Something you have never seen: an e36!

[Fruttolo]

Part Two: mods on a "budget"

So now we have a cool old car and we can drive it. Or not. No we can't as it is high as a building, tyres are dry rotten, and we still are stancebois that need to roll around in slammed pieces of crap.

My group of friends is named the "Dumbass Crew" for reasons.



Bad news is, the aforementioned Ranger is proving to be a bitch to sell being so unused (19000kms), so the mods budget is not here in a bulk as I expected. Not to worry tho, time is not a concern.

First thing first I did an oil and filter change and all that, you know how it goes. Than tried to recover the headliner with not so good results, but hey I have time to redo it.
Then I bought the most expensive bunch of metal I have ever gotten:



BC racing extralow coils, 18k-18k spring rates

And something needed to be done for the thing I **** the most in 90s cars: amber lights.





Obviously the ad made all these "smoke" lights look like black but when you get them they are never the same, and I am pretty disappointed but hey they are better than the amber sheit.

I also got some big tyres



In the meantime I knew I would need some toe adjustment in the rear so I modded my brackets stealing the idea from a nice guy on here who did it on his and explained how to



But I was still waiting for my wheels to come. They arrived and I had an "install everything at once party" with a pair of friends, gave it a quick eyeballed alignment and finally it's out of the garage!





Wheels are Extreme Offset in 9x18 et22 and 10x18 et30, wrapped in some delightful cheap nankangs, 215/35 and 225/35

It's not perfect, but a starting point is something and we took it to the local monday meet









Now, the first problem to solve is I like my beemers to squat down in the back. And as you can see, it is not squatting. Since the body was so tidy I did not want to cut the inner fender lips so if I lowered it more it just ate my tyres' sidewall.
I like to build things when I can, and I came up with a solution.
Since my camber adjustment on the lower arms were all maxed out, I built some for the upper arms.
Some tabs (I'd have liked to have these machined but my machinist friend is ill, so hand tools ftw)



Some SAAB eccentric bolts



Assembling it



Tacked the tabs into place with the trusty mig, cut the slot with a carbide bit in the stock arms, gave it a lick of paint and this is the first test with no spring





No touchy! Fitment got a bit messed up as I'd like to have the rim's lip poking out of the fender but now I can put it back to the desired ride height:



And I'm much more happy. I'll update with new pics when I wash it as it is now filthy since it's already too low to clear the garage entrance

I had to work out in the porch



Also, last but not least I am working on blacking out the "not so smoked" depo lights, I had half a can of Tamiya smoke and tried it on the side markers, much more happy, here is a before/during/after



And this bring us to yesterday evening, so now it's just future work.

I gathered an OEM rear M bumper and OEM "Luxpack" sideskirts and I'll bring them to the bodyshop to be painted. I'd like to have them remove the rear fenders' inner lips while they are there but I dunno if it is where the inner and outer sheetmetal meet so if they cut it they split, or not. We'll see, if I can get back to my "poke" in the rear I'll be happy but I don't want to ruin the quarterpanels.
Aside from that I need to order a front lip and lower grille mesh, and I'll build a stainless axleback, I think to go with an universal Magnaflow 4x18" muffler hoping it will not be too loud.

Anyways, thanks for watching the 387548957th thread about an e36 coupe on stanceworks, have some potatos for the looooooong post, and thanks to everyone I took inspiration and knowledge from to get to this point!

Bye
Fulvio

[Fruttolo]

Hi everyone!
I wasn't gonna have a buildthread about this car, as it is the daily driver, but it's Sunday, car meet plans got cancelled, I am here bored as hell, I love writing, so I said why not?
Expect lots of words, some pics all in potato quality, bad english, and come with me on a 3-years-long journey, or love story we can say.

BACKSTORY, because everyone loves backstories.

I have always loved all things with an engine in them, but after some fiddling with offroad rigs (that I still love) I found myself working on mk1 VWs. It was 2011 when I bought my second car, but the first registered in my name (as the first, a Suzuki Jimny, I bought when I was 16 and you can't legally drive nor own a vehicle until 18 here ). It was, and still is, my mk1 Golf Cabriolet and it will probably be mylife-long project. Pic for reference:





What does this have to do with an e36? Nothing at this point, but we're getting there.
So, when I got the Golf I dailyed it for a while, but then wanted to work on it and since my sister destroyed my Suzuki after just 1 week of driving it, I needed a new daily. I then looked into my pockets very throughly, got together the crazy sum of 1200€, and proceeded to go buy the worst example of rust-free e30 you could find. It was a 1.6, ate coolant, terrible mpg, squeaky doors, squeaky hvac motor, but it drove me around for some time and being 27yro it paid no road tax and ridiculous insurance.



Obviously being the hotboi I am it had to have illegal wheels and tyres on and I made that roofrack from scratch because I used it to go snowboarding with friends and there was no room inside for all the boards and sheit. It was a funny car but being riddled with problems I knew it had short life in her.

That brings us to an e36. Keep in mind we are still in 2015.
One day, driving by the local car dealer, I see this black e36 coupe. I fell in love with it and went to see it like 200 times, and one day the dealer offered to trade it for my POS e30 plus some cash. I was obviously crazy about it but being poor AF I needed some time to gather the money. And then shit happened.

The newly elected government thought old cars did not need to be detaxed, and moved the age from 20 to 30yro. That meant both my e30 and the e36 would pay everything like a modern car, and at my young age I would have passed from paying ~300€/year for two cars, to ~3000/year, and the e36 would pay even more. There was nothing else to do than sell the e30 and not buy anything, if I wanted to keep the golf. It was a sad day. Sold the e30 and got around in my parent's car for a while, time got better and I bought a new Ranger since I needed a pickup, but that old e36 left an hole in my heart.

And finally, you get to 2018, 3 years later. I see the dealer, and out of curiosity I ask him what had been of that old black bmw. "Oh it's still in my warehouse, it was too beautiful to let it go to the press". My eyes got bigger than my head! We went to see it, it was in the same spot it was 3 years ago, covered in dust! I asked if he would still sell it, he gave me a killer deal, and finally I was the proud owner of my dream!





It is a '95 320i coupe with the M50, one owner 90000 original kms with full history and receipts, basically new except for a badly swirled paint and floppy fabric in every interior panel. Not a single rust spot, not a single dent. OEM front M bumper, leather steering wheel, electronic AC. The best car I've ever bought.

And finally I can stop daily driving that frickin 2016 Ranger that I honestly **** for how boring it is to drive

End of part one for simplicity, as this is getting pretty long I think it's better to split before the mods