Finally feel like I have a good enough reason to start a build thread for my car, will hopefully be updating this somewhat frequently when new stuff gets done on the car. But lets start from the top!
I bought the car about 3 years ago when I was going into my senior year of high school. It's a Fern Green '99 323is, bought it mostly stock from an older gentleman who had owned the car for more than 10 years and had always kept it garaged and perfectly maintained during his ownership. Honestly no sure why he decided to sell it to some 17 y/o kid, but I guess I convinced him I was an enthusiast and that I'd take good care of it lol. The only things done to the car when I had purchased it were Bilstein shocks and struts and an exhaust of which I didn't know the brand until much later when removing it I saw a VW logo (odd right?).
Here it is a little over a month after buying it, I had already installed Depo glass headlights with angel eyes, and smoked corner lights haha (I obviously used to have bad taste)
A few months later I took the car to a local show here in the PNW at the LeMay car museum down in Tacoma. Got a couple compliments on it surprisingly lol, here it is posted up mostly stock:
A few months later, as a graduation present from my parents, I got a set of TRMotorsport C4's wrapped in Michelin PSS. Here it is just after installing them:
Shortly after this I went through a phase where I was running a home depot garden edging lip (LOL like I said, I had bad taste)
Pretty soon I came to my senses and removed the lip, bought some lowering springs off a guy on craigslist and got those installed. Then I found some lux M3 seats for sale on craigslist and made a quick trip down to Oregon to pick them up. They were in near perfect shape so I picked those up and an M3 catback, which I never ended up installing lol. Heres some pics of those things:
Lowered
Shortly after installing those, I found a fern green M3 rear bumper for sale on craigslist so obviously I had to pick that up as well. You don't see fern parts for sale very much haha
The bumper isn't perfect and I still need to have it repainted, it has scratches and all kinds of other imperfections on it but it's a good temporary fix for $100
Picked up some spacers from a friend of mine, had to roll the rear fenders a tiny bit for it to not rub, but I enjoyed how it looked for a little while. Spacers were 12mm front and 15mm rear.
Ordered an M3 front bumper from ECS and had it painted the next week by Maaco, was extremely surprised by the match it actually came out super good.
Also went back to amber corners at some point, and switched to Depo euro style glass headlights with DRLs instead of the angel eyes
Eventually I found a Stromung catback on craigslist which I scooped up real quick, as well as buying a decatted 328 midpipe off my buddy Andrew, which he helped me install since he has access to a lift
Winter came and I bought a set of staggered contours with incorrect size rear tires, which I called tractor tires. They are so tall! Also got into photography and eventually got on BMW's instagram page with this photo, some of you may recognize it
Had some mandatory fun in the snow on Christmas day
Installed a CAI because why not I guess
Then I left the car alone for about a year, just drove it and the miles kept adding up (and still are). The car overheated one summer day when I left it idling in a friends driveway. Got it towed home and started looking into possible causes. Most people seemed to say it was the aux fan/clutch fan. So I ordered a new aux fan and a spal electric fan conversion kit. I can't seem to find any photos of all that even though I know I took some. Either way, installed the new fans and everything worked perfect, no overheating issues since, still true almost a year later. I also have an M50 mani I bought a while ago I've been going back and fourth on installing, want to get s52 cams and do both but still not sure. Will probably end up doing it eventually lol.
So fast forward a few months and I am HATING my current steering wheel, so I custom order one from a guy on ebay that was recommended to me by some friends of mine. The wheel is an OEM M-tech 2 steering wheel, wrapped in nappa leather with tri-color stitching. The wheel came out perfect and I am so pleased with the result.
A few months later I picked up a set of style 37 M pars off of an e38. 72.56 hub bore, 18x8 et13 and 18x9.5 et25. First test fit I was pretty concerned with how they would fit, but style 37s are one of my favorite OEM wheel, and I just had to run them. I was determined to make them work.
Tried doing as much research as I could about tire sizes and fitment, unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of info out there so I'll probably make a thread just dedicated to making them fit. Long story short, it didn't take much to get them to fit. I'm running 205/40 and 225/40 Michelins with Broadway Static coils. Only a slight roll on the rear fenders, and no roll on the fronts. Running about 2-2.5* of camber out front.
Out with the old
In with the new!
Got one side done and set her down to get a quick look at it
Plenty of room!
Worked until 2am, when I got stuck on the front passenger strut, I couldn't get it out. The LCA wasn't giving me enough room to pull the old strut out, so I called it a night and decided to pick back up in the morning. The next morning I got back to work and still couldn't get the strut out, so I had to call in for some backup. Once my buddy Mike arrived, it took about 20 mins to get the old one out, put the new one in and get everything buttoned up. Then we took it for a quick drive up the hill to get gas/see how it felt, if there was any rubbing or other issues.
Heard some clanking and realized the passenger strut wasn't totally tightened down, so torqued that down and everything was good to go. I came back the next day and dropped the front a little bit more, and raised the passenger rear because it was pretty low and rubbing as you can see here. Looks kinda cool though haha
Got everything dialed in and am pretty happy with the height, so gave her a quick wash and headed home. On the way I stopped to take a few pics, and this is how it's looking now, a few days later! Will probably lower the front a tad more soon, but just want to get used to this height first and go from here haha
Part of the reasoning for wanting to run 18s, is that this car is my daily, so I want it to be at a usable height for me to be able to actually drive it. I wanted good fitment without having to be crazy low, and these wheels were the perfect opportunity to try that. So far I'm loving it and can't wait to keep adding stuff. The goal is to keep the car as clean and classy as possible, since most stance cars I see aren't done very well. Not super sure about future plans for the car, just rolled over 200k miles and still running strong so I expect it to last me a long time. Will be going back to chrome grilles and updating a few of the faded trim pieces as well just to bring it closer to looking somewhat newish lol. If you got this far I appreciate you, thanks for reading!
P.S. I know I have a license plate light out lol
You did well young man, you did very well! Too bad it is a 323, not a 328 though, but still, for a first car - it's a great ride! Enjoy it!
Nice clean build! Looked good on the Contours too.
Looks really good on the M-pars, always liked how they look on E36, I'm partial to 18's as well as I've run them for like a decade. Keep it up!
Have you thought about M3 Mirrors or some ACS if you can find them... would really tie things together.
TRM Coilovers 670F/895R | BBS LM | Corsa RSC36
One of my favorite colors, Very clean sir.
1996 328i (m52B28US) OBD1 euro ZF 5spd. 3.23LSD conversion / Chem. PnP Head/ DINAN stg.2 CHIP/ VAC race valves/ S52 cams/ A/C delete/ fan delete/ Washer Fluid resv delete/ ARP head studs/ Cometic 140MLS / VAC Solid Engine/trans Mounts/ CAI / 2.5"Borla race exahaust/ NGK R spark plugs, M50 Mani, S50 Oil Res, Riot Racing HFTB, SAMCO Hoses, JBR FW, X-Brace, Mtech Front Bumper, RE RSMs, stoptech SS lines, Bilstein sports, H&R Race Springs, S52 Reinforcement plates, Kosei K1 w/ bridgestone RE960as, Brembo/stoptech slotted rotors, M3 Trailing arms, M3 Calipers, M3 Axles, ACS strut brace, weight reduction.
http://mbuild.blogspot.com/
Thanks man! I agree, I think the simple design of the m pars compliments the simple body lines of the car. I did consider getting M3 mirrors, but the car isn't an M so I don't want to go that far, and I also think the square shape of the mirrors matches with the more boxy look of the car. That may just be me though.
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Same! Thank you very much!
Glad my old suspension got put to use, looks great!
CBlock
Great job! Looks good
Today I realized I haven't been on bf.c in years, so I decided to have a little peek.
It took me until the M Pars to scroll far down enough to realize we (kinda) know each other on the gram, lol.
Hai. You already know I love your car.
Past: Fern Green E36 328i Convertible, Imola on Alcantara E46 330ci M-Sport, x2 E36 328i Sedans, Le Mans Sunset 350Z
Current: E36 M3 Cabrio - California Import, Estoril Blue, AC Schnitzer Type 1, Hard Motorsport Flares, Toyo Proxes R1R, Broadway Static
Awesome build page!! How do you still like Stromung without cats? Loved the acceleration sound but had to go back to M3 muffler with too much drone on highway
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Great work Josh! Look forward to see it irl on the M Pars.
@slowprogress
Thanks man! I love it, I haven't noticed too much drone but I do listen to music somewhat loudly like 90% of the time I'm in the car haha. I may get a supersprint midpipe down the road but who knows
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Thanks John! We gotta shoot soon too lolol
Small update: took the car in to get an alignment, got it back and the tech said the tie rods were seized so he couldn't adjust the toe. He gave me a quote to do the work for me and it came to a little over $600 . Apparently the tie rods were $200 each... so I did a 2 second google search and found a pair of tie rods on FCP euro for $80 shipped. Ordered them and installed over the weekend, now just need to get the car back in for the final alignment. Got the old ones out and new ones in in just over an hour with the help of my pops, easier job than I expected
Beautiful car and great pics too! Nice seeing the progression and stages of it.
IG @Bsaintmedia | Cammed LS6 Swapped E36 M3 "The GMW M3"
Nice!
1998 BMW M3 3.2 Cabrio Alpinweiί III on Schwarz German spec 1 of 12
SMG SRA PDC AUC OBC GSM HK UURS IHKA FGR MFL
IG: https://www.instagram.com/iflok/
Pretty car. Good color choice as well!
Thanks so much man!
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Thanks!
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Thank you! It's funny cause when I first bought the car I actually didn't like the color, but it grew on me and I love it now!
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Thanks dude! Part of my motivation was to keep it as classy as possible, so I appreciate that.
Well I had the car listed for sale for a few weeks, and ended up selling it a lot sooner than I expected! I sold the car because I needed something more comfortable/practical since I moved into the city with much worse roads, a longer commute, and the car was just kinda inconvenient in general. Fortunately the replacement is, I think, a worth upgrade. The new car is an '05 Japanrot on black, 5 spd touring! It's got 146k miles on it and bone stock to boot. It's far from perfect, the throw-out bearing is going bad, interior has a good amount of scratches on the front seats and the center console, and steering wheel is also showing a good amount of wear. Excited to start making this thing perfect for my tastes, and I look forward to all the awesome memories I'm sure I'll make with it!
Can't believe you sold it.
CARS
02.92 325is / 06.72 2002 / 02.91 XJ / 08.04 R53 JCW
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