Saved from the Scrapper - E36 Calypso Sedan
Discussion
Hello all and welcome to my first thread here! After owning many many BMWs, both old and new, it was only a matter of time before another joined the stable. Me and E36s have a history, with my first being a Meergrun 318is I bought at 19 after saving up £20 notes I got for detailing people's cars. I then moved onto an Avus Blue sport sedan which I adored but sadly got written off by a driver on their phone. Finally I moved onto a very special Meergrun over Meergrun (yes, green paint over green leather) 318is coupe which was my pride and joy but an absolute money pit.
In between these, I've always kept my eyes and ears open for E36s, and have saved 4/5 now from becoming coke cans. Having owned E36, E46, E90 and plenty of seat time in E21, E30 and the new stuff, there is something about an E36 which always gets me. They all smell the same, have the same inherent driving qualities and are just always a pleasure to drive.
Anyways, I won't get into all that, onto the latest addition, a 1996 Calypso Red 318i Sedan. Equipped with an automatic transmission, this is about as dull as it gets. Yet I absolutely love it.
We'll start from the beginning. I woke up on Wednesday with absolutely no intention of buying an E36. After lunch, I opened FBMP and saw this glaring at me as the first listing there. I realised it was only 20 minutes down the road and saw the seller had left their number and jumped straight on the phone. At 6pm I arrive and by 6:15 I was on my way home.
The seller was an elderly man in his 90s, his wife part exchanged her Mazda MX-3 in 2004 for this from a Mazda main dealer for the grand total of £6,295. The car lived the rest of its life in the town I purchased it from and serviced by the same garage all the way from 2004 till 2024. After his wife passed away, he took ownership of the car and now has decided he's too old to drive and considered scrapping the car but instead put it on FB.
The service history for the car is unreal. From an original pre delivery inspection sheet from 1996 to every single invoice for every single bit of work done to the car, it's the best I've seen of any car I've owned. The service book is stamped to the brim, it has never ever missed a service, either every 10,000 miles maximum or once a year. Currently sitting at 122k miles, the car came WITH an entire service kit in the boot ready for the next one. The seller told me he would always buy the parts for the next service after getting it serviced and keep them in the boot.
Completely unmodified bar an old Sony head unit, this is peak E36. Minimal rust, rare early half plastic front bumper, pre face nosecone and grills, I was very tempted to turn it into a little show car for the weekends but it's just too original and clean to do that. This is my first auto E36. I went in with an open mind and I'm glad I did. It really does suit the car, and is very different to a manual E36, turning it into a cosseting cruiser. Couple that with the SE floaty suspension, its an absolute wafter and cruises around better than my old E39s did.
The plan is to 'restore' it. It doesn't need it but just giving the paint a 3 stage and some wax, ceramic coating all the exterior plastics, replacing all the badges, some new retro plates, wet vac for the interior and just get it looking like as much of a time warp as possible. I may enjoy it over summer depending on how much parking space I have outside as I'm awaiting delivery of something else and my other cars are currently under the knife for the time being. It's an awesome daily but with ULEZ being quite near to me, I'm forced to use something 26 years newer. My father who works outside of the ULEZ zone has instead been using it as a daily and loves it.
Excited for this journey! Enjoy some poor iPhone images for now, I will get this out for a proper shoot soon.
In between these, I've always kept my eyes and ears open for E36s, and have saved 4/5 now from becoming coke cans. Having owned E36, E46, E90 and plenty of seat time in E21, E30 and the new stuff, there is something about an E36 which always gets me. They all smell the same, have the same inherent driving qualities and are just always a pleasure to drive.
Anyways, I won't get into all that, onto the latest addition, a 1996 Calypso Red 318i Sedan. Equipped with an automatic transmission, this is about as dull as it gets. Yet I absolutely love it.
We'll start from the beginning. I woke up on Wednesday with absolutely no intention of buying an E36. After lunch, I opened FBMP and saw this glaring at me as the first listing there. I realised it was only 20 minutes down the road and saw the seller had left their number and jumped straight on the phone. At 6pm I arrive and by 6:15 I was on my way home.
The seller was an elderly man in his 90s, his wife part exchanged her Mazda MX-3 in 2004 for this from a Mazda main dealer for the grand total of £6,295. The car lived the rest of its life in the town I purchased it from and serviced by the same garage all the way from 2004 till 2024. After his wife passed away, he took ownership of the car and now has decided he's too old to drive and considered scrapping the car but instead put it on FB.
The service history for the car is unreal. From an original pre delivery inspection sheet from 1996 to every single invoice for every single bit of work done to the car, it's the best I've seen of any car I've owned. The service book is stamped to the brim, it has never ever missed a service, either every 10,000 miles maximum or once a year. Currently sitting at 122k miles, the car came WITH an entire service kit in the boot ready for the next one. The seller told me he would always buy the parts for the next service after getting it serviced and keep them in the boot.
Completely unmodified bar an old Sony head unit, this is peak E36. Minimal rust, rare early half plastic front bumper, pre face nosecone and grills, I was very tempted to turn it into a little show car for the weekends but it's just too original and clean to do that. This is my first auto E36. I went in with an open mind and I'm glad I did. It really does suit the car, and is very different to a manual E36, turning it into a cosseting cruiser. Couple that with the SE floaty suspension, its an absolute wafter and cruises around better than my old E39s did.
The plan is to 'restore' it. It doesn't need it but just giving the paint a 3 stage and some wax, ceramic coating all the exterior plastics, replacing all the badges, some new retro plates, wet vac for the interior and just get it looking like as much of a time warp as possible. I may enjoy it over summer depending on how much parking space I have outside as I'm awaiting delivery of something else and my other cars are currently under the knife for the time being. It's an awesome daily but with ULEZ being quite near to me, I'm forced to use something 26 years newer. My father who works outside of the ULEZ zone has instead been using it as a daily and loves it.
Excited for this journey! Enjoy some poor iPhone images for now, I will get this out for a proper shoot soon.
Edited by 77 on Friday 3rd May 12:02
Fermit said:
Nice to see one surviving. One comment though, will you be upgrading the headlight bulbs. Yes, they're period, but they are rather yellow!
Haha yes, they are VERY yellow. I'm against putting LEDs or HIDs in cars of this era so I'll just be switching to some more modern, but warm halogens. Thank you everyone for all the words of appreciation! The popularity of E36s is certainly growing more within the enthusiast community and there is a much bigger appetite for a clean original example now, it seems.
Anyways, big bank holiday weekend update, 4 days of ULEZ paid and 1 day of congestion
Saturday morning was spent cleaning the brick for the first time, something I always love and hate doing after a new purchase. It means you end up getting close up in all sorts of areas and finding surprises. Washing the E36 unveiled a few things, namely how well it was kept. The water behaviour suggested it was wearing some sort of wax, the arches weren't full of dirt, there was no dirt in the shuts and jams and overall didn't really need a wash except to lift off a bit of dust! Attempted to deep clean all the wheels but some brake dust was completely embedded so will hit with some stronger stuff next time. Arches got a deep clean and then I finished it off with a polymer-based wax I always use which should see 3 months or so of durability and lovely gloss. Glass coating was applied to the windows, fresh Bosch Aerotwin wipers fitted and all bulbs were now working too
Washing it also really made the faded black plastics stand out so out came some Gtechniq C4 I had lying around and I coated away. The camera never picks it up properly but the difference is night and day. This product is semi-permanent and the best I have tried for faded plastics. I've never seen it fade and have seen it on daily driven cars for over 2 years, still looking fresh.
Left wiper blade coated, right uncoated.
I unfortunately didn't take a proper after photo but I tried the pears soap trick on the interior leathers (steering wheel, gear selector and armrest) and they came out mint. No more shiny slippery leather, hello matte finish!
After this, it was time for the E36s inaugural meet, so we went bright and early on Sunday morning near Tower Bridge with some friends. The weather was amazing, driving through the city at 9am with all 4 windows down and period correct music on the stereo through an FM transmitter was brilliant. Definitely the most boring car there but who cares! Arena Red is quite similar to Calyspo it seems...
Sadly I didn't get many photos of the car there but after this, it felt a waste of ULEZ to drive home so I made my own little route through the city and went for a nice little solo cruise. I haven't had this much enjoyment in a car for a long time. Having driven all sorts lately from supercars to classics, I haven't driven anything this basic and simple in a while and it was eye-opening. The auto box suits the car and it wafts along through London traffic so comfortably. It also turns more heads than I expected and even earns you a few thumbs up which is always nice. The route I made took me down embankment, to St Pauls, Covent Garden, Soho, Regent St, Mayfair and finally ended in South Kensington. I really wish I stopped for more photos, there were plenty of opportunities but I was too busy enjoying the drive. Yes, you can have fun driving in central London if you're in the right car.
Bank holiday Monday now and the family had decided to do a day trip to the Cotswolds. 2 hours of driving, some M40 and plenty of scenic A/B roads, beautiful little villages - of course I picked up the keys to the E36
Sadly, there was heavy downpour all the way down but with the new wipers and glass coating, visibility really wasn't an issue. It's also surprising how well insulated the E36 cabin is compared to some of the modern stuff I have kicking about, you really don't get much road noise. Motorway cruising is very pleasant and once you're off the motorway it continues to cruise and float along rutted A roads with ease. Nearing the end of a full tank I put in the car and close to returning almost 400 miles which is amazing! This also means I've clocked just under 1000 miles in under a week of ownership and it has genuinely been faultless. Every person has commented on how comfortable it is to sit in and I'm slowly starting to convert my non petrolhead friends towards the light with this car.
Sadly though, after much contemplating, I have decided I can't keep it around much longer. With not much space for parking left at home and arrivals imminent of a few other things, the E36 will have to make the sacrifice
I'll be giving it another wash this week, taking some new photos and making a proper listing but for anyone interested, please do let me know.
Anyways, big bank holiday weekend update, 4 days of ULEZ paid and 1 day of congestion
Saturday morning was spent cleaning the brick for the first time, something I always love and hate doing after a new purchase. It means you end up getting close up in all sorts of areas and finding surprises. Washing the E36 unveiled a few things, namely how well it was kept. The water behaviour suggested it was wearing some sort of wax, the arches weren't full of dirt, there was no dirt in the shuts and jams and overall didn't really need a wash except to lift off a bit of dust! Attempted to deep clean all the wheels but some brake dust was completely embedded so will hit with some stronger stuff next time. Arches got a deep clean and then I finished it off with a polymer-based wax I always use which should see 3 months or so of durability and lovely gloss. Glass coating was applied to the windows, fresh Bosch Aerotwin wipers fitted and all bulbs were now working too
Washing it also really made the faded black plastics stand out so out came some Gtechniq C4 I had lying around and I coated away. The camera never picks it up properly but the difference is night and day. This product is semi-permanent and the best I have tried for faded plastics. I've never seen it fade and have seen it on daily driven cars for over 2 years, still looking fresh.
Left wiper blade coated, right uncoated.
I unfortunately didn't take a proper after photo but I tried the pears soap trick on the interior leathers (steering wheel, gear selector and armrest) and they came out mint. No more shiny slippery leather, hello matte finish!
After this, it was time for the E36s inaugural meet, so we went bright and early on Sunday morning near Tower Bridge with some friends. The weather was amazing, driving through the city at 9am with all 4 windows down and period correct music on the stereo through an FM transmitter was brilliant. Definitely the most boring car there but who cares! Arena Red is quite similar to Calyspo it seems...
Sadly I didn't get many photos of the car there but after this, it felt a waste of ULEZ to drive home so I made my own little route through the city and went for a nice little solo cruise. I haven't had this much enjoyment in a car for a long time. Having driven all sorts lately from supercars to classics, I haven't driven anything this basic and simple in a while and it was eye-opening. The auto box suits the car and it wafts along through London traffic so comfortably. It also turns more heads than I expected and even earns you a few thumbs up which is always nice. The route I made took me down embankment, to St Pauls, Covent Garden, Soho, Regent St, Mayfair and finally ended in South Kensington. I really wish I stopped for more photos, there were plenty of opportunities but I was too busy enjoying the drive. Yes, you can have fun driving in central London if you're in the right car.
Bank holiday Monday now and the family had decided to do a day trip to the Cotswolds. 2 hours of driving, some M40 and plenty of scenic A/B roads, beautiful little villages - of course I picked up the keys to the E36
Sadly, there was heavy downpour all the way down but with the new wipers and glass coating, visibility really wasn't an issue. It's also surprising how well insulated the E36 cabin is compared to some of the modern stuff I have kicking about, you really don't get much road noise. Motorway cruising is very pleasant and once you're off the motorway it continues to cruise and float along rutted A roads with ease. Nearing the end of a full tank I put in the car and close to returning almost 400 miles which is amazing! This also means I've clocked just under 1000 miles in under a week of ownership and it has genuinely been faultless. Every person has commented on how comfortable it is to sit in and I'm slowly starting to convert my non petrolhead friends towards the light with this car.
Sadly though, after much contemplating, I have decided I can't keep it around much longer. With not much space for parking left at home and arrivals imminent of a few other things, the E36 will have to make the sacrifice
I'll be giving it another wash this week, taking some new photos and making a proper listing but for anyone interested, please do let me know.
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