Barty's Green Z4 Coupé - Tiefgruen Adventures

[Barty]

Introduction
After my introduction in the newbies section, I figured it's now time to introduce not just myself but the car as well: a white E86 3.0Si coupe. I've always wanted an Z4 coupe but never had the A) means or B) chance. That is, until now!

Hang on- the title says green, so what's up with the white?!
Good question! The car I'm about to introduce isn't the one I ultimately ended up with (I know, spoiler alert...). So before we get to that, lets deal with the first-born.

Late august 2021. Just over 2 weeks ago I went to see a white Z4 3.0Si. Individual interior spec, auto-box and in decent shape. Technically well-looked after, but in need of some visual improvement. Fortunately being the owner of a detailing studio has its perks, so I planned to put it through the full process some time that winter. As it takes between 60 to 100 hours total, it won't be a quick job!



I picked up the car on Friday evening, 13th of August. That Saturday was a long work day, so didn't get to drive the car at all. Normally, that would have been somewhat disappointing, however... Sunday morning at 04.00, I set off on an 1100km drive to lake Como in Italy with a few car-minded friends. What better way to get to know your new car than to take it to the Alps





Testdrive
Over the course of last week, I've added a total of around 2700km to the 151.500 already on the clock, including two 1100km trips on the autobahn and Swiss motorways (oh soooo smooth). What I've learned: I can't get enough of that straight-six howl when you go past 5000rpm. Which, on the autobahn, requires you to go well past 200kph if you want to sustain the noise.

The car ran like an absolute dream- eventually. When I first got it, it rattled like a bag of spanners due to it having been stationary for a few weeks. Nothing a long drive couldn't fix though, as after the first 10 minutes it started to quiet down and when up to temperature it purred like a kitten. The rattle never came back either, so I've put it down to the lifters not being oiled up properly. As for consumption: not a drop of oil, but plenty of fuel. The motorway blast (cruise at 160-200kph) led to a consumption of roughly 9 litres per 100km. Not bad for such a big lump, especially compared to my previous 1750 Alfa 159 which used 11 litres per 100km. Heavy right foot in a heavy car and all that.

In the Alps, the Z4 really managed to impress. The engine pulls smoothly and the box goes through the gears nicely. The steering feel is somewhat vague and at speed it feels planted yet twitchy. An adjustment of the excentric ring on the steering column is in order it seems.

Funny (afterwards) incident on the way home: a final push to 250kph resulted in a loud THUMP and a black piece of plastic going for a hard right. As it turned out, the headlight service hatch in the right wheelarch decided to eject at 70 metres per second. When in Italy, I noticed it was missing one of its two lips as well as a twist-lock. New item on order, since this one is now scattered across half a kilometer of German autobahn...

Updates and Upgrades
Any plans? Short answer: loads! As it turned out, very few of those came to pass... Funny story: 6 weeks had passed since I'd picked up my white coupe. There's one colour however I like more, and I literally missed out on one by less than a day back in August.

Flashback: I was in Italy (before the Como-trip) with my GF when I decided to pull the trigger on a Z4. There was one for sale around an hour away from me in pretty much perfect spec: M-individual brown interior, M-sport wheel, automatic, BMW individual wheels, and: BMW Tiefgruen-metallic. A dark-green that -back during its production life- wasn't very popular: less than 30 made it to Germany where my car is originally from. Fewer still were sold in the Netherlands, so chances of coming across another are slim to none. In fact: a grand total of just 95 were ever built. We drove back from Italy on a Thursday-afternoon, getting back at 04.00 in the morning on Friday. I rang the dealer around 09:15 with a head full of mist, which was duly cleared out by the words: "sorry to say this sir, but the car you're enquiring about has been picked up less than 10 minutes ago, and it was sold yesterday afternoon. It has gone to a lovely new owner who has rung us about 20 times during our own vacation, and came by to see it before we were even properly up and running again." A few hours later the white coupe came up for sale, and the rest is -as they say- history.

Well... Not quite; last week I was looking through some Instagram stories, including those of a fellow Ducati enthusiast. She was at a small company specialised in 2-seaters, and in the background I spotted something I didn't expect to see. So I picked up the phone and called them to ask about the car. "Wow you're quick! We haven't even been able to list it on our website or put it on Dutch plates for that matter. We've just come back from Germany where we bought it. It's a nice one though: full service history, 2 owners since new and in good condition. Would you like to come by for a testdrive?"

At that point, I was pretty much already in the car and on my way there. During the hour-long drive I pondered whether I would trade in my white coupe. After all, the green one was 2 years older, had no M-sport interior, the dreaded wooden dash (sorry fans), and missed a few other options I did have on my current car. However: it was the perfect colour, had a perfect history, and it was a manual.

I was met by two lovely young guys who had started their business only this year. They'd been trading MX-5's and a few other 2-seaters for a while but recently decided to really make a business out of it. The Z4 was parked up front for me waiting to be driven. As soon as I got to about third gear I realised how much I missed the experience of a manual. I honestly can't fault the ZF-box in the auto: it's quick, attentive, fairly clever and turns the Z4 into both a cruiser and a bruiser. Yet the feeling of a perfect, mechanical shift is something that's hard to beat. Yes the box is notchy, and the CDV is an idiotic item that was duly removed, but it just feels right.

After they drove my white coupe, we got down to business. Both 3.0Si's and within 2000km's of one another on the clock. Mine had an auto, M-sport and a few goodies. Theirs didn't, but it was a manual and came with a considerably more comprehensive history as well as a rare spec exterior. So: straight swap, no fuss and everyone's happy.

Honestly, I didn't expect to say this again (let alone within 6 weeks), but: meet my new Z4 Coupe. This one's here to stay...



The beige interior looks great- in an XJ, 7-series or similar car. It's not to my taste, but weirdly that's a good thing. The individual two-tone interior in the white Z was very nice. To change that and personalise that almost felt a bit wrong; as if you're tearing down something already lovely. Since this interior is totally not my style and basic in spec, I feel no hesitation to change it up completely.

Got wood anyone..? This winter and spring, all of it will have to go. The roof-lining, door panels, seats, trim, and all plastic components currently cream-coloured will be replaced. So yes, it's a project. A big one at that, but I don't care. I get the feeling we won't be able to enjoy cars like this for decades to come, so I want to get the most out of it while I can. Besides, we all love a challenge don't we?

Exterior: the paint is in reasonably decent condition. We'll put it through a full detail late November, and the front bumper will be replaced for an M-bumper. The rear will receive a Burkhart carbon diffuser, and I'm contemplating a duplex exhaust. Currently the backbox is a Bastuck one with a lovely note to it, so I'm in no rush there. New wheels are in already but probably won't go under this year. Instead I'll fit winter tyres to the current 17 inch wheels and use those over the cold months.

No garage queen then? Nope. It'll be driven whenever the chance presents itself, and hopefully it'll be ready for a few great trips next summer.



So that's how I got it, but since I'm mad for mods, that's definitely not how it stayed. Want to skip ahead? Check out Instagram @Bartsbuilds. Meanwhile, I'll post a few interim updates leading up to today below.

[Barty]

About 2 months have passed since the purchase, and it was time for a full detail. Rather than spending 2.5 days on restoring the Z to its former glory, we decided to push ourselves "a little" and really go for the best result possible. You might think that's what you always do, but every extra percent above 90% perfection requires an increasingly large amount of extra work.

So it didn't take 2.5 days. Instead, we've spent at least 80 hours on the car. Though probably more, if we look at all the small jobs we've done in between. The results are quite spectacular though. A short and definitely non-exhaustive list of what we've done:

- Full decontamination, including the removal of all small exterior items such as indicators, plates, kidneys, etc.
- Fit the AFe stage 2 intake and clean the engine bay. Restore and seal all plastics.
- Sand down the entire passenger door due to a very dull finish and a lot of orange peel. Working from grit 2000 to 3000, followed by a 2-step correction to restore the original shine.
- Remove and polish the wheels, replace the 11 year-old runflats for Michelin Alpin's, coat the wheels in 3 layers of sealant.
- Remove perished window trim.
- Sand down over 40 small scratches and blemishes, restore with a 2-step polish.
- 3-step polish of the entire exterior, working with a rotary during the first step to really restore the original texture. Forced excenter second stage and a soft dual action polish finish.
- 2-stage ceramic coat to protect our shiny work!
- Coating of all the windows, basically all but negating the need for wipers above 30

As BMW paint is fairly "hard" compared to say Italians, it takes a fair while to really get the finish we were after. Mind, since it's one of our own cars we like the challenge and dare to push a little further than we would otherwise with a customer's car.

The result?





An absolute mirror finish, with a colour that only really pops when in direct sunlight. At night, it's almost black but during the day it's a deep-green with a heavy flake. Love it!

Winter Project
With the basics covered, time for the first real mods. As said before, the interior wasn't to my taste. After a while, I managed to track down a full black interior in Germany just 8 hours away, soooo...

I left home at 04:00 and picked up a friend shortly after, at which point we set off on a 500 mile drive to collect the goods. Stopped once to fill up our trusty 118D and arrived at our destination at 12:30. We soon learned that we were dealing with real enthusiasts: dad and both sons work at BMW, run an M3 V8-powered 1-series as a track monster and plan to rebuild the Zed as a track-car as well.

They were selling the interior due to fire damage; the LCM had caught fire due to a short-circuit which was fortunately put out very quickly, saving almost everything bar the LCM itself, the cover panel and the top-left corner of the doorcard. All the rest of it is in perfect (albeit a bit dirty) nick. The Zed has since been stripped and undergoing major changes to serve as a track tool for both sons to learn in.

Having loaded up the Einser (it actually fit- just), we set off again at 13:15, stopping once for fuel and getting back at 20:30. 1002 miles or 1622 kilometers of Autobahn and motorways, feeling fresh as a daisy and now in possession of what can only be described as a very big puzzle.

In the mean time, I'd also taken delivery of my steering wheel!


In an absolute sorry state, but I’ll send it off for reupholstering. The covers I can redo with soft touch material, so no issues with that either. Should look pretty sweet once finished! Really like the added thickness- identical to the M-wheel but with the Individual inlay as an added touch. A really rare find on the E86 platform!

Finally, I'd also bought myself a set of CSL reps. Hardly a new choice right? Well, I decided to go a bit off-standard regarding the colour...



Wow... That just transformed the car. Shoes maketh man? Wheels maketh car

Next update will be on the interior rebuild, steering wheel restoration. After that: exterior changes galore. Plenty more to share from over the last two years!

[86Zed]

What a great color for this car and cool story from initial idea to (second) purchase!

[Vanne]

Big fan as you know mate! Keep,up the great work

[Huz-Z]

Originally Posted by Vanne

Big fan as you know mate! Keep,up the great work

Ditto! Keep up the green work!!

[AudiDad]

Need an update OP as I’m sure you have taken this to a whole new level.