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I thought I'd start build thread up on SW considering I'm starting to use it more and more now that I've found the UK sub section. Instead of writing everything out again I'll copy and paste my post from a local forum.
Max
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After looking intensively for a few weeks I couldn't find a E36 328i which met what I was looking for (under 100k, m-kit, clean body, black interior etc.). So I began looking at E46s. My car came up at quite a nice price but with not much details and only one picture of it. So being the sceptical person I am I gave the guy a bell to get a bit more details on it.
Turns out it was as good as it sounds! Black with black leather interior, 105k on the clock with tax and mot still on it and of course the 2.8 straight six I had been looking for
After a quick trip down there on Saturday with Mr. Whittle we gave it a good check over. There are a few niggles like the non working sunroof but all the majors like the rear subframe and timing chains were fine and I couldn't really complain about what it was up for. So I put deposit down and was happy as a clam. I popped back down there last night for the final shaking of hands, handing over of the wad and the mandatory V5 signing.
So that's where it's at at the moment. The plan is to get it sitting pretty on the BMW wheels I have sitting in my garage and get it on it's arse. Probably on ebay specials due to the severe lack of funds I'll have in the coming months.
More pics after I get Jay to detail it because the guy before me seems to have been washing it with a brick :lol:
And that's how I became the Fresh Prince of Bel-air...
---------------------------
Failed my MOT on "Severely corroded front brake lines" which is a bit unnerving but at least it's cheap to fix. With that in mind I ordered up a set of these bad boys
They should be here about Mondayish so I'll get my car up on the ramp at my mate garage and get these fitted and change the brake lines whilst I'm at it.
I'm pretty much like a kid waiting for Christmas at the moment
------------------
Well these arrives today and now I'm just waiting for the drop links
--------------------
So after my drop links turned up me and a mate started work on the BMW at about 2 on Saturday.
There were a few complications which made it take us about 5 hours over all but it was all worth it in the end.
I'll let the pictures do the talking.
Before :
During :
Seems the original shocks amd springs had never been replaced so these had covered over 100k
After giving my car a good look over it seems it had previously had the subframe problem but it had been fixed and strengthened
Dropped
But then the helper spring was hitting on the tyre and the wheel bolts we had weren't long enough to use 5mm spacers so we had to take out the helpers and put the adjuster rings about 10mm from the top of the threads.
Rears after we finished
Fronts. I will drop further after I get spacers or put my 17s on it. Decisions decisions.
Plate will also come back off after my mots done
-----------------------
So here's my dilemma. I can either slam my car on the set of 17's that I already own (on the MK4) or lower a lot on a set of 18's that I am yet to buy.
The 17s will look sick and also only cost me about £200 (adaptors) to get on my car. The pros being it will look s**t hot and not be that expensive but the cons are that I'll have a slammed car again which seems a bit stupid, I mean having a 2.8 but not being able to utilise the power would just be dumb.
But on the other hand I could buy some 18s (est. £900 all in) and have a nice looking drop and still be able to get the most out of my car. Pros and cons of this are pretty obvious.
I'm really not sure what to do here. :roll:
-----------------------
I popped home on my lunch to take some more pictures and run some more errands that I had to do. I'm well aware that it has far too much reverse rake at the moment but unfortunately until I get some new wheels I can't do much about it. I'll drop the front another 25mm and the rear about another 10mm eventually.
Side
Front
Back
When I went to leave to go back to work I was confronted by my dogs "sad face". :lol:
-----------------------
Slight update.
Before
Popped the grills out
Got sanding and painting and refitted them
Much better! Makes the front look so much meaner.
-------------------------
What better way to start a Thursday morning then a £60 fine
---------------------
After trial fitting the Clubsports it's pretty evident that I'm going to need to drop this a lot to make it work.
Here's a trial shot
That was with the 215/45s on. I decided to order up some 205/40(Falken 452s) for a little bit of stretch as the wheels naturally poked due to the low et. They're just turned up this morning so I'm getting on the blower to a old school local mechanic I know to see if he can fit them up for me today.
I've also made a little bracket out of some spare ally I had lying around so that I can run my plate on the top of my windscreen.
-----------------
I need to fine tune the height still. I had to raise the front up about 3/4 of an inch because it was literally undriveable. I got beached on a flat road :lol: Because of this the back now sits about 1/2 an inch lower then the front so I'm going to put the adjuster rings back in or I may just make some 5-10mm ally spacers for them. Can't be having reverse rake now can I.
------------------------------
Four wheel alignment has now been booked in for Wednesday. The caster and camber is so far off unless I get it sorted soon it's going to rape my tyres.
----------------
Pic of the day
---------------------
The new bottom arm/front bushes arrived this morning. Rear Powerflex bushes should be here by the end of the week so I'll get them fitted up this weekend if all goes to plan
It was Sunny on my lunch so I thought Id get a semi decent shot of my car
Also
-----------------------------
Another update made during my lunch
Before
After (for some reason the left one looks redish in the picture)
All red rears next
-
----------------
Got the rears done last night. Not sure about using them to be honest, they look dope as anything but because the vinyl is so thick it's quite obvious when your up close. Perhaps I'm just nit picking though. Sorry about the crap pics in advance.
Before
After
-------------------------
Bad news on this.
I was driving to my mates to give him a lift to the train station so he could go back to para training and my car felt a bit odd, sluggish and soft.
When I got there I decided to give it a look over and it turns out my rear left hand tyre was flat as a pancake. I started to pump it up but it wouldn't take any air so I stuck my hand behind the tyre to find that the whole inner side wall has been shredded blow out style.
I'm guessing that they tyre went down over night and without me picking up on it I've destroyed the tyre whilst driving on it. Un-f*****g-cool. <_<
I got a work colleague to pick us up and give me a lift back to work (I was on lunch) and will be returning to my mates latter on to put my old 18s on the rear until I get another 205/40 tyre ordered up.
It's going to be a long night.
-------------------------
Got the new rear tyre fitted up yesterday and my mate brought it down the pub with him. I got the rears swapped over on my lunch today so I'm back rolling on 4 17s
Drifter setup anyone (it's half jacked up by the rear diff in this picture hence the positive camber)
A pic of my chassis rails whilst I was there :lol:
--------------------------
Subject: Re: My 328ci E46 Thu Mar 24 2011, 10:22
f*****g Finally!
Got a mate to give me a lift down to Stortford yesterday afternoon to pick up my newly aligned car. I've got to say the people at Stortford Performance Tyres are top lads! They didn't complain once about my car being low, sorted out everything to a T, adjusted my rear camber to 2.5 degrees on my request and even stayed open 10 mins after normal closing time so I could collect my car. I really would recommend them to anyone
Now I've sorted the ride height, bushes and camber out the only thing left on my immediate to do list is replace my brakes as I may of warped them a little whilst having some fun with an RS2 Has anyone on here got any experience with EBC Red Stuff pads?
------------------------------
The postman dropped me off a cheeky package earlier :thumbs_up:
----------------------------
Also much love for Dan for this shot
----------------------------
Now that was a large write up! That's how the BM's sitting at the moment. I still need to give it a proper service but that will have to be for when i get some money.
Max
-------------
After looking intensively for a few weeks I couldn't find a E36 328i which met what I was looking for (under 100k, m-kit, clean body, black interior etc.). So I began looking at E46s. My car came up at quite a nice price but with not much details and only one picture of it. So being the sceptical person I am I gave the guy a bell to get a bit more details on it.
Turns out it was as good as it sounds! Black with black leather interior, 105k on the clock with tax and mot still on it and of course the 2.8 straight six I had been looking for
After a quick trip down there on Saturday with Mr. Whittle we gave it a good check over. There are a few niggles like the non working sunroof but all the majors like the rear subframe and timing chains were fine and I couldn't really complain about what it was up for. So I put deposit down and was happy as a clam. I popped back down there last night for the final shaking of hands, handing over of the wad and the mandatory V5 signing.
So that's where it's at at the moment. The plan is to get it sitting pretty on the BMW wheels I have sitting in my garage and get it on it's arse. Probably on ebay specials due to the severe lack of funds I'll have in the coming months.
More pics after I get Jay to detail it because the guy before me seems to have been washing it with a brick :lol:
And that's how I became the Fresh Prince of Bel-air...
---------------------------
Failed my MOT on "Severely corroded front brake lines" which is a bit unnerving but at least it's cheap to fix. With that in mind I ordered up a set of these bad boys
They should be here about Mondayish so I'll get my car up on the ramp at my mate garage and get these fitted and change the brake lines whilst I'm at it.
I'm pretty much like a kid waiting for Christmas at the moment
------------------
Well these arrives today and now I'm just waiting for the drop links
--------------------
So after my drop links turned up me and a mate started work on the BMW at about 2 on Saturday.
There were a few complications which made it take us about 5 hours over all but it was all worth it in the end.
I'll let the pictures do the talking.
Before :
During :
Seems the original shocks amd springs had never been replaced so these had covered over 100k
After giving my car a good look over it seems it had previously had the subframe problem but it had been fixed and strengthened
Dropped
But then the helper spring was hitting on the tyre and the wheel bolts we had weren't long enough to use 5mm spacers so we had to take out the helpers and put the adjuster rings about 10mm from the top of the threads.
Rears after we finished
Fronts. I will drop further after I get spacers or put my 17s on it. Decisions decisions.
Plate will also come back off after my mots done
-----------------------
So here's my dilemma. I can either slam my car on the set of 17's that I already own (on the MK4) or lower a lot on a set of 18's that I am yet to buy.
The 17s will look sick and also only cost me about £200 (adaptors) to get on my car. The pros being it will look s**t hot and not be that expensive but the cons are that I'll have a slammed car again which seems a bit stupid, I mean having a 2.8 but not being able to utilise the power would just be dumb.
But on the other hand I could buy some 18s (est. £900 all in) and have a nice looking drop and still be able to get the most out of my car. Pros and cons of this are pretty obvious.
I'm really not sure what to do here. :roll:
-----------------------
I popped home on my lunch to take some more pictures and run some more errands that I had to do. I'm well aware that it has far too much reverse rake at the moment but unfortunately until I get some new wheels I can't do much about it. I'll drop the front another 25mm and the rear about another 10mm eventually.
Side
Front
Back
When I went to leave to go back to work I was confronted by my dogs "sad face". :lol:
-----------------------
Slight update.
Before
Popped the grills out
Got sanding and painting and refitted them
Much better! Makes the front look so much meaner.
-------------------------
What better way to start a Thursday morning then a £60 fine
---------------------
After trial fitting the Clubsports it's pretty evident that I'm going to need to drop this a lot to make it work.
Here's a trial shot
That was with the 215/45s on. I decided to order up some 205/40(Falken 452s) for a little bit of stretch as the wheels naturally poked due to the low et. They're just turned up this morning so I'm getting on the blower to a old school local mechanic I know to see if he can fit them up for me today.
I've also made a little bracket out of some spare ally I had lying around so that I can run my plate on the top of my windscreen.
-----------------
Originally posted by max
Even though it was pissing it down on Saturday I decided to get s**t done. No during pics as I was too busy working but I've got plenty of after pics.
The result
I think I may have to get my caster and camber done :lol:
The result
I think I may have to get my caster and camber done :lol:
------------------------------
Four wheel alignment has now been booked in for Wednesday. The caster and camber is so far off unless I get it sorted soon it's going to rape my tyres.
----------------
Pic of the day
---------------------
The new bottom arm/front bushes arrived this morning. Rear Powerflex bushes should be here by the end of the week so I'll get them fitted up this weekend if all goes to plan
It was Sunny on my lunch so I thought Id get a semi decent shot of my car
Also
-----------------------------
Another update made during my lunch
Before
After (for some reason the left one looks redish in the picture)
All red rears next
-----------------
Got the rears done last night. Not sure about using them to be honest, they look dope as anything but because the vinyl is so thick it's quite obvious when your up close. Perhaps I'm just nit picking though. Sorry about the crap pics in advance.
Before
After
-------------------------
Bad news on this.
I was driving to my mates to give him a lift to the train station so he could go back to para training and my car felt a bit odd, sluggish and soft.
When I got there I decided to give it a look over and it turns out my rear left hand tyre was flat as a pancake. I started to pump it up but it wouldn't take any air so I stuck my hand behind the tyre to find that the whole inner side wall has been shredded blow out style.
I'm guessing that they tyre went down over night and without me picking up on it I've destroyed the tyre whilst driving on it. Un-f*****g-cool. <_<
I got a work colleague to pick us up and give me a lift back to work (I was on lunch) and will be returning to my mates latter on to put my old 18s on the rear until I get another 205/40 tyre ordered up.
It's going to be a long night.
-------------------------
Got the new rear tyre fitted up yesterday and my mate brought it down the pub with him. I got the rears swapped over on my lunch today so I'm back rolling on 4 17s
Drifter setup anyone (it's half jacked up by the rear diff in this picture hence the positive camber)
A pic of my chassis rails whilst I was there :lol:
--------------------------
Subject: Re: My 328ci E46 Thu Mar 24 2011, 10:22
f*****g Finally!
Got a mate to give me a lift down to Stortford yesterday afternoon to pick up my newly aligned car. I've got to say the people at Stortford Performance Tyres are top lads! They didn't complain once about my car being low, sorted out everything to a T, adjusted my rear camber to 2.5 degrees on my request and even stayed open 10 mins after normal closing time so I could collect my car. I really would recommend them to anyone
Now I've sorted the ride height, bushes and camber out the only thing left on my immediate to do list is replace my brakes as I may of warped them a little whilst having some fun with an RS2 Has anyone on here got any experience with EBC Red Stuff pads?
------------------------------
The postman dropped me off a cheeky package earlier :thumbs_up:
----------------------------
Also much love for Dan for this shot
----------------------------
Now that was a large write up! That's how the BM's sitting at the moment. I still need to give it a proper service but that will have to be for when i get some money.
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