My cosmos black e36 vert

[Jdfixter]

Picked this car up late december 2012 as abit of toy/project for the summer, only paid 450 becuase there was a fault with the electric roof. (simple replacement window motor sorted it) Its a 1996 cosmos black e36 318i auto convertible (wasnt after power, just comfort, cheap to insure as a second car and to run) with 80k miles on the clock, apsoloutly mint body, not a patch of rust in sight, mint engine and gearbox, very clean engine bay, just a great find! couple of pics from the advert and when i got her home...

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[Jdfixter]

it went strait in my garage and got untouched for about a month then work begain, started of with a m tech front bumper with foglights, m tech side strips and very rare, genuine, electric and heated sc schnitzer mirros painted in cosmos black to match...

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then i went out in the snow and took a few artistic photo but im on my iphone and its a mission to upload them all

[Jdfixter]

next on the list was a facelift front grill (just prefer the curvier look) found one in excelent condition and went to collect, while there i got a mtech rear bumper and diffuser to match the front for a really good price (Y) happy days, got the car out of the garage fitted the bits along with a full set of clear indicators off my coupe, gave it a really good clean as all weather and dust from the garage had took its toll

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oh and i also tinted my fogs yellow, always liked the look on other cars

[Jdfixter]

as the weather was brightening up this became my daily driver so i had to get the window motor fixed, along with a few other interior wiring problems, and a new body control module, the previous owner had obviously tried to fix the roof and window with absoloutly no knowledge of car electronics and it took a day to work through everything but only about £50 for the new working bits so i was pleased at the end, after driving it for a week i couldnt bare the horrible boring grey cloth interior any longer so it had to be upgraded, manadged to find a brilliant set of m3 vert silver leathers and door cars with almost no wear at all! an m3 steering wheel was thrown into the deal, and then i swaped out all the wooden trim from my coupe and the "7 filp out head unit, such an improvement! also went for a pro car wash

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[Jdfixter]

no major work for a while after that, just some 8k HIDS and led bulbs alll round the outside and interior, gives it a very bright modern feel, just went out and enjoyed the few days of sun we had at the end of feb as you may notice it looks rather like a 4x4 atm with the ride hight, this wil have to change

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[Jdfixter]

its stance time! bought some fk coilovers, the second they arrived the car was up in the air with the weels off! had some complications with seized up bolts snapping and ended up having to change the whole offside disc carrier, but really happy with the difference and results, while the wheels were off i took the time to paint my break calipers in the same colour blue as on the bmw roundel, looks really good and tasteful i think

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[Jdfixter]

couldnt go any lower on the front because my fat standard tyres wouldnt clear had good fun trying to get down my drive too!

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and heres a before and after shot to see the difference looks so much better and aggressive

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[Jdfixter]

finally up to now ive fitted a nice, not to loud or showy, twin 2" catback pipe to make the rear look abit sportier and fit in the diffuser nicely, another good clean and a few photos taken on monday when the sun was out

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this is the first car i have had thats been really low and its taken some getting used to the extra care and planning needed for every day driving :/ im dreading getting it up in the air and seeing the damage that i may have already caused from the generaly very poor condition of roads in my area and the excessive use of speed bumps!

currently on the way in the post are a black and silver printed metal rear plate like the uk pre 1973 cars, a printed metal german style rear plate both for show use or maybe get away with it on the road depends how leineant the local police are going to be, and finaly a 1/2 scale front plate to be mounted in the grill where the current standard size one is just to look less in your face, ive done this by getting a couple of velcro circles, cut 2 small holes in the center like a clothes button and zip tie them into the grill, when the plate is off you can almost not even notice they are there, and you can easily just stick on the plate when needed for road use, quite clever i thort, sure someone else has done it first tho!

this weekend i am going to try and finally get some new wheels! ever since i bought the car i have been undecided, ponderd on borbet a's, m3 contour 2's, and seen many others that i really liked, but i think i have finally made my mind up on some bbs rs's! they never fail to look good and ive seen a few e36 look amazing with these on, im thinking 16" x 9 personally, like the look of some streched fatish tires, rolled arches, spacers, and slammed! but 17" with lower profiles also look good, i guess we will find out in a few days!

[Jdfixter]

to do list next week, picking up some m tech side skirts just to finshed off the body, and ive got it booked in for a remap which should up the power from a very pedestrian 115bhp for quite a heavy car, to about 135 im told, also much better efficency from the auto gearbox which sometimes gets on my tits when your sitting at 30 mph and its doing about 25-30mpg when it has the potential for way over 40mpg, couple that with an air induction kit and maybe a decat :/ undecided if i want the extra volume the decat will give but the 10-15 bhp gains my be worth it, so bringing the car up to the 318is/320 power range for not too much money in total