The E36 Coupe

This is my second E36 Coupe...
But this time round, it's a whole lot quicker.

So yeah, I sold my Passat TDI and bought an E36 328i Coupe.
Titan Silver paintwork, full black leather interior, non M-Tec kit, and with 82k. Bog standard.
This is how it looked when I got it home...














And after a couple of months of tinkering, it now looks like this...












So yeah, I've done a fair few things to it so far...
* New battery as the last one had been shagged by the crappy aftermarket alarm...
* Bought some ambers for the front corners and rears
* Tinted the rears to amber/red/red
* Dropped the car down on some FK's,
* Fitted a leather armrest/centre-console and black rooflining
* Bought an M3 front bumper and had Jay spray it up
* Fitted an M3 Evo lip
* Sprayed the kidney grilles black
* Bought an OEM CD Player
* Replaced the 15" rims with 16"
* Fitted and wired an 18-button OBC
* New plates to replace the crusty dealership ones
* New Carbon front and rear badges


It was running on the standard 15" wheels until this week when I picked up the 16" ones in the newer pics.
They're on the car for the next month or so until the 17" RC041's have come back from being fully refurbed (polished and powdercoated).
I wasn't happy running around on the 15's as they only just clear the brakes, and just generally make the car look rubbish. The 16" Style 30's tidy it up a bit.

I'm liking the way it sits at the moment, but I'll be happier once I've bolted some 20mm spacers on the rear.
Add all that to RWD and a 2.8 straight-six and you can guess that I'm enjoying this car.

It also had an MOT last month. Sailed through with no advisories. Spot on!


Well, there you go. Give me a wave if you see me!
And I'm sure I'll see you all at Early Edition!

Looking good mayne! Mucho improvement since i saw it at the newmarket meet a while ago!

M3 bumper looks much better dude! Liking the look of this

A few shots of the '36 from the shoot at RAF Upwood on Saturday.
These four have been tweaked in P'shop, i'll get round to doing some of the other ones in colour soon...

Really like this Ant, looks real clean and tidy. Even looks great on the stock wheels, IMO.
Saying that, awaiting your wheels to be put on.

Nice shots in the last post, too; love the last one.

Looks tidy mate, I have a set of 20mm Hubcentric spacers for sale.

Pistacheuro wrote:

Really like this Ant, looks real clean and tidy. Even looks great on the stock wheels, IMO.
Saying that, awaiting your wheels to be put on.

Nice shots in the last post, too; love the last one.

Cheers Rob.
I do like the 16's. Just a shame they don't fill the arches more as they remind me of smaller M-Parallel's.
They look a hell of a lot better than the 15's that came on it when I bought it. Horrid wheels...

Not long now until I'll be running around on the 17's.
2 down, 2 more to go...

very nice mate how much did the bumper cost

mad4it wrote:

very nice mate how much did the bumper cost

Cheers man.

If you want the stuff from BMW then you'll be forking out around £600 as all the parts are individually priced. That's not even painted.
I got my bits from various places on the net which worked out a lot cheaper. All parts are secondhand other than the ones bought directly from BMW.

Genuine M3 Bumper - £47 (eBay)
Genuine M3 Bumper grille - £20 (E36Coupe)
Genuine M3 Bumper rubstrips - £52 (eBay)
Genuine M3 Bumper blanking strip - £24 (BMW)
Genuine M3 EVO Bumper splitter - £43 (BMW)
Genuine BMW Foglights - Free (from my original bumper)
Respray in Titanium Silver - £140 (Jay)

It looks mint and you could never tell it was a secondhand TechnoViolet one.
Really happy with how it turned out, but takes a long time to collect the bits. Fitting is a piece of cake.

Which reminds me, need to buy some nuts and bolts for the splitter.
It's starting to sag as the screws can't handle the abuse of train-crossings/dips/potholes.

cheers for the info bud, i have to keep this bmw for a least another year as saving
all my cash for my holiday to florida so im always looking to change things as cheap as pos
plus it keeps me interested in the car until i get an rs or bigger engine newer bmw
how fast is this beast? will def be getting at least a 2.5l one next time

It's a lot quicker than my old 318is. 0-60 around 7 seconds.
Change the manifold for the M50 and a BBTB and it pushes out around 230bhp.
I'm happy with my 190bhp for the time being though.

Absolutely love the OEM cleaness of this man

190bhp i would be very happy with that too, very nice

Jimmy wrote:

Absolutely love the OEM cleaness of this man

Cheers man! Yeah trying to keep it simple.
Need to get the stance nailed asap as it looks kinda blubbery with the big tyres.
Love your touring though mate!

mad4it wrote:

190bhp i would be very happy with that too, very nice

Yeah, it's nice. Pulls so well!
Would love to weld the diff up and take it skidding but I know i'd eff it up.
And as its my daily (and only car) I cant afford to break it at the moment.


A little update for today. My Amber side repeaters turned up.
Thought it was about time to remove the clear ones!




Should have some wheel/stance updates over the next few days.

at last...looks good dude!

jimmymidnight wrote:

at last...looks good dude!

+1

Espected to see the wheels on. sad face.

matty_mk1 wrote:

Espected to see the wheels on. sad face.

Expected to receive 2 freshly painted barrels today. Even sadder face.
If all goes to plan, the new shoes will be on at the monthly meet.

Finally! Sittin' pretty...

I see youve gone for the double cable tie method on the punto! Top work sir.

Stampers wrote:

Finally! Sittin' pretty...

you need better pictures to back that up

Perfect height dude just a bit more spacing needed

i was shocked how much i liked this at the meet man, dont normaly like this kinda thing but looked really smart, wheels are spot on

yep the bumper, ride height and wheels are sweet