E36 Wide Arch Saloon

[mini ginge]

yea, spacers are on the list , there is no way this car is rolling out the garage without some hellaflush fronts and poke in the rear. I hope I can change your mind Ollie, not long to wait to find out, also im not 100% done yet so if a re-shape or adjustments are needed, so be it

[CubbyChowder]

Nice work!

[mini ginge]

Cheers Cubby, hope it all pays off in the end. Fitment will make this car. Waiting on tyres currently.

[cus]

hmm, this is boarderline between max power/barryboys, and something that could look really nice!
all comes down to fitment. please make this work!

[CrackerTeg]

I applaud the fact that you are not a body/ paint man by trade and tackling this the way you have. I'm curious to see where this goes.

[fuhfuh.Focus]

That color is amazing! Can't wait to see wheel fitment.

[Dr.AK]

I like everything but the way the front arches start that high up. Should've went the extra mile and lenghtened them so they started low on the bumper, would flow much better.

[mini ginge]

hey guys, thanks for the comments, its always been about fitment with me, fitment 100% makes or breaks a car in my opinion, you can all rest assured that fitment will be the finishing touch that makes this car work. In regards to the arches, I did toy with having them start from lower down on the bumper but it didn't seem to work so well, I think it will flow a lot better when there is a nice wide wheel filling the gap where the bumper finishes and arch starts. That's the plan anyway.

[mini ginge]

Closing stages now, today was all about starting the process of getting that deep shine throughout the entire car. Started by wet sanding with 320 grit sandpaper to get the real high peeks destroyed and get a uniform finish on the paint, then it was a case of hitting it with some 1000,1500 + 2000grit sandpaper to give it a nice smooth but dull finish. Then the magic happens, some water, G3 polish a polishing mop and some careful light movements leads to a shiny smooth finish. Tried to capture difference with pics but iphone camera's really aren't up too much.


On another note, the timescale is now as important as ever, my daily e36 has decided to blow the head gasket and be a massive inconvenience so I'm going to have a go at sealing it temporarily with a K Seal type additive and hope that it helps the old girl hang in there for another week or two.

[mini ginge]

The entire passenger side is now colour sanded, getting tyres fitted today, decided to go for 255/35/18 in the rear and 235/40/18 up front. Cant wait to see how it sits, needed to get this done asap so i can calculate what spacers are needed. Im hoping i can get away with 30mm spacers in rear and similar up front. Pics will be up later

[Nagah]

You impressed me. A lot. Usually I dislike E36 threads by now because of the sheer amount of them with mediocre content. But your E36 is standing out and this made it fun to read and watch.

Keep on the work man, YOU sir, are doing it right. So right.

[mini ginge]

23.08.13 Tyres on and test fit day.
Today I went down to my pal at Rocketdog Tyre Services in Cardiff and got the tyres fitted to the new wheels. I've got 235/40/18 up front to allow for a little spacing if needed to truly fill the arch and 255/35/18 outback to really give it that wide stance. Tyres look awesome fitted and the stretch on the front is very mild but gives enough stretch so it matches the rear for sidewall height pretty much.
After getting the tyres fitted was excited to get the wheel bolted up and get some weight over the wheels to see how they would sit when coilover's were added so I could gauge and purchase the correct spacers. It didnt happen that way. The wheels i've bought are multifit with 5x114.3 aswell. One of the fitments have a bolt hole big enough for a standard e36 bolt (m12x1.5) to go through, the other bolt hole has a smaller radius hole, guess which one is the e36 fitment? Yep, you got it, so now i've had to go on to ebay and buy tuner bolts so that the bolts will actually hold the wheel on. Not happy but needs must. Also, with it being a bank holiday weekend/monday here in the UK, the bolts wont even be dispatched until tuesday so its a waiting game now. Managed to get one of the bolts in using the other fitment as a rough gauge and was pleasantly surprised, the rear looks like its going to need 10-15mm spacer and the front's 5-10mm so my spacer costs looks like they will be reduced which is always good news.
The wheels are now staying in my dads garage at his house until the bolts arrive, until then I can't buy spacer's which is a pain but one of those things.



Well, the K Seal seems to have worked and temporarily sorted the head gasket on the daily. Even though its now running decent again I couldn't help but continue stripping it. Today I roped in my mate to give me a hand taking the coilovers off the daily and get them ready for installation to the orange bm. The original plan was to swap the suspension over so I could still drive the daily on standard shocks and springs and the 328 would be ready for wheels to go and get it sat right. In the end we decided to spend an hour today getting the coils off the white one and will do the same swap tomorrow. So my daily is currently close to laying frame with no suspension outside the house.

[KarlSpackler]

Those fenders are poorly arched man...I dunno. Like the color and red/black mirrors

[mini ginge]

Poorly arched? There bolt on arches off ebay. Have you reas this thread at all? Oeange and black. The car is orange, valencia orange. I want peoples opinions on the car, but to say there "poorly arched" doesn't help much. Elaborate on your criticism coz at the moment your criticism sucks sooo much more than my "poorly arched" beema.

[parttimeprojectionist]

so not that anybody asked me, but i think what mr sparkler is saying is that the shape of the arches in relation to the car is off, maybe. so using my superdooper editing skills i stole from a 2 year old i made a pictar to hang on the fridge

looks like you've put a lot of hard work into this, the paint looks great, as someone else said your headed down the MAX car path, but its your car please continue.