Stock to Savage: My Z4’s transformation

[NoughtToSixty]

This write up has been a long time coming and several month overdue at the time of writing but it’s finally here. It's just the main bits right now but I will add detail to the post over time. So let me jump right in.

Stock set up

So this is the bone stock BMW Z4 3.0i sDrive MSport HighlineEdtion purchased in April 2015 from Sytner Sheffield after a detail. I had it like this for about a year, resisting the urge to mod it until I grew tired of the factory aesthetics. The only tweak I did at this stage was rip off the front number plate to give it a bit more menace. And it was this menacing look that inspired the overall appearance of my present Z4. It’s a car that has been designed to look aggressive and sporty from the top down in my view. The goal was to accentuate this to a new level.






So, as mentioned above, I wanted my Zed to be mean, aggressive and beastly. It needed to have clean lines, blow loud and scare little kids, and so the journey began with… a stubby Antenna from a Peugeot 106 . Despite it’s novelty value, it made a big difference to the passenger side profile shots. No big ugly 70’s antenna. Reception review – appears to be unchanged by the 80% reduction in size, with gentle fuzzing under bridges and tunnels.

Antenna (£6, Ebay, 30 second fit)




Wheels

Next, it was the massive decision of which wheels to go for. After weeks of deliberation looking at various versions of the ZCP CSL’s, I settled on a heavily concaved 19” M359 Satin Black Staggered set up – and what an excellent decision this was. I was set on going for the deep concave because I think it looks excellent on a dropped car and fairly rare(ish) on Z4's. I went for black as I felt the wheels were aggressive enough to carry the color without losing the rim detail.

The wheel offsets were 19x9 ET35 on the front and 19x10 ET38 on the back. These wheels are extremely aggressive and suited my goals for the car. I mulled over which tyres to get and decided on the Continental Sport Contact 6’s in F: 235/35/R19 and R: 265/30/R19. I was concerned about possible rubbing with this combo but with stock MSport suspension there was more than ample room under the wheel arch. The set came to around £620 – a lot of money but the going rate for quality rubber, I was not disappointed. I also bought a set of BMW Centrecaps to keep it looking relatively OEM looking.

19” M359 Satin Black Staggered Wheels (£700, ********, 30 minute fit)
Continental Sport Contact 6’s in F: 235/35/R19 and R: 265/30/R19 (£620, Blackcircles/Camskills, 15 minute fit)
Msport Stickers (£3, Ebay, 10 Seconds)
BMW Centrecaps (£6, Ebay, 10 Seconds)









Suspension

I liked the look of the wheels of the car but it was sitting higher then a teenager in amsterdam – the car needed to be slammed on coilovers ASAP and quite frankly I was embarrassed driving around like this. The rear diffuser, twin exhaust and roll bars just exacerbated my pain. After much googling I came across the KW V1’s which seemed to offer the highest degree of lowering (though pricey at £1200) and managed to pick them up off a forum member for a good price. On the way to picking them up I stopped off at a gargage near the Brent Cross exit of the North Circular and had LaminX tints in a very light smoke applied to both the back lights and front. This reduced the amount of contrast the headlights were creating and smoothed out the whole front end into one long continuous face.



You can see the subtle difference the headlight tints added compared to the 35i to the side.

KW V1’s Coilover Kit (£1200, Tuner Motorsport, 3 hours including Hunter Wheel Alignment)
LaminX Tint (£120, NC Tints, 1 Hour)







I had this fitted at The Tyre Shop in Chingford who did a cracking job with all the bits on my car. In order to be able to get the ride height low enough, I needed to put on 5mm spacers on the front so that it cleared the inside wheel bolt. This was the only complication of the Wheel / Tyre / Suspension set up but it was a very easy fix.

The aesthetics of the drop speaks for itself, producing a damn near universally attractive stance and a mean body shape. I must also highlight the excellent handling characteristics of the coilovers , as now when I push the car through corners or aggressive overtakes I feel extremely planted to the ground, with little to no body roll and a great level of feedback through the front axle into the steering wheel. The coilovers were a fantastic purchase.

Clean Lines

In order to achieve the goal of clean lines, I decided to debadge the atrocious lettering on the sides of the car, and the extremely oversized Z4 badge on the back. I did this using the Dental Floss and GlueGone method and it worked out perfectly. You really need to let the Glue Gone sit and then buff out the residue to get the mirror finish of the paint back. I also added a layer of polish and wax just to bring it back into line with the rest of the car.












At this stage, the indicator lights were sticking out like a sore thumb in their white and beady nature. I was very close to purchasing the facelift repeaters in black ( and may do this in the near future), but I decided to use spray tint in the mean time in order to darken them up. I just masked off the area and sprayed away – doing about 4 – 5 coats from 30 cm away and finishing with two coats of clear. It looked pretty good and has lasted well.






Quad Exhaust

The final(ish) piece of the puzzle. This is the epicenter of my drive to mod the car. In my view, a set of Quads elevates a mean car into a beast. From the sound to the look, it just multiplies the driving pleasure by a million. I like quads to the extent that I was being drawn in by the TTS until I was pulled back to my senses. Again after a lot of mulling around I came across the Eisenmann Quad system and decided to install it. I will do a separate write up of the installation but from a high level, I was posed with a few things to address.

The bumper

So the stock Zed comes with a twin pipe set up. This meant that I either had to buy a diffuser for several hundred quid or grit my teeth and cut into my bumper. I happened to look on ebay and came across an identical OEM diffuser to mine for £15! Bargain - snapped it up. Came in pretty good condition for the price. I decided that I would spend the time and mark it up myself using a ruler, pertractor, Rice Crispies box and cellotape. Rudimentary tools for such a precise job I know, but with patience I got there in the end, and it came out excellent. I took the bumper to a garage who cut and smoothed it for £5 and that was that, a fresh OEM bumper cut for Quads.









I then took the diffuser to Msport in Romford and had it painted in metallic black to match the rest of the car. Whilst here I brought along a pair of Roll Hoops I bought off ebay for £25 to get painted metallic black also (Silver Roll Bars against and all black car looked awful). I think I paid £110 for both to be properly prepped and sprayed and was very happy with the result





I’ll leave the fitting of the exhaust for another thread as i took a lot of pics along the way, but we got there in the end. A fully fledged Eisenmann system roaring at the rear. It’s still in the break in stage but sounds absolutely extraordinary. A Godzilla / Kingkong hybrid growl at low to medium RPMS’s. The top in is still bedding it and I hope it continues its trajectory to produce a neck snapping scream. I'm working on capturing the sound. Using a phone does it no justice and really has to be heard in person.

Eisenmann Race Quad Exhaust (£1200, BMW Parts £180, Fitting £100)







And so.... for a Hollywood before and after:



These rest of the post is a bunch of random photos I took the weekend I installed the exhaust. The weather was pretty crap but that didn't stop me. I'll be taking many more from here on in. I couldn't be asked to edit any of the pics as there are far too many of them so I just left them au natural. Enjoy.







































































Picture of my cleaning stack. I clean my car weely during the summer, with a full 7 hour strip and detail every 5 months. After each wash I use the Spraywax for water beeding purposes and a nice post wash sheen. I am addicted to Tyre shine and use Meguires Endurance Tyre Shine gel religiously ( twice a week). Makes a huge difference to the overall cars look in my opinion. Wet wheels are needed on an all black car to make the different blacks pop against eachother. Will make another thread for my cleaning routine.




I absolutely love my car as all my friends and family know. I hope you liked the write up. Let me know what you do and don't like - you can't please all the people all the time as they say. Things I’m considering…

Wrap / Paint all interior silver trim to Carbon black.
Facelift black repeaters.
M4 / Xenon white HID conversion
Stero / Tweeter Amp install.
Window tints
Paint brakes black

[t612]

Absolutely beautiful! I think you did a great job and made good, tasteful decisions on the changes. I can tell you really take care your Z. Black paint is so hard to care for.

A 3M carbon fiber look of your interior trims would be a very good add as well as painted break calipers.

Thanks for sharing.

[Mick70]

Great job!

But you could have taken out the turn signals very easily to paint them

[jts1981]

Nice job, very tastefully done!

[VailM3]

As much as i truly hate black where, in this case they look really good. Well done i would hesitate to pain the calipers and look to get some m-permance breaks instead which would look good and help out on stopping power.

what are these M4/ Xenon headlights conversion you are talking about? Is this just changing the DTRL to white?

[fmorelli]

Very very nice. I owned an E28 M5 in black and had to clean it every day. I was just too OCD to ever own a black car again. Clearly you have that Zed all buttoned up. What's next? :-)

Filippo

[Gunzaro]

Well done. That is absolutely excellent!

[Xpuzzle]

Great job on the mods, very tastefully done!

How is your experience on the KWV1?

[jts1981]

Hey btw I would recommend keeping an eye on the headlights. I had Lamin-X on my e46. They looked great first but overtime will orange peel and melt due to the heat.

[porshah]

Very nice!

[Vanne]

I know, wrong forum, but bloody hell, just had to comment mate. You did a great job man, love the wheels, love the quad, love the hoops, pretty much love the whole thing mate.

Exellent work and love what you did.

AWESOME!!

[NoughtToSixty]

Originally Posted by t612

Absolutely beautiful! I think you did a great job and made good, tasteful decisions on the changes. I can tell you really take care your Z. Black paint is so hard to care for.

A 3M carbon fiber look of your interior trims would be a very good add as well as painted break calipers.

Thanks for sharing.

Originally Posted by Mick70

Great job!

But you could have taken out the turn signals very easily to paint them

Originally Posted by jts1981

Nice job, very tastefully done!

Originally Posted by VailM3

As much as i truly hate black where, in this case they look really good. Well done i would hesitate to pain the calipers and look to get some m-permance breaks instead which would look good and help out on stopping power.

what are these M4/ Xenon headlights conversion you are talking about? Is this just changing the DTRL to white?

Originally Posted by fmorelli

Very very nice. I owned an E28 M5 in black and had to clean it every day. I was just too OCD to ever own a black car again. Clearly you have that Zed all buttoned up. What's next? :-)

Filippo

Originally Posted by Gunzaro

Well done. That is absolutely excellent!

Originally Posted by Xpuzzle

Great job on the mods, very tastefully done!

How is your experience on the KWV1?

Originally Posted by jts1981

Hey btw I would recommend keeping an eye on the headlights. I had Lamin-X on my e46. They looked great first but overtime will orange peel and melt due to the heat.

Originally Posted by porshah

Very nice!

Originally Posted by Vanne

I know, wrong forum, but bloody hell, just had to comment mate. You did a great job man, love the wheels, love the quad, love the hoops, pretty much love the whole thing mate.

Exellent work and love what you did.

AWESOME!!

Thank you everybody for the kind words! I'm very happy people share my view of what makes a great Z4. Sometimes cars split opinion - especially after mods but everywhere I go people pay me great compliments on the car, men women and children of all ages - this makes me happy - especially when i think about selling it that t I can find a buyer for it as is.. not that I care right now I just want to enjoy it while the sun is out in London for 5 days of the year.

1) Regarding the lights, somebody has offered to install the F80 M4 / 4 series lights into my Z4 for £300. Alternatively I can get replacement DTRL's but a system which has two bulbs to stop the problem of the outer ring being brighter then the inner ring.

2) Thanks for the update on the LaminX Jts and all of your help earlier on in the year - your car stance was an inspiration to me.

3) I am seriously looking at putting a V8 M3 /GT3 S65 in the engine bay... god knows how much that will cost... I think i'm better of saving for a Jaguar F Type R and then turning that into another black beast.

4) KW's are excellent as I said in the post. Very good for the handling, zero roll, very tight and stiff I love it. When I do stupid maneuvers I no longer feel like a Captain at sea - zero boat roll.

Thanks again for all the compliments. I will make sure to send future buyers of the car to all of these forums

I'll answer any questions you have.

[VailM3]

That is quite interesting for M3/4 headlight swap for 300 pounds. If you have any more info or go through with it I am sure there are many pre-facelift owners that would be very interested.

[M2_Purist]

Very well done and thanks for sharing! You accomplished the "menacing" look for sure

[2011z435is]

Looks extremely clean. Great job.