BMW E46 M3 valve adjustment

It was maintenance time for Aarons car yesterday. There was a laundry list of things to do, but the most important was the checking and adjusting of the valves. I was a little nervous because I really did not want to screw up his car. It turned out to be pretty easy. I would give it a 5 of 10 rating for difficulty. The most important thing was not drop the tiny little metal shims down into the engine.
One of the pictures show how we covered everything except where we were working. Someone mentioned it looked like some kind of surgery going on. Well, out of 24 valves we found one out of tolerance (.18 to .23mm intake and .28 to .33mm exhaust). It's kinda funny to think that the difference between a good valve clearance and one that is out of tolerance is the thickness of a human hair. Aaron measured one and it was .05mm thick.
We found another valve that was close to the upper range so we decided to change shims but could not find a shim that would work. I started to get a little cocky while changing the second shim and decided that I did not need to cover up the engine. Sure enough I dropped one of
these tiny shims down into the engine somewhere. I thought I was going to puke,,,,,,, but was pretty sure it did not go down somewhere I could not get to it. Sure enough I was able to retrieve it with a magnet.
Everything back together and engine started and no loud noises, so I considered it a success.