The Long Awaited: The Myth, The Legend, The Douchebaggery

[SlimKlim]

Just realized my car doesn't have a project thread and I'm bored, so I'm going to write one and get up to date.

So, It's June of 2009 and I'm thinking to myself, "Self, why did your dumbass get all worked up over an Autotragic 2003 325i and buy the thing, and now your sitting on a somewhat boring car that depreciates $100 when you look at it wrong?" then I said "Self, you're about to transfer to JMU, and you ought to get something a less expensive, so why don't you buy a Nice E30 or E36 and pocket a lot of cash, and get a car that's maybe even more fun to drive?"

So The hunt was on, I took the E46 back to stock and put her on the lot at work. I decided not to spend more that $5000ish on my "new" car, and I was torn between a $3000 E30 I could put some money into, or a well sorted E36 for about $5000. I hunted and pecked and found a nice 1990 325is begging to be modded for Auto-X but it was impractically far away, (like San Diego) and I got all tingly over a well modded Black 1997 328i Sport Package sedan in North Carolina, but there was something wrong with the clutch and he wanted crazy money for a broke car.

I saw the listing for this she-devil and all my convictions about a cheap car were complete shattered. The guy was asking $7500 and I whittled him down to $7000. As a wise man once said, It was on like Donkey Kong. My buddy drove me down to Norfolk the following Thursday, and lemme tell ya, driving down 460 through some GE-HET-TOW places with $7000 clutched firmly to your chest is an experience. We napped for a few hours in a chintzy overly modern hotel that didn't want to give us our room cause we weren't 21. We met the seller at 8 AM friday, and I drove the car back to Roanoke to pick up my dad from work at 5:30.

She was rough. Headliner draping, seats ruined, shifter linkage shot, tires corded, alignment way off, front right wheel bearing shot, front right sway bar link broken, rear camber adjustment was loose, old distorted tint you couldnt see through, broken exhaust hanger, ancient head unit, ruined speakers, and a lug nut was broken off in the right rear hub. She had been repainted and it obviousy didnt bond very well, large chips in the hood and swirl marks from automated washes (guilty of that myself)













The battle begins.

[ScottyB]

lookin foward to this one :thumbup:

[SlimKlim]

The first weekend I turned my attention to the biggest issue. The lack of iPod compatibility. A cool $270 later, I had a half decent Kenwood ripe for the installing.



Then, the headliner getting in my hair became a nuisance, and I picked up some fabrics to solve my problems.









Now I that I'd fuzzled around with the completely unimportant stuff, it was time to get some stuff fixed. I ordered a set of cheap all season tires because I had disillusions of replacing the wheels, and had the shop I was working at attack the main mechanical problems I listed above. I received my first bill a week after buying the car for almost $1200.

Let's recap, $7000+$230 to register+$270 for a head unit+$1200 for tires and repairs, cheap car? Rut-roh.

After all that was done I set about removing the old tint, which is a horrible, grueling, disgusting job. I took a wallpaper steamer and climbed in the back of the car, getting the tint hot and moist and pulling it down from the window.



Then I wanted some throatyness, but was too cheap to buy an intake, my buddy from Bimmerfest.com used to use a 3in aluminum tube, so I had him send it to me and fashioned a bracket for it.



I'm sure I fooled around with more stuff, but I can't remember it all now. I gave it a good deep cleaning and got ready to come up to JMU.

[SlimKlim]

Well, I loved JMU, but JMU didn't love my car back.

On the first cruise of the year we were coming back down 33 headed towards the 'burg, and someone pulled out in front of the convoy, causing us to stop short, it caught David by surprise and by the time he had reacted it was too late and there was a little honda-bmw love tap.

It wrecked the bumper, cracked a taillight, dented the spare tire well, and bent the exhaust tips.





A week later my ever graceful, light footed, and strangely, completely sober 220lb roommate barreled into my car at full clip on a road bike, trying to race me (also on a bike, car was parked) down the hill to Rockingham. Since he was flat broke, I had to suck it up and deal with it.



Notice the splatter of paint flecks on the windshield. Nice touch.



The insurance company cut me a check for almost $4400. I think I spent roughly $3100 of that on having the rear end sorted back out, and then used whatever ridiculous amount they gave me for the cracked tail to buy Euro-style clears.



They gave me something like $1100 for the bent exhaust. I weighed the options, exhaust or wheels. Bent exhaust and wheels, new exhaust, and old wheels. Hmmmmmm.




...My exhaust is bent.

I bought a set of TRMotorsport (Enkei) 17x9 MT-1s wrapped in Hankook RS2s (they were on clearance) and ordered some 10mm spacers I wouldn't end up actually needing for about $1500.



At some point I spent a windy, cold Saturday under my car in Cabell's parking lot installing a ghetto short shifter (The stock arm, from a 4 banger Z3) but I think it was too cold to record the process with pictures. I also replaced some bushings and got rid of the shifter slop.

[SlimKlim]

Of course, the motorsport season was in full swing, and I had to get baby out there in her natural habitat.







Eventually I took her home for Winter break and got around to sorting out some iskoos.

The engine bay was trashed, so I bought some goodies and set about working.



I moved everything out of the way and cleaned the paint, hosed the engine down with degreaser, and repainted the valve cover. Then I replaced most of the missing plastics and called it a day.



My dad's business partner did me a solid and pulled out my roommate dents, and I made up some touch up paint and tried to hide the wound.



I'm chicken to refinish it because the paint is bonded so poorly, if I start sanding I might not stop.

Further reading on this project can be done here, http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthr...highlight=, if desired. 8)

MMM, cams.

[SlimKlim]

When I got the car back to school in January, full of hopes and dreams of happiness, I decided to buy baby a chip. After some heated debates on the internet, I decided to go out on a limb and opt for one of the $40 ebay copies, not the $250 name brand tune. Half the guys on my BMW forum thought my car was going to die in fire, but it worked just fine. Nothing but buttdyno results, but it definitely pulls stronger mid-range and It advances the timing for the top end. Here is a write up with lots of pictures of the process.

http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthr...highlight=

Then a whole bunch of crap happened at once. Water got down into the coils of cylinder 5 and 6, and the rest had been stewing in oil for long enough to warrant replacing the whole set. $370 later, I had a car that actually ran, but was leaking a shit ton of oil. Turns out I had messed up the Valve cover by getting paint on the sealing surface, and not torquing it properly. The high pressure line that fed the variable timing system was leaking, and my expansion tank was cracked. I had Mid-Atlantic fix the first two for the cool sum of $400ish dollars.

I ordered the expansion tank and replaced it over spring break, and bought baby some splitters and pedal covers to get my rice on.







And that's more or less how she sits now. I left some things out, and I'm forgetting some others entirely, but that's most of the things I've done in the time I've had her. She's in need of another intensive detail and another set of summer tires, the right side skirt and bumper clip are busted, and she faintly smells of Jimmy Johns.

But I love her, she is my realistic dream car and even though I bitch when it rains at autocrosses, I wouldn't trade her for anything. Now I have a thread to build on here when I make changes.

Eventually I'll pass this car along to someone else that can appreciate her,






.....if they can pry the keys from my cold dead hands that is. 8)

[Mike]

thanks for that... :thumbup:

[V1GiLaNtE]

cool story bro.... :thumbup: 8)

[JustinG]

good work

[Apoc]

That's basically my E36, just a different color. That makes me sad.

[SlimKlim]

Thank God.

[Kaan]

huh? dont make me come over there!

[SlimKlim]

The car feels like a whole new woman with new brakes. Next step, make my friggin pulley stop friggin squeakin afore i kill it.

Fun facts. Messaged this guy that runs peoples original options for free on bimmerforums cause he works with BMW or something.

VIN long WBSBF9324SEH03658

Type code BF93

Type M3 (USA)

Dev. series E36 (2)

Line 3

Body type COUPE

Steering LL

Door count 2

Engine S50US

Cubical capacity 3.00

Power 176

Transmision HECK

Gearbox MECH

Colour DAKARGELB (267)

Upholstery TEILLEDER W.N./SCHWARZ (N5SW)

Prod. date 1994-11-28


Order options
No. Description
243 AIRBAG FOR FRONT PASSENGER

401 SLIDING/VENT ROOF, ELECTRIC

530 AIR CONDITIONING

540 CRUISE CONTROL

554 ON-BOARD COMPUTER

676 HIFI LOUDSPEAKER SYSTEM

686 DIVERSITY-FUNCTION AERIAL

694 PREPARATION FOR CD CHANGER

710 M LEATHER STEERING WHEEL

818 MAIN BATTERY SWITCH

900 APPR. VEH.IMMOBILIZAT. ACC. TO AZT/TUEV

925 SHIPPING PROTECTION PACKAGE

[V1GiLaNtE]

^ Thank god.. I expected to hear you on the 6 o'clock news cause you couldn't stop in time driving around with those POS worn out brakes...

[xvxax]

what pads?

car was built on a Monday, you know what that means.

[Jake]

^ Thank god.. I expected to hear you on the 6 o'clock news cause you couldn't stop in time driving around with those POS worn out brakes...

Every time I borrowed the car I was asked to "please just downshift and don't brake too much" -- had one instance where I took a quick trip to Radio Shack and had to lay into the brakes pretty hard. Wasn't much there so it's good to have them replaced.

Now it'll friggin' st-asdlhg... stop.

[SlimKlim]

what pads?

car was built on a Monday, you know what that means.

Stoptechs.

It stops so fast it wiggles the nose.

[Tyler.M]

Question about your wheels, does the BMW center cap fit? I might choose these over the OZ's i'm looking at because I'm a label whore.

[SlimKlim]

Yeah, DJ runs the same wheels with a center cap. I don't know if you need one from a certain wheel or not, so you might ask him.

[Tyler.M]

Okay 'nother question. What tire size you running? with the 17x9's don't you get some rub on the front?