The RWD Project

Wheels ??

Yeahhhh boi!

matty_mk1 wrote:

Getting there ant not really liking the darkness of the front with the light rear lights but other than hat i like it

Cheers Matty!
Yeah, I agree. Think I'll be ripping the Lamin-X off the front indicators as they're already lightly smoked by the factory that made them. I did want to go for an all blacked out front, but wasn't too keen on the p!ss-poor light that shone through. So that came off sharpish.

Now it needs to be tracked up as the alignment is out. Also need to get hold of 2x 20mm and 2x 25mm hubcentric spacers, as that'll bring the standard wheels out a bit more, and solve the mild wheel wobble i'm getting with the 10mm floating spacers.

This'll also give me a nice bunch of spacers to play around with when I get the new wheels.

almost drug baron status. mr stampy do you still have you spare laminex? i wanna experiement with some smoke.

Lupton_20vt wrote:

i wanna experiement with some smoke.

we did that at college lupton

its looking good stampy. will be even better when you get new rims and a decent tyre size

This thread hasn't seen an update in a couple of weeks, so its about time.
I've got a few new additions to the car this month, so I think i'm allowed to show them off!

Ok, so I went to the Beck Row scrapyard a couple of weeks ago to look for a new air-con unit. Warm weather starting to kick in, and driving with the window down everywhere annoys me sometimes (handsfree hates the rushing wind noise) especially in the rain when its warm.
The one thing I miss about my MK4 was the air-con, and since I bought the 318 this was a problem.

Apparently a common fault with the E36's, the electric air-con units had a cpacitor in them that would often blow, causing the unit to turn on and off whenever it liked as though it had a life of its own. Irritating to say the least.

Didnt find any electric air-con units, but did find an extremely good condition leather armrest/centre console so got the tools out and had that off. Mint condition and only £15. A nice hefty saving if you know what they're worth! Got home and ordered myself an AC unit from eBay which turned up a couple of days later. Aaahhh, the lovely ice cold chill. Can't beat it!

Then the next weekend, I went to Red Lodge as I knew they had a 328 in there with a leather interior. Went and had a look and it wasn't in the greatest of condition. However, the glovebox and under dash panels were all in great nick along with the doorcards. All of these were black, so i stripped them off the car in about 30 mins with the help of Jim. Also got hold of a genuine mint leather handbrake handle and new bilstein E36 car jack that had never been used and walked away with them and the interior stuff all for £55. Insanely good bargain there!

Anyway, enough of the chat, here's some pics...



The old grey centre console removed...





The new console and armrest ready to go in...





All fitted. Sweeeet...





Just to show you how good the condition of it really is. Well chuffed!





New air-con unit straight from the bay...





The original interior that'll soon be up on the bay...





And the original doorcards before they're swapped out...





With all this lovely new black gear. Black on black is always a good choice.





So yeah, that's all for now.
The door cards and interior panels have all been put in, but it looks like a bit of a "this-n-that" mix and match inside of grey and black now. Haven't got any pics of it at the moment (too lazy) and Pics can wait until after tonights addition has been fitted.

Off with Jim in the ML to pick some nice black leather additions up for a bargain price tonight. Just hoping that the price doesnt resemble the quality. Fingers crossed!

As i said at the weekend, looking so tidy dude! hopefully this interior we pick up tonight will bring the whole inside together nicely!

jimmymidnight wrote:

As i said at the weekend, looking so tidy dude! hopefully this interior we pick up tonight will bring the whole inside together nicely!

Cheers man!
Well yeah, as you saw earlier, the interior is pretty mint. Cant wait to get the seats in tomorrow. Hopefully i'll have enough time before it gets too dark and I end up driving to work using a garden chair.

Anyway, to everyone else, Jim kindly drove me down in the ML and we picked these beauties up for an absolute steal. Well happy as this is my first set of leathers in the 3 cars i've owned since driving.

The "very-near-almost-mint-you wouldn't be able to tell" front seats...





The definitely mint condition rear seats...





Ok, so to be honest, the front two seats aren't from the same set as the rear two. For the observant of you out there, you'll notice that the front seats are standard leathers, while the rear bench is from a set of leather Vader's (the motorsport stripes give it away).
Obviously I would prefer a complete set, but for the price I paid I cant complain as its all in top-notch quality. And you wont notice the 'no m-sport stripes' on the front seats as i'll be in the way when driving!

Anyway, really chuffed with them, and hopefully they'll pull the whole of the interior together to give the effect that i'm looking for!

awsome mate

you got a black dash too?

thermal wrote:

awsome mate

you got a black dash too?

Nah man.
The dash is a right pain in the arse in these to get out so I think i'll leave it in.
The top half is grey, but i'm leaving the carpet grey too so it gives a bit of definition between all of the black. Also gonna be ordering a black headliner, black visors, black grab handles, black light surrounds, and black pillar trims for the roof. So a teeny bit of grey should help in breaking it all up.

Then its off to Red Lodge on saturday to rip the parcel shelf and rear headrests out of the 328 so I can dye it black to match the rest.

Interior should be starting to take shape by the end of the week.

Yesterday evening I had nothing to do, and as you can guess I was itching to get the new seats in. I planned on just putting the rear bench in and then leaving the two front seats until the weekend.

It was a lot easier than I first expected so managed to get all the seats in, and boy does it make the car look a lot better!

Anyway, in the usual style, here's some rubbish pictures of the process....



Thats the rear seats removed...





And the fresh leather fitted...





The original front seats...





Out comes the passengers side...





And I found this little fella hiding under the runners!





Passenger side bolted in...





And a quick pic of the seats once they're all fitted!





It all went pretty smoothly.
The only issue I had was that the leather seats were from a pre-facelift car (it was a '95 reg) and therefore had a mechanical belt pre-tensioner built into the seat, whereas my grey colth ones are the facelift version and have electric belt pre-tensioners attached to the base of the buckle with a cable feeding underneath the seat.

I fitted the leathers, and obviously didnt plug them into the cable in the car and then switched the ignition. As a couple of forums had said, my airbag light came on and wont go off. So i de-activated the mechanical tensioners, and bolted on the elcetric version from my old seats. Re-fitted the front seats and plugged them into the car, then turned the ignition on again. Red airbag light still on....

So looks like I need to find someone with either a BMW diagnostic tool (a lot more pricey than VAG ones) or get hold of Elm's in Cambridge to clear the warning light.

So yeah, it NEARLY went completely smoothly...

They look lush mate, so much better then the originals. I think the lamb may have to take a place of permanent residence in your car dude

max wrote:

They look lush mate, so much better then the originals. I think the lamb may have to take a place of permanent residence in your car dude

Cheers man.
Made the car so much nicer to hop into this morning.
And the little sheep-thing is currently sat in the ashtray. He might need a refurb


Oh yeah, and before anyone mentions, yes the carpet is disgusting.
The car has never had any mats (ordered some earlier this week so should be through soon) and the previous owner obviously didnt give a sh!t about the car so decided he wanted to chuck coffee all over the place. The carpet isn't tatty at all, its just covered in hot chocolate/coffee stains. Apparently he was a doctor who had another car (hence the low mileage of 62K) so he hardly used the BMW and when he did, treated the interior like crap.

So once i've raided the scrappy this weekend, i'll rip the seats out again and give the carpet a good clean with upholstery/fabric cleaner. Then she'll look all nice and spanky like she deserves.

Just a couple of nice little interior shots to show the change in comparison to the original grey...

The original grey...





The new Black Leather...





And from a different angle...





Took the seats out again yesterday as my new car mats had turned up, and before fitting them I thought i'd better give the grey carpet a good going over. So now the carpet is grey instead of brown, and the car mats are in too.

Also re-sprayed the wing mirrors satin black for DC10.
I left the colour coded face how it's meant to be as they were fine anyway, but the black plastic housing had become faded so I thought i'd split them apart and re-do them. Only problem is one of the housings need replacing (drivers side) as it is cracked and dent/scratched along the side, so it shouldnt be too hard to get another from the local scrappy.

I'll get more pics once I've got the new wing mirror done.

The seats look mint mate, got any major plans for it, wheels etc?

tinks wrote:

The seats look mint mate, got any major plans for it, wheels etc?

Cheers mate!
Yeah, it's a lot nicer to drive around surrounded by black leather instead of grey cloth. Wheel-wise, I'm still saving up money for the set I want. They aren't cheap, and getting hold of a staggered set isnt the easiest either. Hopefully in a couple of months you'll see them, until then im keeping it on the downlow....


Oh yeah, anyway, I picked up some rear headrests and modified the rear parcel shelf to accomodate them today (they fit into the parcel shelf as opposed to the seats).

Piccies...

Mmmm, more leather....





After installing them...





And the final shot of the whole interior...






Hopefully the next update will involve more black on the interior.
Fingers crossed!

Just a small update for this weekend...

I've recently won a black headlining and the bits that go with it on the bay.
Goin to pick it up on Monday evening, and hopefully fit it during the week, so today I thought i'd get on with the other grey bits.
So the headlining set is all there besides the black sunroof panel, the black A pillars, and the black parcel shelf. Everything else is there to make the interior black.

So I whipped out a can of matte black paint and got to work on the parcel shelf.
Quite chuffed with the result to be honest!

Here's some piccies...

Before the black paint...





Sprayed, cured, and fitted...





Thankfully the rear now looks like this...





Its not a big change, but it certainly makes me happy I got around to doing it.
No more crappy grey in the rear view!

So yeah, gonna pop down to Halfords during the week to pick up a couple more tins of matte black so I can spray up the A pillars and sunroof cover.
Then i'll fit them with the black headlining etc and it'll be spot on.
Then the interior will be pretty much done besides a couple of techy mods (Alpine handsfree, integrated USB for charging the iPhone, extra integrated USB for memory-stick music).

Oh yeah, and watch this space for wheels.
Not gonna give any hints, but a sweet refurb will be on the cards...


*EDIT* - Oh yeah, and whilst I was at it, I thought I may as well spray my old PC case up too...





Its a CoolerMaster elite case. It was originally silver, but I had a tin of satin black laying about from the wing mirrors so thought I'd whack it on the case.
Came out pretty good. Now for an evening of gaming, movies, and...






Gotta love a free house and loads of Jaques...

So I won a black headlining and the extra bits that go with it on eBay.
Wasn't too fussed that it didn't have the A pillars or Sunroof cover as I only paid £30 for the lot!

Anyway, travelled down to Loughton in Essex to pick it up this evening.
Wasn't too bad a journey. 124 miles round trip altogether so plenty of time to chill with the air-con and tunes!
So I got down there, handed over the cash, then loaded the car...

In it goes and.....crap. How do I do this?





That's right.
I overlooked the size of the actual headlining. Its an absolute beast!
So yeah, somehow managed to prop it up on the headrest so it was about half an inch above my head and drove home hugging the steering wheel.
I'm not a tall bloke by any means (5' 11") but even with the seat on the lowest position, you learn to appreciate how low the roofline actually is!

Anyway, it's home all safe now, so just need to spray up/dye the couple of grey bits and then get fitting it this week/weekend!
Then the interior will be soooo close to being finished

Awesome, getting there nicely. should have pushed the liner further forward and stuck ya head through the sunroof hole

Looking good dude. Jacques is for poofs though.

Lupton_20vt wrote:

Looking good dude. Jacques is for poofs though.

you'd know hey!

matty_mk1 wrote:

Awesome, getting there nicely. should have pushed the liner further forward and stuck ya head through the sunroof hole

Cheers mate.
Yeah, I was tempted, but I also wanted a Maccy D's drive-thru on the way back.
Would've been funny, but didn't want to look like my car was falling apart around me!

Lupton_20vt wrote:

Looking good dude. Jacques is for poofs though.

Shutchamouf.
Any Cider based drinks are far superior to that 'Stella' p!sswater you drink.
Plus, summer evening in the garden with a bottle of cider on ice, listening to some DnB/oldskool and you're away.


On a side-note, fitted the roof liner and other necessary bits into the interior. Nice and black.
I'll whack some pics up in a couple of days once I've sorted the sunroof out (one bit thats still grey).

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