From the Beginning: My E36 Build

[M.Burroughs]

I have threads scattered across the web, but I dont think any of them have all of the photos anymore... so here goes. I probably won't get everything up at one time.. but I'll start from the beginning!

Later on in the swap I really didn't take many photos, especially of what we actually did.. so I'm sorry, there's no real info on how we did everything, just some pics to look at.

[M.Burroughs]

November 11, 2006:

First photos of the E36, taken behind my high school. Also the first photos I ever took.

I had owned the car for a while at this point, a few months already. It had never occurred to me to go take photos of it. I had just been bumming around on bimmerforums and whatnot.

[M.Burroughs]

November 22, 2006:

The first mod arrives.




Bilstein PSS coilovers. I wanted to get my "low" on and my father happens to know a guy at Bilstein, so the coils came at cost which was nice for a 17-year-old.

I wish I had pics of the install, but nonetheless, these coilovers are what introduced me to Erik, one of my closest friends and the mastermind behind what my car is today. He helped me when I broke a strut hat bolt.
I posted up on Bimmerforums asking for help and a couple hours later he showed up.

I got the coils on, and of course, I thought rake was totally rad.

[Dr.AK]

Welcome to the site!

You car's got loads of potential, great that you already bought some coils! Wheels should be next on the list!

Good luck with getting it to look good!





J/K Mike.

I've been waiting for something like this.

[jasonklee]

Subscribed.

[M.Burroughs]

December 26, 2006

My HREs arrived. 18x8.5 et38 and 18x9.5 et48. My father worked at HRE at the time, so they were cost free.





I was actually out of town when I got the wheels, so I had to wait a full week before getting to put them on the car.

[M.Burroughs]

January 3, 2007

I got the wheels on the car. There were a few issues making them fit, namely the lack of rolled fenders. Erik taught me the way of the baseball bat and we did work.

Here are the first photos:







Obviously they're less than appetizing photos, but that's all I had at the time.

lol at the rake.

[M.Burroughs]

January 20, 2007

I finally did something about the rake... but only a little. I still loved the look but knew I had to tame it a bit.

[M.Burroughs]

January 27, 2007

A few crappy dark photos later, I finally got some good photos of my car.







It was around this time I started thinking about power. Erik had sold me on going with the eurosport Schrick cam kit, which would put me in M3 territory for about $1200. I was stoked on it and had started saving up.

[M.Burroughs]

February 13, 2007:



I ordered an M3 bumper from Emotion Garage. When I bought it, I paid $250 for it, and I was the envy of everyone. Oh, the days before DDM. I remember when M3 bumpers were $350-500.

Also got some smoked corner lights for the front.

Notice that its not painted.

Yeah, I was one of those guys.

[M.Burroughs]

February 18, 2007:

Me and my buddy TC started a website, tennesseedrift.com, that went absolutely nowhere. Literally. Anyway, we thought we were hot shit withour windshield stickers.







That bumper was still unpained.

[M.Burroughs]

March 10, 2008:

My first drift event. Bought some Borbet Type Cs and went out and had some fun.

[M.Burroughs]

March 10, 2007:

I got some authentic ACS pedals which I thought were mondo-rad.





Bumper was still unpainted too. Shame on me.

[M.Burroughs]

March 18, 2007:

I got some ZKW headlights. $550 for these bad boys back before the DDM days.
I wish I had gotten the citylight version, but you live and learn.

I put the old bumper back on because I realized how much of a failure I was for not having a painted bumper.





I was still saving for those cams Erik had gotten me interested in... but then we talked some more, and for not that much more I could get an S50/2 and have the same power, with more room for upgrading...

So I decided to start saving for an S52.

[M.Burroughs]

March 29, 2007

I finally got the bumper painted. Did it myself too!





I didn't have the lip on for some reason, I dont recall why.