It's a bit lazy, but i've already did an intro post on another forum, so i'm going to c & p the lot...
t the kettle on, as it's a long journey...
My first car was a calypso red e34 520, pretty pimpin' back in the day as a first car, that lasted just under a year when i put it sideways into a tree and a lamp post. It was replaced with a Laser Blue 520, quite a rare colour, and with lotus white leather, but that was written off about a month into owning it when someone pulled out of a blind sideroad with their fingers crossed.
I got a decent payout from the insurance for that (the red 520 was tpft, so i lost a fortune) and i moved onto the e36's.
My first was a 320, auto too, i was a bit tight for time when buying, travelled a long way and thought what the hell.
It spent a while getting all Alpina'd up, mostly lucky ebay bargains, so i had a switchtronic steering wheel from an e46, alpina mats, front airdam, suspension, wheels and also a full exhaust, from the manifolds back from a B3 3.0.
essentially an evo stainless exhaust with adaptor pipes to fit the 320's manifolds.
In keeping with the current theme of write offs, i crashed that one too, still TPFT, so i had a bent car and some manageable but lengthy repairs.
mostly front panels, and a respray, nothing too major, but then a challenger appeared.
I've actually forgotten which one was which, but a 325 coupe, same colour turned up on ebay for 750 with a suspected HG fail. This was about 4 years ago, so was quite a bargain, even more so when the engine was fine, just had an airlock.
It was a bit shabby, but between the 2, i ended up with a copy of the 320 now with less miles, a bigger engine, and a manual, so not bad overall.
It also wrote the book on rust though, and the chassis number gives it away as one of the first 325s made.
The paintwork was terrible though, bad touching up across the bonnet, and some sort of accident repair on a wing, so it didn't get washed, as it was nothing much to look at.
Having tatty bodywork meant it was well up for dark and twisted experiments, so some more bargains were sniped off ebay, and it started to go wide, 10j on the rear, and 8.5j up front.
It even needed inch spacers on the back despite the wider wheels with lower offsets.
I kinda liked it in black and blue, but i was far from finished. The doorcards had been moved about so much they were starting to disintegrate, so i jacked it all in, and stripped the insides.
Going this far, i knew it'd never be for sale, more stuff was added, M3 front hubs and evo discs, and complete evo rear axle with the larger 3.23 LSD, and a custom propshaft, a fixed back drivers seat, and a tilt passenger one so i could still empty the rubbish out of the back, and harnesses.
And finally, the icing on the cake.
that took about 4 hours start to finish, about 5 big cans of satin black, and a few sheets of sandpaper. Nothing beats the feeling of standing back and looking at a car like that after a few hours of messing about with aerosols.
This was all done to get it ready for another trip to the Fatherland
YouTube - RAF Marham Trackday 3rd Oct 2009
He does get used properly too, (although i have managed to lose 2nd gear somewhere, so will have a delightful 'boxswap on the cards)
t the kettle on, as it's a long journey...
My first car was a calypso red e34 520, pretty pimpin' back in the day as a first car, that lasted just under a year when i put it sideways into a tree and a lamp post. It was replaced with a Laser Blue 520, quite a rare colour, and with lotus white leather, but that was written off about a month into owning it when someone pulled out of a blind sideroad with their fingers crossed.
I got a decent payout from the insurance for that (the red 520 was tpft, so i lost a fortune) and i moved onto the e36's.
My first was a 320, auto too, i was a bit tight for time when buying, travelled a long way and thought what the hell.
It spent a while getting all Alpina'd up, mostly lucky ebay bargains, so i had a switchtronic steering wheel from an e46, alpina mats, front airdam, suspension, wheels and also a full exhaust, from the manifolds back from a B3 3.0.
essentially an evo stainless exhaust with adaptor pipes to fit the 320's manifolds.
In keeping with the current theme of write offs, i crashed that one too, still TPFT, so i had a bent car and some manageable but lengthy repairs.
mostly front panels, and a respray, nothing too major, but then a challenger appeared.
I've actually forgotten which one was which, but a 325 coupe, same colour turned up on ebay for 750 with a suspected HG fail. This was about 4 years ago, so was quite a bargain, even more so when the engine was fine, just had an airlock.
It was a bit shabby, but between the 2, i ended up with a copy of the 320 now with less miles, a bigger engine, and a manual, so not bad overall.
It also wrote the book on rust though, and the chassis number gives it away as one of the first 325s made.
The paintwork was terrible though, bad touching up across the bonnet, and some sort of accident repair on a wing, so it didn't get washed, as it was nothing much to look at.
Having tatty bodywork meant it was well up for dark and twisted experiments, so some more bargains were sniped off ebay, and it started to go wide, 10j on the rear, and 8.5j up front.
It even needed inch spacers on the back despite the wider wheels with lower offsets.
I kinda liked it in black and blue, but i was far from finished. The doorcards had been moved about so much they were starting to disintegrate, so i jacked it all in, and stripped the insides.
Going this far, i knew it'd never be for sale, more stuff was added, M3 front hubs and evo discs, and complete evo rear axle with the larger 3.23 LSD, and a custom propshaft, a fixed back drivers seat, and a tilt passenger one so i could still empty the rubbish out of the back, and harnesses.
And finally, the icing on the cake.
that took about 4 hours start to finish, about 5 big cans of satin black, and a few sheets of sandpaper. Nothing beats the feeling of standing back and looking at a car like that after a few hours of messing about with aerosols.
This was all done to get it ready for another trip to the Fatherland
YouTube - RAF Marham Trackday 3rd Oct 2009
He does get used properly too, (although i have managed to lose 2nd gear somewhere, so will have a delightful 'boxswap on the cards)