The RWD Project

Really like this, that interior looks mint!

Lupton_20vt wrote:

Its all about bulmers cider wise. Whats happening on the rimmage front?

Yeah, Bulmers is gooood.
One thing we agree on!
Well, funnily enough I won the set of wheels I'd been looking at for the past couple of weeks on eBay yesterday and as a bonus i got them pretty damn cheap too. Especially as after the refurb they should be worth at least double. Pretty rare in the size that I got them too.

I'll put pics and specs up when they arrive.
One word for the time being... *splits*

Dan34 wrote:

Really like this, that interior looks mint!

Cheers mate!
Alot of hard work has gone into getting it like that from the bog standard grey cloth.
Pretty impressed too as its the first interior overhaul i've done on a car.
Altogether the interior has cost me £220. Thats everything. Seats, door-cards, dash panels, headlining, sunvisors/grabhandles, rear headrests, new mats and tins of paint to spray the parcel shelf.
Bear in mind, that a set of black leather seats can go for £300+ alone makes me realise that you can have what you want, even on a limited budget.

Cant complain at £220 at all! good work that man!

Also splits i hear? keep us posted

Picatures yo.

Right, its finally here...
Wheel time!

Like I've already mentioned, the choice for wheels was a no-brainer.
Having a BMW means you have the great choice of a wide range of split rims, all with the correct PCD.
Obviously ET and centre bore can be a pain, but they can be dealt with.

So yeah, I went for some classic styled split rims.
17" was the size I wanted, and I wasn't fussed over the width really. As close to 8" as possible was the idea.

I'd seen loads of sets of RC090's (BMW Style 5's) for sale recently, but I couldn't justify the prices that they were going for.
Also, getting a staggered set of Style 5's to fit an E36 requires some arch-work due to the low offset of the wheels, as they were originally intended for the 5 series.
Didn't really want to go with the hassle of rolling/pulling/flaring arches so I cancelled them out of the equation. Until I found these....


The BBS RC040 (Style 5)...





The set tucked away in the workshop...





A flat-spot. Can't say I'm too happy to be honest...





Removing the nuts from the rear of the faces...





It's actually clean under there!...





102 down, 34 more to go...





As you can see, the wheels have seen better days.
But as I got them for a fairly cheap price delivered, I thought that they'd be perfect for a custom refurb!

Anyway specs are as follows...

Diameter: 17"
Width: 7.5J all round
ET: 41
PCD: 5x120
Centre-Bore: 72.6mm

So essentially these are Style 5's in a smaller width, with a higher ET and an E36 centre-bore.
They were made as a special model for the E36 to coincide with the RC041 and RC042 split rims (Also known as the 328i Sport splits).
Perfect for what I want, and as my car is only pushing 140bhp out of the rear wheels, it's not like I need a 9J wide wheel at all.
I want to get the maximum performance out of the car that I can, not slow it down!

Also, I won't need any archwork done, the high ET gives me plenty of room to play with spacers, and when i've had my fun with them I can sell them onto the MK4 fanboys as the offset is extremely adaptor friendly.
Win win really!
To be fair, i'm just happy i've got a set of rare-ish genuine BBS splits.

I've started removing the nuts from the rear of the faces, and hopefully i'll have them all split and ready to have the flat-spots repaired and sandblasted at the weekend.
Then it'll be prep and paint, followed by some fresh bolts.

Let the refurb begin....

Awesome find dude, progress has been decent and then you get these. Sweet.

What sort of finish you going for on the 5s? Or that remaining secret?

Hawesome dude, nice choice, little suprised you didnt go for something jap really, I don't know why though lol

ah stampy its looking lovely I wanna get up in your big black interior

Pistacheuro wrote:

Awesome find dude, progress has been decent and then you get these. Sweet.

What sort of finish you going for on the 5s? Or that remaining secret?

Cheers man.
Yeah, the progress of the car is steaming along nicely.
I'm not really one to sit about on it, especially as if money is tight, the cheap modifications can still be done.
And I've got a new found love for scrapyards! ♥

Well, there's a couple of idea's floating around in my head at the moment.
Which one I choose will depend on what i'm feeling at the time.
I'll probably figure out what I want by the time the wheels are all prepped.

matty_mk1 wrote:

Hawesome dude, nice choice, little suprised you didnt go for something jap really, I don't know why though lol

Fankjoo young sir. Coming from a wheel connoisseur like yourself, thats a good thing!
As its a BMW, I thought it had to be some sort of BBS splits.
Funnily enough I WAS looking at a set of RPF-1's, but they seem to be popular in the 'scene' at the moment. And then adaptors would be needed etc.
Read me like a book, much?

bramley wrote:

ah stampy its looking lovely I wanna get up in your big black interior

Bramley, any day mate.
You know you can always... http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3382491587979249836#

Got home this afternoon and had a couple more packages waiting for me.

Not much, but got them nice and cheap.
Speaker rings for 6x9's to be fitted to the rear shelf, and a genuine black interior light to match the headlining...





And the all important fitting of the black interior light...





I know it doesn't look much, but it really is one of those little things that finishes the interior off.
It matches in with the headlining now, and doesn't look out of place. Very pleased!

The speaker rings were bought with the intention of fitting some 6x9's next month.
I know what some of you are thinking about the whole '6x9's are chavvy' thing, but there's method behind the madness.

I had VIBE Blackair 2's in my last car (6.5" components all round) and they sounded fantastic.
So obviously I wanted to put them in this, but there are no speaker rings available for 6.5" components. Only 5.25" and 6x9's.
I looked at the range of 6x9's and the VIBE Blackair 2 ones come up trumps again with a nice 525w of power. Yummy! Nice strong speakers IMO.
So yeah, they'll be turning up in the next month or so to be fitted to the rear, and some Blackair 2 5.25" components for the front woofer and tweeter combo.

Should give a nice amount of bass (i'm not a subwoofer fan - I think the boot is made for holding stuff, not a tin box full of noise) whilst maintaining a good sound stage.

And I managed to get the remaining 34 nuts removed from the last wheel this evening.
Gonna pick up some Nitromors tomorrow and then coat them to get the mess off them. Then off to get the flat-spot's bashed out!
So back to more wheel refurbishment for the time being...

Ok, so today has consisted of...

* Replacement drivers side amber indicator from scrapyard fitted (my original amber had a crack in it)
* Re-wiring the rear C pillar lights in (the black lights I got have an older connection than my current ones with buttons). Replaced the connector with an older style and fitted the black lights.
* Cut and drilled one of the console blanks (where the ASC button and ciggy lighter are) to accomodate my new USB panel mount. Fitted the mount behind it, and fitted. Now means I have a solid surface with an exact cut hole to push my USB stick into with no dangly cables.
* Started re-wiring an 18 button OBC into the centre console. Have 2 kicking about and thought I might as well give it a go. Clock, Date and Timer functions all currently working. Just got to find a decent guide that'll show me how to wire up to the back of the dash cluster and various area's to get the OBC to acknowledge other sensors.
* Attached the little black plastic rings to the parcel shelf for the rear headrests to go through (neatens up the holes).

So yeah, a busy little weekend for me!
Was originally gonna try a couple of things out to try and get more pressure and dense air into the airbox this weekend, but those plans are on hold for the time being.

I'll update when i've got some decent pictures of the interior as night shots with a flash make it look somewhat....bright!

Ok, so following on from the stuff I did at the weekend, I thought I'd add some pics up.
There's a lot, but yeah, I like picture-whoring...

The USB slot I made from one of the dash slots (it sits flush, thats just one of the micro USB sticks from Tesco)...






The OBC fitted showing the ever so important 'Timer' function...






The black C pillar lights fitted, along with the plastic headrest grommets...






A new package arrived!..






The new panel filter...






The good 'ol airbox...






Out comes the grotty looking BMW standard paper filter...






The bottom of the empty airbox (with bits of crap in there)...






The lid back on...






Hopefull i'll make a start on 'fogging' the airbox this week, so this is where the nice chunky 102mm pipe will come out...






And it'll come down behind the bumper and sit right here behind the bumper grill...






Also got the plate moulding removed and the replacement strip fitted...






The plate goes on the lower grill instead. Not a major difference, but breaks the front of the car up allowing the rub strip to flow across...






And it's held on with yellow cable ties at the moment. The plate will come off when the pressed ones turn up with their surrounds (the cable ties will be painted black btw)...






So the next thing on the cards is...

* Fog the airbox this week
* Get the ducting fitted
* Get a move on with the split rims!

Looks miles better with that rubstrip!

why dont you just use black cable ties instead than painting yellow ones?

billybug wrote:

why dont you just use black cable ties instead than painting yellow ones?

I didn't have any.
And I had no time to get to Halfords/Homebase etc in Newmarket and buy some as they were closing at 6.
Had some yellow ones laying about and a tin of matte black.

Awesome work dude!

When can I come and drink rockstar on your drive again?

That little USB slot is the t*ts btw!

Also, I have tonnes of various coloured cable ties, including black! Come and grab some tomorrow if you want?

So I sold the BBS Splits at the weekend... :(
Reason I bought them was because they were cheap, and advertised in better condition than they actually turned up in.

Couldn't justify the price it would have costed me to completely re-do them, and they weren't the exact width I wanted. Would've been lovely once refurbed but I kinda lost faith in getting them done.

Been looking at a couple of 'different' sets of wheels recently and think I might have settled on some...

Here's a quick potato-shop...






They're 17"x8" Jaguar wheels.
Fortunately they're 5x120.65 with a centre-bore of 74.1.
BMW is 5x120 and a centre-bore of 72.5.

In the image they may look a little bigger than 17's (more like 18's) but thats just a c**k-up on my photoshopping.

In theory, they should bolt on just fine. Just need a set of tiny spigot rings.
Always been a fan of Monoblock style wheels, and never really seen any that fit BMW's besides RH Toplines and Borbet A wheels.

Any opinions?
Also, what colours?
I'm reckoning a nice dark silver, or maybe a sick blue to match my Nike Flight's..

those will look pretty good dude! i wanted them for my old jag! They will look sweet on the BM!

jimmymidnight wrote:

those will look pretty good dude! i wanted them for my old jag! They will look sweet on the BM!

Cheers man.
They look good on the XJ's, hopefully they'll look as good on the Bimmer.

Anyway, wheels have been bought (won) for a nice small amount.
Currently in Matte Black but that'll change. They've got some fairly good tyres on them already, but probably a bit too big than what i'm after.

Anyway, i'm picking them up this weekend. Fingers crossed they aren't dented....

awesome dude! really want to see how these will look on it, they should be awesome!