Arepa3k's 96 328i

[Arepa3k]

Good morning guys!
I purchased a 1996 BMW 328i three days ago, and i'm new to the forum and to bmw's in general.

little about myself:
My name is Mikey Mendoza, and I live in Easton, PA. I currently own a 1993 Subaru Legacy wagon that i'll be turboing soon. This is my first BMW but definetely not the first one I've driven, my mom had an 88 735il that was supposed to be my first car, and my sister has a 00 323i which I drive every now and then. I'm mechanically inclined so I'll be doing 95% of the work on this e36 myself with the help of local friends and this forum, so anyways, on to the car!

it has 186k miles, and it sat for a few months, i got it for $1600 because the previous owner (before it got to the hands of the person that sold it to me) had her daughter back into it in the driveway and the nose panel, passenger side fender, hood and bumper got smashed up. But the good things about it are that the headliner isn't sagging, the interior is an 8/10 with the driver's seat being the only thing bringing down my rating, has a new clutch that was replaced about 16k miles before the accident, the vanos unit doesn't make the rattling sound, and there's no exhaust leaks. also it was stored indoors most of its life so the plastic in the bay isn't brittle, and the rad support is intact.

My plans for it are (in the cosmetics department) to replace the panels, take care of a few very small spots of rust around the rear quarters and driver side door, replace the driver's seat, re-paint the whole body in the original color, (it's a dark green but i don't know exactly which one it is, and i don't have the car near me until the weekend) probably re wrap the headliner since it's sagging in some places and i know that's a common issue for these cars, replace the stock headlights with glass projectors that i already found locally, and I'll be purchasing some staggered style 32s somewhere in the near future and having them powder coated gold so it could match the exterior and inside well

now for mechanical upgrades: s52 cams, the popular intake manifold swap that i can't remember the engine it comes from, bbk swap probably won't be in the immediate future but it's still on my list, aluminum radiator with electric fans because i don't personally like clutch fans from past experiences, raceland ultimos to lower it just a tad, and new bushings all around.
anyways, here's the pics i got because i keep forgetting to snap more when i'm there *edit* added interior pictures

http://i1210.photobucket.com/albums/cc403/Mk2thg92/Mobile%20Uploads/20140606_165107_zpsefda9fd8.jpg (http://s1210.photobucket.com/user/Mk2thg92/media/Mobile%20Uploads/20140606_165107_zpsefda9fd8.jpg.html)
http://i1210.photobucket.com/albums/cc403/Mk2thg92/Mobile%20Uploads/20140606_165100_zps412517d9.jpg (http://s1210.photobucket.com/user/Mk2thg92/media/Mobile%20Uploads/20140606_165100_zps412517d9.jpg.html)
http://i1210.photobucket.com/albums/cc403/Mk2thg92/Mobile%20Uploads/20140606_165057_zps5d32fa4f.jpg (http://s1210.photobucket.com/user/Mk2thg92/media/Mobile%20Uploads/20140606_165057_zps5d32fa4f.jpg.html)
http://i1210.photobucket.com/albums/cc403/Mk2thg92/Mobile%20Uploads/20140606_160813_zps284dee76.jpg (http://s1210.photobucket.com/user/Mk2thg92/media/Mobile%20Uploads/20140606_160813_zps284dee76.jpg.html)
http://i1210.photobucket.com/albums/cc403/Mk2thg92/Mobile%20Uploads/20140601_025811_zps6d326c56.jpg (http://s1210.photobucket.com/user/Mk2thg92/media/Mobile%20Uploads/20140601_025811_zps6d326c56.jpg.html)
http://i1210.photobucket.com/albums/cc403/Mk2thg92/Mobile%20Uploads/20140622_173740_zps71ba3d94.jpg (http://s1210.photobucket.com/user/Mk2thg92/media/Mobile%20Uploads/20140622_173740_zps71ba3d94.jpg.html)
trust me that head unit will disappear in due time
http://i1210.photobucket.com/albums/cc403/Mk2thg92/Mobile%20Uploads/20140622_173728_zpsc267e893.jpg (http://s1210.photobucket.com/user/Mk2thg92/media/Mobile%20Uploads/20140622_173728_zpsc267e893.jpg.html)
http://i1210.photobucket.com/albums/cc403/Mk2thg92/Mobile%20Uploads/20140622_173757_zpsf2d3970d.jpg (http://s1210.photobucket.com/user/Mk2thg92/media/Mobile%20Uploads/20140622_173757_zpsf2d3970d.jpg.html)

[Arepa3k]

got a small update:
i tracked down some body panels over facebook and after a 4 hour roundtrip car ride i got all the parts home safely! i got a hood, passenger side fender, trunk and kidneys for $225 all in black and then got a light blue front bumper for $40, i'm really impatient to put these on the car and have it on the road soon. now i only need to figure out why the car has a cel and buy a new battery for it (aside from plates, registration and inspection)

http://i1210.photobucket.com/albums/cc403/Mk2thg92/Mobile%20Uploads/IMG_20140613_154418_zpsf853f3fb.jpg (http://s1210.photobucket.com/user/Mk2thg92/media/Mobile%20Uploads/IMG_20140613_154418_zpsf853f3fb.jpg.html)

[Arepa3k]

so this past sunday was one of my first days off since 3 weeks ago, so i went back to the garage to start putting parts on the car. i must add that i love how easy it is to swap out trunks and hoods on these cars, but anyways, after putting on a new trunk the damn thing wouldn't latch closed, and i chased it down to this warp that the metal has around the area where the mechanism sticks out of the trunk. the trunk lines up fine in the closed position and the turning mechanism touches the stick it's supposed to lock on but it doesn't go through all the way. but i decided to keep going to get as much done as possible. i then proceeded to remove the passenger side fender and after one of the torx head screws gave me a hard time it came off. the smashed nose panel came out pretty easily and the bumper was only being held by zip ties sooooo off it came. i inspected everything and the area where the two bolt holes on the nose panel slides next to the radiator on the passenger side is bent, i tried straightening it out with a crow bar but i couldn't do much, also the passenger side bumper shock can be pushed in with minimal force, so that's done too, but i sourced a pair of good condition ones within my state so i'm not worried. I removed the old hood and put the new one back on, left it open and bolted on the new fender, well the new fender is a pre facelift one, so the corner of the nose panel doesn't fit under it, it didn't bring the clips for the side skirt, and it doesn't have a mounting hole for the side marker on my 96 (ugh) but i honestly wasn't too worried about it since my goal is just to get it on the road right now, up until i went to close the hood and the two springs didn't line up with the holes therefore not closing, and that plastic part where the side of the bumper slides into on the passenger side is mia. so bottom line is i got progress done but at the same time not really. i'm not too discouraged since i could get rid of the fender to someone in need of one for those years e36's, but are the hood and trunk year specific also?
here's some pictures, also took pictures of the interior while i was there
http://i1210.photobucket.com/albums/cc403/Mk2thg92/Mobile%20Uploads/20140622_173647_zps4c6b36b9.jpg (http://s1210.photobucket.com/user/Mk2thg92/media/Mobile%20Uploads/20140622_173647_zps4c6b36b9.jpg.html)
http://i1210.photobucket.com/albums/cc403/Mk2thg92/Mobile%20Uploads/20140622_173700_zps34ff4659.jpg (http://s1210.photobucket.com/user/Mk2thg92/media/Mobile%20Uploads/20140622_173700_zps34ff4659.jpg.html)
http://i1210.photobucket.com/albums/cc403/Mk2thg92/Mobile%20Uploads/20140622_173716_zps5b92f114.jpg (http://s1210.photobucket.com/user/Mk2thg92/media/Mobile%20Uploads/20140622_173716_zps5b92f114.jpg.html)
http://i1210.photobucket.com/albums/cc403/Mk2thg92/Mobile%20Uploads/20140622_173818_zpsb7bdb28c.jpg (http://s1210.photobucket.com/user/Mk2thg92/media/Mobile%20Uploads/20140622_173818_zpsb7bdb28c.jpg.html)
i didn't like this color but now it's starting to grow on me slowly after seeing so many other bostongrun metallics over the internet
http://i1210.photobucket.com/albums/cc403/Mk2thg92/Mobile%20Uploads/20140622_173836_zps9f50c650.jpg (http://s1210.photobucket.com/user/Mk2thg92/media/Mobile%20Uploads/20140622_173836_zps9f50c650.jpg.html)

[Arepa3k]

After taking everything off of the front end I noticed the radiator support was actually bent in a few spots which I hadn't noticed before, and the pass side bumper shock was also bent. This weekend I sourced a rad support and a pass side fender from a 96 which will fit the turn signal and side marker properly. I might have it on the road by this weekend but let's see what happens.
http://i1210.photobucket.com/albums/cc403/Mk2thg92/Mobile%20Uploads/IMG_20140704_185408_zps464c66df.jpg (http://s1210.photobucket.com/user/Mk2thg92/media/Mobile%20Uploads/IMG_20140704_185408_zps464c66df.jpg.html)

[Arepa3k]

*tumbleweed rolls across*