Hi everyone, I've recently joined and am looking forward to sharing my build.
My primary project at the moment is a 1999 E36 328i M-Sport convertible. Here are a few photos from the day I purchased and brought it home less than a year ago, as well as my old E46:
I was fortunate enough to find this car in my favorite color combo locally here in Phoenix. It was in rough shape, but thankfully the neglecting of this car over the years helped retain most of its originality from the factory, as nobody really changed much. M52 with a 5-speed and 130k original miles. It is a final year production car that came from the factory as an M-Sport model. It came with the M body kit option (though I believe the previous owner changed the mirrors), sport suspension, M3 steering wheel, shift knob, etc. It has H/K with amp and sub, sport seats, alarm system, power top option, ect. Either the factory or the dealer placed an OEM ///M badge on the trunk lid and side moldings. My first official mod on this car was removing the autozone "3" badge that PO installed with gorilla glue….Here are some screenshots of the VIN decoded:
My plans with this car were to restore it to it's former glory, upgrading it primarily with parts that can be changed or reversed back to factory in the future if I wish to do so. I don't plan to go widebody or F/I, as I'd like to keep it relatively close to it's original form. Over the past year I have done the following:
Wheels/Suspension/Brakes:
18x8 BBS Style-94
Continental DWS 225/40 245/40
Magnaflow Catback
Koni STRT
H/R Sport springs
Powerflex poly FCAB
Meyle strut/shock mounts
Meyle HD control arms/ball joints
Meyle inner/outer tie rods/plates
Brembo OE rotors
Bosch pads
URO wear sensors
Lemfoerder boots
Febi sway links
Rein bumpstops
1/4" rolled/pulled rear arches
Engine/Cooling/Electrical:
Stewart EMP waterpump
Behr radiator
Behr fan clutch
Behr expansion tank/cap
ECS silicone radiator hoses
Mahle thermostat/housing
Bosch alternator
Gold 94R battery
Duralast Lifetime MAF
NGK plugs
ContiTech belts
Victor Reinz VCG
OE intake boots
OE IAC hose
Rein vanos line
Lemfoerder rad mounts
OE Hvac unit
Lighting/Trim/Ect:
Khoalty tail lights
URO fog covers
URO door handle trim
OE Windsheild cowl
OE ///M steering wheel
One-piece projectors
Gloss black kidneys
Lower grill duct mod
Tri-stitch shift/brake boots
Here are some progress photos. Tear down begins:
Photos with the valve cover removed. Appeared to be pretty clean:
Putting things back together….
Off to the alignment rack! And a very close call on the way….
Out and about with my buddy's 325IS:
I had my fair share of problems with the all electric soft top assembly. Rather than purchasing a new soft top, I figured I'd wait for a nice hardtop to pop up on craigslist. It was almost 6 months before I came across one, so I was very excited to find this. I planned on running it almost full-time, and didn't want all the additional dead weight of the soft top in the tonneau compartment. I also wanted to completely convert the soft top to a manual setup from an early model car in the future, so I had no interest in the auto setup. The solution was to completely remove the old top assembly from the car, and cut off the frame's end mounts in order to use them for the factory hardtop mounting gear:
….and finally, here is how the car sits today:
My plans for the near future are to replace my starter that just died a few days ago, while possibly doing an M50 manifold swap with the install kit while I'm in there. I figured I'd get a Shark Injector around that same time, as it's almost necessary. However, this turns the starter project budget into more serious figure, so I'm currently undecided. After that I will probably install my depo headlights, drop a sidewall size or two, and do some camber plates/arms with spacers in an effort to drop a little lower in the front. Of course the list goes on from there….
Last edited by 99problem; 05-24-2018 at 09:31 AM.
The car has definitely come a long way, it looks great. Awesome job.
Looks very nice indeed.. Great job!
One small correction. You wrote: "M52TU with a 5-speed and 130k original miles.". The engine I see in the photos is the single Vanos M52 (M52B28). I think the E36 was never sold with the dual Vanos M52TU (except for the E36/7 Z3). For the 3-series it was used in the first years of the E46 series.
Last edited by ed323i; 05-22-2018 at 05:17 PM.
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