E36 Touring - OEM+ build

[TH3 Shifty]

everything is backwards.....




jk

[Minuki]

Picked up an interior for a friends Touring today. We decided to go halves on it because I wanted the headlining - Which meant I got the A Pillar trims I was looking for.

This headlining is a little different to the one I just fitted as it includes an extra tweeter in the ceiling as part of the "Proffesional Hi-fi System". It needs re-gluing, but apart from that it's not bad! It also has the OEM holes for the rear blind which is handy, but a bit annoying as I literally cut into a mint M Sport headlining last week!

I just need the two speakers that go in the door cards and then I'll essentially have retrofitted the "10 speaker upgrade"

[uberSteuer]

Looking good, silver on a touring is def growing on me!

The headliner is a PITA, but it's so much easier on compacts and tourings

[Minuki]

Looking good, silver on a touring is def growing on me!

The headliner is a PITA, but it's so much easier on compacts and tourings

Thanks dude. I was actually on the fence about Silver when I was looking for one, but I absolutely love it.

I've done it once now, so should be easier this time around.

[Minuki]

Got a nice wee delivery through the door the other day. A little splitter extension, which looks like this on Wilz's Coupe.





I took one of the Throwing Stars over to the garage and was mucking around with the fitment, lost some poke and got it a bit lower. Scared of hitting the arch, so I've just ordered some stiffer springs from BC.

No pics, because it started to snow! So I put the car back in the garage and completed a wee job that's been bugging me for weeks.



Annnnnnd I'm still looking for these. Black A Pillar trims for a saloon or Touring

[adm750]

that's baddass....alot of work....and it shows !! Two thumbs up !!! I'd give it three thumbs up...but I don't have three thumbs

[Minuki]

that's baddass....alot of work....and it shows !! Two thumbs up !!! I'd give it three thumbs up...but I don't have three thumbs

Two thumbs is good enough for me!

I picked up a rare "Aero" bumper for the red Touring on Sunday. The condition isn't the best, few cracks and scuffs, but I'm confident I can sort it. I'm going to modify it a little, but more on that when I start.

For those of you that haven't heard of or seen an "Aero" bumper before, it's basically a cross between an SE and M Sport bumper.



Here's what it looks like on my friend Filipe's Touring. Really, really nice Touring.



I made the most of the sun we had to day and sorted a few little bits on the silver Touring. I test fitted the little splitter extension, should work, but we'll see how it goes. Also flipped the top mounts around for more castor to hopefully help stop the front rubbing as much.







I'll get round to sorting the engine bay at some point. Probably when I build an engine for it.

[BimmerBreaker]

Never seen an aero e36 bumper before but looks great.

[Minuki]

Never seen an aero e36 bumper before but looks great.

They're pretty cool man. The rear bumper is a bit odd looking, but the front should look great when I'm finished with it.

[Minuki]

Fitted some new kidney grills this morning. Really stoked on how the front end looks with all the new trim fitted. Just need some new clear indicators which I'll order at the end of the month.







Just waiting on my new rear springs and refit the headlining and then it's pretty much ready to go back on the road. So I think I'll get it aligned at the start of April, fit the wheels, adjust the height and then get it re-aligned.

Test fitted a mates R33 GTR wheels to the daily last night too. Might have to get a set.

[Minuki]

I've taken some time off work to head back home to Scotland. I brought a couple of jobs along with me.

The first being the Aero front bumper. I know a few people haven't seen these or know they exist, there's so little info on them that I'm not surprised. So here's a few photographs of it and the condition should anyone like me looking for info on them.

From what I've been told, it's a bumper cover, front and rear. They can be fitted from the factory or at the dealer. They use an early SE bumper. Whilst I was taking it off, I thought how mad it was that a wee German guy was cutting up this bumper to fit this Aero cover all those years a go haha.

















My plan for the bumper, because it's in such bad condition, is to fill the middle section of it so I can use an SE plate delete and have one smooth bumper.















My next task was to sort my headlining. You're probably all sick to death reading about the headlinings I have, but the OEM material had fallen away, quite badly. So I ordered some nice new material and re-trimmed it with my father.



























Really super chuffed with how it turned out. Considering neither of us really had any previous experience doing it, albeit watching youtube videos the night before, it has come out amazing. Just waiting on some A Pillar's showing up tomorrow to trim.

Earlier today I had my windscreen replaced too, cause it had a lovely big crack up the middle.

[TheDukeGTi]

Amazing work on both cars mate. Loving both.

[stealthbeam]

ohhh nice, Great progress man, both cars are coming along

[Minuki]

Thanks guys.

That's me back to work now. But I managed to get a couple of jobs done before I left, like smoothing the fuel door for the Touring. Probably gonna be another one of those things people miss, but I really like it. Unfortunately I've ran out of Titan Silver paint, so my plan is to get the paint colour matched to the car when it is back in Scotland in July, the last thing I want is the fuel flap to be a bloody different colour to the rest haha.

Just needs a nice skim of filler on each side and it'll work a treat.





Tommy got round to finishing off the Aero bumper for me. I absolutely LOVE how it's turned out. The car just looks so different now, loving it more and more each day.





Here's how it looks on the car















I'm really bloody stoked with it!

Also got a little bit of time to refit my headlining which looks GREAT and time to retrofit these brackets...It's a Touring only thing, so most of you will probably have never seen them, but it allows the load cover to be used and stored when the seats are down.

[Minuki]

Thanks dudes.

I've done a few bits and bobs over the last couple of weeks, I was hoping to have it on the road by now, but I had a little delay with getting my rear dampers welded, so that took a bit more time than imagined.

I'm trying to run quite a tight fitment this year and it was clear after talking to Khalil that I wouldn't be able to run enough pre-load with my current set up. So I sent my rear damper cups to the welders to be shortened. They've been threaded inside and then tig welded on the outside, so should be more than up to the task.

I've fitted them to the car, I'm just waiting to get an MOT on the car and then I can go about trying the wheels back on.

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I fitted some new clear indicators to the front, so it now looks super fresh.



I picked up a leather sport interior at the weekend too. And I also go around to sorting out my extended leather which has sat in my room for a year. I can't wait to fit this all to the car, pretty much a full new interior this year.







Bastien sent me some goodies which included his old plates from the Touring. I'm really stoked to have these, always considered Bastiens Touring to be the best, so happy a little part of it will live on in my car.

[m3mobbin]

The splitter extension is a really nice little touch, care to share where you sourced it from.

Never seen an aero e36 bumper before but looks great.

Pretty sure it's a Racing Dynamics piece: http://www.racing-dynamics.net/fr_in...dynamik22.html

I'm quite positive that it isn't an OEM. Regardless, repaired and painted it made a dramatic improvement to the car's styling. Subtle and sexy.

[Minuki]

The splitter extension is a really nice little touch, care to share where you sourced it from.



Pretty sure it's a Racing Dynamics piece: http://www.racing-dynamics.net/fr_in...dynamik22.html

I'm quite positive that it isn't an OEM. Regardless, repaired and painted it made a dramatic improvement to the car's styling. Subtle and sexy.

Thanks man, appreciate it.

My buddy made the splitters, very limited run and I believe this is only 1 of 2 of the "smaller" extensions.

I'm fairly sure it's an OEM part. Whilst the Racing Dynamics bumper is similar, mine does not have a lip or any stamp on the left hand side. My friend in Germany sent me a BMW Brochure with them pictured as they also do a rear bumper. I am trying to source a rear bumper, but they are proving hard to find.

[Minuki]

Managed to get a quick hour on the Touring tonight. I fitted the extended leather glove-box, I love the way it looks, but I hate how it fits! So I'll be pulling it out again at the weekend to take a look why it fits so bad on the left.

Anyone have any suggestions as to how to sort the sag on the left hand side?

[Minuki]

I managed to get it to fit a little better, I hadn't actually fitted it properly in the first place haha. It's better, it lines up now, but it still not as good as I would like.



Whilst I was doing some little bits and bobs, getting the car ready for it's MOT (tomorrow) I figured I'd see how this fancy rear blind works. I'm not going to lie, it took me a good 15 minutes to figure out that the blind detaches from the load cover...then all I had to do was mount it to the mounts at the bottom of the seat and then hook it up.

Hell yeah for option extras haha.

[TH3 Shifty]

is that for dogs.... or the mingin trollops you picked up at the pub

[Minuki]

is that for dogs.... or the mingin trollops you picked up at the pub

I believe it is for dogs...or the annoying children. There is an actual Dog Guard option, which is made out of metal, but that sits behind the rear headrests like the blind usually would.

[Minuki]

Took the car out today. First time in around 7 months. Wow. I've missed it. I swear I fall in love all over again when I get in it. She passed her MOT with no worries, so that's nice.

Those of you that follow my Instagram will know I've got the wheels back on. I've still to sort the fitment out and make it work so it doesn't rub or anything, so that will be my job for the next few days. Oh, and swapping that Sport interior in.

[Minuki]

After a bit of a shit night last night, I fitted the Sport Interior with no troubles today *Yaaaaaaasssss!!!

I took the Touring to get an alignment at my works garage yesterday, but whilst it was loaded up with bits and bobs, the rear wheels hit the arches. Leaving some nice scuffs on the lip. It really is very hard to tell, but it's enough to annoy the piss out of me. I'll be trying to get the polished again soon. I also managed to round on the flat bits on the track rod ends, so I've ordered new inner and outer ones as well as new boots.

So my next job is to figure out how the hell I stop the car from rubbing (I know the simple answer, so don't bother) Stiffer springs and get my dampers re-valved or bumpstop it just before it hits the arch?





Anyone got a trick for getting those dents in the leather out? Tried some heat, but it didn't do much. I'll be getting the scuffs on the bolsters touched up at somepoint too.

[Minuki]

Spent the morning fitting new Meyle HD inner and outer track rod ends with new boots. I managed to round one of the track rod ends during my alignment, so I figured it would just be easier to replace the whole lot. I'll get it back to the garage this week and align it again.




Tried my best to get them roughly the same length.



I also fitted Bastien's old German plates from his Touring. Can't get a better plate I don't think haha.

[Minuki]

So, after lots and lots (and lots) of messing around with the suspension set up, I finally managed to make some progress with how the Touring sits. The rear has been giving my the biggest headache, it's pretty tight, so I've been trying to set it up so that wheels don't hit. I haven't driven it yet, so I don't know if they do, but I don't think it will. I'm gonna order some stiffer springs just to be sure.

I've got some more bits and bobs arriving this week and I should be able to get them fitted and aligned by the weekend.