patsbimmer1 Posted November 22, 2018 Report Share Posted November 22, 2018 17 hours ago, Earl said: But for this car it didn't add value. The value to who it matters was lost once the m50 left the building and the wheels were taken off. This is one of those cars that's worth a ton to collectors but at this point (mileage and condition) it's not something a collector would even bother with. Now it's just a clean e36 with an ///M swap and happens to have been a special package (even though that really does nothing for what this car is worth anymore) I understand that the value as a collectors item is lost but putting another m50 wouldnt add resale value but having an s52 adds resale value as its a more desirable engine. Just like an e30 with a non numbers matching m20 isn't worth as much as an e30 with an s5x. The s5x is more desirable and thats the value. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earl Posted November 22, 2018 Report Share Posted November 22, 2018 I'm saying the only m50 that would repair the value is the original numbers matching motor. At this point there is no way the car will ever be worth that price. The s52 in it still doesn't make it worth anywhere near what it would have been. That's why I'm saying it's just another clean e36 with an ///M swap and it just so happens to be a mtechnic car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rekpoint Posted December 12, 2018 Report Share Posted December 12, 2018 Bless us with pictures ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisO Posted December 12, 2018 Report Share Posted December 12, 2018 2nd on the pics and story behind where the car came from Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GunMetalGrey Posted December 12, 2018 Author Report Share Posted December 12, 2018 It's sitting in the storage unit right now, and will be there until a friends car is out of the shop (Christmas deadline) At that point this thread will become a bit more active, and I'll type up the info. I still need headlights tho lol @Rekpoint Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rekpoint Posted December 12, 2018 Report Share Posted December 12, 2018 56 minutes ago, GunMetalGrey said: It's sitting in the storage unit right now, and will be there until a friends car is out of the shop (Christmas deadline) At that point this thread will become a bit more active, and I'll type up the info. I still need headlights tho lol @Rekpoint Shit. My bad. I'll pm you right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GunMetalGrey Posted January 21, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 21, 2019 Story time! I'm laying in bed being lazy on a Sunday, browsing on Facebook. I see someone had posted an ad for a white E36 from craigslist, and I had just told myself not to buy more cars, so I shoot the guy a message 25 min after he posted the ad. The car looked clean, and the interior was cool, that's about all I knew about it. I told myself if the dude wasn't free that day I wouldn't bother, and then he texted me back saying he was free. Cool. I pick up Mike and we go look at it after pulling money from the ATM (ATM dance game) and I intentionally pulled less than he was asking, because I shouldn't be buying more cars. We show up and look at it and find things to be questionable, but largely very clean. The ad said it ran, but he could not get it running for us. This whole time the guys phone is blowing up with messages and such and he was getting annoyed, it was obvious he had owned it for quite some time and never had it working, and he had finally decided he wanted it out of his driveway. He looked at me and said "Well, make me an offer and lets make this happen". I told him that I would need to get a trailer, and didn't have access to one right then and there, so I proposed giving him half the money now and the other half when I picked it up, and I would take the title. We quickly realized that wouldn't work out safely for both of us, and he just agreed to pull the ad and take my word to show up the next day. I had offered him a large percentage less than he had it posted for and he was fine with that. I ended up being able to grab a trailer same day and went and grabbed it, he helped us get it on the trailer and load it full of the many boxes of parts that came with it. Just like that he had more space in his driveway. Taking it off the trailer was amusing, because the thing felt the full force of the early 2000's car scene. Fully chrome headlights, clear corner markers, chrome inserts in the grilles (wrong grilles) and fully white painted trim. It was a sight for sore eyes. (sorry for the poor pictures, it was quite dark out) In his ad he stated that this car was 1 of 150 ever made, which I largely passed off because I don't know E36 things and it felt like a sale tactic. I knew it had a cool interior and a motor swap. Mike alluded to the fact that the car was more special than I realized, and pointed out the BMW Motorsports door handles which I hadn't noticed while looking the car over. Shortly thereafter I ran the VIN to look at the options and posted the results here. It was a fun day of realizing what I had stumbled across without ever realizing it. Fast forward quite a ways and we come to this weekend, the first time I have truly put forth any effort into working on it. I checked for fuel pressure this weekend, because when the guy was trying to start it there would be an occasional pop or other noise, so something was happening. Fuel pressure checked out and the car had tried to run during the test, so without connecting the MAF I gave the key a turn and my surprise it fired up and ran butter smooth. Super weird. Plugged the MAF in while it was running and it stumbled for a second then continued to run smooth. The good news is that the motor is completely silent and is one of the healthiest sounding motors I've heard in awhile. I shut it off and tried to start it again, nothing. Unplugged the MAF, tried to start it again, nothing. Confusing. At this point Mike pointed out (once again) all the points for major vacuum leaks and I knew pulling the manifold off would be required to address what was going on with this OBD1 conversion. I found a handful of odd things, and tons of major sources of vacuum leaks. I also identified what motor is in it, and am frankly quite confused by it. The car was advertised as being S52 swapped, and the motor is indeed OBD2 with the M power cover, but upon further review I find it is an M52. I tried to peek at the back of the head to read the vin tag, but instead found a different type of paper tag. Just legible enough. So either the guy that bought the engine was duped (unlikely given this tag) so when he sold it it was sold as an S52 with no quick easy way to check. The block has the 2.8 stamp on it for displacement so I'm certain that it is indeed an M52. Which brings me to the question, why the heck would you swap an M52 into a sub 100k mile car? It's an incremental power gain, and a fair bit of work. Anyway, someone did a bunch of dumb stuff to it and swapped parts around, so I plan to get all of that sorted out (small details) and get things like the seat sliders working again. The trunk needs some alignment help, and the car overall needs a bit of a cleaning. I've got new headlights, will be ordering new grilles, and am on the lookout for stock corner markers to bring this back to its original glory days. Until next time! suspenceful, ChrisO and patsbimmer1 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GunMetalGrey Posted January 21, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 21, 2019 Also a question, the car came on a special set of wheels that seem to be the only time these wheels made it to the US. BBS RC041 I'm questioning if it's worth the $1500 to put these wheels on the car to sell it. Thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suspenceful Posted January 21, 2019 Report Share Posted January 21, 2019 4 minutes ago, GunMetalGrey said: Also a question, the car came on a special set of wheels that seem to be the only time these wheels made it to the US. BBS RC041 I'm questioning if it's worth the $1500 to put these wheels on the car to sell it. Thoughts? Address other things first and worry about this later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GunMetalGrey Posted January 21, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 21, 2019 12 minutes ago, suspenceful said: Address other things first and worry about this later. Finding these wheels is one of the harder things I've had to do related to cars. I've got a guy with a set of them that will ship them, so I need to make a move with relative swiftness. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suspenceful Posted January 21, 2019 Report Share Posted January 21, 2019 2 minutes ago, GunMetalGrey said: Finding these wheels is one of the harder things I've had to do related to cars. I've got a guy with a set of them that will ship them, so I need to make a move with relative swiftness. I guess. To me, that's a large investment on a car that still needs a decent amount of attention if your plan is to fully restore it. But it's your car/money! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rekpoint Posted January 21, 2019 Report Share Posted January 21, 2019 I know this in an unpopular opinion. Usually I wouldn't voice this about another car. But I actually like the white paint matched trim. Dont flame plz Edit : we need interior pics ❤️ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m42b32 Posted January 21, 2019 Report Share Posted January 21, 2019 30 minutes ago, Rekpoint said: I know this in an unpopular opinion. Usually I wouldn't voice this about another car. But I actually like the white paint matched trim. Dont flame plz Edit : we need interior pics ❤️ mods please ban this troll ChrisO and Rekpoint 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GunMetalGrey Posted January 21, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 21, 2019 1 hour ago, suspenceful said: I guess. To me, that's a large investment on a car that still needs a decent amount of attention if your plan is to fully restore it. But it's your car/money! I don't plan to go all out, just fix up the major things that aren't right about it (M3 badged side trim, lights, basically the stuff that makes it what it is) It's kind of like if it came with a black leather interior, it would be worth finding one of the original interiors. My ideal buyer is someone that is buying it because it is 1 of 150 made, so having the correct wheels will appease that buyer. 1 hour ago, Rekpoint said: I know this in an unpopular opinion. Usually I wouldn't voice this about another car. But I actually like the white paint matched trim. Dont flame plz Edit : we need interior pics ❤️ Yeahhh, I'll just pretend I lost my flamethrower. Interior pics will happen soon. Gotta take the seats out anyway! Rekpoint 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YoungCR Posted January 23, 2019 Report Share Posted January 23, 2019 If you can buy the wheels and still make a profit I’d say go for it, they look great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GunMetalGrey Posted January 23, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 23, 2019 Per request Got the front bumper off and disassembled so I can fix the white paint on absolutely everything lol. Jdesign, ChrisO, m42b32 and 3 others 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rekpoint Posted January 23, 2019 Report Share Posted January 23, 2019 I used rust-oleum Trim & Bumper Paint to paint my front m3 front lip and my m3 side trim. It turned on great. Has a texture to it so it looks very OEM. Scuff, clean and spray. I can grab pictures if you'd like! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YoungCR Posted January 23, 2019 Report Share Posted January 23, 2019 Looks pretty clean inside and out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GunMetalGrey Posted January 28, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 28, 2019 The tear down continues. I've got plenty of things to paint! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suspenceful Posted January 28, 2019 Report Share Posted January 28, 2019 Find anything juicy during removal? Previous body work, accidents, rust, etc? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rekpoint Posted January 28, 2019 Report Share Posted January 28, 2019 Based on the rear bumper trim it appears it was painted without the trim being removed :c Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GunMetalGrey Posted January 29, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 29, 2019 16 hours ago, Rekpoint said: Based on the rear bumper trim it appears it was painted without the trim being removed :c Yeah there's stuff like this all over, clips that were broken at some point so someone decided to use double sided tape, trim clearly painted on body panels, weird screws instead of the proper hardware. Nothing that would be noticed with it assembled though. Rekpoint 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GunMetalGrey Posted February 18, 2019 Author Report Share Posted February 18, 2019 Just hanging out waiting for parts that Mr. Pat was so kind to help me out with! New interior pic to try out the new phone camera. ChrisO, patsbimmer1 and Rekpoint 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GunMetalGrey Posted February 28, 2019 Author Report Share Posted February 28, 2019 I have painted so many feet of trim..... Should have some shots of this with black trim coming up this weekend, and I look forward to that! P_Roloff, Jdesign and wasnt m3 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jdesign Posted February 28, 2019 Report Share Posted February 28, 2019 Im sure it will be a night and day improvement! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.