well... finally modded a bit..
 

have a silver 2006 4.8is.
ordered some zomkspeed smoked clear/red LED tails, ordered up LightWerks tailight capacitor mod, picked up some smoked sidemarkers, got the front windows tinted to match the factory tinting, and the car is at the shop as i type getting the stock 20's powdercoated satin black.

:popcorn:

will post pics this weekend when everything is installed.. :stickpoke

debating on the stock exhaust withan x-pipe or straight pipes. thoughts?? (yeah yeah, ive searched) dont mind the raspiness. i love the rasp from an e46 m3.. but will it sound like total shite?

Post pics when you get the wheels done. I have been debating on doing my stock 20's in satin black as well.

Don't do straigth pipes, I gaurantee that it would drone too much in regular driving. Get the x-pipe, it sounds loud and clean and has a lot less drone when driving normally.

Straight pipes will sound like total "shite"

Trust me i have straight pipes on My 4.4 and the Raspyness drives you crazy. You hear it more cause the trunk is open to the cabin. I would go with the X-Pipe.

Not only will it sound like shite, it will defy the whole point of what an x-pipe is designed to do. Don't make the same mistake BMWX54.4 made.

:iagree:

Hijack! heres a pic with semi gloss black. your gonna love your twenties all over again
http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z...8/DSCF0339.jpg

what is the recommended x-pipe placement as far as distance from the mufflers, etc? :stickpoke

I'd just throw it in the middle of where the resonator is now. I would think that its probably somewhat important where its located so that the exhaust pulses cross each other at the right time, but its better to have it there in general vs deleting it completely. When you remove the res, take pics of the inside for the heck of it. The res out of my 7 had an internally muffler x-pipe, so going to just a normal x-pipe w/o the muffling is what makes it sound so sweet and give it a little extra tone in the X. Slightly off topic, but cat replacement and positioning is definately more critical since they need to be dead centered between the pre and post 02 sensors. I've read of people getting cat efficiency codes from placing them too far forward or back from their original position. Just center the x-pipe and you should be fine. 2.25" btw.

Just remove the resonators and weld in the x pipe in place.

:stickpoke
not happy with the wheel color. not satin at all in my opinion, looks semi-gloss and almost a midnight blue finish. think the coverage on the powdercoating what shiitty and didnt cover the silver entirely. going to have to get them painted matte and powdercoated again :thumbdown

anyway, a picture

edit: big THANK YOU to LightWerks for his capacitor mod for the LED tails. NO dash lights, NO flickering, NO issues. car is a 2006. :thumbup:

Looking very good!

Thanks!

Looks good but I can see what you mean about the gloss.

I was going to go with black wheels had I found a silver car, nice work.

thx. getting the wheels re-done next week. will post up afterward..

fixed :D

Still looks fine to me. Just went w/ a duller finish?

Call me crazy but I really don't care for the satin finish wheels and prefer gloss black over flat... Either way it looks great, especially the smoked red tail lights! (I need to get mine re-sprayed to match my headlights with the auto paint)

You can get vinyl headlight/taillight film for pretty damn cheap...it's the clear for some reason that costs more :(

Yeah, the film stuff is quick and easy, but it doesn't last any longer than the aerosol can tint... just a year or two depending on sun exposure... my headlights are done with black auto paint in a candy coat mix so they should last as long as the paint on my X, and can be cleaned polished and waxed with the rest of the paint. Following same suit with the tails sometime soon, whenever I can get around to it.

Just to clarify. The tails are LED tails from racerunion.com. Smoked. Modified with Lightweerks capacitor mod. No error messages or flickering. It's a 2006 e53

Re: well... finally modded a bit..
 

Weasel,


Although that is definitely a better long term option, what happens if u stop liking the look? Do you need new headlights? Or if u sell the car and the buyer doesn't like that look. That is the one thing that would worry me..

But otherwise, I think your a pioneer and that is a great long term idea.

I would have no problems sanding the smoked finish off back down to the red or clear plastic and reclearing them with good automotive clear coat for the OEM look with a long lasting finish. When you have the tools and resources it isn't permanent, can be reversed.