My Brilliant Red S50 24v Weekend Car!! [PIC HEAVY]

[Joeyz31]

Great start man. The car looks good. Quick question, I am usually good at finding stuff after researching but for whatever reason, can't find any info on that GC kit. Is it installed in those pics? I thought the whole point was to leave the strut housing the way they were but looked for pics everywhere to see if someone had a shot of the coilovers springs sitting on the stock perches. Is it as simple as putting the front strut in the tube and then business As usual and install the springs on top of the huge stock spring perch and camber plates and thats all?
Keep the updates coming otherwise!

[Mike_z]

I had a 3.25 LSD out of an e28 laying around.
Finally got the flanges and cover to piece it together



Repainted the cover and fitted the 95A Diff bushing, as I wanted to retain the stock feel, and no additional noise to the cabin



Ready to be put into the car



Swapped! Car feels great, Less get go at first of course since the OEM was a 4.10 LSD, but the car feels absolutely wonderful in every gear. Power delivery feels great and highway driving is no longer a pain to the ears as it since at a nice calm rpm doing 70-80 at about 3-4k rpm +-

[Mike_z]

a wrap might not be a bad idea then, vs a full respray

Yeah definitely gave that a thought, however the car needs a fair amount of body work done, so I'd prefer to just get it done all at once. My heart set on a nice respray so that's what I'll probably do

[2mAn]

a wrap might not be a bad idea then, vs a full respray

[Mike_z]

It might be worth looking into, but I think you might be able to have a professional save the faded paint. I think brilliantrot has clear though so if the clear is toast, then it will need a respray

clear is gone. its peeling all over the hood, drivers side is gone, roof is gone, and passenger side is gone. tried getting it buffed but did absolutely nothing :/

[2mAn]

It might be worth looking into, but I think you might be able to have a professional save the faded paint. I think brilliantrot has clear though so if the clear is toast, then it will need a respray

[Mike_z]

Hey guys,
My names Mike, like most people, I am a long-time lurker/part time poster whenever my car breaks and I need help lol. I'm a 21 year old who's still very confused about his future and blinded by his car.

My love for BMW started back when I was 9 when I was first taken for a spin in an E34 530i. The sound of that car stuck with me throughout all my teenage years and I fell in love with BMW. I absolute fell in love with the sound of that engine, the way that car sounded when it drove away. Just such an awesome brand. I loved everything about it.

I got my first car when I turned 18, A gift from my parents for graduating High School second in the Entire school. The gift was my very own, 2008 E60 528Xi.
I absolutely loved the car, but always wanted something I can actually learn on. The car was automatic, it wasn't very mod friendly and eventually turned into a cool daily. Went through a few wheel setups, lowered it, change the front into an m5 rep and changed out the side skirts and a bunch of other minor stuff.

My two girls at Bimmerfest East


About a year after though, that was not fun enough, seeing as everyone my age was doing burnouts, events, driving manuals etc. After lots of convincing, I got some money together and got this bad boy.

I couldn't find anything better in my budget, and at the time I didn't know what the difference was between 325i, e, or 318s. So this was the lame US version of the 325E. I have had so many memories with this car that several pages wouldn't be enough to write them all down. Fires, drifts, connecting friends. Radiators blowing up, coolant systems blowing up, this car lived through it all. Here's one pic of me on top and my friend trying to squeeze a new radiator in it. Haha

A lot of work went into it as well as lots of my poor money. We put a spec e30 suspension in it and a bunch of other small things. The car inside was extremely clean. Not a single rip. Outside was a different story.









It was an awesome car. I loved it to bits. Taught me so much about cars and how to maintain them, how things work etc. Soon though, the hunger for more power came in. I wanted more power than the poor M20 had to offer. I took it to a few mountain runs and as fun as it was, it just was not fast enough. Also the Diving Boards were bothering me big time.

I had put away a full set of plastic bumpers away to put on the car once I had money for paint but it was becoming more and more apparent that the car would require way more than what I wanted to spend. Everything on it suspension wise had to be replaced. I also didn't have any space to even attempt an engine swap in New York, seeing as I was only renting a small parking lot spot next to a church that didn't allow any work.

One day, I was regularly scouring the local Craigslist when this baby popped up.





1991 318iS, Horrible Paint, Plastic bumpers, ripped up seats. Full of electrical problems.
But what absolutely sold me was this guy.




An S50 M3 engine. Documented with Shop receipts and 115k. Along with this followed a full M3 drivetrain out of the seller's wrecked Weekender m3 coupe.
I sold my car that same week, and picked this guy up for an awesome price.
I brought it back home, and tried to clean it up best I could.









A lot happened after. I ordered a lot of parts, a clutch job followed due to a clutch burning out with a slave cylinder taking a shit. Electric pusher fan installed, Found out I have a huge battery drain issue I still to this day have yet to fix. ( I will )





I got a GC street kit, The one that doesn't require cutting the strut housing. I picked up their Camber plates as well, and their Rear shock mounts.





Picked up wheel bearings I have yet to install as well as UUC BBK That I also have yet to install, they're sitting by my bed waiting to go on the car. Not pictured but I also went ahead and fitted new race pads to the rear of the car, as well as purchased 2 rebuilt calipers from Bavarian both which turned out to be shit. One had a ripped boot and was leaking fluid, the other would not for the life of me piss any fluid and compress the caliper. So I retrofitted some new stuff into the old rusty calipers to make them work properly with stuff from the new kit. Also a bunch of stuff I probably can't remember.





Was at home depot one night, and saw these white sharpie markers. Figured I'd give em a go and try and paint some white tire letters. They came out good if you asked me. Continued to drive the car around happily till more parts came in and waited for the weather to get nicer.





And we get to the most recent pictures. This is the way the car is now. Still lots and lots of parts to get, and of course paint is ahead of it once I have a nice amount of cash for it.









So this is my car for now! Hopefully you guys liked it sorry if you think I missed anything or the post was too long. I have thousands of pictures, I'm sure I'll post stuff from before as well. I'll try to update the thread with upcoming modifications! :)