Newbie here..............

[lance1a]

Hi there. I'm fresh to this forum so thought I'd say hello.
I just bought a Z3 for the wife so thought it would be a good idea to sign up and check out what goes on, seeing I have a load of other BMW's I'm pretty sure that it will be informative and since I look after her car as well.......
My cars are.....E28 528i, E28 525E, E28 M535i, Macau 635CSi project, Silver M635CSi project, 1972 2002 at project, E36 Alpina B3 3.2 Switch-tronic, (I'm a classic car dealer/restorer so have a few and specialise in Mercedes and BMW).
Hers is a 1.9 16V in Hell Red with black leather, we bought it quite cheap as it needed some TLC. One of the main issues was the two completely wrecked wing mirrors. After pricing them up at £150 each plus postage, and with no way to know if the new ones wouldn't just do the same as the old ones within a few months....I decided to have a look for an alternative. Scouring the net and the scrapyard I decided that the best possible match might be Mitsubishi FTO items. I bought a pair from a red FTO in the scrapyard, and set about removing the balance of the originals on the Z3. I managed to use one of the original cage nuts for the BMW part to locate the FTO part and then eyeball the other side. This required drilling and then access into the door frame to apply rust prevention and a nut for the remaining bolt. The foot of the FTO item needs to be ground flat to remove the four locating lugs and once done the part fits very nicely in terms of X Y and Z axis.....the radius/curvature is almost identical and it's also possible to splice in the wiring in order to use the electrical adjustment on the BMW switch. The mirror glass is slightly larger so provides better rearward vision but if you do it make sure that you sit in the car and position the mirror housing so that you have a good range of glass adjustment before drilling the final hole for the larger of the two bolts.
Hope that helps....I know the purists are spitting bullets at this thread but personally......if I can make something work, keep something on the road etc for less money then that makes me a happy camper.

[BladeRunner919]

My cars are.....E28 528i, E28 525E, E28 M535i, Macau 635CSi project, Silver M635CSi project, 1972 2002 at project, E36 Alpina B3 3.2 Switch-tronic,

Welcome! And lets see some pictures of these (especially the Macau)!!

[Southernboy]

Welcome and well done on the "transplant"... it looks a pretty good "balanced" fit and even suits the "chunky" Z3 appearance...
If the transplants are likely to be more resistant to corrosion, I would imagine you may have a few followers... Did you have a look at the new Mini mirror as an option? Several members here have mooted the use of them, but I've not seen anyone actually do a fit of them to a Z3...

[Koolflyer]

Welcome Lance, at least Barry won't feel quite so isolated now your just down the road.....so to speak!!

[bertiejaffa]

Welcome and well done on the modification, looks very much like the standard mirror in my opinion and its always good to have an alternative

[lance1a]

Cheers guys. I have a few pics from past and present but most car are currently under a film of dust in the barns....here's some previous cars, but the red e28 is still mine, the dolphin cars were my faves and ones I rebuilt, the E30 I did on bike carbs. The 635 was a Nogaro silver MS. The 3.0 CSL we sold way too cheap to a guy in Holland who must be laughing at his good fortune.

[lance1a]

It would be hard to explain why I've had so many cars.....except for it being my work and having been employed by BMW manufacturing both here and in Munich (as well as at Ital-design in Turin, BMW Dingolfing and Regensburg) so it was almost natural I left to be an indi specialising in BMW and Mercedes with an interest in Italian cars as well (hence the name). My current drivers are...Merc W203 C220 CDi, Alfa 156 TS, Alfa 145 Cloverleaf, VW T5, Z3, Maserati Quatroporte Twin Turbo, Skyline GTS ( am waiting for paperwork to reg R32 GTR), BMW E30 Convertible LHD, and am thinking of putting the Rover SD1 3.9 Twin Plenum VDP back on the road....I started it up today for the first time in seven years....runs like a dream!