Hi all, back in an X5 after 18 months and 9 other cars in between **PIC HEAVY**

[dpbayly]

Well I'm back always knew I would be as my last X5 was the longest I ever owned a car (10 months) I normally average a car change every 3 months.

Since owning my last X5 which I sold February last year I've owned:
CL55 AMG
L322 Range Rover (really nice blue similar to Estrol blue)
300C
350Z GT4 (limited edition pearl yellow)
E46 330 convertible
RX8 231
E39 540i
Another RX8 231
ML55 AMG

Anyway here's my last X5 as I bought it :





And when I parted with it 10 months later:





And now for my new one it's another 4.4 but without the LPG in Steel grey sat on a set of genuine 20" IS wheels which set it off a treat.

I stumbled across it by accident at a price I just couldn't turn it down at and I picked it up last Sunday, how it looked like when I got it home:







As soon as I got it home on the drive I didn't even go in the house before I started working on it as I had some lacquer peel on the front edge of the drivers door from a repair it has had at some point in it's life:



So wet flat it back with 2000 grit paper and the machine polished it back up:



Next job the following morning when I got into work (I'm a mechanic) was to get the rear tyres changed as they were way past there best and even though it was not long serviced I always when I pick up a new motor change the oil and filter so I know it's got some good quality oil in it.

Next after that was to tint out my rear lights like on my last X5 but not quite as dark, done the same way in our spray shop at work spraying them with standard car lacquer with a small amount of black added then just apply coats till the desired effect is reached:

Masked up:



Painted:



Back on the car:



While the lights were out I carried out my cheap orange bulb mod to rid the horrible orange tinge to the the clear lens by applying a dusting of silver paint over the orange bulb this gives the light a cleaner look and they still function perfectly:



Before:



After:



Next came the headlight lens refurb as they were in a bad shape:



as I always do them I start with 600 grit and work my way up to 2000 grit before machine polishing them back to brand new:





The next day my SMD LED rings arrived along with my uprated 8000K Xenon bulbs so whipped the headlights out again and split them using a heat gun as the units are pre Sept 2002, while they were apart like last time or got rid of that dated orange reflector:



Installed back on the car:



Comparison against the stock side lights:





Also painted the grills satin black but I ran out so only ended up painting the surrounds and left the fins satin silver and when I put them back together on the car I was happy with the look so will probably leave them like this:



Here's the difference in Xenon bulbs.

Stock 4300K:



New 8000K:



Final modification this week was to wire the new rings which are now my side lights to come on as DRL's so are on when the ignition is on (just the front rings) and also to come on when I unlock the car same mod as I performed to my last X5 all done with 1 X 5 pin relay 2 10A fuses and 2 X diodes and all fitted in the passenger footwell where the LCM is located:

Video showing them working with the central locking, they don't actually flicked that's simply the frame rate of my camera picking up the LED's they actually fade on and off to your eye:



So that's the work I've carried out in the last week since picking it up and here's a few pictures I took after cleaning it:















well that's it,

so far.....

[powers1]

Nice work there ,mate.Thanks for sharing

[dpbayly]

Thanks,

I'm really happy to be back in an X5 as I said before my last X5 is the longest I've ever owned a car 10 months showing I obviously liked it.

This X5 is car number 65 in 16 years of driving, I keep a running list on the laptop.

[Bouchedag84]

question, with the white (silver?) x5, did you paint the lower portion of the door grey or am i blind

[dpbayly]

No it was titan silver and I think it's just the way the camera caught it as it was all silver.

[jeepj667]

Hey truck looks great. I just got an X5 and would like to put angel eyes in it. What size rings did you use?

[jopecasa]

Looking good!

[dpbayly]

Thanks,

I'll measure the spare set of rings I bought when I get home and post back

[Ricky Bobby]

Darren they look great !

To the guy above the sizes are 128mm and 158mm rings they are readily available on Ebay for $60 a set

[dpbayly]

Thanks Ricky,

I saw you finally got the E70 front wiper mod done like what I did to my last X5 and I'm sure I will do again to this one.

Sorry I did't get round to sorting this for you in the end but at times my work is so manic.