Sammo
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 1,461 
Club RR Member Number: 103
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May 23, 2020 10:03:38 GMT
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Morning  I sold my last E36 BMW about two years ago when I needed something a little bigger. Since then I’ve had an E39 530i, an E87 116i utter shed and my current Seat Leon FR TDI. None of them particularly exciting and to be honest none as engaging to drive as my old E36 318i Touring. Recently I’ve been getting the urge for another E36! I have just finished stripping my XR2 race car and selling all the parts so had a bit of cash to spend. I’ve nearly finished recommissioning my Mk2 Golf GTI 20v so the money wasn’t going to be needed there and my Mk2 Caddy VR5 Van project has completely lost my interest at the moment and will be getting moved round to my garage until I build up the enthusiasm to get moving on it again. With E36’s in mind I started searching eBay, Gumtree, Autotrader and Facebook Marketplace in the hope of finding something half decent. I wanted a six cylinder version this time because I’m probably going to use it for a few track days eventually and will want to eke a bit more power out of it Over the course of two or three weeks the various cars came and went and nothing jumped out at me. All that seemed to be out there were the rusty but expensive cars or the not quite so rusty but extortionate cars. It’s amazed me how much these have jumped up in price over the last couple of years! Anyway I kept an eye out and one morning the car that I ended up buying appeared on Facebook. It was a poorly written advert with only two photos, however it appeared tidy. I got a few more photos from the seller and a bit more information and then arranged to go and have a look at it. We turned up there and it was pretty much as described. A test drive revealed no immediate issues and after a bit of negotiation on price I was on my way with my new purchase So, it’s a 1998 BMW 323i Saloon. It’s done 89,000 genuine miles, has BMW service history for a decent part of its life and is in a rare colour. Sierra Red. It’s also got completely solid wheel arches, sills and jacking points which was a big selling point. Anyway, enough rambling. Have some pictures.      Now unfortunately pretty much every panel has some scratching or scuffs but when work reopens I’m going to get the body shop to give it a look over and see what they can do. This is the worst of the bodywork. I have no idea how this happened but it’s probably new door territory.  I’ll do another update a bit later with what I’m going to do with it |
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Last Edit: Apr 12, 2021 21:05:24 GMT by Sammo
Follow Me On Instagram - @parttimecartinkerer
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May 23, 2020 10:43:31 GMT
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That looks like someone's opened that door onto a latch on a gatepost. Ouch!. Looks fairly tidy other than the scrapes and should be a good base for what you want.
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May 23, 2020 11:28:15 GMT
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Not seen that colour before and that's low miles.
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Sammo
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 1,461
Club RR Member Number: 103
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May 23, 2020 11:45:50 GMT
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That looks like someone's opened that door onto a latch on a gatepost. Ouch!. Looks fairly tidy other than the scrapes and should be a good base for what you want. Annoyingly there’s actually two smaller dents on the arch too. I’m wondering if a motorbike has fallen against the car and the handlebar has dented the door and then indicator etc has damaged the arch. Never mind. It can all be fixed if I decide I want to |
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Follow Me On Instagram - @parttimecartinkerer
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Sammo
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 1,461
Club RR Member Number: 103
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May 23, 2020 11:46:27 GMT
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Not seen that colour before and that's low miles. I’d never seen one in this colour either. The colour is what drew my eye to it initially. |
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Follow Me On Instagram - @parttimecartinkerer
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Sammo
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 1,461
Club RR Member Number: 103
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May 23, 2020 12:04:28 GMT
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Anyway, I’ve managed to find a manual gearbox conversion already so I’ll get on with that in the not too distant future. I’ve only ever owned an auto 318i which had no power anyway and an auto 530i which was powerful enough to overcome the crappy auto box. However in the 323i the auto box saps the power like you wouldn’t believe, so the manual conversion is very much needed to free up the power delivery a bit. I’ll also be doing an M50 inlet manifold swap which will free up some more power from the slightly strangled 2.5L straight six engine. First things first though. I needed to sort out the radio! The car had this beautiful Sony CD player fitted when I collected it :hurl:  It worked but it needed to go. Thankfully I’ve got a few different car radios at home. I decided this Blaupunkt would suit the car for now It does but I’m not sure if I like it so I might end up changing it for one of my Alpines instead.  |
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Follow Me On Instagram - @parttimecartinkerer
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Sammo
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 1,461
Club RR Member Number: 103
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Jun 14, 2020 19:07:09 GMT
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A very quick update on the BMW. I picked these wheels up for it the other day. They’re actually for the E36 so should look a bit better.  The day after I collected the wheels I went out to the car so I could drop them round to my garage to store. I started the car up and nearly had a heart attack at how loud the exhaust was! It took me a few seconds to figure out that the exhaust hadn’t dropped off overnight! I jumped out and stuck my head underneath and my suspicions were confirmed. Some traveller has cut the cat off!! Apparently the cats on this model will sell for £600+ so I bet the unscrupulous chap was rubbing his hands together when he saw me park this outside the house! Thankfully the exhaust was always going to be replaced so apart from the inconvenience of having to drive it really slowly to work when the time comes to fit the replacement it’s not the end of the world. I just laughed when I spotted what they’d done! |
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Last Edit: Jan 28, 2021 15:47:46 GMT by Sammo
Follow Me On Instagram - @parttimecartinkerer
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Jun 14, 2020 19:24:04 GMT
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Had 5 of these over the years. Friend of mine had a vert in Sierrarot. Cool colour!
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Jun 14, 2020 21:40:26 GMT
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A very quick update on the BMW. The day after I collected the wheels I went out to the car so I could drop them round to my garage to store. I started the car up and nearly had a heart attack at how loud the exhaust was! It took me a few seconds to figure out that the exhaust hadn’t dropped off overnight! I jumped out and stuck my head underneath and my suspicions were confirmed. Some traveller has cut the cat off!! Apparently the cats on this model will sell for £600+ so I bet the unscrupulous chap was rubbing his hands together when he saw me park this outside the house! Thankfully the exhaust was always going to be replaced so apart from the inconvenience of having to drive it really slowly to work when the time comes to fit the replacement it’s not the end of the world. I just laughed when I spotted what they’d done! The place next to my work got done one night, whole fleet of delivery vans with missing cats. At least you were always going to change it. |
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time
Part of things
Posts: 152
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Jun 14, 2020 22:10:49 GMT
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That looks good, nice to see a rust free E36
I’m currently replacing jacking points and repairing sills on my sons E 36 320 coupe, I had to use sections of 4 door sills for the repairs as 2 door sills are quite expensive
I must be getting old as I thought my sons 320 auto was quite quick!
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Sammo
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 1,461
Club RR Member Number: 103
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Sept 20, 2020 15:39:53 GMT
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With a distinct lack of enthusiasm for anything car related recently I was advised to just try and do one small job every so often. I figured I’d give that approach a try so popped out to the car to swap the steering wheel today. The plans have changed slightly with this. I’m going to go all out track car with it and have already bought lots of goodies for it However for something quick and easy to do the steering wheel seemed like a good place to start. This is the original bus steering wheel that the car came with.  After fiddling around with the two T30 bolts that hold the airbag on I found the 16mm hub nut and then the wheel was ready to come off.   Then I could pop on the MOMO hub adapter.  I did a bit of chopping to the wiring and fitted a resistor to the airbag wiring to keep the light off. Then it was time to fit the new wheel It’s a Motamec semi dish wheel.  A much more acceptable sized wheel  I’m now waiting for one of the techs at work to get a free weekend and then we’ll be getting on with the manual conversion. My mate Bruno at BDS Motorsport sorted me out with a Sachs lightened flywheel (approx 6kg!) and ceramic clutch kit the other day so I’ve now got everything I need for the conversion (apart from the time of course). |
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Follow Me On Instagram - @parttimecartinkerer
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Sammo
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 1,461
Club RR Member Number: 103
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Apr 12, 2021 16:25:06 GMT
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Bare with me on this update. My laptop is struggling with photos for some reason so I'm having to add them from my phone! Right, I better update this! Not a lot of progress has been made but I've still been buying bits in the background. Work has been stupidly busy and I've been running on skeleton staff so there's been no chance of bringing the car in to swap the gearbox. I've contemplated doing it myself on the floor but really can't muster up the enthusiasm for that :laugh: I recently managed to clear the last of the plop out of my garage so the BMW could go round there (the garage is a mile or so away from my house with no electric), which got it off the road and gave me somewhere to do bits and bobs when I had the spare time.  As the car was now off the main road I could get on with stripping the interior. I did have a think about doing a sort of Clubsport type interior, but after lifting the carpet and feeling it was soaking wet I decided to just get on with ripping it out. At some point in its life most of the windows have been smashed and I'm guessing the car was left to let water in for while before they were replaced. There's glass everywhere so every time I start digging my hands in places I get lots of little cuts on my fingers! I had already removed and sold the seats and door cards, so I then had the rest of the trim to get rid of as well as the carpet. The trim was all easy to remove and I had most of it out within an hour or so. The carpet is a pain in the  to remove and being waterlogged it's really heavy, so I ended up cutting it up with a stanley knife and removing it in bits.     |
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Last Edit: Apr 12, 2021 20:35:52 GMT by Sammo
Follow Me On Instagram - @parttimecartinkerer
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Sammo
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 1,461
Club RR Member Number: 103
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Apr 12, 2021 17:08:08 GMT
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With the carpet out I could get my drivers seat fitted. I bought a set of VAC Motorsport bolt in rails, anti sub bar and lap belt mounts to go with my Motamec seat and side mounts I will be removing all the bitumen off the floor pans, I just needed the seat in for moving the car around.   |
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Last Edit: Apr 12, 2021 20:36:34 GMT by Sammo
Follow Me On Instagram - @parttimecartinkerer
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Sammo
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 1,461
Club RR Member Number: 103
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Apr 12, 2021 17:09:09 GMT
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Last Edit: Apr 12, 2021 20:38:34 GMT by Sammo
Follow Me On Instagram - @parttimecartinkerer
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Sammo
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 1,461
Club RR Member Number: 103
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Apr 12, 2021 17:09:40 GMT
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Last Edit: Apr 12, 2021 20:40:40 GMT by Sammo
Follow Me On Instagram - @parttimecartinkerer
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Sammo
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 1,461
Club RR Member Number: 103
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Apr 12, 2021 17:17:42 GMT
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As I said earlier, I’ve been ordering bits and bobs for the car over the last few months and just squirrelling them away. Here are all the Powerflex Black Series poly bushes for the rear subframe and diff. It’s going to be a bit uncomfortable on the road :laugh: I’ve got the poly bushes for the front suspension too, I just can’t remember where I’ve put them right now!  I’ve also got a front brake upgrade for it. E46 330i front calipers which will let me run bigger discs and an E36 M3 brake servo and master cylinder to accommodate the extra capacity of the bigger calipers  |
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Last Edit: Apr 12, 2021 20:41:41 GMT by Sammo
Follow Me On Instagram - @parttimecartinkerer
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Sammo
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 1,461
Club RR Member Number: 103
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Apr 12, 2021 17:20:00 GMT
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Oh, I also ordered front and rear Whiteline ARBs ages ago and they finally arrived last week! I managed to get them in a sale and then found a discount code and free shipping! I ended up paying about £230 shipped which I was very pleased with!  |
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Last Edit: Apr 12, 2021 20:42:01 GMT by Sammo
Follow Me On Instagram - @parttimecartinkerer
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Sammo
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 1,461
Club RR Member Number: 103
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Apr 12, 2021 17:21:50 GMT
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The next thing to do will be to strip the rear subframe and take the bits into work to press all the bushes out. I’ll then be getting it all powder coated before fitting the poly bushes. My daughter reckons it all needs to be orange but I’m not sure haha!
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Follow Me On Instagram - @parttimecartinkerer
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Sammo
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 1,461
Club RR Member Number: 103
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Apr 12, 2021 17:26:47 GMT
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Oh yeh, I also got my Uniroyal Rainsports fitted to the “wet weather wheels” the other day. I chucked the rears on when I moved the car around because one of the tyres fitted had a puncture where the tyres were so badly perished!   |
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Last Edit: Apr 12, 2021 20:42:44 GMT by Sammo
Follow Me On Instagram - @parttimecartinkerer
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Rich
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 6,337
Club RR Member Number: 160
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Apr 12, 2021 19:38:08 GMT
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Use the forum image uploader to prevent the image problems  |
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