[Bruskey]

Hey guys i just started "building" my car a couple weeks ago and figured I would share the progress so far with yall. I am a college student so I do not have a ton of money to pour into this. But I will be adding and changing things as long as I have the car. I have some more stuff planned and am excited to see how it all comes along.

Car Specs:
2009 328i, AT, Sport, Premium
Jet Black Exterior
Black Dakota Leather Interior
Grey Poplar Trim

This is my second BMW, my dad gave me and my brother his old E46 325ci to drive in high school a few years ago, my brother totaled it and now I decided to buy my own.

I bought the car used with 77xxx miles in Fayetteville North Carolina over Christmas and I live up in New York.

When I bought it the previous owner had the windows tinted 35% but had not done anything else to the car that I can tell.



Here is are a couple of pictures of when I first picked it up.



[IMG]]https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8668/16325661941_23c0b1b51f.jpg[/IMG]



First thing I did was take out the kidney grilles and start painting, I used PlastiDip at first, did not like the way it turned out and peeled it all of and repainted it with glossy black spray paint.

The process:


Plasti Dip(I know dirty):
[IMG]]https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7709/17033029877_83ebefd2c8.jpg[/IMG]

Spray Painted Version(and clean car)




I replaced the black plastic and rubber pedals with silver aluminum pedals from bimmian.




Some more drilling later and



I did not like the orange reflectors and my sidemarkers were looking really worn and I am going for a dark, but not murdered out look. So I replaced both of those with smoked version bought on Ebay. I think about $20 a piece and pretty good quality.






The biggest change I did was with the intake. I put on an Injen Cold Air intake. I know all the talk about these and most people do not think they actually add anything. I personally do not feel any difference in power(low or high end) but I do hear the intake a lot better and I really like the noise now coming from the intake, and I like the look of it in the engine bay. So overall I like it.





The most noticeable change was to the angel eyes. I replaced the old halogen ones with 80W Cree LED bulbs from Extreme Powerhouse. Good price and quality, and great customer service. I have the xenon lights already and the white LEDs really works well with the white xenons.





A couple of "finished pics"




I bought the BMWhat App and wifi dongle and used it to code some stuff into my car and to run diagnostics. Great app, easy to use and very useful. So I coded my car to have a few comfort features like closing the windows with the key fob, auto folding the mirrors on lock, and some other small things. I do not remember everything that I did for it.



In the near future I will be doing coilovers(researching now) and spacers to give the car a lower and wider look, I dont want to slam it just lower it a bit. I am toying with debadging it still and havent fully decided. New rims whenever I get the money and switching away from run flats next year or so. Much later on I want to get around to the exhaust and a few other bigger items.

I just had to replace my front passenger side tire because it hit a pot hole and ruptured damn thing only had 2000 miles on it. And I have a bulge in one of my rear tires that I noticed after I replaced the front one. So I have those and a tad of other maintenance I want to this summer, namely brakes, but hopefully I get around to the coils in July.

I am open to any recommendations on modifications or critiques on what I have done so far. I want my car to be clean, dark, and a bit aggressive without looking too dark and murdered out and want to learn from all of the experience on the forum. I am going for a similar look to what Hokie has for his car(btw love your car man if you read this).

Thanks for looking, sorry for the long post, it took me awhile to get around to writing this.

[Jägerelite_N54]

That's a nice car looks real clean, good progress so far, I recently made the switch from an audi a4 to a 09 335i m sport and I love the driveability, it's a superb machine...I'll be startingy own build thread soon as weell

[Jägerelite_N54]

Ohhh and those cree leds, aren't that bright, but they're far better than the stock halogens,

[Bruskey]

The pictures do not do them justice, in person they look really good. Obviously not the brightest, but pretty good for the cost. I think I will upgrade whenever these ones die but for now they are perfect!