I decide to go with. Planted do a generic frame to M3 slider set out of the box, which I believe may be Recaro's own frame. They are not especially cheap however, and are said to sit too high. But I'll come back to why I haven't rule them out. The other way is to use generic Recaro sliders, and a conversion slider-frame set (i,e mounts the sliders on the floor in the correct location, and then the sliders to the generic Recaro frames) from a couple of companies. These sit lower, but folks can run into seat position issues regarding the seats being offset etc. So, it seems I have more bad news there! More time, more expense, and more hassle. But what is good about these -They don't look too bad! OK, maybe that's just me -These seats do seem to hold their value, so despite them being wallet crippling to buy, I can sell them on. -Being Renault items, these do have airbags in the side, just like my factory M3 seats. I hope to utilise these -Since they will need re-trimming, I can add things to these. Maybe the occupancy sensor for the passenger seat to turn on and off the passenger airbag, in addition to possibly adding some seat heaters, an option I really wished my M3 came with! Obviously, I will not be trimming them for a while. I suspect my wallet will be empty for a short while to say the least, barely justifying the expense of these seats, despite them looking quite cheap! But, it will put my M3 one step closer to my CS Lite vision. Plus, did I forget to mention that these seats are almost half of the weight assembled compared to the ones in there? Yes, I know weight doesn't matter too much here, but every little helps eh? Plus, they have some very cool design touches on them. From the polycarbonate backs to the subtle seat folding mechanism latches, you can't moan at these seats. Yup, I've lost it and done what many here have! While you have an unusable car, get more cool bits for it! Now, where is the facepalm?
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Last Edit: Feb 14, 2021 11:39:02 GMT by ChasR
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ChasR
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The roads were much busier too prior to the lockdown. As an example of how busy, it takes me 50 mins to get to Wolverhampton with zero traffic. If I left after work after 4pm when at Wolves, I'd be lucky if I was back within 1.5-2 hours! More cars = more traffic. After all, if we are on the road, we are the traffic . Warwick where I am always has been a busy place in the morning, but not like the last 5 years. From moving to taking 20 mins to get through a town that would barely take a few minutes with no traffic. Naturally, this has had people on about having to change the town etc. but no reasons have ever been asked for why it's busy, i.e understanding why the issue has come about.
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Last Edit: Feb 14, 2021 9:37:53 GMT by ChasR
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ChasR
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Is Lpg still viable? ChasR
@chasr
Club Retro Rides Member 170
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It is still available, but alot of places are winding up, no doubt down to demand going down. Two LPG stations near me have closed, with only one being left open.
Back in its heyday, we had 5 stations open locally near us, including CountryWide, where the gas was the cheapest, and paid for via the Direct Debits.
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ChasR
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Feb 13, 2021 19:07:57 GMT
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Agreed!
Let's not forget that for many people, a good Mini (i.e not Oversilled to death, needing time and alot of money to get right) are now around £7k+ from what I've seen. I doubt many have that level of disposable income at the moment.
As a result, alot of 00s stuff suddenly looks very appealing, and the prices for those even look firm now.
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ChasR
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Owner history in Japan?ChasR
@chasr
Club Retro Rides Member 170
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Unless you get the full details from the importer you've got no chance. The main issue with J imports is somehow the mileage disappears overboard on the way here. Clocking isn’t uncommon. From one importer from many moons ago, they’d literally go around all of the imported cars and gather the histories and burn them, prior to rolling the clocks back. There were some decent cars there but not as many as you’d think.
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ChasR
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Club RR Member Number: 170
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I'm also a serial classic Mini owner, and I really wasn't keen on the BMW Minis until I saw what Rover had planned for it's replacement. I believe Rover planned what Bini went with too. However, given how JLR are now (i.e the ashes of Land Rover/Rover/BL Legacy), it was definitely the right decision for it to become a BMW product, without a shadow of a doubt. The Mini brand may have been popular before, but there is no doubt that it helped in keeping it alive to this very day. The legacy of BL may never die TBH. The strange thing in all of this? BMW's CEO at the time was related to Alex Issigonis. IIRC, he might have been a nephew. In theory then, the Mini name did stay in the family . A shame an original Mini is now so expensive. A BINI Cooper S is still an itch I want to scratch, but it seems prices on those are increasing by the day! Oh well, I made my choice with another car from that era!
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Last Edit: Feb 13, 2021 5:33:06 GMT by ChasR
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ChasR
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Lexus is200ChasR
@chasr
Club Retro Rides Member 170
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It was years ago but I loved mine. It was fast enough to be a reasonable cruiser and slow enough to be able to drive it hard round the lanes and have fun with. I thought the engine was a peach. A few times I hit the limiter in low gears because I had the radio up loud and didn't pay attention. It didn't back off or slow down as the revs went up. It just went and went and went and then hit the limiter. Nearly head butted the steering wheel. Traction control was horrid. It just bogged the engine. It did save me from spinning it a couple of times when it had Avon tyres on the back but I got rid of them after the second time and it was lovely after that. I wouldn't call it a barge though. It's a fun little car that's reasonably posh. Apparently, back in the day, people test drove them expecting a baby barge and were disappointed. If you want "barge" look for the next gen IS250 auto. I reckon the IS200 has the potential to become a classic amongst enthusiasts whereas the IS250 (which raised the refinement bar significantly) will just be 'another car'. Other opinions exist but I really liked it and if I'd had somewhere to keep it I'd have kept it. James I think it’s looks have kept it from being a “modern” classic. Christ, Mazda used the light design a good 10 years later after the Lexus came about in the Mazda 3! The craze of Lexus lights in the 00s was started from this very car! So in some ways, it’s a legend, an unsung hero or a way of ruining cars depending on your take on things . They also looked new for a very long time. To me, when they came out, , it’s rivals looked outdated and possibly their successors did too! The cluster inside the IS200 is something else too. I suspect they are getting thin on the ground thanks to the drifting fraternity buying them and throwing them away once they are done with them. So I doubt they’ll get any cheaper. Whether they folllow S13-5 prices is another things but I doubt it. A cool car albeit with rust issues.
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Last Edit: Feb 12, 2021 12:13:31 GMT by ChasR
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ChasR
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1/2 inch impact guns..??ChasR
@chasr
Club Retro Rides Member 170
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Feb 10, 2021 20:58:05 GMT
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Same as Flynn really, but I cheaped out (slightly, and I had to get one that day without taking the drum to a specialist) and got the DeWalt DCH899P2.
It's a little on the heavy side but it's fine. I have the Draper impact ratchet so once things are loose that can take over. The DeWalt has become a near permanent tool however, and it's one which is borrowed leaving people wondering over if they need one.
Like Flynn, my Kielder was great in terms of being light but for undoing tough bolts or tightening them, it was uselsss. The DeWalt does have variable speeds, so that can act as a gauge as to what torque to go to.
My DeWalt has only struggled twice on things. That was on oddly the BMW E61 wheel bolts. It undid most of them. However, the previous chap did them up with a 3/4" truck impact wrench! I also used a wheel socket which did get very hot. I suspect with the correct impact socket I'd have been fine, albeit at the expensive of potentially marking the wheels due to the thicker walled sockets.
Even a breaker bar with scaffolding had me struggling to undo the bolts on that car! I suspect them being heat cycled didn't help! I am shocked that none of them snapped. I do wonder if I should have left the gun to rest a bit or change batteries more often. I've very rarely come across nuts done that tightly, even from careless tyre shops.
So, there was one job it may have struggled with, potentially due to user error. What has it succeeded with
-2CV Rear Hub Nut and Bearing Retainer nut. The latter are known for being super tight and mine was no exception -'07 Saab Upper suspension bolt on the rear. I am so happy I had the wrench on what has to be the worst design even for doing the rear brake discs; Yup, you have to partially remove a super tight suspension bolt to undo the rear carrier bolts as the supension bolt is in the way. Those suspension nuts had never been undone, and despite the factor tightening them to 150Nm+90, the Dewalt took them off fine, rust, curse word and all. It would have taken me forever with a breaker bar/wrench combo, thanks to how long that bolt is. Why did Saab go bust again? -M3 Prop bolts, even the Torx ones at the back ; it stopped me slipping on them -E36 Subframe bolts. Like Flynn, the rattle gun made light work of it.
The chap I bought the car off no longer uses that chap, as it did once cost him a set of wheel nuts getting destroyed, they were that tight.
Like Flynn, my gun has paid for itself easily now. BMW prop bolts were much much easier to undo with this as opposed to trying to stop the engine from turning when undoing them etc.
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Last Edit: Feb 10, 2021 21:09:31 GMT by ChasR
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ChasR
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Feb 10, 2021 20:53:07 GMT
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I own the same one but in the Draper model. It's very very handy! It won't crack things undone but it will speed things up massively. Things like undertrays are a piece of cake with this as the speed of it undoing things really helps. It's not super fast on the speed like my Dewalt rattle gun but it's not miles off. Where you need to keep the bolt on relatively straight but the location is awkward the tool is good too. Mine sometimes slips in the gears which I need to phone Draper about for repair. But it still works fo the purpose of undoing things. For that reason, I'd spend more and get the Milwaukee version. It's what I plan do to if Draper don't repair mine. The batteries last a decent while too .
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ChasR
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DA Polisher kit recommendations ChasR
@chasr
Club Retro Rides Member 170
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I have the DAS 6 Pro v2. It's good to be fair, but if you can get the Meguairs M240, it vibrates a little less, and is easier to adjust the speed with on the fly ; they do occasionally come up cheap.
Also, I don't mean to teach you how to suck eggs, merely get the right result.
You say you have dust you want to remove. How is the dust attached to the bodywork? Is it?
-In the paint itself (i.e painted over?) A DA will not fix that. Wet sanding "might", albeit even that will have its limits. Denibbing may -Stuck on the paint from a car being laid up? If this is the case, I'd get a good claybar before even thinking of hitting it with a DA and compound. Bilt Hamber do a brilliant one here just for this purpose. It only needs water which is a huge bonus. -Loose dirt? Just rinse the car off and give it a wash.
The reason I say this is because is as soon as the dirt comes out, it will clog the pad, and can induce further swirling on the paint as a result of the dirt staying on the pad/overwhelming it. Blowing the pad out, or even scrubbing it with a microfibre quite a bit will limit the impact here.
I'm no detailing expert, but residue/dirt management is the one thing that's improved the results alot, at least for me.
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Last Edit: Feb 7, 2021 22:07:45 GMT by ChasR
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ChasR
RR Helper
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Club RR Member Number: 170
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ChasR
RR Helper
motivation
Posts: 10,195
Club RR Member Number: 170
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Sold!
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ChasR
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Posts: 10,195
Club RR Member Number: 170
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Mk1 Mr2ChasR
@chasr
Club Retro Rides Member 170
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Put it for sale on the FB groups as well as the sale section here.
I think many would be interested at £250
I'll forward this onto a friend.
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ChasR
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You can always get green LEDs or bulbs. They're powerful enough to work these days . Pug 106s and 407s worked this way, well with an inbuilt lens . The red IMHO would look better than the ambers anyway.
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ChasR
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That track that decreases MPGChasR
@chasr
Club Retro Rides Member 170
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Jan 31, 2021 10:20:39 GMT
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There are so many tunes that can make me put my foot down. The one time I do remember however was running late for the Eurotunnel after leaving the Nurburgring too late. I did alot of that trip back near 3 figures! The tunes playing? Kraftwerk, and their Tour De France Etape collections. Strange I know! But in the M3, it'll be for the noise of the engine .
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