Blackknight530i 530i6 -> M5 Conversion Build Thread

[blackknight530i]

The GC shock came in this past Wednesday and I plan to swap it today, so we will see if it fixes the issues.

Also, i got some replacement mirror glass from Adam for both sides in very good condition and installed both, as well as installed one of the vertical adjustment motors from the GM mirror part and they are now working great.

I did have an oops moment this week while moving some stuff around in my garage when a 2x12 board fell over and made a decent size dent and scratch in my freshly painted passenger fender. I was so pissed off, but I took it to my painter and he said it would be $100 to fix.



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[philly98540]

Damn Paul! Car looking great, well until that lumber strike! Only $100 ain't bad though. I had a set of valve covers fall from some upper shelves and dent my fender and hood a bit. Sucks.

[cnsorial]

Sucks about the fender even though it’s only $100. Is he going to pull the dent then repaint or is he using filler?


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[blackknight530i]

Sucks about the fender even though it’s only $100. Is he going to pull the dent then repaint or is he using filler?


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He will pull the dent and paint. No cheap work done on this car .

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[computiNATEor]

I bet a PDR guy could get that out without repainting.

[blackknight530i]

I bet a PDR guy could get that out without repainting.

It's got a big scratch in the middle of it. This painter is my PDR guy and did incredible work on the rest of the car last year. He will likely do both dent repair and fix the deep scratch.

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[computiNATEor]

It's got a big scratch in the middle of it. This painter is my PDR guy and did incredible work on the rest of the car last year. He will likely do both dent repair and fix the deep scratch.

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Ah, gotcha. Thought that was a reflection.

[blackknight530i]

Ah, gotcha. Thought that was a reflection.

Man, I wish it was only a reflection .

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[Jason5driver]

Sorry about the dent / scratch.
What did GC say about the leaking shock?
Did they swap it out for no cost?

[blackknight530i]

Sorry about the dent / scratch.
What did GC say about the leaking shock?
Did they swap it out for no cost?

They are replacing it preventatively paid for, then will reimburse once the old one is received and found warrantable.

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[cnsorial]

He will pull the dent and paint. No cheap work done on this car .

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Great! Was just curious because the price seemed so good.


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[auaq]

Sue the 2 x 12 board and make millions.

[blackknight530i]

Well damn, I just took the car to the shop to get the fender work done and it turns out that when he saw the dent before, he thought it was just a dent. When I brought it in tonight he saw the scratch and now it's going to be about $350 to fix, instead of $100, since now he has to paint it. Oh well. Either way, it will be done right in that he will do PDR first to get rid of the dent, that way he won't have to use filler and it will look like new again. I figured the $100 price was low, so whatever.

I also got the lip spoiler back from my buddy that painted it a long time ago and I'm not too happy with how it came out, so I'm going to have my painter do it as well. I just need to bring that to him tomorrow.

In other news, he also feels like he could do the trunk floor modification for the exhaust, so it might turn out to be easy enough to get that done. He said if he can't fit the pipes as-is, he'll just fabricate whatever is needed to make it work. I would love to be able to keep the full-size spare, so we'll see what he says when I can bring it by and put it up on the lift and get a game plan. I can't wait to have it all done .

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Oh, and I think I'm finally dialing in the GCs after getting the new one replaced. I kept fighting with the same weird bounciness and tried all different settings on the softest as well as cranking it up a bit and some things seemed to help, but it wasn't until I realized that what I thought was the softest setting on the new shock was actually the adjuster wheel getting caught on the seat belt retractor and it wasn't actually going to full soft as I thought. Last night I set all 4 corners to 1.25 turns from full soft and driving it over to the shop this afternoon felt like it's supposed to. Felt very controlled and not too bouncy. I think I can still make a few minor tweaks, but at least it doesn't feel awful like before. I'll look forward to getting the car back from the shop and testing it out some more.

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Also, more pics of leaking old GC shock:



And the weird difference between the old shock lower mount and the new one. The old one had two rubber bushings with a metal sleeve in it that had a protrusion that goes into the knuckle, but the new red one didn't have the protrusion and was a press fit bushing vs. the yellow one that had bushings that slid in easily by hand. I didn't feel comfortable relying on just the bolt in the knuckle, so I pressed the bushing out and used the old rubber and sleeve in the new shock and it worked perfectly.

[blackknight530i]

Little update:

I got the car back from the body shop and it cost a bit more than the $350 (it was $394), but it came out looking like it never happened. I even got to hang out with Tony at Charlotte Speed Shop (aka Dents Charlotte) while he painted it and baked it in the booth. He did PDR on the dent to keep from having to user filler as much as possible. I also found out that he's one of only like 2 PPG certified shops that have access to PPG's highest quality paints, mixed in-house using high precision scale and computer calculated formulas, or they have a ridiculously expensive camera that can color match pretty much anything. He also went ahead and painted my spoiler that I got back from my buddy and just included it in the price with no additional charge, so that was badass. I'm going to be bringing the car by at some point and he's going to help me apply it to the trunk lid with some body shop grade adhesive tape that's thinner than the stuff you can get at the hardware store. I'll also have him put the car on the lift and we're going to get a game plan together on how to tackle the exhaust/trunk floor mod. He's of the mindset that if we can't make the Borla work and keep the spare tire, he'll just make a new one. They are a full fabrication shop, so I don't doubt they can do it. I've got to give him a couple weeks though as Velocity network's Gearz show is going to be filming the Cheetah he's been working on for Stacey David. It's a pretty amazing car with a 454 LSX motor swap. He's also going to be getting the 61 (or 63, can't remember) Rolls Royce LS3 swap build out this next week or two as well.

I finally put the interior back together as I have been pretty comfortable with the 1.25 turns setting on the GCs. I've been loving driving the car lately, even though it's been mostly short trips. The wagon has been having its battery die so much lately as it hasn't been driven much, poor thing.

I also took the car to Cars and Coffee Charlotte on 3/3 and I had a lot of head-turners when people saw my license plate and wondered what looked different about my "M5" .

[Jason5driver]

Awesomes !
Pictures ?

[blackknight530i]

Awesomes !
Pictures ?

Of what? the fender, or the builds they're working on? The pictures of their builds can be found on their facebook page https://www.facebook.com/charlottespeedshop/.

[philly98540]

Nice Paul! Love the plate.

[blackknight530i]

Nice Paul! Love the plate.

Thanks Chris! I felt the plate was so damned appropriate . Brian and I were just throwing out some ideas and it just came to me. Can't believe it took as long as it did to come up with one.

[cnsorial]

I love that plate. Glad to hear they did a good job.


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[blackknight530i]

I love that plate. Glad to hear they did a good job.


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Thanks.

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[blackknight530i]

Was in Raleigh for another wrenchfest this past weekend and we knocked out a bunch of work on about 4-5 cars or so and had a blast with some really cool people. Also was able to get an oil change on mine and decided to play with the ride height of the front. I ended up only lowering it about 5/16" or so on the collar, but it seems to be much lower once on the ground. I think it's looking great. I had it about 1/4" lower on the collar before and it looked way too low and the spring was no longer preloaded anymore, so I went back up with it. Here it is with my buddy Jeff's '06 M3 ZCP:





I really can't wait to get the trunk floor mod done so I can finally install the quad tip exhaust this car desperately needs. It's still a bit of a rough ride on certain road conditions, but the handling is otherworldly.

I've been having an issue with the trifecta rearing its ugly head lately. The error I kept getting was for the front left ABS sensor giving either no or implausible signals and I can see it in the NBT's navigation. Sometimes when stopped, it will have me spinning in a somewhat wide arc, while other times it will keep me turning while going straight down a highway. I replaced the sensor with a brand new one and it fixed it temporarily, but then will go out again. I later discovered that it seems to be heat related and so I'm suspecting it's the ABS/DSC module that is the real issue. 224k miles on it will do that I guess. It seems to fix itself on occasion when driving on longer trips, but around town it will fail, so I'm guessing the added constant flow of air in highway driving is keeping it working, but in town it's getting too high of underhood temps to keep it working. I'm getting ready to do a mountain drive this weekend, so I'll probably swap my DSC module with the one in my wagon and see if it fixes the issue. The wagon doesn't get driven the same way, so it should be able to work fine without ABS/DSC. I'll eventually get it rebuilt, or try to find one at the local LKQ.

[computiNATEor]

Yep, that's the solder joints failing in the module. I had mine repaired at Module Repair Pro in SoCal, but I'm sure there are other great options near you.

[blackknight530i]

Yep, that's the solder joints failing in the module. I had mine repaired at Module Repair Pro in SoCal, but I'm sure there are other great options near you.

Yeah, I figured. Thanks for the confirmation though. I'll look into an option for rebuild. I've heard good things about Module Masters and even had a rebuilt one from them on my e38 before I parted it out (wish I kept it, LOL). Oh well, Brandon (RVAE34) has it in his M7 now, so I guess it went to a good home.

Redshift had his done by a reputable shop, but his seems to be failing again, so I'm not sure I want to go through them, so Ill stick to tried and true.

[TerraPhantm]

Yeah, I figured. Thanks for the confirmation though. I'll look into an option for rebuild. I've heard good things about Module Masters and even had a rebuilt one from them on my e38 before I parted it out (wish I kept it, LOL). Oh well, Brandon (RVAE34) has it in his M7 now, so I guess it went to a good home.

Redshift had his done by a reputable shop, but his seems to be failing again, so I'm not sure I want to go through them, so Ill stick to tried and true.

I don't know how difficult it is to open the Bosch DSC modules (MK60 is impossible to do non-destructively), but maybe worth trying to reflow it yourself if it's broken anyway?

[blackknight530i]

I don't know how difficult it is to open the Bosch DSC modules (MK60 is impossible to do non-destructively), but maybe worth trying to reflow it yourself if it's broken anyway?

I've opened part of it before but didn't see anything I could easily get to to fix, but I think Module Master and others cut the cover off the front and get access to what they need. I'll be looking for some DIYs, but I think it's non-destructive as far as internals, but externals will need to be resealed and won't ever look like new as far as I recall.