Mike's e36 Compact Build Thread
 

Copied my build thread from another site! thought I would continue it on here and see what people think :)
Here it is so far:

Here's was my 318Ti 1999 e36 compact when I brought it earlier this year (March 2013), it was pretty battered and had been completely stripped for drifting with a welded diff.

http://i40.tinypic.com/30aurr9.jpg
http://i57.tinypic.com/152yo47.jpg

I started by buying a slightly better looking Mtec bumper for the front as the previous standard one was pretty beaten up.

http://i41.tinypic.com/34hw00g.jpg
http://i40.tinypic.com/30ldmo6.jpg

Took me a while to figure out what wheels I wanted as there isn't much choice in 5x120, after much internet searching I came across these Dare wheels. I inquired about them in 16x8s which nowhere seemed to have after hanging on for a while I was bullied by my mate Phil to just order the 16x9s which I was a little worried whether they would fit or not!

http://i44.tinypic.com/2cnhame.jpg
http://i42.tinypic.com/2myccut.jpg

I ordered some 205/45r16s for some nice stretch to make sure they fitted under the arches, I got some Proxies for the fronts and some part worn ones for free for the rear. I finally got them fitted after playing about with different springs to get the car sitting right at the rear, in the end I settled for some Alfa springs!

http://i42.tinypic.com/2mrw5z7.jpg
http://i39.tinypic.com/246m1lc.jpg

After that I wanted a bucket seat to hold me in a bit more as the leather seats were far too slippery! I settled for a Cobra Monaco which I had previously had in my mini and are amazing seats. these are made of a much nicer material now though and only cost £180. I also purchased some TRS harness's.

http://i41.tinypic.com/21e47f6.jpg

After mounting it with normal bucket seat runners I discovered how off centred BMW seats are, so it left me sitting far from centred with the steering wheel which was horrible to drive like. so I did some more searching online and found some solid seat mounts. I found some second hand ones on drift works for £100 for both sides which wasn't too bad considering other places wanted £100 a side! and I plan on getting another seat at some point anyway.

http://i42.tinypic.com/ip9hmu.jpg

I decided to take my lights apart to tint the inner lens covers which was pretty fiddly, but i had seen it done on a few others and really liked the look of it.

http://i41.tinypic.com/f4pqqd.jpg

Shortly after I had started changing bits I went to BHP show at Lydden Hill, where I saw quite a few BMWs on dare wheels which kind of sucked haha, So I decided I needed to make mine different, I found someone who offered to paint them for a very good price. when I was at the spray shop choosing a colour I found one I liked and left him to it. It wasn't till after I realized it was a lambo colour!


http://i43.tinypic.com/ta4soj.jpg

I stole the strut brace out of my girlfriends polo, (which I brought and fitted anyway) ;) chopped the ends off and re-welded a plate on each end shaped around the turret, I then drilled holes in the plates and the turrets painted it the same colour as the wheels and bolted it in!

http://i40.tinypic.com/2i1z2th.jpg

I also purchased an x brace from someone on Driftworks as I had read up on them, and apparently they make quite a bit of difference to how it handles, I cleaned it up and painted it with some old left over paint from something or other because I'm a massive lifestyler ;)

http://i39.tinypic.com/rtksh2.jpg
http://i39.tinypic.com/2vbpzc5.jpg

So I tested it out on the way home after fitting it and quickly discovered that I wouldn't be able to run it! it hit everything possible so I took it off pretty sharpish..

http://i42.tinypic.com/23lh254.jpg

I decided I wanted to spray the bumper to match the rest of the car, even though part of me really liked it in black.. I sprayed it with rattle cans and got a pretty good finish, then fitted some fog lights I picked up cheap.

http://i40.tinypic.com/15p66ag.jpg
http://i40.tinypic.com/qyiid5.jpg


The bumper was looking pretty good until I was parking it and touched a curb with the front lip :( it cracked the paint and started to peel. I Picked up these BBS center caps too for £15.

http://i43.tinypic.com/qodgxy.jpg

I plan on getting a respray of the whole car soon and changing the wheel colour again as i am bored of it anyway so I decided i would have a go at smoothing the front badge before it went for paint to save some money.. "How hard can it be!" pretty hard is the answer! It took a good few nights up the lockup and the weather didn't help being cold paint wouldn't dry etc. I started by removing the badge and grinding around the recess to give the fiberglass and filler something to stick too. i then laid some metal mesh in the hole and put some fiberglass over it once this had dried I put a skim of filler across the remaining thin lip. This took ages to sand down and the first attempt left a dipped spot in the filler so another skim was needed and sanded back flat again, after that i just rattle caned the bonnet ruffly (again it should be getting painted soon so not to bothered about the finish) we also fiberglassed and filled where there was front light washers at some point. all in all it was a massive ball ache and i will not be doing anymore smoothing! i will leave the rest of the bits i want smoothed to my good friend Lew at AB Styling :P

http://i42.tinypic.com/3310un9.jpg
http://i41.tinypic.com/2m5jsox.jpg
http://i44.tinypic.com/14l67mx.jpg
http://i40.tinypic.com/25jvxy1.jpg


Here's how it looks up to date with the smoothed bonnet and washer holes and BBS center caps

http://i39.tinypic.com/29yjb7a.jpg
http://i40.tinypic.com/osh6wn.jpg


Here's a list of other things I have done since owning the car but not managed to get pictures of!
Will try and get some to add when I'm doing other bits.

● New Rear top mounts and reinforcement plates
● Camber top mounts
● Made new exhaust (center back)
● Did Oil change + filter
● Replaced rocker cover gasket
● New spark plugs
● New air filter
● New fuel filter
● Black Mtec head lining (handles, sun visors etc)
● Mtec Rear Lights
● Fitted new window regulators
● Flip up Radio
● Pressed plates
● Had front window replaced (because of crack)
● Replaced split air intake pipes

27 Oct 2013
This week I thought I would make a new gear stick for it as I didn't really want to pay £35 for one! and my dad has just got a lathe from my grandad, so we thought we would try it out

http://i42.tinypic.com/2a6outx.jpg

We got the basic shape out of the hard wood and drilled a hole which we then pushed in and glued an old wheel nut which was the same thread size (m12x1.25), Gave it a few coats of primer to make it smooth and then gave it the final coat of shinny black!

http://i40.tinypic.com/66eour.jpg
I'm pretty pleased with how it came out! might even start production ;)


30 Oct 2013
Decided to finally sort my winter/skid wheels out today and finished painting them white, here’s what they looked like when I first brought them..

http://i44.tinypic.com/in6g53.jpg

They were pretty curbed and badly painted so i spent a few days with a drill and stone to try and get the lips to a better finish, sanding were someone had tried taking the stickers of before took a while as it looked like they went at them with an axe haha!

http://i40.tinypic.com/28arc5f.jpg

Once I had them at a fairly good finish I put them in primer and decided to paint them white.

http://i42.tinypic.com/5als82.jpg
http://i42.tinypic.com/np41g8.jpg

Pretty please with the finish even though there not perfect, they are only winter and skid wheels after all! will get around to doing the fronts soon also. Found some part worn tyres at a local garage yesterday which will be put on the refurbed ones this week hopefully :)


31 Oct 2013
Quick update as I'm bored at work again!
Decided the bushes in the new lower arms i ordered and yet to be fitted are rubbish, even just putting them on the arm the rubber was giving and felt like it would not do a lot so today i have ordered these powerflex poly bush's which are not cheap! but a friend has fitted them and highly recommended them. also read lots online about how good they are a great improvement over standard ones..

http://i41.tinypic.com/2dnrj5.jpg

Last night i knocked the old rubber and housing out of one of the brackets ready for when the poly ones turn up! was a night mare to get out had to cut it to weaken it and then smash the life out of it but finally got the center out.

http://i40.tinypic.com/r9iosp.jpg

Then Obviously being a Lifestyler i cleaned up the bracket and primered it, probably going to buy some gold spray paint for the arms and stuff just to make it extra gay ;)

http://i41.tinypic.com/1pfhcl.jpg

2 Nov 2013
Poly bushes came really quickly. best thing about the kit was the free key ring and stickers ;) but then you would expect them to fit themselves for £40! I went up the lockup and got on with fitting them.

http://i42.tinypic.com/taikj8.jpg

I painted the old bush housings as I'm a lifestyler and fitted the bushes in to them

http://i43.tinypic.com/orikvn.jpg
http://i39.tinypic.com/mm5qxe.jpg

I also needed to change the other lower arm I brought a few weeks ago, as I fitted one and wasn't happy with how rubbish the bushes were so I waited until I had these new bushes before fitting it.

http://i41.tinypic.com/20kw51k.jpg

Never thought changing a lower arm could be such a pain, the outer ball joint is a pain to get out as the bolt is so close to the bottom of the strut, but i managed to undo it a bit before it started spinning and then hack sawed the bolt of letting it drop out. the middle ball joint is also a pain! as it can only be accessed from above with a couple of extensions, once it was all out the new one bolted up pretty easy :) now both arms are fitted and poly bushed should hopefully make a difference :)

http://i40.tinypic.com/k9gkdw.jpg

Also got these rack spacers from DriftWorks which should give me a bit more lock, I will be getting these fitted at the end of the week by a local garage who is also fitting the new track rod ends i brought, and then tracking it all up for me :)

http://i43.tinypic.com/3509kxt.jpg
http://i43.tinypic.com/30sh640.jpg


19 Nov 2013
Been a while since an update.. the Friday after the last post I had the tracking done by Geoff and the rack spacers fitted.
This is before the spacers:

http://i41.tinypic.com/6sgymu.jpg

And this is after:

http://i44.tinypic.com/t9b4f7.jpg


You can't really see a great deal of difference from pictures but I can now turn around in the end of a road without doing a 8 point turn ;) and the tracking is a lot better now and feels much firmer to drive.
Ive also been playing about with spacers to get some nice poke on my wheels, i put two 5mm spacers together to put on the front to see what it was like before ordering some hub centric ones
This is before the two 5mm spacers (10mm):

http://i41.tinypic.com/28i9e79.jpg

And this is with them fitted:

http://i39.tinypic.com/al3jgo.jpg


The poke looks amazing so like a boss... I ordered some 15mm Hub Centric spacers for the fronts!

http://i43.tinypic.com/2nk6mpz.png

:P might need to roll the front arches some more, but the 10mm went under fairly easy so thought I would push it! I'm going to see if I can get 15mm ones on the rears when the fronts come if not will probably have to order 10mm ones for the rears :)

21 Nov 2013
So my spacers arrived yesterday...
http://i41.tinypic.com/vnedzd.jpg

But on the way to the lock up to fit them the Drive shaft decided it didn't want to be attached anymore, but rather than the drive shaft joint breaking it took the bolts with it and snapped them off in the diff housing which was helpful. Rather than trying to get the studs out I've brought a new open diff for £50 which I'm going to get welded (pics to follow)
I've also already brought a new drive shaft for £20 of eBay and a poly diff mounting

http://i44.tinypic.com/k1ctg5.png

Whilst I was fighting like hell to get the drive shaft out last night so I could one wheel wonder it home, I also discovered that the rear beam had a lot of play in it and could be moved up and down! so as the rubbers are shot and the as diff and everything has got to come out I'm going to change them too but the powerflex bushes are £70! I'll probably end up buying them though as most of it is going to be poly now. Also think one of the rear wheel bearings is on its way out so will be getting a new one of them too. going to be a lot of work considering all I went up there for was to fit some spacers! Lol

22 Nov 2013

Got some new tyres for the rear AGAIN :( £60 something delivered for the pair though can't complain, and the ones I take off are going to be put on the white borbets backwards for some cheeky skids

http://i40.tinypic.com/dew901.jpg

26 Nov 2013

Following on from my drive shaft snapping and taking half the bolts with it, and discovering a few other problems, Over the weekend I managed to get a good start on sorting it out.
Managed to get the diff out fairly easily other than getting covering in grease and oil

http://i39.tinypic.com/sdzhw8.jpg

The next challenge was getting the rear beam out to change the worn bushes for the uprated Poly bushes, Me and Rob wrestled with it for a while and it was a complete pain to get out.

http://i41.tinypic.com/xnu26w.jpg

I didn't think getting the old bushes out would be too much of a problem, how wrong was I! lol It took two afternoons of hammering, chiselling, setting fire to it just to get one side out! They are well and truly in there. For the other side I decided to take it down the road to a local garage for them to get it out, They simply fired up their oxy settling torch and burnt the hell out of it and then used an impact chisel to get it out (If only I had the tools!)

http://i44.tinypic.com/6nqwkl.jpg
http://i40.tinypic.com/9j2gr8.jpg
http://i43.tinypic.com/2upqv6g.jpg

Once they was finally both out I could get the Poly bushes fitted but of course being a lifestyler I painted the beam with some random paint too ;)

http://i44.tinypic.com/1072pew.jpg
http://i40.tinypic.com/1zc0okp.jpg
http://i40.tinypic.com/15nvf4o.jpg
http://i40.tinypic.com/2qmketi.jpg

Also painted the bush mounting plates gold ;)
http://i43.tinypic.com/e7htsk.jpg

I also replaced the rear anti roll bar bushes for poly ones, didn't go with power flex for these just some cheap eBay ones, although I may buy the power flex ones just for the fact there orange and it will annoy me lol

I then got the old bush out of the diff casing which was a bit of a pain but nothing compared to the rear beam ones!

http://i39.tinypic.com/2ufqft0.jpg
http://i42.tinypic.com/11klhqa.jpg
http://i43.tinypic.com/t7ljbk.jpg

Got it ready for the poly bush to be fitted in but haven't actually fitted yet as the diff is now down Ab styling being welded up :) will upload some more pictures of the diff and welds when I get it back.

This is what the drive shaft cups looked like, it broke most of the bolts of in there.
http://i39.tinypic.com/w18vbk.jpg
http://i43.tinypic.com/70wby0.jpg

I have a new drive shaft with a new cup so won’t be bothering to try and get the snapped ones out just yet, Also my new tyres are currently being fitted by another local garage who helps me out a lot! so I pay him in beer and he’s happy :) We thought it was pretty funny how my tyres have worn because of the camber, you can actually see the slope in the tyre! lol

http://i42.tinypic.com/13ywjp.jpg
http://i43.tinypic.com/bff5t3.jpg

I got over excited when I was buying the poly bits and had some new disks and pads in my watch list on eBay and "accidentally" bought them too..

http://i41.tinypic.com/nppabs.jpg

Should be getting the diff and wheels back fairly soon and the disks and pads should be here today, will update when everything's fitted :)

28 Nov 2013

New disks came yesterday so I took them straight up the lock up to fit them.

http://i39.tinypic.com/5wjbf8.jpg
http://i39.tinypic.com/2me23h3.jpg

The old disks were pretty hanging and when I braked from a high speed it felt as if they was warped.. happy to be changing them
http://i41.tinypic.com/2lb2r91.jpg

Also got new Mintex pads
http://i39.tinypic.com/1zptly0.jpg
http://i44.tinypic.com/24y4htd.jpg

Managed to get them all fitted fairly easily apart from one which i still have the wheel bearing to do, which is being a complete pain. I managed to get the hub out from the bearing and the inner casing of the bearing off of that but now I'm struggling to get the bearing out of the arm.

29 Nov 2013

Little update on the Bearing, got the arm off the car last night didn't take to long really, had to remove all the hand brake and shoes and crimp the brake line to undo all of that before I could remove the arm, All of this to change a wheel bearing! I hate Bmw. New Bearing should be here today, will take it to get the old bearing pressed out later and the new one pressed back in :)

http://i39.tinypic.com/2qsyyq9.jpg
http://i40.tinypic.com/259yhci.jpg"
http://i41.tinypic.com/25jz9f8.jpg"
http://i43.tinypic.com/28vx840.jpg


15 Jan 2014

Been a while since I updated! not much has changed really apart from rolling the rear arches a little to put the 15mm spacers on the rear, Also had my front wheels balanced as they were causing it to feel horrible at high speeds. Oh and almost forgot I brought myself another bucket seat for Xmas as a present to myself, and got a matching harness too! will upload some pics of the seats when I get a chance, Also got persuaded to put the clear front indicators in which I wasn't sure about but there growing on me.. Here's a few pics for now of how its sitting :)

http://i41.tinypic.com/29x91di.jpg
http://i41.tinypic.com/2m5yseq.jpg

16 Jan 2014

Quick update! Received this yesterday, should be getting the whole car painted and the ducktail fitted next month :)

http://i44.tinypic.com/fnr777.jpg

3 Feb 2014

Quick update, brought some Mtec side strips last week, wanted some to clip on and line up etc before I get it painted. I bit the bullet and paid the silly price people ask for them on eBay although these ones are in good condition.

http://i58.tinypic.com/2n6wy9c.jpg
http://i58.tinypic.com/9axmyu.jpg


And also finally ordered some more 15mm spacers so the back and front are both spaced by 15mm, I think it sits pretty well.

http://i60.tinypic.com/2e0soew.jpg
http://i62.tinypic.com/2layq1l.jpg



11 Feb 2014

Thought I would add a couple of last pictures before it changes a lot next week! :)

http://i62.tinypic.com/ir88wk.jpg
http://i59.tinypic.com/14id2qt.jpg

car looks amazing.

Thanks it's getting there :)

awesome project thread mate! great to see another uk compact thread thought i was the only one mad enough to take on a project build on a compact but i think they look cooler than the normal ones anyway :)
will you be taking it to any shows in the summer??

great job :cool:

Thanks :) Ahh good I was beginning to think I was the only person on here from the UK! haha where abouts you from? I would like to try and get to some shows not sure which ones there are tbh, I go to Prept at brands hatch sometimes which is pretty good and will be at POD in august for the weekender :)

Thanksss :cool:

im from down in devon so opposite side of the country :frown: il be taking it to a few local ones and il be heading up to the action day at castle combe in april and definately gonna be at players classic @ goodwood in june that was an epic show last year and should fit in now with the beemer didnt get much love for my 206 there last year lol
heard a few people mention prept sounds good shame its so far way :( do the have like one main one or not??

what you got planned next for yours??

this is the progress thread for mine :)

http://318ti.org/forum/showthread.php?t=39442