There's nothing horrifically wrong with the stock 1999 BMW Z3. It's very pretty. That doesn't mean I don't want to make some subtle changes.
Here's the stock look.
Headlights
My headlights are really in great shape. No clouding or yellowing, but I just really like the idea of the more modern halo headights.
Gingercators
The amber turn signals and side markers for me are fine, but when I decided to change the headlights, these would stick out like while socks at a funeral.
Front Lip Damage
I have to do something about this. It's not brutal but it does stick out considering the rest of the car seems so immaculate.
Let's start with the headlights. Someone on a Facebook group pointed out that the cheapo headlights they bought off Amazon came in a Spyder headlight box - so the $270 headlights are actually $370 headlights?
I just have to go with the black here over the silver.. which definitely had a knock on affect on other decisions like the grill. When it comes to mods like this I've learned over the years that there is a real satisfaction in wiring things in nicely. Hacking into wiring looms and running wires all over the place is a great way to create future headaches.
For these, I decided to use a "fuse taps" to tap into the fuse box to drive the halo feature off another fused system that is live when the car is running. Others tie the halo to the side lights (single click of the lighting switch) but that doesn't sound good to me.
The install was all pretty straight forward. Here's a video of the wiring details.
These just look really great.
Show above with smoked turn signal replacements which came as a 4 set from Amazon for $50ish including the side markers too.
But look at that bumper lip scrape! Bugging me. As is often the case, Plastdip is the answer.. and while I was in the spray painting mode what about the chrome on those kidney grills??
I sanded the damaged area smooth, and masked off leaving a faux "lip" shape extending out to where the grill ends.
.. and Voila! I think it all comes together pretty well.
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