My 88' 318i | Underpowered Euro Content

[bruner]

Lose the angel eyes immediately

[5ickride]

Nice hood!

[AwakenNoMore]

I like it.

[Max399]

Hello guys,

Some of you have seen me here already, i am mostly knows for the 5-lug kit i offer, but for those who haven't let me introduce :)

I'm Max, and im a student from Europe, Lithuania - i study car mechanics, currently it's my last year.
I own a 1988 Diamond Black Metallic 318i with an M40B18 engine (83kW).
It was a long story of how i got the car, but in the end result i was really happy, it's a one owner car straight from Germany with only 193000km on the odometer. The original owner was 1964 man if i am not mistaken.

The condition i got it in was pretty good, i mean there was some rust here and there, but nothing major.
Here are a few pictures of how i got it:

http://i1153.photobucket.com/albums/p515/KeNNy_aKa_MaX/BMW%20E30/showbig331.jpg

When i got it, it already had some funky lowering springs and a fiberglass front valance. The valance was not bad - but i really loved the way it looked without it, so it had to go.

I do agree that i did some strange things with the car, look at which now i do regret about some of them. One of them would be these white LED angel eyes:



They looked good at the beginning. But then random LED's stared to burn out and it looked like crap..
I actually swapped the for a set of RGB ones later..

After one night of our downtown roads i had the oil sump cracked:



Even thought there's a lot of M40 engined E30's here - i could not find a replacement pan, so had to weld that one. Cost me a fortune, but the guy sure did a good job, considering a big piece was missing..

Was waiting for summer so i could start working on it, here's a few pictures from that period:







But summer came and fixing began.



Friend helping:



Did drive like this for a while until i got the money to paint it:





Here's a photo after it got painted:







Oh, and here's another thing i don't really want to remember about - the rice N1 muffler:





Good old M40:



At this point i was pretty happy with the car, it was driving good, all i wanted was the front to sit lower, so i was in search for coilovers.

Random shot:



And i went for JOM's. I needed new shocks anyway, and those just came for the price i could not refuse:





Yet another random pic:



Here's a pic of the coil's getting installed:



This was the result after letting them sit for a few days:



The rear became way higher that it was before i installed the coils, so i took the adjuster out later. It still did not set to the point it was before. But i sure loved the front more :)
I can always go lower in the front, currently i have left the original spring plates on, if i cut those i could get a few more cm's of drop.

One day i got really bored on fixing the rust so i got these:



Best part? They cost the same as new, Chinese metal fenders cost :)

One more random pic:



Swapped my wheels for these nice steelies i got as winter tires when i bought the car:



Did that just so i could do this:



It may be hard to see but i polished them

At that point i still did not install the fiberglass fenders, so it looked like this:



Then i got these (Which i still haven't got to install too..):



They're the plastic sideskirts from a Touring. They're mission the front fender parts - so i got a steal on them.

Did i tell you i cracked the sump, again? This time i did not want to weld it or search for a replacement so i did what any other guy would i do. I did this:







It did get modified after that, i had to make it lower so the oil pickup would fit. Since the guy who made it, actually made it shorter than it was originally.
I did remove the rust before i installed it.

With the engine being lubed properly i could finally take a cruise in the beauty:





The got a pair of original headlights just so i could open them again and install CCFL angel eyes in them:



Some random maintenance to the front suspension:





Then had an alignment done. From this:



To this:



On my birthday i got this from my friends, love em:



So i finally got around to painting and installing the fiberglass fenders:



The still need a polish and the trim piece put on. Also an alignment. Badly..

Put the gift hood on:







Installed IS sport seats, which were refinished in leather with a heating element added in them. Winters are cold :)



Got a deal on some OEM wheels from Germany:



One might notice they're 5-lug, but i'm sure i'l solve it ;D



So that basically brings us to Today. Last thing i got for her - was this nice piece:



A fiberglass Rieger Infinity lip :)
Still need to straighten the valance so i can fit it probably, but really happy with how it looks on the car :)

There were way more modifications than are covered here, some of them did not have pictures taken, some are just forgotten.
Here's a few i remember:

- Front brakes were upgraded to a 325 vented setup.
- Power windows with E36 switches and one-touch modules.
- Heated seats
- Random things like stereo/keyless entry

There's a lot of things i want to do, the main ones are:

- M42 swap (Still looking into this)
- 5-lug SWAP
- Install the sideskirts
- Change rear beam bushings (Already got some Poly-ones)

Hope you loved the read.
The progress is going to be slow, but it's a solid one.

Thank you,
Max.