E36 325i manual

[Kevin3 0]

Is there much left on that coupe at Pickapart? I have been tempted to head down there and grab the lights and other bits from it.

No there is not much left, I think the back lights are on it and theres a good spoiler on the boot lid but it's crashed at the front end so theres nothing there. The dash instrumentation and most of the centre console are gone too.

[qube 3570]

prime example of how the little things on a car makes it special!

really meticulous work here, basically everything that is neglected on most e36s have been tended too.

well done!

[Kevin3 0]

Thanks very much Qube. I have one more of those 'happens to every e36' things to fix but my next update will be an aesthetics one

[Michael. 2313]

Get an M-Tech front bumper next, the non motor sport front bumper really dulls the look of these cars.

[Kevin3 0]

I finally got everything to finish off the front end anyway, and most of the rear.

Washing the car a few months ago the face came off of the rear emblem, so I got new ones in black. Also I never liked how the front number plate was smaller than the recess in the bumper so I got a NZ plate recently. And finally the smoked front indicators and smoked side repeaters.

It was getting dark when I took the photos by they are good enough for now anyway.

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[Kevin3 0]

I have been making a list of other things for a while and finally got enough to make it worthwhile to put in an order with pelican parts. So I have a box of stuff waiting to go in now.

The first thing I did was change the blower resistor, so the heater now works on all settings again, which is nice.

More to come

[Kevin3 0]

Next up, armrest, fantastic addition.

To fit it you have to cut away some of the carpet on the centre tunnel and also get new washers and longer bolts, I used M8x30mm bolts. I cut away a strip of carpet on the left to find the place to put the bolt and also to let the housing sit in.

I switched the connection at the end of the earth wire to the other side of the handbrake because it gets in the way of the housing. A guide I read said to open the handrake cable adjusters but instead I used a slightly smaller washer on the back bolt and put it in first with a small bit of blu-tac to hold the washer up at the head of the bolt, then cut a bit extra carpet off from behind the handbrake. I didn't take a photo of it but the hole in the housing for the back bolt is slotted and is bigger at one end, so you can drop it over the installed back bolt and then slide it into position and put in the front two bolts.

Housing in

Armrest in

[DarinD 8]

The armrest was probably the best thing I ever did to my car! You don't know how much you need one till you have it!

[Kevin3 0]

Next update on this, there was rust on a metal trim part and a hard plastic trim had gone brittle and flaking away at the corner of the back (pop out) windows. Photos probably describe it better

[Kevin3 0]

I had to take out the back windows which I now realise I made into a much bigger job than it actually is. The first window I did I took out all the interior trims around the window and took off the C pillar trim to take off the catch from there. The second window I realised I could leave on the C pillar trim and there is an allen key head stud going through the catch at the back of the glass. After doing all that I now realise all you need to do is take out that stud, take off the B pillar trim and seatbelt housing to get at the 2 bolts fixing the front of the glass, and you can leave all the interior trims around the window in place.

For the metal exterior trim I just sanded back the rust and painted it black, and for the plastics I had picked up better ones from a scrapyard which I stuck on with foam double sided tape. One good tip for if you haven't anyone to help, just tape up the outside housing of that stud on the back of the glass so you can open it from the inside without it spinning.











It is still noticeable if you look reasonably closely at it but it doesn't catch your eye like it did before, I'm happy with how it came out anyway.

[pommy 33]

Nice job. So far!

[Kevin3 0]

Thanks.

Not much of an update, but for ages I thought I was missing a bit of trim from the back seat, turns out it's just a place to store the centre lap belt out of the way if you're not using it, which is quite neat.