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Hi guys, not had a thread on here before but have been a longtime follower of stanceworks. up until now ive used Edition38 UK forum for my builds but now ive come away from VW's i thought id move over to here.
heres my previous car, a 6n2 polo tdi.
i wanted to stick with german, and have been fancying an e46 for a while now after seeing so many guys in the US make them look unreal. i managed to pick up a 320d saloon from a dodgy garage for a fairly good price.
the car is a 2002 BMW 3 series e46 saloon 320d in steel grey (which from what i can tell is fairly uncommon). its an SE model with parking sensors, cruise control, climate control, 6 disc changer, but its fairly basic inside.
i use the car to commute to and from uni 3/4 days a week so i needed something fairly modern, reliable and affordable to run.
heres the car once i got it home.
and a shot with it next to my friends new b5 s4
first thing was to remove the swirl flaps as ive heard a lot of horror stories. luckily mine were fine but replaced them for blanks anyway
was a bit worried about doing this job but it was suprisingly easy.
changed the front badge as its taken a beating over its 146000 mile life time.
managed to source some US front indicators from german ebay for a bargain price.
and then ordered my coilovers! HSD dualtech model with camber topmounts and 16 way adjustable dampening. ive never had anything other than stupidly cheap 'ebay jobs' before so these are a bit of a treat to make it more bearable for me on the drives to uni.
also picked up some wheels. although most people run 18's on e46's i decided i wanted to go 17's, mainly because ive had a long term love for BBS RF's. picked these up from a guy on here. 17 x 8/9 5x120 fully polished including centre nuts. sadly at some point in their life theyve been sprayed by some nasty wheel cleaner and the faces are now all hazy and nasty, but im planning to paint them so this isnt a problem.
and a photo of my coilovers. amazing quality for the price.
before splitting the wheels i wanted to test fit them to get an idea of how they would sit and what size dishes i wanted to buy (as i knew the 8's were too skinny) i tried both 9's on down one side of the car to see if i could fit them up front. on standard suspension it didnt look good.
but i test fitted again after fitting my HSD's with the camber top mounts set to maximum negative, and the tyre just tucks giving the perfect look i was aiming for.
sits perfectly upfront and theres plenty of room to come down on the coilovers now that ive cut out my ARB and taken off the drop link sleeve from the coilovers.
another photo of the front.
then pulled the tyres off..
heres a better photo i got today of one of them.
im now in process of splitting the wheels down for painting and bigger dishes, ive decided to stick with the 9's up front and run 9.5 out back with camber arms (yet to be bought). im undecided on colour for the faces as of now, grey/silver most probably. ive just ordered some 2.5 inch dishes for the rear from felgen fuch in germany and my front 1inch lips will be up for sale if anyone is interested!
so far ive split 2, this is my first time splitting wheels so its a bit of a learning curve.
planning to be on the wheels and running a fairly decent fitment for Ultimate dubs which is the first big show in the UK, March 9th.
hopefully ill keep this up to date as i go, and get some photos a bit better than all these crap ones.
heres my previous car, a 6n2 polo tdi.
i wanted to stick with german, and have been fancying an e46 for a while now after seeing so many guys in the US make them look unreal. i managed to pick up a 320d saloon from a dodgy garage for a fairly good price.
the car is a 2002 BMW 3 series e46 saloon 320d in steel grey (which from what i can tell is fairly uncommon). its an SE model with parking sensors, cruise control, climate control, 6 disc changer, but its fairly basic inside.
i use the car to commute to and from uni 3/4 days a week so i needed something fairly modern, reliable and affordable to run.
heres the car once i got it home.
and a shot with it next to my friends new b5 s4
first thing was to remove the swirl flaps as ive heard a lot of horror stories. luckily mine were fine but replaced them for blanks anyway
was a bit worried about doing this job but it was suprisingly easy.
changed the front badge as its taken a beating over its 146000 mile life time.
managed to source some US front indicators from german ebay for a bargain price.
and then ordered my coilovers! HSD dualtech model with camber topmounts and 16 way adjustable dampening. ive never had anything other than stupidly cheap 'ebay jobs' before so these are a bit of a treat to make it more bearable for me on the drives to uni.
also picked up some wheels. although most people run 18's on e46's i decided i wanted to go 17's, mainly because ive had a long term love for BBS RF's. picked these up from a guy on here. 17 x 8/9 5x120 fully polished including centre nuts. sadly at some point in their life theyve been sprayed by some nasty wheel cleaner and the faces are now all hazy and nasty, but im planning to paint them so this isnt a problem.
and a photo of my coilovers. amazing quality for the price.
before splitting the wheels i wanted to test fit them to get an idea of how they would sit and what size dishes i wanted to buy (as i knew the 8's were too skinny) i tried both 9's on down one side of the car to see if i could fit them up front. on standard suspension it didnt look good.
but i test fitted again after fitting my HSD's with the camber top mounts set to maximum negative, and the tyre just tucks giving the perfect look i was aiming for.
sits perfectly upfront and theres plenty of room to come down on the coilovers now that ive cut out my ARB and taken off the drop link sleeve from the coilovers.
another photo of the front.
then pulled the tyres off..
heres a better photo i got today of one of them.
im now in process of splitting the wheels down for painting and bigger dishes, ive decided to stick with the 9's up front and run 9.5 out back with camber arms (yet to be bought). im undecided on colour for the faces as of now, grey/silver most probably. ive just ordered some 2.5 inch dishes for the rear from felgen fuch in germany and my front 1inch lips will be up for sale if anyone is interested!
so far ive split 2, this is my first time splitting wheels so its a bit of a learning curve.
planning to be on the wheels and running a fairly decent fitment for Ultimate dubs which is the first big show in the UK, March 9th.
hopefully ill keep this up to date as i go, and get some photos a bit better than all these crap ones.
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