The RWD Project

New car, new project!
And this time I'm actually going to bother with a build thread. Wow!

After having the MK4 Golf since August 2009, I felt that I wanted something that had a bit more style to it. I loved the Golf, but it just didnt have that 'Kapow!' about it. I dont know if I got bored of it, but I've been hankering after a booted car for a while.

So I sold some bits off the Golf to get it back to standard so it could be sold on or part exchanged elsewhere. A guy saw it on Edition 38 and wanted it with the K&N kit, uprated speakers, and coilovers already installed. Couldn't complain on that as it saved me a lot of time and hassle taking all the parts off it. So yeah, he came down on the train from Aberdeen (thats right, 7 and a half hours for a MK4 Golf GTI!?....) and drove it back up.

Next day i went to Cambridge to look at a '99 BMW 318is Coupe. Its the 140BHP 4 cylinder Facelift version. I know, the 320i is a 6 cylinder, but it was 2 more insurance groups higher for 10BHP. Not worth it IMO.
Both me and Jay had a look around it, and there were a few noticeable dings and scratches. On the plus side, it had only just passed 60K on the mileage, and the interior was mint besides a bit of dirt and the front of the glovebox vinyl coming off. Haggled with the bloke selling it, gave him some money, and eventually drove away in it.

1999 S reg' BMW 318is
Jet Black (668)
1.8 litre 140BHP#
Cloth interior
All standard factory spec options
60k on the clock


A couple of pics...







You can see in the first picture that the nose cone is rippled next to the right grille. And the second picture has a dent in the boot beside the right hand rear lights (hard to see at this angle). The nosecone has already been sourced from a scrapyard, and the bootlid is due to be picked up on Saturday along with some spare mirrors. Then all it needs is spraying up (*cough*Jay*cough*) and putting on the car.


Anyway, here are some more shots of it nice and clean before any work starts (gotta start the pic whoring early)...











More updates to come!

have you driven a 6 cylinder 1? when i got my BM i was looking at the 318is becaus the figures looked good on paper but in reality i thought it made alot of noice and didnt go much, so went for a 323i instead with 170bhp wich drive really nice


Look forward to seeing what you do with this though, i miss mine from time to time.

but seriously it looks clean mate, i still think slammed BMWs have the nicest stance ever!

what are your plans?

Then on Tuesday, I got home from work and was presented with this...





This in turn ended up as these...





Thats right, a bunch of lights!
I'm not a fan of the amber light colour on a black car unless it's pulled off really well with a mint looking car.
So yeah, a few plans for the lights. Not gonna bolt them in just yet as there isnt much point if I need to take them off again to remove the nose-cone to put the new one on.

The 320 with that tiny 6 cylinder are absolutely crap imo(the bigger 6 pots are totally different), the 318is is a much better drive in my opinion. My E36 318is went well for what it was. Just BMWs dont seem right without a 6 pot for the noise and the smoothness but the m44 engine is a good one.

matty_mk1 wrote:

have you driven a 6 cylinder 1? when i got my BM i was looking at the 318is becaus the figures looked good on paper but in reality i thought it made alot of noice and didnt go much, so went for a 323i instead with 170bhp wich drive really nice

No i haven't, but they do make a lovely sound. I haven't gone for it for power or sound, i've gone for it as i'm doing loads of miles to work/see the missus and its a lot more comfortable to drive up and down the A14 than the golf was. Also, anything above a 320 was out of my price range as insurance would've been a killer for me (haven't even been driving for 2 years...) and i'm not at the magical 25 mark yet.
Either way, with the mileage and the price, it was a bargain tbh.

And with this being my first RWD car, I didnt really want a large engine as I knew i'd drive like a bell-end with it.

max wrote:

but seriously it looks clean mate, i still think slammed BMWs have the nicest stance ever!
what are your plans?

Yeah slammed bimmers are nice. I've got a few plans but i'm not gonna rush into it. I'm only gonna lower it down so its flush i think. Slammed is nice to look at, but i'm loving the ride height comfort at the moment!

Wheels, suspension, interior and a couple of other modifications and i'll be happy

fair play mate, looks pretty nice. they look nice lowered, especially if you get the front/rear stance right fun to drive?

Got home this afternoon and I had more boxes awaiting me...




And inside the box were my new CCFL rings and some OSRAM Nightbreakers to keep all the lights at the front a nice white.
Also some silver sidelight bulbs for the front and rear indicators...




Hopefully i'll get them fitted this weekend and see what they look like!

bramley wrote:

fair play mate, looks pretty nice. they look nice lowered, especially if you get the front/rear stance right fun to drive?

Yeah, with a little bit of a nose down stance nice and flush they look lovely.
More fun and more comfortable. The Golf felt like it was dragging its arse around all the time as it was FWD.
You definitely know you're in a RWD car as it feels so much smoother IMO.

so does it do 50mpg?

MarkGTX wrote:

so does it do 50mpg?

No Mark, that was an entirely different car we were looking at when I said that.
That was the 318 16V E46 that does 51MPG (on paper). All of them were high milers with rubbish service history so I settled on an older one.
Less mileage on it, and much cheaper for spare parts!

Those CCFL rings better be purple, or an equally lairy colour or im not drinking with you ever again.

oh yeah, forgot to mention RWD GERMAN CARS IN BLACK FTW!

jimmymidnight wrote:

Those CCFL rings better be purple, or an equally lairy colour or im not drinking with you ever again.

Nah, they aren't purple. You'll be one of the first to see them on I should think.
And does this mean no drinky drinks Ely style tonight then as they aren't as lairy as you'd like?

jimmymidnight wrote:

oh yeah, forgot to mention RWD GERMAN CARS IN BLACK FTW!

True dat.

does that mean you'll be fitting them on saturday? I need to go back to my old house saturday morn but im picking up those wings in the afternoon if you're about?

oh ok then, i'll forgive you this time, pink wine is involved after all!

Is the hairdresser pretending to be a wheel refurber about tonight? (thats you, Jay!)

when i was selling my golf the first time, i was offered a straight swap for one of these, all my friends had one so i turned it down haha, they look awesome done right

these can look awesome

Yeah thats Balleur's from StanceWorks.
It's such a nice car. Shame about that lip on the front bumper though

Well, off to the scrappy tomorrow to pick up a bootlid hopefully.
Then have Jay work his magic on that and the nosecone while I work on getting the CCFL's and new lights installed.
Then it's time for some wheels!

ah i hadnt seen this, good choice mr stamps that stanceworks one would be teh shiit without that poopi splitter/diffuser

found this quite a while ago just remembered about it

Ok, so a little update this weekend...

Went to a scrappy on the Saturday with Jay and nabbed myself a perfect (if a little grubby) bootlid for the cool price of £20.
Not bad! Got that back to the house and stored it in the workshop with the nose cone and kidney grills ready for Jay to take away and fiddle about with.

On Saturday afternoon I got bored, so before I went to the girlfriends house that evening, I thought i'd start on changing the lights.

First up, a pic of the original front indicators...





These were changed to the smoked ones (I know the bulb inside is a blue-ish colour. Thats Halfords awful attempt at silver bulbs. The silver bulbs I received in the mail were standard 382 fitment whereas these were supposed to be the newer 581 fitment. Damn eBay.)...





The new M3 style rear lights installed...





Black side repeaters so they are un-noticeable (may eventually locate these to the rub strip)...





The finished attempt at 'de-orange-ing' the front end...





And the final shot of the rear lights done...





The only thing I didnt have time to do was to install the Angel-Eye rings.
I think i'm going to get a spare set of lights, then crack them open and install the rings into those. This will give me plenty of time to let the silicon sealant cure, and for everything to stick together properly as I dont want to be left with a car with no headlights!

After all this, I had a can of Monster and chilled out for a bit. Then a family friend came over to see my parents in his Maserati 4200 Coupe. Asked me if i fancied a spin in it, but I couldnt be bothered to get up to be driven about. Then he asked if I wanted to take it for a spin myself! Obviously I said yes. So he drove us up to the lay-by between Soham and Ely, we swapped over and I drove it to Ely/Little Thetford roundabout and then back up to Soham and across the bypass to the petrol station. THING IS INSANE!
I've only been driving for just under 2 years and getting to take that out on the road was awesome! Sitting in control of a 400bhp Ferrari 530 engined monster made my day.

Here's a quick pic of it...




Needless to say, a very very good saturday for me!

lights make a big difference stampy better than those gash orange ones. That maserati looks quite a bit of fun

front indicators look so much better mate

quite jealous you got to drive that beast!

Great improvement stamps, now just get rid of the 318is badge so people dont see youve lost 2 cylinders

matty_mk1 wrote:

Great improvement stamps, now just get rid of the 318is badge so people dont see youve lost 2 cylinders

Very funny!
But true. That's being done when the new bootlid has been sprayed up by Jay. Was gonna get him to fill in the BMW badge recess but no point in debadging the rear if i'm not going to debadge the front end.

Need's new BMW badges too as the current ones have got cracked/sh!tty laquer at the moment...