BMW E36 318ti Compact se Steel Blue - BBS Content!

[Gentleman]

I've always had a soft spot for the BMW 3-Series compact. They kind of grew on me.
Yours is looking insane, keep up the nice work man, def. following this thread!

[Mehowski]

glad to see this coming together.

I have a genuine AC roof spoiler for a compact, it came as part of a set with that boot spoiler I bought. didn't know if they was worth anything, I was just going to throw it away

Rule #1 of throwing car parts away: Don't throw car parts away

[Earl]

glad to see this coming together.

I have a genuine AC roof spoiler for a compact, it came as part of a set with that boot spoiler I bought. didn't know if they was worth anything, I was just going to throw it away

They're worth quite a bit lol

[Benwalsh91]

glad to see this coming together.

I have a genuine AC roof spoiler for a compact, it came as part of a set with that boot spoiler I bought. didn't know if they was worth anything, I was just going to throw it away

[Mehowski]

all this tidying is making me so happy, and im happy to hear you also got your rare parts back!

[Earl]

Nice=) Are you throwing on the fuel door at that time too?

[Steven_318ti]

Anything new?

Hey Earl, yeah bud I've picked up quite a few "new/old" things recently for the car, just a few more things to collect then I've a rather large update to do

The breaker who I sold my cars to at the start of 2016 still had a lot of my parts sitting in storage, being Compact items they weren't in high demand, luckily I've managed to pick up my genuine AC Schnitzer roof spoiler, the M sport kit (front bumper, skirts and rear bumper) that was on my estoril blue TI, the 323ti rear bumper diffuser and the item im most pleased to get again, my Max Velocity front splitter

All items are at my sprayers and im having my own touches added to them, you will see in the update (smoooooooooooottttthhhhh) lol

[Earl]

Anything new?

[Steven_318ti]

Update 9/10/16 - M3 Headrests + interior update, plus other stuff

Long overdue update, I broke the screen on my tablet 10 days ago

About 3 weeks ago I put up an absolutely absurd request on the Facebook E36 items for sale/swap page asking if anyone had a pair of black leather M3 Vader headrests for sale lol :lol: i put the chance of this up there with finding unicorn horns, hens teeth and fairy dust! Couldn't believe it when a guy Raj came on within 5 minutes saying he had a pair that used to be in his E30 convertible, only thing is they had red stitching and velvet backs.



Didn't care I wanted them, heard of issues with them not fitting sports seats properly but il get onto that.



The rails take a bit of manoeuvering and bending to put the required pressure on the upper bolsters so they sit right, you can see from the above pic how neat the driver's rest is sitting compared to the passengers side!



This pic showing them from a better angle, passengers rest still needs adjusted!

On removing the old door cards I found out the insulation/sound deadening foam on the driver's side door was all torn up!!! 3 bits remained, cut of with a stanley knife leaving the black bond there to stick the replacement foam to.



Comparison pic showing the perfect passengers side



So into my local BMW garage to order a replacement, plus my 30 brand new door clips, 2 x radiator cover screws plus, 2 pop screws for my foot well speaker covers.



New foam in place and ready to clip the door cards into place at long last lol



Driver's side fitted



Passengers side.



And both the rear cards fitted!





Just a pic showing the radiator cover with the 4 new screws.



Another 2 items I forgot I had, my Z3 stainless steel rear top mount reinforcement plates



Also mentioned that I replaced the foot well speaker cover screws, I noticed these were missing when replacing my standard speakers for upgraded Alpine ones.



New plastic screws.



And fitted, passengers side only but you get the idea.



Big update I know, I'm taking the headrests to a guy over here in NI who does interior retrims, he's going to cover the backs of the rests in black leather from a spare set of rear leather bolsters I have plus restitching them with white thread to match the rest of the seats. More updates soon!

[Steven_318ti]

23/09/2016 - Grip Royal Wheel & New Lows

Update 23/09/2016

I've wanted one of these wheels for ages now, I was tempted by a wooden and chrome wheel but decided to go for this perforated black leather and black centred wheel as it will tie in better with my interior, it came with the GR horn button



This is only parts I'm accumulating, I'll get my boss kit at a later date. A friend also provided me with some Loooooooooowwwwwww rear springs lol



New FK on the left, old (new) Jom's on the right. And pic below showing the new lows look the same height but the blues are alot stiffer!!!



Rear arches seriously need rolled, their resting on the tyres on both sides, don't want to go for any more stretch on the tyres as 195/45s are brand for 8j wheels, problem is these springs are very soft in comparison to the Jom springs, their almost completely compressed!!! I'm looking into get a shorter but stiffer spring, maybe raise it a few mm!



And I just love this pic, in black and white as I wanted one with the boot spoiler (still needs painted) and stance! Few things to collect from my BMW local in the morning.

[Steven_318ti]

Door cards, interior trim + camber bolts and washers 10/9/16

Headed off this morning to pick up my complete sports interior, I made a mish mash of my current seats with good parts from these new ones, switched bits over to make a great interior, although the door cards were key to completing the set!

As you can see below they are all in fantastic condition so I'm very pleased with these



I'm going to replace the mounting pins so they fit perfectly, I also have to glue on a few of the rear mounts, I've heard that if you mix caramel food colouring with the glue it keeps the finish the same as the glue BMW used from factory lol well see if I go that far

I also replaced part of my centre console, the section that holds the front ashtray and lighter in mine was all scored!!! Replaced this with a fresh one with no marks from the TI I got my new interior from



Old one on the left, replacement on the right! Much better!

I've also been considering going for more camber on my front wheels due to the et12 Pininfarina's, I looked at adjustable top mounts but came across a thread online of a guy who added shims to space the hub at the bottom, doing this using longer bolts than the ones BMW use and fitting washers to receive the desired clearance when running wide wheels on lowered suspension!



I seen a company online selling similar bolts to these for £99 along with 12 washers, umm no thanks :? Hardware store and some 10.9 grade steel 25mm bolts (OEM are 20mm) with the same thread size as my current bolts plus 12 matching washers, £8.50!!!! Let's be having you, il post up later in the week to show how well this goes...

Also let me know if these pics are any better?

[Steven_318ti]

love what your doing.... keep it up, car is mint. please, check your settings for the camera, or get a better app, the pictures are painfull to look at...

Thought those recent pics looked better, on my tablet they look spot on been into settings and everything seems fine, I resize them to the 800/600 limit, maybe the resize affects the quality!

[C2_mad]

love what your doing.... keep it up, car is mint. please, check your settings for the camera, or get a better app, the pictures are painfull to look at...

[Steven_318ti]

Few New Small Items Added, nothing major.

Picked these up this morning, love me some new stuff



This is my 4 footwell net fixings (need 1 more) and my new screws and washers to hold on my radiator cover (need 2 more).



Pic showing the old horrid looking rusty screws ops: I'm going to replace the 2 lower ones aswell.



And the new ones fitted, much better also sanded down and painted the area around the 2 bonnet release holes, I'll maybe do these black as the silver might be a bit too in your face!

This shot showing the passenger side footwell pre net fitment, apologies for the mats and carpet, I plan on giving the interior a full valet very soon.



And that's it fitted, easy lined up, just need the holes made with a fine screwdriver then these twist in, then clip them on, I require one more for the middle



And one last pic just because I like it lol



Probably be the weekend before I have a proper update, evenings are spent removing and checking and cleaning seals etc checking behind everything in case there are a few nasty surprises but so far so good, everything's solid

[Steven_318ti]

good work man, but what on earth are you taking these photos with!?

i am very sorry to hear your loss of that Dave F filter. its a sad sad day for you.

Ben tell me about it mate, would you believe I actually had 4 of them over the years lol 3 for non M3 and 1 M3!

I'm using the camera on my tablet, there's some auto filter thing on it, they look ok on this but horrendous on my laptop and computer at work!!!