Ever wonder what goes on behind the scenes of a car that goes from the showroom to the aftermarket tuning shops? It’s hard to imagine the laborious process that goes into tuning a vehicle, especially since most of the work is really an exercise in patience and dedication, not to mention the fact that the whole process is unglamorous to begin with. We don’t often see it because tuners prefer to give us glam shots of the final product, but rest assured, there’s a lot of work that goes on into not only developing these components, but more importantly, installing them to the cars themselves.

I say that because we have Detailer’s Domains from auto detailing online community Details Bliss. A few days ago, it started documenting the entire process of tuning a BMW M2 that it had just driven out of a BMW dealership. The car is as brand new as it’s going to get and off the bat, DD (let’s call Detailer’s Domains that) knew exactly what it wanted to give the M2 to give it the aftermarket upgrade of a lifetime.

Obviously, I’m not going to dive into the absolute specifics of each and every upgrade made every step of the way. That would be insane, not to mention incredibly time-consuming. Instead, I’ll take you on a quick trip around the inner workings of tuning this new M2, right from when it was brought to the tuning shops, all the way to some of the more notable upgrades that were given to it. The whole process itself isn’t even complete yet, but to a certain extent, most of the prominent upgrades have been installed on the M2, including generous helpings of carbon fiber all throughout the BMW M2.

So, enough chit-chat. Let’s dive in.

Continue after the jump to read the full story.

Why it matters

So here’s the back-story to this build. Dealers Domain bought the BMW M2 with the purpose of giving it an aftermarket treatment. The whole process itself is far from complete, but in the process of a little over a week, a lot of work has been done on the sports coupe on a number of different facets. Based on the time stamps, the first thing that DD did was replace the stock wheels for a set of 19-inch BBS FI-R wheels. There’s a lot of work that goes into this and most of them are of the unglamorous kind. Eventually though, the M2 gets its new set of wheels, allowing it to move on to the next phase of the tuning upgrade: the suspension.

Again, this is the kind of work that you never get to see in press releases and auto shows, but for those parts to be installed into the car, somebody has to do it. In this case, the people from Rogue Engineering took up the task of putting in a number of components, including a front tension arm bushing, adjustable sway bar links, custom made steel brake lines, and new coilers from M Performance.

The photos in the posts tell you a fascinating story at the process behind the installations. At the very least, you can tell that it’s more than just actually putting the pieces together; there’s also plenty of precision work involved in ensuring that all these pieces are put together properly for them to function the way they’re supposed to. One other thing, too, we never get to see if they’re put together properly too; we just feel it when we drive the car. That’s when you know a good tuner worked on a car properly.

In between upgrades, DD sent the M2 to get cleaned, which also tells you that the owner isn’t messing around with this car; he wants it to be as clean as possible, all the time. That’s a good sign of somebody who takes proper care of his car.

Likewise, the exterior and interior upgrades are also signs that this M2 is getting treated to the full aftermarket makeover. The interior upgrades were first and for that, DD picked up BMW Performance’s five-piece Alcantara Carbon Fiber Interior Kit, specifically for two pieces that he needed to put into his M2. The owner also bought in IND Distribution for the Alcantara custom stitched armrest.

The next pieces of business involved installing a new high-grade titanium exhaust from Akrapovic and following that up by adding a carbon fiber intake from Eventuri. There was a lot of work involved in piecing these two new components together and for what they’re worth, it’s probably better if I let the photos do the talking.

Remember, the build is not complete yet so there’s a good chance that the post will be updated sooner than later. For now though, check out how the aftermarket transformation of Detailer’s Domains is going by clicking here.

Read our full review on the BMW M2 here.