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Old 09-12-2014, 08:32 PM   #1
LanOsb133
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Default My Never Ending Build Thread

So I should start at the very beginning I suppose. I was 16, and I needed a car. My dad and I were thinking about a Jeep Cherokee and a few other cars for my first car. My dad showed me the TI, but I wasn't very sold on it. I needed a car to transport all my equipment (I am a musician and have lots of big heavy amps that need to be hauled around.) So after a few weeks I started to grow onto the TI. I found out that it would be more than big enough with the seats folded down to haul everything I needed (In fact I hauled my 4x10 amp, my bass amp head, two basses my pedal board, pieces of a drumkit and had a passenger) So as you can tell, the first car I got was a 318ti. It was beaten to hell, mostly everything didn't work. It looked like hell, it drove like it, but I loved it.



Over the next two years, that is what my car looked like. It was rugged, it was beat, but we were worried about reliability and how well it could get me to and from school/work. Our goal was to get it back to OEM and sell it and upgrade to an Mtech. We changed out so many parts back to factory OEM as this car was Jerry rigged at every possible place. The windows didn't work, neither did the sunroof. So in January of this year, I bought my second TI. It was crashed in the front, but was a full Mtech TI. The motor still ran, the Transmission was good, and it had a full interior (besides the side panels)



It was exactly what I needed and saved me $2k worth of parts and we began our work on swapping everything that made the car an Mtech (Suspenssion interior, exterior, etc.) aswell as every part that we needed that was not Mtech specific was swapped over from the crashed TI to the old TI. It was a lot of work, and we (my dad and I) had the entire crashed car stripped down to its shell in less than 4 days. The shell has since been donated to my dads friends autoshop, and they are going to be building it into a race car. Or thats at least what they told us they were going to do with the shell.

In April, I bought my 3rd TI. This one however, had a rodknock. We went over to look at the car, and this car is MINT. The interior is brand new looking, has all the nice options (like center console arm rest.) has a super clean exterior (a few spots that need touch up but nothing bad.) 5 speed transmission and had all the original parts like the doors, bumpers, hatch, engine, all the "case candy" as we call it in the music world (Things like the owners manual and other things given with the car when bought new.), even had a BMW certified replacement transmission. So the kid who had it turned the car over and it knocked 5-6 times and my dad had him shut it off. It definitely was exactly as he described it.



So we pushed the car out to the street, called the tow truck and went to the bank to pick up the money to pay the kid (he apparently bought this car off someone who had a BMW collection and kept his cars very mint, and 2 weeks later the rod knock developed according to him.) When we got back we waited for 2 hours for the flatbed to arrive. Only it was a towtruck. The tow truck driver said he would go back and grab the flatbed. And this is where me and my dad made a huge mistake. We left the key with the tow truck driver, and left to go home (1 1/2 hour drive) We specifically told the driver, DO NOT START THE CAR.


Here is a picture of all three of the cars together. The back left is my first car, the middle is the newest one, and the one on the right is the 2nd crashed car we bought. Now back to the story.

When we got home we made food picked up my sister from home than went to the shop to wait for the car to be delivered. Once it was we pushed it into its spot and tried to turn the car over to show my dads friend what the knocking was. Nothing. The car did nothing. Didn't turn over, it just made a click. So we tried everything to get it started and nothing was working. So my dad used his BMW diagnostic scan (Its the factory equipment that is used at BMW.) and it said that the car had a problem in the third cylinder that happened at somewhere between 2.8-3.4k RPM's (Don't remember the exact number, I'm sure I'll come across it soon enough and than i'll update this to show the correct number.) With that we pulled the motor, and there it was, two huge holes in the block.



While those holes turned this easy rod knock problem into a whole engine replacement it was no problem really because I had a second motor, from the crashed Mtech! (An engine which I was trying to sell to make some money back from the Crashed TI.) So we went to work rebuilding the motor from the crashed TI and finishing up my first car.



This is my First TI! I finally finished it up.

So not much progress has been made between then and now. However I did three night ago crash my first TI.





The girl was driving without her lights on, and I happened to see her at the last minute and tried to stop my car. I got lucky I didn't get T-boned but my car is now wrecked, my three years of making that car pristine condition and getting everything back to factory OEM gone. Crazy how fast life hits you, but it was a good learning experience, and both me and the girl were both uninjured and no airbags were deployed. She got lucky and was able to drive off with only minor front bumper damage however my car is done.






So that's where my story (Build thread) ends for now. Three years of driving, three TI's that can not drive and alot of smiles, worn fingers, aching backs, and knowledge gained. And let me tell you right now, this is not the end of my story, I will be building up the motor and getting my newest car running soon. Life just gives us curve balls and we have to work around them.

And for anyone curious I am currently driving an '04 Saturn SUV. Things a POS, but it has so much power! But I do very much miss getting in my car and smiling because I knew I was going to have fun, because even getting groceries in the TI was fun.

Lastly, my plans are as follows. Finish up the third TI, Buy a crashed M3 and swap everything over (This wont be for a few years.) Buy a Techno Violet '99 or 2000, 323ti from Germany and import it over as a DD (once I get the M3ti finished.) and thats about all I have planned for now. But like I said, life throws you curve balls and I doubt things will go according to plan but thats what I'm aiming for!

Anyways, thanks for reading this insanely long post, but I hope you enjoy the work I have done, and the story that I have so far. If you have any questions/concerns, feel free to comment and I will gladly give you any information I have!
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Old 09-12-2014, 10:07 PM   #2
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Great story, and the recent accident sucks. Been there, done that, but as you said, the important thing is nobody was injured. Good luck with the projects. The M3 shouldn't be all that difficult, good luck with the import though. There are a lot of rules and regulations regarding that, and I don't think the 323ti currently qualifies under any of the import eligibility numbers (meaning you would have to likely have to do crash testing and such to get one in).

Justin
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Old 10-16-2014, 06:43 PM   #3
LanOsb133
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I figured the 323ti would just be a straight import given that we have crash data for the 318, and have crash data on the 323. It is just a 323i front end and a 318ti rear end is it not? But than again laws usually don't use logic. I will definitely spend some time researching the importation laws and see what would be required to get a 323ti over here.

Also a quick update, we had a body shop come by and check out the car and they said all the damage was relatively minor and that it just needs a good 'ol hammering so I can get a new sneutral in and I would be good to go! All the other damage to the body would not effect the car, or so they say. I just got my strut and tie rod ordered and if all goes well the TI will be back on the road this weekend!
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