The road-going racing car - Sam McKee's BMW E36 328i
Discussion
Still going strong... definitely sort brake lines out, makes a big difference.
Having now driven my best mate's one back to back with mine, you'll really want to consider the solid flywheel conversion. Really wakes up the engine, didn't realise quite how much until I put them together. Also- M50! For the love of God!!!! Just fit one!
Having now driven my best mate's one back to back with mine, you'll really want to consider the solid flywheel conversion. Really wakes up the engine, didn't realise quite how much until I put them together. Also- M50! For the love of God!!!! Just fit one!
wackojacko said:
Nice one fella.
I went to look at this car with James when he bought it, one of the cleanest 36 shells I had seen.
I may have an M50 manifold in the shed I'll have a look and let you know.
Cheers! I am extremely impressed by its condition, it's the strongest case for "buy on condition not mileage" I've ever seen. Plenty of scuffs, chips and crap touch-ups but fundamentally very sound. If you do have an M50 going spare I would be very interested, please PM me if you find one! I went to look at this car with James when he bought it, one of the cleanest 36 shells I had seen.
I may have an M50 manifold in the shed I'll have a look and let you know.
CS: Don't worry, I'll sort the manifold out, at the moment the grip/power balance is nice but with proper tyres I reckon I'll be wanting a bit more. As for a lightweight one-piece flywheel, I think you're right, though at the moment I'm happy because coming back to a snappy clutch and a cable throttle from my much more isolated E46 makes it feel wonderful. That said, it's always been my stance that if/when the clutch goes, the flywheel goes with it
Cheers Hamster - do give me a shout if you book a day at Bedford and I'll see if I can bring mine too, it'd be nice to compare, and, well.. any excuse!
Hi Hamster! I had a quick read through your thread last week, but I see you've now updated it with your experience on the Nankang NS-2Rs, very encouraging for me because I was eyeballing them on Camskill the other day! What size do you have, 225/45R17? Annoying they don't do any 225 sections in 16" and I've far too many 16" wheels to buy anything else. Your car looks great in the photos from Oulton.
My car hasn't been out yet this year, poor thing. I was hoping for March but my workload is particularly high at the moment, but happily it should ease off a little from next week so I can get her ready and get out there. I've got a couple of jobs to do, braided brake hoses need to go on (at last) and there's a weird judder from the front right which only shows itself when loaded up in left-handers or under heavy braking. Need to diagnose that, it didn't seem to get worse through my last track day but was more than a bit distracting and I don't want to leave it.
Might finally start getting some weight out too
My car hasn't been out yet this year, poor thing. I was hoping for March but my workload is particularly high at the moment, but happily it should ease off a little from next week so I can get her ready and get out there. I've got a couple of jobs to do, braided brake hoses need to go on (at last) and there's a weird judder from the front right which only shows itself when loaded up in left-handers or under heavy braking. Need to diagnose that, it didn't seem to get worse through my last track day but was more than a bit distracting and I don't want to leave it.
Might finally start getting some weight out too
Yes I'm on 225/45R17 all round. I know hat you mean about changing size. But that tiny extra bit of tread did make a huge difference. Almost impossible to make my ABS cut in now. The NS-2R have just taken it to another level though so I'm sure 16s of those would be a great upgrade to.
"The E36 takes the same kind of Jekyll and Hyde balance, but turns it completely on its head. From the moment you fire it up, with a stiff, direct-feeling key that whumps it into life almost instantaneously, this is a different car. I thought the steering was relatively heavy in the E46 - it ain't. This is more like it. The clutch too. The throttle has a cable, not a series of digital instructions, and even the gearshift is heavier and more connected. Forget the cars only being two model years apart, this was released in 1990 and it never left. I can smell petrol. Excellent."
I love this excerpt, completely agree with it! I've recently bought an E36 328i Sport coupe and these were exactly my findings of the driving experience. Being used to modern stuff lately, on the test drive I commented "the controls feel heavy"; my overwhelming impression, to which the seller replied "yeah, of course, it's old Skool" - as you say, a car released in 1990! Love it. Mine is a '97 R like yours too. Here's it is:
I love this excerpt, completely agree with it! I've recently bought an E36 328i Sport coupe and these were exactly my findings of the driving experience. Being used to modern stuff lately, on the test drive I commented "the controls feel heavy"; my overwhelming impression, to which the seller replied "yeah, of course, it's old Skool" - as you say, a car released in 1990! Love it. Mine is a '97 R like yours too. Here's it is:
Edited by Alex10391 on Friday 27th March 23:05
Edited by Alex10391 on Friday 27th March 23:07
Hamster69 said:
So how did you wangle a front page write up? Lol.
Heh, that made my day! I sent the "story so far" video in to PHTV and they must have liked it I shall have to see if they fancy sending me some stickers for it now!Hi Alex! Thanks, I feel much the same every time I drive this car. I'm planning to fire her up tomorrow after a winter spent hibernating under a cover, and expect all the same feelings to come back. Your coupé looks absolutely lovely, I bet you're really happy with that purchase! It looks deserving of a thread of its own, we E36 owners are pretty numerous on here and always like reading about another.
I'm currently umming and ahhing about what my first day of the season will be.. Blyton on 9th April, good value but miles away and been there twice already; Bedford on the 13th, familiar ground and good tuition circuit but it's the day after I'm at the Silverstone 6hr; Donington on the 20th, great circuit but expensive and I hear a bit scary if wet; or Mallory on the 23rd, dead cheap and on my doorstep but 3 groups per hour, not open pit lane. Hmmmmm.
Nice problem to have, mind.
Thanks Sam. It's funny how you noticed all the same things about the drive as me. I might just do a thread now.
Look forward to the next lot of track videos - car sounds great and looks to go very well. Would be interested to see what difference you find the manifold to make if you decide to get hold of one!
Look forward to the next lot of track videos - car sounds great and looks to go very well. Would be interested to see what difference you find the manifold to make if you decide to get hold of one!
Good stuff, look forward to reading more about yours! Thanks - I'm very happy with the soundtrack, finally sitting in the passenger seat at Bedford I found it's even better from there, really quite amazing for such a humble car.
Yesterday, the time finally came!
I got her out from under her cover, checked the battery voltage which was fine, reconnected it, opened her up with the central locking working normally, check all fluids OK, and...
https://youtu.be/DAeiiEgo6-Q
Yesterday, the time finally came!
I got her out from under her cover, checked the battery voltage which was fine, reconnected it, opened her up with the central locking working normally, check all fluids OK, and...
https://youtu.be/DAeiiEgo6-Q
Well, after the success of firing first time after a winter left alone, the E36 is back on the road! It's always nice to come back to this car, the difference from my E46 is night and day. So nimble and responsive, and sounds absolutely mega, it can make the most mundane journey feel exciting which is great
There were, however, a few niggles left to sort out before taking it to Bedford on Monday. A vagueness about the straightahead gave me another clue to what might be causing the judder I had in high-speed braking and hard left cornering, as it felt very similar to my E46 when it had worn out its front control arm bushes. Happily, I already had a set of Meyle ones for it, kindly thrown in when James sold me the car! I figured while I was working on the front end, I may as well put some polybushes in the front anti-roll bar mounts, since that had been on the to do list and they shouldn't take all that long.
The final job was braided brake hoses, which I've had in the garage since I bought the coilovers but have never made it onto the car. Not a job I fancied doing myself, concerned about the risk of breaking a hardline when undoing the unions, so I was prepared to make it the first job that had outside help. Sadly it turned out none of my usual mechanics much fancied it either, for the very same reasons.. Not sure whether to take it as a compliment that the only work I'm not confident to do myself, no other bugger wants to touch! I'll have to brave it sometime, but as my next event is so close, I settled for bleeding them again for now.
Off I go with my housemate kindly donating his time to give me a hand. Figured there's no point doing things by half, so Powerflex Black Series for the roll bar bushes. Dead easy to get the old ones out, two 13mm nuts which undid cleanly with only a 3/8" ratchet, lower the bar, tap the housing off, and the bushes are designed with a split in so they just slip off. I was pretty glad to be doing this job when I saw how worn and distorted the old ones were!
Turns out they trap a bit of moisture, though, as the bar was quite heavily rusted where they'd been. It also appears to be body-coloured, which is a nice bit of quality overkill!
Our next challenge was getting the new bushes over the bar. Black Series have been described as "corpse-stiff", and while I can't claim direct comparison, that can't be far wrong.. They're astoundingly hard, really only a tiny bit more pliable than ABS! I bought the 25mm bushes, as my car has the M-Technic Suspension Package (option 704) which ups the front anti-roll bar from 24mm to 25.4mm and the rear from 15 to 18mm. There was zero chance of opening them far enough to fit by hand, so we took an alternative approach..
Forcing firstly a spanner, then a 3/8" bar, and finally a deep 13mm socket into the split got it open far enough! With liberal application of Fairy liquid (amazingly good lubricant for poly bushes), a lot of arsing about and using the jack to press the bushes over the bar, we made it and got them in place. Fitting the clamps over the bushes was a whole new story, as they seemed pretty badly distorted too, and the bushes were so stiff they simply would not yield to get the bolt holes lined up properly. Hammer, Dremel, jack and swearing all combined to get us there in the end, though. If you're doing this job, my recommendations are to either stick to the normal purple bushes, or get new U-clamps to make the refitting smoother!
Next up, rear end also in the air so we can bleed the brakes properly. Droop? What's that?
We siphoned all the fluid we could get out of the reservoir, filled with fresh ATE Super Blue, and then set about bleeding from each caliper, starting with the furthest from the master cylinder. We put probably 100-150ml through each one, wanting to be sure we flushed it well, but when finished we had little to no improvement in the pedal which was disappointing. I half expected this, put it down to 18-year-old flexi hoses, and convinced myself to have a go at getting the braided ones on when I have a few weeks between events.
Since it wasn't yet too late in the day and Adam has unending patience for helping me dismantle my cars, we decided the front control arm bushes were a goer as well. These are dead easy to do on the face of it, the housings are held on with two 17mm bolts, which undid cleanly but did need a breaker bar. With the bolts out, you can get all the working space you need by rotating the end of the arm down, and then my weapon of choice for removing the old bushes is a gear puller. It's totally perfect for the job and with a bit of effort, walks them right off. This photo is from doing it on my E46, didn't take another yesterday, but it's exactly the same setup.
We did the right-hand side first, which was the one I had most concerns about (since I only had judder in hard left cornering, not right). Turns out that was entirely warranted, as this is how it came away!
Now, I don't have any pictures of the end of the arm, but about half an inch protrudes out of the back of the bush, so is exposed to the elements and corrodes like buggery. We tried our luck with the new bush, again with liberal application of Fairy and a small sledgehammer, but it wasn't having any of it. We could get it maybe a third of the way along, but no further, so decided to pull it off and take the Dremel to the corrosion on the end of the arm. This worked wonders, we got it really nice and cleaned up, and the bush went on with only four or five good taps. Perfect. If you're doing this yourself, don't worry about the scare stories about rubber bushes being impossible to fit without getting the wishbone in a press, just make sure you can clean the surface up really well and lubricate it properly! Our fitting technique was to tap it halfway on using the hammer and a block of wood, and then because of the arm protruding out, you need to switch to a suitably sized socket and tap against the hardest section of the rubber bush. 27mm was ideal for this.
With this lesson learnt, the other side got the same treatment straight away:
And voila. Probably took us fifteen minutes in total for that side. Proper surface prep is the answer!
So we got the wheels back on (damn sight quicker with my new battery impact gun, now my favourite tool
), dropped her down, and went for a drive. Feels great, the steering is back to being precise and direct, I get a bit more feedback, and couldn't replicate the judder at all. The ride has improved somewhat too, feeling a lot more "solid" over sharp inputs, which makes sense. Very happy to get those bits done, and now feel like the car's well prepped for Bedford, can't wait to get out there!
Huge thanks to Adam for his help through the day, I'd have been buggered trying to do any one of these jobs on my own, and his Dremel saved the day more than once
There were, however, a few niggles left to sort out before taking it to Bedford on Monday. A vagueness about the straightahead gave me another clue to what might be causing the judder I had in high-speed braking and hard left cornering, as it felt very similar to my E46 when it had worn out its front control arm bushes. Happily, I already had a set of Meyle ones for it, kindly thrown in when James sold me the car! I figured while I was working on the front end, I may as well put some polybushes in the front anti-roll bar mounts, since that had been on the to do list and they shouldn't take all that long.
The final job was braided brake hoses, which I've had in the garage since I bought the coilovers but have never made it onto the car. Not a job I fancied doing myself, concerned about the risk of breaking a hardline when undoing the unions, so I was prepared to make it the first job that had outside help. Sadly it turned out none of my usual mechanics much fancied it either, for the very same reasons.. Not sure whether to take it as a compliment that the only work I'm not confident to do myself, no other bugger wants to touch! I'll have to brave it sometime, but as my next event is so close, I settled for bleeding them again for now.
Off I go with my housemate kindly donating his time to give me a hand. Figured there's no point doing things by half, so Powerflex Black Series for the roll bar bushes. Dead easy to get the old ones out, two 13mm nuts which undid cleanly with only a 3/8" ratchet, lower the bar, tap the housing off, and the bushes are designed with a split in so they just slip off. I was pretty glad to be doing this job when I saw how worn and distorted the old ones were!
Turns out they trap a bit of moisture, though, as the bar was quite heavily rusted where they'd been. It also appears to be body-coloured, which is a nice bit of quality overkill!
Our next challenge was getting the new bushes over the bar. Black Series have been described as "corpse-stiff", and while I can't claim direct comparison, that can't be far wrong.. They're astoundingly hard, really only a tiny bit more pliable than ABS! I bought the 25mm bushes, as my car has the M-Technic Suspension Package (option 704) which ups the front anti-roll bar from 24mm to 25.4mm and the rear from 15 to 18mm. There was zero chance of opening them far enough to fit by hand, so we took an alternative approach..
Forcing firstly a spanner, then a 3/8" bar, and finally a deep 13mm socket into the split got it open far enough! With liberal application of Fairy liquid (amazingly good lubricant for poly bushes), a lot of arsing about and using the jack to press the bushes over the bar, we made it and got them in place. Fitting the clamps over the bushes was a whole new story, as they seemed pretty badly distorted too, and the bushes were so stiff they simply would not yield to get the bolt holes lined up properly. Hammer, Dremel, jack and swearing all combined to get us there in the end, though. If you're doing this job, my recommendations are to either stick to the normal purple bushes, or get new U-clamps to make the refitting smoother!
Next up, rear end also in the air so we can bleed the brakes properly. Droop? What's that?
We siphoned all the fluid we could get out of the reservoir, filled with fresh ATE Super Blue, and then set about bleeding from each caliper, starting with the furthest from the master cylinder. We put probably 100-150ml through each one, wanting to be sure we flushed it well, but when finished we had little to no improvement in the pedal which was disappointing. I half expected this, put it down to 18-year-old flexi hoses, and convinced myself to have a go at getting the braided ones on when I have a few weeks between events.
Since it wasn't yet too late in the day and Adam has unending patience for helping me dismantle my cars, we decided the front control arm bushes were a goer as well. These are dead easy to do on the face of it, the housings are held on with two 17mm bolts, which undid cleanly but did need a breaker bar. With the bolts out, you can get all the working space you need by rotating the end of the arm down, and then my weapon of choice for removing the old bushes is a gear puller. It's totally perfect for the job and with a bit of effort, walks them right off. This photo is from doing it on my E46, didn't take another yesterday, but it's exactly the same setup.
We did the right-hand side first, which was the one I had most concerns about (since I only had judder in hard left cornering, not right). Turns out that was entirely warranted, as this is how it came away!
Now, I don't have any pictures of the end of the arm, but about half an inch protrudes out of the back of the bush, so is exposed to the elements and corrodes like buggery. We tried our luck with the new bush, again with liberal application of Fairy and a small sledgehammer, but it wasn't having any of it. We could get it maybe a third of the way along, but no further, so decided to pull it off and take the Dremel to the corrosion on the end of the arm. This worked wonders, we got it really nice and cleaned up, and the bush went on with only four or five good taps. Perfect. If you're doing this yourself, don't worry about the scare stories about rubber bushes being impossible to fit without getting the wishbone in a press, just make sure you can clean the surface up really well and lubricate it properly! Our fitting technique was to tap it halfway on using the hammer and a block of wood, and then because of the arm protruding out, you need to switch to a suitably sized socket and tap against the hardest section of the rubber bush. 27mm was ideal for this.
With this lesson learnt, the other side got the same treatment straight away:
And voila. Probably took us fifteen minutes in total for that side. Proper surface prep is the answer!
So we got the wheels back on (damn sight quicker with my new battery impact gun, now my favourite tool
), dropped her down, and went for a drive. Feels great, the steering is back to being precise and direct, I get a bit more feedback, and couldn't replicate the judder at all. The ride has improved somewhat too, feeling a lot more "solid" over sharp inputs, which makes sense. Very happy to get those bits done, and now feel like the car's well prepped for Bedford, can't wait to get out there!Huge thanks to Adam for his help through the day, I'd have been buggered trying to do any one of these jobs on my own, and his Dremel saved the day more than once
Started into my braided lines last weekend. One done so far lol.
Every other nut rounded. I would advise investment in a cutter and flarer at least. Got both of mine for about £30, thankfully I don't have to constantly work at brakes so they should be fine. I'm going to remove the entire rear line section after the lines move around the tank and replace it in one go instead of doing each line individually. Too tight in there to be messing about unscrewing destroyed nuts.
Just a note, I found the driftworks lines won't sit securely in the front bracket, bit annoying but it should be ok with a thin washer between the bracket and the nut that was supposed to secure it. They also seem a little bit long but I've heard no issues yet.
Every other nut rounded. I would advise investment in a cutter and flarer at least. Got both of mine for about £30, thankfully I don't have to constantly work at brakes so they should be fine. I'm going to remove the entire rear line section after the lines move around the tank and replace it in one go instead of doing each line individually. Too tight in there to be messing about unscrewing destroyed nuts.
Just a note, I found the driftworks lines won't sit securely in the front bracket, bit annoying but it should be ok with a thin washer between the bracket and the nut that was supposed to secure it. They also seem a little bit long but I've heard no issues yet.
Hamster69 said:
Good work. So glad I don't have to do this kind of thing on the floor!
To be fair, these jobs weren't any harder for being on the floor. We would have really struggled to do the roll bar bushes without being able to apply force with the jack, so that was easier than it would've been on a ramp! I'm pretty used to working on the driveway, it'll only bother me when I get to really serious stuff like clutch/flywheel or changing the diff.
Hmm, Phil, you're hardly filling me with confidence on the brake hoses
I'm hoping that plenty of Plusgas and a flared spanner should allow me to get them undone without rounding off the nuts, most of them look OK, but I won't know until I try. Thanks for the tips though, will bear them in mind and double-check the length of my hoses - front end packaging is quite tight already!Now off for a karting enduro this evening, WEC Silverstone 6hr tomorrow, and finally Bedford on Monday! Maximum motorsport this weekend, I imagine I'll be glad I still have the comfy standard seats in..
McSam said:
grumpy:
To be fair, these jobs weren't any harder for being on the floor. We would have really struggled to do the roll bar bushes without being able to apply force with the jack, so that was easier than it would've been on a ramp! I'm pretty used to working on the driveway, it'll only bother me when I get to really serious stuff like clutch/flywheel or changing the diff.
Hmm, Phil, you're hardly filling me with confidence on the brake hoses I'm hoping that plenty of Plusgas and a flared spanner should allow me to get them undone without rounding off the nuts, most of them look OK, but I won't know until I try. Thanks for the tips though, will bear them in mind and double-check the length of my hoses - front end packaging is quite tight already!
Now off for a karting enduro this evening, WEC Silverstone 6hr tomorrow, and finally Bedford on Monday! Maximum motorsport this weekend, I imagine I'll be glad I still have the comfy standard seats in..
Well my car isn't exactly fantastic lol. The nuts were incredibly bad, the copper was so soft they stripped with no force. Vice grips and then its just a case of cutting off the flare, replacing the nut and creating a new flare. See the RTA bracket I took off today as proof of this mess To be fair, these jobs weren't any harder for being on the floor. We would have really struggled to do the roll bar bushes without being able to apply force with the jack, so that was easier than it would've been on a ramp! I'm pretty used to working on the driveway, it'll only bother me when I get to really serious stuff like clutch/flywheel or changing the diff.
Hmm, Phil, you're hardly filling me with confidence on the brake hoses
I'm hoping that plenty of Plusgas and a flared spanner should allow me to get them undone without rounding off the nuts, most of them look OK, but I won't know until I try. Thanks for the tips though, will bear them in mind and double-check the length of my hoses - front end packaging is quite tight already!Now off for a karting enduro this evening, WEC Silverstone 6hr tomorrow, and finally Bedford on Monday! Maximum motorsport this weekend, I imagine I'll be glad I still have the comfy standard seats in..
Although after this it should be I'm good shape.
How've you found the brembo Max discs? Been tempted but don't want to change to slotted/drilled in case they chew through padss. Our only track in NI is kirkistown which is notoriously hard on brakes.
Edited by Bear Phils on Tuesday 14th April 20:58
That sounds like no fun at all! I'll do a bit of exploratory work and see how many of the nuts I can crack off before committing. The Brembo Max discs, before Bedford I'd have told you I'm pretty happy with them, but now that I've completely nuked a fairly new set of Redstuff pads I'm not so sure... The rear brakes were running hot, so I don't know whether to blame the pretty excessive pad consumption on that or the discs, but I wasn't that impressed to have my wear sensor light come on at half past three! I'm going to try Mintex next, unfortunately they don't do 1155 for the rear, so it'll be 1144 rear and 1155 front.
Other than brake wear, though, everything went smoothly at Bedford yesterday, had a really good day and we notched up another 150 track miles which isn't bad going in my book turns out that judder wasn't cured by the lower wishbone bushes, but has now become really obviously a front wheel bearing, complete with howl at motorway speeds so that's now on my to-do list. Having looked at some DIYs it seems doable, and a lot easier than the rear one I had done on my E46.
Living in luxury in a garage for a change
Keeping in the spirit of family inclusion, this event was my mum's chance to try the car! She came as a complete novice, but progressed rather nicely from extremely nervous passenger to very smooth and tidy driver, and really enjoyed herself so that's what counts.
I did go out for a couple of solo runs, and here's a video from my quickest lap of the day, a 3'04.69 according to my video. The car felt great on the limit, really comes alive. It responds well to trailbraking and nicely adjustable on the power, I'm really happy with the balance. Not totally convinced by the new layout on Bedford's West circuit, the hairpin is much better but this new chicane doesn't flow properly for me and I liked the fast left/tricky braking/right-left transition of the old section.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETFdF7xXnjU
Next up, sprint at Curborough on 22nd May.
Other than brake wear, though, everything went smoothly at Bedford yesterday, had a really good day and we notched up another 150 track miles which isn't bad going in my book
turns out that judder wasn't cured by the lower wishbone bushes, but has now become really obviously a front wheel bearing, complete with howl at motorway speeds so that's now on my to-do list. Having looked at some DIYs it seems doable, and a lot easier than the rear one I had done on my E46.Living in luxury in a garage for a change
Keeping in the spirit of family inclusion, this event was my mum's chance to try the car! She came as a complete novice, but progressed rather nicely from extremely nervous passenger to very smooth and tidy driver, and really enjoyed herself so that's what counts.
I did go out for a couple of solo runs, and here's a video from my quickest lap of the day, a 3'04.69 according to my video. The car felt great on the limit, really comes alive. It responds well to trailbraking and nicely adjustable on the power, I'm really happy with the balance. Not totally convinced by the new layout on Bedford's West circuit, the hairpin is much better but this new chicane doesn't flow properly for me and I liked the fast left/tricky braking/right-left transition of the old section.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETFdF7xXnjU
Next up, sprint at Curborough on 22nd May.
Heh, yes, "Legoland" in Oxley Park is pretty distinctive! I was working in Cranfield when I bought this car, but back up in native Leicestershire now. I saw your thread earlier today, despite the cosmetics it looks like you've got yourself a bargain there! You can certainly have first refusal on the rear seats, they're exactly as you describe and in really good condition. Is it only the rear bench you want, or would you be interested in the fronts and door cards too?
I'm thinking of getting some weight out before my next event, but since the biggest gain will be had from removing the front seats I need to have a serious look at buckets and mounting options. The problem is that I need at least the driver's side on runners, with my other half being eight inches shorter than me!
I'm thinking of getting some weight out before my next event, but since the biggest gain will be had from removing the front seats I need to have a serious look at buckets and mounting options. The problem is that I need at least the driver's side on runners, with my other half being eight inches shorter than me!
McSam said:
Heh, yes, "Legoland" in Oxley Park is pretty distinctive! I was working in Cranfield when I bought this car, but back up in native Leicestershire now. I saw your thread earlier today, despite the cosmetics it looks like you've got yourself a bargain there! You can certainly have first refusal on the rear seats, they're exactly as you describe and in really good condition. Is it only the rear bench you want, or would you be interested in the fronts and door cards too?
I'm thinking of getting some weight out before my next event, but since the biggest gain will be had from removing the front seats I need to have a serious look at buckets and mounting options. The problem is that I need at least the driver's side on runners, with my other half being eight inches shorter than me!
Yup cant help but like the Legoland houses, had a look at one when they were being built and nearly bought ourselves one then! Am also in MK incase you hadnt guessed, if you need a hand working on her give me a shout I am pretty handy on the spanners.I'm thinking of getting some weight out before my next event, but since the biggest gain will be had from removing the front seats I need to have a serious look at buckets and mounting options. The problem is that I need at least the driver's side on runners, with my other half being eight inches shorter than me!
I am sure a deal can be done for the interior, give me a shout when you are ready to remove it and I will take it, I dont need it all but i have a plan and if it is easier for you I will take it all.
Drop me a PM if you want to come and have a look around a track prepped E36 Compact, the rear is different but the front is the same so i can offer some good advice, also you can have a look at my seat mounts
Also owing to some connections I get decent discounts at certain places so happy to order bits you might need using that, nice to find a local PH'er with the same car obsession (I have 3 E36's now...)Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff