Yet another rescued E36 328i M Sport project...
Discussion
Starting to loose the plot now...
Think its day '10'...
Anyway, here are 'yet some more' pics after the parts have been painted and the car is starting to come back together...
Look at that 'Ass'
And the refurbed mirrors...
N.B. Didn't actually end up paying for the work on these BTW - OR the front and rear bumpers. The guys said that they couldn't put them back on the car in their 'rough' condition as they would let the car down.
Side on...
Tongue hanging out...
Due to new slam panel being fitted :-)
That's the old one sat on the floor BTW...
Front panels...
Underneath the front arches - not looking too bad, for their age...
Driver's side
Passenger side
They have even treated - wax oil, I believe - the inner front arches
Think its day '10'...
Anyway, here are 'yet some more' pics after the parts have been painted and the car is starting to come back together...
Look at that 'Ass'
And the refurbed mirrors...
N.B. Didn't actually end up paying for the work on these BTW - OR the front and rear bumpers. The guys said that they couldn't put them back on the car in their 'rough' condition as they would let the car down.
Side on...
Tongue hanging out...
Due to new slam panel being fitted :-)
That's the old one sat on the floor BTW...
Front panels...
Underneath the front arches - not looking too bad, for their age...
Driver's side
Passenger side
They have even treated - wax oil, I believe - the inner front arches
Edited by RickBristol on Sunday 21st February 13:04
Have just picked the car up from the body shop - after four weeks!
Although have been massively impressed, for what I have got for the money...
look at this...
AND those rear arches!!!...
Cost: around £1,500 - £500 of which was paid for by the insurance part of the job
Additional costs: £350 for re-badging, refurbing wheels, new slam-pannel work, new bonnet struts etc
Total cost: around £1,850 - very cheap concidering that I didn't pay for work to refurb the bumpers, mirrors, body trim and window seals etc
Although have been massively impressed, for what I have got for the money...
look at this...
AND those rear arches!!!...
Cost: around £1,500 - £500 of which was paid for by the insurance part of the job
Additional costs: £350 for re-badging, refurbing wheels, new slam-pannel work, new bonnet struts etc
Total cost: around £1,850 - very cheap concidering that I didn't pay for work to refurb the bumpers, mirrors, body trim and window seals etc
Edited by RickBristol on Saturday 11th October 17:26
In Two and a half weeks, the next phase of the project begins...
Have managed to sort a genuine M50 manifold, decent conversion kit, large throttle body and cold air induction kit - with heat shield. Will think about 'chipping' the car as I'm not convinced, when looking at the 'cost-benefit' analysis...
Have also sourced a complete set of one and-a-half year-old, second-hand Bilsten shocks for £220!!! Apparently only done a few thousand miles to boot
Happy days... :-)
Have managed to sort a genuine M50 manifold, decent conversion kit, large throttle body and cold air induction kit - with heat shield. Will think about 'chipping' the car as I'm not convinced, when looking at the 'cost-benefit' analysis...
Have also sourced a complete set of one and-a-half year-old, second-hand Bilsten shocks for £220!!! Apparently only done a few thousand miles to boot
Happy days... :-)
Edited by RickBristol on Monday 15th September 23:44
Edited by RickBristol on Thursday 18th September 20:19
Sir_Dave said:
Looking great!!!! But sooooooooooooooo let down by the replica wheels.
Please sort them out before any power mods.
My old one:
Totally agree!Please sort them out before any power mods.
My old one:
As I have no way of knowing what the originals would have been, I really fancy getting some original 'BBS' style BMW wheels, as I think they would suite it really well - after it has been lowered slightly, with the Bilstein shocks... Anyone know of any for sale?...
Either similar to yours, or like these...
LanceRS said:
Edited by RickBristol on Tuesday 16th September 21:47
St John Smythe said:
Totally agree, the original wheels look 100% better. Otherwise it just looks like you're trying to copy an e36 M3.
Once again! I feel the same, just what it came with and am working my way through its issues guys... Just going to take a bit of time - and lots of cash!!!jeff666 said:
The arches look spot on, ignore the bellwandos, nice project, good to see an old beemer being saved.
Thank you! Don't mind any constructive criticism. But, there will always be those who may be a little 'over-critical'...No disrespect to you either...
Doing my best, and probably lot more than most would be prepared to do...
Its now been three weeks since I got the car back from the bodyshop - seems much longer, somehow...
Well, this weekend has been a very productive start to the next phase of this project. A friend came up from Southampton with the M50 manifold and large throttle body, to do the conversion work on my engine. He also brought the up-graded suspension parts, mentioned a few posts ago.
As always with these things, although the day went very well, it wasn't without its issues.....
Sam came up to Bristol on Friday evening, so that we could get an early start on Saturday morning. After going for breakfast, we then travelled over to my friends workshop to begin. We decided to start with the rear suspension up-grade.
This is how things looked after removing the wheels:
Shame about the slightly shakey photo.
These are the 'lovely' Bilstein B12 shocks that he brought along, complete with new top-mounts:
And the lovely, lovely Bilstein lowered springs, the original from the car for comparison, on the right:
After a relatively short time, and without too much effort, we had the springs fitted:
We then moved quickly on to the shocks.
Removing the top-mount brackets from inside the boot was the worst part of the job:
We were, however, given the run-around by the nuts that secured the top-mounts to the shocks, as the ones from my original shocks didn't fit the Bilsteins....
After running-around between a number of different car parts/accesory shops, we eventually found the correct size and type of Nylock nuts to finish this part of the job. Blew an hour and a half of our day though....
Still, we got there in the end:
This is the end-result of this part of the job, see how much lower the car now sits, 'tightened' the handling of the rear no-end too...
Cost: £330 with fitting
Well, this weekend has been a very productive start to the next phase of this project. A friend came up from Southampton with the M50 manifold and large throttle body, to do the conversion work on my engine. He also brought the up-graded suspension parts, mentioned a few posts ago.
As always with these things, although the day went very well, it wasn't without its issues.....
Sam came up to Bristol on Friday evening, so that we could get an early start on Saturday morning. After going for breakfast, we then travelled over to my friends workshop to begin. We decided to start with the rear suspension up-grade.
This is how things looked after removing the wheels:
Shame about the slightly shakey photo.
These are the 'lovely' Bilstein B12 shocks that he brought along, complete with new top-mounts:
And the lovely, lovely Bilstein lowered springs, the original from the car for comparison, on the right:
After a relatively short time, and without too much effort, we had the springs fitted:
We then moved quickly on to the shocks.
Removing the top-mount brackets from inside the boot was the worst part of the job:
We were, however, given the run-around by the nuts that secured the top-mounts to the shocks, as the ones from my original shocks didn't fit the Bilsteins....
After running-around between a number of different car parts/accesory shops, we eventually found the correct size and type of Nylock nuts to finish this part of the job. Blew an hour and a half of our day though....
Still, we got there in the end:
This is the end-result of this part of the job, see how much lower the car now sits, 'tightened' the handling of the rear no-end too...
Cost: £330 with fitting
Edited by RickBristol on Saturday 11th October 17:29
OK, now onto the mani' conversion work...
This is what we started with:
Starting to strip the parts to remove the old manifold:
Old manifold gone:
This pic shows the 40% difference in the 'breathing' capacity, between the M52 and M50 manifolds - imagine breathing through your nose and then breathing through your mouth:
This pic also shows the difference in the various conections to the different manifold types... The M50, above, is much simpler:
My God! at this point, I thought 'I hope that this guy knows what he's doing'...
Starting to re-fit the M50 conversion plumbing:
And this is what we ended-up with:
Also managed to pick up a strut brace for the front suspension:
This is what we started with:
Starting to strip the parts to remove the old manifold:
Old manifold gone:
This pic shows the 40% difference in the 'breathing' capacity, between the M52 and M50 manifolds - imagine breathing through your nose and then breathing through your mouth:
This pic also shows the difference in the various conections to the different manifold types... The M50, above, is much simpler:
My God! at this point, I thought 'I hope that this guy knows what he's doing'...
Starting to re-fit the M50 conversion plumbing:
And this is what we ended-up with:
Also managed to pick up a strut brace for the front suspension:
Edited by RickBristol on Thursday 9th October 06:51
Now let's move onto another issue...
The car has been running rather cool and the heating system in the car would not get warm. Sam instantly told me that there was an issue with the thermostat - also informed me that the car was probably using way too much fuel as a consequence! Also, if the car still had its original factory-fitted water pump, that the impellor would be made of plastic, and should be replaced with a metal impellor type at the same time, as could cause lots of problems if the original failed and shed bits of the plastic impellor into the engine's coolant system. So, we decided to order and re-fit a new thermostat and pump...
New pump:
New pump fitted:
The car still had its original BMW thermostat:
Had to show you a pic of the radiator, as we were amazed that it is in near-new/perfect condition:
Cost: £58 with fitting
The car has been running rather cool and the heating system in the car would not get warm. Sam instantly told me that there was an issue with the thermostat - also informed me that the car was probably using way too much fuel as a consequence! Also, if the car still had its original factory-fitted water pump, that the impellor would be made of plastic, and should be replaced with a metal impellor type at the same time, as could cause lots of problems if the original failed and shed bits of the plastic impellor into the engine's coolant system. So, we decided to order and re-fit a new thermostat and pump...
New pump:
New pump fitted:
The car still had its original BMW thermostat:
Had to show you a pic of the radiator, as we were amazed that it is in near-new/perfect condition:
Cost: £58 with fitting
Edited by RickBristol on Saturday 11th October 17:31
The road test...
The handling has been tightened-up with the rear suspension up-grade too. Can't wait to get the front done - in a few weeks time.
Note to self... 'take it easy with that right peddle...
g3org3y said:
I will be interested to hear your opinion of the M50/BTBB kit as it's something I've considered in the past.
My God! This car's performance has been completely transformed! It now goes like stink.The handling has been tightened-up with the rear suspension up-grade too. Can't wait to get the front done - in a few weeks time.
Note to self... 'take it easy with that right peddle...
Edited by RickBristol on Tuesday 7th October 17:14
Seems like you lot out there have gone to sleep on me and my thread... 
Still, I wanted to do this for purely 'selfish' - if that's the right word - reasons, as I intended this thread to be a record of the car and what I have done to it, since its been in my hands...
Come on peeps!!!!
Still, I wanted to do this for purely 'selfish' - if that's the right word - reasons, as I intended this thread to be a record of the car and what I have done to it, since its been in my hands...
Come on peeps!!!!
g3org3y said:
It's often mentioned that the low down torque suffers a little with this mod. What do you think?
How long did it take to do the conversion?
Well, the low down torque has definately suffered - that's the point 'mostly' of fitting the re-mapped chip as part of the job.How long did it take to do the conversion?
I now have to give it a little more revs, when pulling away, or else it has a tendancy to stall.
I have one comming in the next few weeks. It should/will sort out both the low-down torque and the lean fuel issues at both low and high end of the rev range...
Can't even begin to tell you about the mid-range fun that I can now have...
Another thing is the 'new' sound that the car now has... A VERY satisfying deep burble at low revs AND an even more satisfying loud growl when you give it some beans...
As-far-as the 'time-taken' goes; took us about three and a half hours - start to firing the car up again. Not recommended on your own, as you need two pairs of hands; one to hold things out of the way, while the other actually does 'things'... Lots of various nuts & bolts for you both to remove and replace, which kept us both VERY busy...
Spose I could furnish a list of chores, in process/time order...
Edited by RickBristol on Tuesday 7th October 21:13
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