Ross's e36 328 touring

[Honeyman328]

Hello all, I am Ross from glasgow, scotland.

My car ownership was a vx corsa 1.2, vw polo 2001, vw golf gti mr3, audi coupe 16v, bmw 328 sport coupe and now a e36 328 touring. I have always modified my cars, normally alloys etc so nothing ott. From bmw ownership I have learnt how to get my hands dirty!

I owned my bmw 328 sport for 6 years and loved it. Couldn't beat RWD six cylinder power. So I was hooked. It was an early sport so LSD as standard. Changed quite a bit over the years. Then it was written off (minor damage) to no fault of myself. Bought it back and then hunted for a very clean e36. The only point to meet were it had to be a 328 with good spec and no rust. Going to transfer parts over

Was wanting another sport but they all were in poor condition or the price was too high. Then I found this



A 1999 328 touring se. No rust and one owner. Clutch broken and only one dent. Bought. It had 114k miles on it with partial history, m tech steering wheel, PDC, air con with duel climate. Headlight wash system. This was when I got it home after driving back from Coventry.

My first task was to replace the old bmw badges as they were all corroded. Carbon fibre replacement for bonnet, could find a rear size though (I overcame this problem later on)

The car was taken to get its clutch fixed (faulty release bearing), the clock didn't work so new bulb fitted and it phoned bmw for the radio code. The bonnet was squint, all it needed was adjusted. My central locking was also playing up so I ordered actuators to sort drivers front and passenger rear door. All sorted so now to start the good stuff.

Here's a photo from the seller

[Earl]

Can't wait to see where this goes=)

[Honeyman328]

So I had my touring, a plan, some parts from my sport and some spare cash. Que the a-team music.

I sold most parts from my sport but kept the following

M50 manifold conversion
K&n stage 2 induction kit
Powerflex bushes
Coilovers (budget set)
M3 gen front bumper
M3 gen rear bumper
Angel eye rings

Also kept a box of spares (brake calipers etc etc)

So my first job was to replace the corroded bmw bonnet badge. Replaced it with a blue and white carbon badge. Then de lensed the headlights, added my angel eye rings and added shrouds which were painted black.


I then fitted my k&n kit for extra noise

[Honeyman328]

Next up was the indicators, needed to change front/side/rear from orange to clear/white.
On the hunt and managed to win on eBay full whites which were oem and full half leather sports interior. £100 for all but had to travel to England to pick up.

Fitted all the new interior in the rear of my touring and exchanged the money, bargain



Difference in the fronts. My k&n nestling in the engine bay. The bucket under the car was due to a leaking radiator. Changed the radiator and thermostat as a precaution with fresh fluid as the m52s achilies heel. Changed the interior which didn't take long. Just remember to disconnect battery if you don't want to trigger your airbag light

[Honeyman328]

Now more power was needed. My k&n



And the m50 manifold


The old restricted 2 litre manifold on the left. Look closely and you will see the smaller air intakes compared to the m50 2.5 litre manifold. Adds between 20-30 bhp. Fitted and what a difference it makes over 4000 rpm. Awesome

[Honeyman328]

Now onto the bumpers. My sport bumpers from my 328 sport were hellrot red. So first I had to get them painted. Due to costs i painted them myself with rattle cans. Was an ok job so was pleased.



My rear. I don't like the standard rear bumper at all. This is due to the rear exhaust sticking to far out. The sports bumper sorts this issue. I painted the defuser gloss black to clean the rear up. And fitted the front. Bit high in my opinion so fitting my coilovers was my next plan.




With a these mods so far the costs were not much !! Very pleased with the direction I was heading

[Honeyman328]

Next was to get lower. So fitted my old sports coilovers and powerflex bushes myself. Easy enough to DIY !!

The bushes before fitting. The old one powerflex together.


RTAB powerflexed


And then changed the coilovers. So this is how she was sitting. I also added carbon fibre wrap to the front kidney grills and fitted the sport mouldings for the doors. Unfortunately I had to buy these as my sport coupe ones didn't fit. Paid about £40 all in so good discount from a new set. And I fitted the front m3 lip, again painting it gloss black. Little touches






Fitted sports side mouldings which I had to buy as coupe ones didn't fit £40 or there abouts from a scrapped car. Bargain ds bmw want £155. I fitted the m3 lip after painting that gloss black and removed my front mud flaps. They caught every bump in the road and wanted to keeps wings in ine piece. Rears stayed but do scrap occasionally

[Honeyman328]

Before



After



Tinted my windows. Medium in rear and backs, light on fronts. Cost £220 . Fitted my style 5s replacing the badges for carbon fibre ones and fitted m3 twisted side skirts. I managed to source silver ones at £35 and sold my red ones for £50.

Again my alloys took forever. Some had to be professionally stripped. Then sanded down lips gradually using finer grade wet and dry sand paper. The centres were stripped and painted gun metal grey and I painted every one of each 36? Bolts black. I have a spare that's still to date being worked on !!!


Comments welcome but still lots more to go

[Honeyman328]

Onto my LSD.





Removed old unit

Oil


And removed the clutch delay valve. Now if you have a bmw check to see if this is fitted. On a e36 you can remove and connect original wires back together with no other modifications needed. It let's you put all the power down straight away so no more needs to be said!! And it's free


The LSD was fitted and is as always an excellent mod. The oil cost about £20 and that was all I had to pay. And a favor to my mate glen!! He used the favour to good effect when I fitted his coilovers to his white e36 convertible that was featured in performance bmw. I have left my traction control in. I can still disable it with a push of a button the car lets a bit of a slid before interrupting but if you do a full blown start the traction control switched off ?! The LSD probably confusing the system.

[Honeyman328]

Some more photos when silver





On show at the scottish modified car show, secc








Down at Ayr sea front for a photo shoot

[SanderZ]

nice work,but the front needs to come down more.

[Honeyman328]

nice work,but the front needs to come down more.

Moved it down a touch but cannot go much lower! My chassis rails are so close to the ground they are taking a battering. Speed bumps in my area cause me a 1.5 mile detour, then I only have one speed bump to get over.

More updates to follow

[Honeyman328]

So decided I wanted to smarten up the rear end. First I changed my duel tail pipes from black to chrome. Cost of £35 from BMW. I then changed the standard chrome 328 i badge to the e90 gloss black small badge to tie in with my defuser which I painted gloss black

New badge



Difference in tail pipes

Removed for a polish


Fitted a Renault Clio rear wiper as the plastic version looked a lot cleaner than the standard metal framed bmw one. Went down to the scrapies with a measuring tape. Direct fittment, a 10mm bolt was all that was needed to be removed !


My steering rack was weeping so it needed replaced as the seals perish and you cannot fix easily. Read up about the 067 purple label e46 steering rack. It's 3 turns lock to lock as opposed to the standard 3.6 turns. Also read up it makes the car more lively but not too twitchy on motorways etc.

Picture of the purple label rack. Got one from the scrapies at £30. Fitted it myself which was a nightmare on axel stands !!




Car feels a lot more agile round bends, especially tight ones and doesn't feel overly twitchy on the motorway

Painted my brake calipers m5 blue all round with blue hammerite paint like so

[Honeyman328]

So onto my interior. It was the standard blue cloth seats with cloth door cards. I first fitted a half leather sports interior but always wanted full leather. Managed to source full black leather sports front seats so fitted these instead of the half leather seats.



I added tri colour gear and handbrake gaitor to freshen up the interior.

Managed to source black leather touring door cards. They were on a grey base so I had to do a bit of butchering. Big difference having leather door cards



Added some led lights to give a modern look and one of my best buys, £30 for integrated child's seats in half leather. My kids love them. They were a £400 option !!



For us in the uk we do not get an internal central locking button. Source one from America for £10.




Changed my oem tape deck for a kenwood CD player with I pod link.

Standard was 18 button obc and duel climate control with air con. It has an auto dimming rear mirror which I will be adding mood lights to in the near future.

Think that's it for the interior

[anti.engineered]

good work on the rear wiper. i did the same thing last week with a buddy of mine - ventured around the wrecking yard with a standard wiper looking for some newer units with jets mounted.