My 1992 318is, I guess you could call it a build thread

[m42b32]

I guess i'll introduce myself a bit first, I am a mechanical engineering student at school out in PA but have lived in WI all my life. I have always been into cars and for the past three years I have worked at a classic car shop in the Delafield area so I have a bit of experience (Still learning a ton of course). Ive been on this forum for a while but never really posted anything so I figured I'd start a thread on my never ending project/DD 318is. 

 

I've had this car since I bought it in the winter of 2010/2011 (I guess you could call it my first car, the previous one was owned by my parents). It is a sterling silver 1992 318is, 5-speed, with 147k on it when I bought it. The only option is the leather steering wheel and shift knob, other than that it has a full gray cloth interior, 7 button OBC, and all the other base things. It had sparse service history so I had it inspected by European Auto House in Mequon and it looked to be very well maintained compared to most but it still needed work. 

Here it is the day I bought it:

I went home, spent two days detailing the car, replaced all the fluids, put on the summer tires, painted the rockers in the correct color, and added a front plate delete to clean it up a bit.



over the next year I completed quite a bit of maintenance, almost all work done by me, on my shoe-string budget.
- guibo
- power steering return line
- shift shaft trans seal
- oil pan gasket
- clutch slave cylinder
- rear trailing arm bushings (replaced with poly)
- more stuff I can't remember

I also picked up a set of 17 inch Mille Miglia MM11's with some yokohoma 235/40/17's on them to sharpen up the handling. I also blacked out the grilles and stained the fog lenses yellow for a meaner look to match the wheels:



I also had a set of snow tires for the winter that made it quite fun in the snow


The interior was looking a bit shabby as the foam backed fabric of the headliner had seperated and the door panel fabric was sagging as well. So I stripped a good portion of the interior and reupholstered it with a bit of matching gray suede

The result:



I then went off to college and left the car in storage for the year and it sat until may. When I got back I did a lot more working bringing the car up to spec
- lower front control arms/inner outer ball joints
- Front control arm bushings (replaced with poly)
- water pump
- thermostat
- radiator
- fan clutch
- all coolant hoses and seals
- full coolant flush
- cabin air filter (probably one of the most frustrating jobs to date)
- differential output shaft bushings
- new tires (225/45/17's)
- polished the headlight lenses
- many other things slipping my mind

Here is the car as it sits now:

 

I did have it listed for sale here a while back but I just couldn't bring myself to sell it, I love the darn thing too much and couldn't get myself to let go of it. It currently has 161,000 miles on it and runs like a dream. I hope to do some extensive work on it this summer once I start working again (read: have decent funds) and maybe in the future build and swap in an m50/52. Let me know what you think! I plan on keeping a running progress thread here

[Ryan...]

Welcome!  Those M42s will last forever, and your car looks clean enough to warrant sticking all that time and effort into it.

 

 

If its 5 speed, you should consider installing a single mass flywheel, really lets the motor spin up and throttle response is really nice.

[KaiserRolls]

Awesome!

 

I like the look of the stained fogs better

 

Very clean looking bmw!!

[Earl]

So clean=) I have my headliner out to redo. Stupid e36's and their saggy headliners. I can't wait to see where you go from here with this.

[m42b32]

Thanks guys! Its definitely a ten foot car since I do have a few rust issues but given that its been a mid-western car all its life its doing pretty darn good. I hope to learn to do some of the bodywork to fix that before it becomes a problem. Any idea how hard it would be to match the paint color? 

[Jeff]

Nice to see more e36's coming here. Your car looks very clean. Like 20x better then when i brought mine home the first day

Its easy to match paint colors. The napa in town here mixes paint and they do a good job color matching. Take care of the rust before it spreads like hurps.

[Brian.]

Welcome, nice looking car man! That re-upholstery job looks fantastic! Perfect color/fabric choice!

 

 

 

Edit: 2,500th post. yowza'

Edited April 12, 2013 by Brian

[wasnt m3]

Welcome! What shop did you work at in delafield?

[B C]

I really like the car! The photographs are great and the wheel choice matches the style of the car well! I will definitely be following this thread

Fellow ME here btw.  

[m42b32]

Welcome! What shop did you work at in delafield?

Its called An American Classic, it is a vintage corvette specialty shop but we do a lot of other 60's GM cars and there is usually something totally random as well, I am hoping to work there on the weekends when I can this summer still. 

 

Take care of the rust before it spreads like hurps.

Yeah thats one of the first things on my to do list. If anything I just want to slow it down. The bottoms of both fenders are pretty bad so I plan on doing what I can to stop it and I have a set of side skirts off a 98 that I am planning to cover it with. 

[m42b32]

Just ordered some 6x9 adapters to mount my Memphis Audio 6x9's under the decklid, should sound much better combined with the alpine headunit and you'll never know they are there. I also ordered a set of parking brake springs so I can put the e-brake back in the car and have it functional again, rsm's and reinforcements as mine have a bit of up and down movement when I bounce the car, and a cluster backlight bulb so I can see the other half of my cluster at night haha. the parts should be here in a few days and I will update with pictures as I get things done!

[KaiserRolls]

Nice! Keep us updated with pics too!

[m42b32]

Nice! Keep us updated with pics too!

 

Of course! I I'll snap pics whenever I have a hand available haha

[KaiserRolls]

Of course! I I'll snap pics whenever I have a hand available haha

 

Perfect!

[m42b32]

Got some parts in today and had a free hour between class so I replaced the intake bellows and it runs much better. Literally took about 30 minutes to do, and the majority of that time was looking for my exacto knife that I had misplaced to cut the clips for the wires out of the old one. 

 

quite the hole if you ask me...

 

And a quick engine bay shot for those of you who care

 

More to come as I find more free time...

[KaiserRolls]

I see a bike creepin' in the background!

[m42b32]

I see a bike creepin' in the background!

 

You do! It belongs to a friend of mine. its a Honda CBR600 I believe

[m42b32]

A little update, took a break from school work and decided to install the speakers that have been sitting in my room for months now that I had the proper adapters.

 

I replaced the stock 4" speakers and their enclosures with a pair of Memphis Audio 6x9 (PR-693) that I got a really good deal on. 

 

I was originally planning to make adapters but then I found a set on ebay for about the same cost of the materials to make one so I just bought those.

 

It was nearly dark when I put them in so I didn't get many pictures of the install, but here is the final product!

 

You'd never know they were there! The sound is INCREDIBLE and I would recommend these to anyone who wants to upgrade their sound a bit. I only had about two hours of free time so I will be taking them out again this summer to properly seal everything up and make proper soldered connections for the wires instead of the crap I did due to minimal tools out here (It will do for now though as I have a nearly 1000 mile trip home after finals end in about two weeks and really wanted these in to keep me entertained haha) 

[YoungCR]

Very nice! Mind sharing the seller where you bought the adaptors from?

[m42b32]

Mind sharing the seller where you bought the adaptors from?

 

Sure! I was going to include it but I forgot, here it is: 

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/BMW-E36-3-SERIES-6x9-REAR-SPEAKER-ADAPTER-ADAPTOR-6-x-9-/330596037341?ssPageName=ADME:L:OU:US:3160

 

Shipped really quickly and were the cheapest ones I could find. Probably not anywhere near the quality of the Bavarian Soundwerks ones but they get the job done just fine. 

[KaiserRolls]

Nice work,

 

I like stuff hidden as well. or stock appearing.

[m42b32]

Well not much of an update but more of a plan for the next few weeks. I will be driving it from eastern PA to Michigan on Thursday after my last final for the annual formula SAE competition, and then after that I will be returning to WI, so all in all about 1000 miles, hopefully she's up to the task! I don't have a lot of time for prep so I plan on topping off the tires, checking all the fluids and then setting off!

 

Once I'm home I have about two weeks before I start work so that time will be completely dedicated to working on the car, I've got a lot of stuff id like to do over that time:

 

- Ive got new RSM's and reinforcements to put in as the ones there are pretty worn but the metal is perfect thankfully, no cracks at all

- Rebuild the parking brake

- Possibly tie rods ends since they are old and the last thing before I have basically completed a full front end rebuild and I need an alignment anyway (the place I took it to this past summer did a crap-tastic job and then waited till AFTER to tell me that the outer ball joints were shot. On that note, stay away from Trust tire on Port Washington road in Mequon) 

- My passenger door doesn't open from the outside like 90% of the time so I need to investigate that as well

- I am going to try a bit of rust repair in the less noticeable spots and then work my way up to the ones that are more visible over the course of the summer 

- I have a set of side skirts off a '97 that I picked up off about a year ago for my car that I am planning on plasti-dipping either gray to match the rest of the bumpers or black (and then do the  bumpers to match) as I really like the two tone of the early e36

- I am going to paint my rotor hats and calipers either a dark silver or black (nothing to bright) to clean them up and well as other things under the car that don't look too pretty at the moment

- My door panels are falling apart so I am thinking of making some out of either aluminum sheeting or thin MDF and then covering them with a gray vinyl to match the rest of the interior, should be a fun project

- I am looking to replace the more of the sound system as I have a blown speaker in the kick panel and my tweeters are also on the way out, so money depending I am going to get on this too

 

All in all I have a lot I want to get done, but it should be fun, Ill make sure to keep things updated!

[KaiserRolls]

......................................pics

[m42b32]

......................................pics 

 

There will be many! Now all I need to do is get home and start haha

[Earl]

You should make that trip with zero issues:) After disassembling my m42, I am very surprised on how it performed for how much carbon buildup there was and the leaking headgasket. It still ran and drove great.