e36 BMW 325i Coupe
So, after selling all of my Fiesta parts and putting the money into a 'next car' account, I set about looking for an e36 BMW 328i Sport. These cars suffer from a couple of issues meaning I wanted one that was manufactured after the March 98 date (they were sorted by then) OR had a replacement engine block. I'd also decided that I wanted one with the black interior, as the grey looks dated to me, obviously a manual gearbox and as high spec as I could find. Once you factor in all of these requirements, there weren't many around to choose from. Add to that it had to be up to my standards, and these cars are known for rust, it became painfully clear that I wasn't going to find what I was after.
I'd started to let various 'wants' slide, but the biggest one was that it had to be as rust free as possible. When this 325i came up for sale, it ticked a lot of boxes but the ones it didn't were made up by the fact it was about a 3rd of the price of the 328i Sports I'd been looking at.
It was pre-facelift (as late as the 325i's came in), with a black half leather interior, air-con, 11 button OBC, manual and most importantly of all, a factory fitted LSD. Time for obligatory first pictures:
Anyone familiar with these cars will know that have a couple of weak spots; the cooling system being one of them. One of the first jobs was to give it a full service and replace the waterpump with a metal impellor item. It turned out it already had one fitted but there was every chance it could have been plastic. Along with that was a new radiator and aluminium thermostat housing as the plastic ones are prone to cracking.
You'll see a theme on this site of cars that I care about having as much work done underneath as on top, sometimes more. One of the first 'big' jobs was to clean everything and paint it with a rust converter that dries black. This also gave me a chance to inspect the car a bit more thouroughly while I was underneath it.
It was an old car after all and I'd decided fairly early on that I wanted to make it the best example out there. This meant chasing all sorts of little niggles and rattles, one of which were cracked front brake sheilds.
Another little weak point that can be made worse by 'enthusiastic driving' is the rear top mounts; an upgrade here is to fit some strengthening plates used on the Z3.
One of the first times I went to jack the car up I noticed one of the jacking points was pretty badly rusted. I was fairly disapointed until I realised it was the only rust on the car and was likely caused by someone using the wrong jack and damaging something which then started to rust.
I set about cutting all the rusty metal out, re-making panels and replicating the position of the spot welds to ensure strength and make sure the repair was as 'factory' as possible. While doing this, I also noticed the wing had been crushed underneath but there will be more on that later. Any repair like this was filled with cavity wax afterwards and the standard jacking pad remained.
The only changes that had been made to the car were some larger, standard wheels, which I'd already replaced with factory 'bottle tops' and the fitment of an M3 rear spoiler. This had to go, and when it did, it left the mess that was the previous owners attempt at fitting it. I'd already struck out finding a replacement bootlid in the same colour and figured I'd repair the original item.
While it was apart I also soaked the seized boot lock mechanism in vinegar to free it. I wasn't planning to paint the bootlid but I wanted it protected until it could go to a bodyshop, so some metallic black I had laying around was used.
Now for the biggest job! and one that I still get asked about on forums; retrofitting digital climate control .
After I bought the car I noticed it would steam up really easily, after a lot of searching I discovered there was a leak at the bulkhead where the heater box mounts; rainwater would run down, collect at this lowest point and leak through the perished seal. This then ran underneath the carpet and soaked it from the bottom. There was no other option but to remove the unit and replace the gasket. This was an enormous job and I thought I might as well make some changes if I was going to all the trouble.
A friend was breaking an e36 with all the parts I needed; digital climate control box and a much nicer carpet.
As I touched on during the welding of the jacking point; the underside of the wing had also been used to lift the car which had damaged it and caused it rust. As the rest of the wing was perfectly fine, and the damage was underneath the side-skirt, I replaced the damaged section with a part from a scrap yard. Then, as usual, cavity wax was used to protect the area for years to come.
If you couldn't tell by now, I like things standard and the aftermarket head unit had to go. A rather rare option in the e36 was the CD43; a 'business' head unit that played CD's. Strangely, this same head unit was used in some Rovers at the same time, branded with a Rover badge. Some people stick an 'M' badge over this and try and pass it off as an original BMW unit. Instead, I took the face apart and lightly sanded the Rover symbol off, leaving the rest of the surface untouched.
The image below will take you to a separate page about this little side-project, but in summary, I built a 'stealth' subwoofer box for the car.
The car was fairly well optioned but I was always on the lookout for a few upgrades. Being a member of some BMW forums, and the car getting a bit of a following, a member contacted me saying he was stripping a very well specced e36 to turn it into a track car. The deal was I could go and strip all the parts off I needed and we'd work out a deal. I ended up with full PDC, cruise control and an EC rear view mirror. I'd also obtained the full 18 button OBC from another friend doing a similar thing.
When I was stripping the parts I needed, I made sure to gather as much wiring as possible and a friend helped wire everything in, into the factory fuse positions.
The same friend who I got the 18 button OBC from also had a full leather interior. I traded him some hefty welding work that was needed on his van for the interior. It was in great condition anyway but I repaired the worn down drivers side bolster foam and swapped the leather/foam from driver to passenger seat, so that the drivers seat was effectively now a 'fresh' un-used passenger seat.
I'd noticed fairly early on that the vanos was making a rattle; the shims inside can wear and the o-rings can also perish affecting performance. It's a fairly involved job as it means locking the cams and rotating varios timing related components. Before started, I managed to find some tools that a forum member had used to do the same job and was selling on.
The vanos unit was removed and re-built with new shims (that needed slight tuning to result in the correct tolerance), new o-rings and particular to mine; uprated diaphram springs. The later M52 engines came with uprated vanos units to reduce noise, so I fitted these components to my unit.
While the cam cover was off, I also spruced it up as the factory castings were pretty rough in places.
Another couple of finishing touches to the interior were a replacement headlining, due to the old one starting to droop, and a replacement parcel shelf; these start out black and fade to a rather retro purple colour. I could have refurbished the original in the same way but instead got hold of a replacement that had the 3rd brake light cutout, so that was also fitted.
One job I was always dreading was the rear brake pipes, and although they hadn't been picked up on an MOT, they were looking decidedly crusty and thought I'd bite the bullet and give the whole underside a refresh. In order to do the job properly and route the new lines in the original position, a LOT of parts need to be removed, so most of the underside was stripped down and cleaned. Any rust bubbles were treated, brackets and braces were repaired and painted and new lines were made up copying the originals. The whole underside was then painted in gloss black.
I used the car as it was for a while, despite all the work, it was in daily use, rain or shine, until the rear wheel bearings started to make a noise. Again, I'd heard this had the potential to be a pain of a job so I decided to take the car off the road for a while as I'd recently bought my first house. Sadly, this is where the car sat for a few years; it's a slippery slope when an MOT runs out and a car needs work, I can see why there are so many forgotten 'projects' in peoples garages.
I finally decided I wanted to get the car roadworthy again and started the job I'd put off for so long. True to form, the driveshafts were seized in the hubs and I needed to make a tool to press them out. Once they were out, it was relatively straight forward, but again, everything was cleaned and painted before re-assembly, including the rear trailing arm pockets that weren't done during the big underside freshen up.
Having done all this work, I had a familiar moment when I realised the car might not be all I wanted anymore; fantastic though it was, there were other itches I had to scratch and I don't have the space or money to keep every car I like.
The car was one of the cleanest e36's in the UK, I believe, and if I were to keep it, I'd have wanted a full re-spray to get rid of all the little imperfections. On the various forums, it was very well respected, but I knew that if someone had been reading the threads, they would expect perfection! and in the metal, it did need some paintwork. As this wasn't going to happen, I wanted to sort the last few finishing touches instead. This mean replacing the perished rear window seals and re-painting the 'gutter trim'. You can buy these new but there's no guarentee they will arrive undamaged, so I thought it best to salvage the ones on the car.
With a heavy heart, I decided to put the car up for sale. There was no amount of money that could make up for the time spent on it (well, there is, but nobody's paying that for an e36) but I wanted it to go to an enthusiast. Eventually I found a buyer who admitted they'd made the mistake of buying cheaper cars that had cost more in the long run and wanted to get something better to start. I believe he's still using it daily which I love. It was meant to be driven and enjoyed.
