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The inevitable e36 coupe project

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So, I purchased a 95 328 coupe not long ago; low kms, good original condtion, great potential for a slight resto and resale.

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Now I have a bunch of car parts in the shed and spare room, many of which were original to the car. Who was I kidding with the silly notion of 'resale' :P

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I'm glad I wasn't completely sold on the default angel-eye headlight upgrade, did some more research and saw one with yellow tinted high beams; far more era-fittings and looks grouse with the hellrot red.

To-do shortly is the BMW Service Inspection II, a manual conversion getrag 220 sitting in garage. Might go keyless (NFC), convert the cd stacker into a bluetooth interface. Give it a nicer rear end, spolier, subtle diffuser (cosmetic) with twin exhaust.

Oh, and what manner of fury does this button unleash? It only lights when the fogs are on already, did some come out with high-beam fogs or something?

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Edited by tawatech
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Mmmmm, very nice. I do like the Yellow high beams.

I think that button turns on your rear fog lights.

I think once you get the manual in it all notions of resale will be long gone..

Welcome to the addiction.. :D

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Cheers,

Yeh I think you're right about the fogs, but it seems I have a (at least) blown bulb.

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the button is for a rear foglight.

it may only come on when you are in reverse.

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button is there, but many people remove the bulbs by this age, some people also convert the rear fogs to come on with the brake lights i know some members here have done that. Rear fogs are unneeded in New Zealand really

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Hmm, perhaps I should just get some neons and hook it up to that then :o

Just dug up an old compy to get INPA over ADS working from serial port; set the serive intervals etc, they wouldn't set using the pin-short method for some reason.

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The rear fog light bulb circuit is particularly troublesome, you will find you have to wiggle the bulb about every time you use them or the circuit will break itself- the tail light unit uses a pretty poor design.

How long until you CNC some custom bits for this particular toy? :P

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You, sir, have me at a disadvantage :huh:

But, the answer is not too long, I'll probably profile the rear diffuser on my mill out of 2mm ali sheet. Add some matte black powder and it'll look f**king mint.

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That switch is for the rear fogs (top button front, lower button rear), and no you dont need to be in reverse for them to work. Will only work on one side (Driver side IIRC), when your lights are on (park or higher). Button in for on, out for off.

Looks much better with the MSport front. I tinted the fogs on my old hellrot yellow too.

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Made some jacking thingos the other day, should help get some lift onto axle stands for the transmission swap.

Pulled the drivers side door card, getting around to replacing the insert, also took off the lock and handle as it often required a push on the door with a knee to get it to open.

Will see about pulling the lock to bits to make it electrically actuated (with manual override from inside), not sure how much of the original I'll be able to keep/adapt since it's all pinned together; may be a good thing its a long weekend...

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Very nice, wish my E38 had that jacking option. Right PITA normally

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Made some jacking thingos the other day...

Keen to make any more? I'll buy one or two...

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They'd end up 30-50 bucks each, depending on volume...

Spent many, many hours this weekend pissing about with the door lock. Will work mint though. Lot of bits inside the catch itself, all the manual over-rides make for quite a complex linkage system. Which is undoubtedly why the thing was getting so stiff and non-functional.

This version is just simple wireless actuator (remote is about 10x the size of a key) that'll pop the door open on command (from the inside it is still a manual handle). Next version will be an NFC reader embedded in the exterior handle (will likely epoxy up the handle to make it fixed) which can open the door and unlock the rest of the locks, or lock all the other locks.

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Only if I thrust at the door handle, which while it perhaps isn't as rare as you might think, it is also not the most efficient way...

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Got one of them NFC rings which has a tag on both sides, so palm side to open while I pull from door handle, and fist bump to lock it up. Will program in some other cards/rings/phone as backup.

It'll eventually make its way to the ignition to, and all my vehicles, currently three but should be getting a couple more next year. Keys are dumb.

May as well start testing from the easy job small scale and work up

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They'd end up 30-50 bucks each, depending on volume...

Still keen...

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They'd end up 30-50 bucks each, depending on volume...

Yup, keen too at that price. What grade steel did you use?

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Aluminium, 6061 I'm pretty sure, lifting use only, axle stands must be put under the normal points and take the load before car is worked on.

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Aluminium, 6061 I'm pretty sure, lifting use only, axle stands must be put under the normal points and take the load before car is worked on.

Interesting. A friend of mine had his steel ones bend and that was just from lifting (not holding).

I'm not so sure I want aluminium ones... capability to make them from steel?

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Negatory, that's why these are aluminium. Good thing Ahmedsinc asked before I shipped any! (I figured it was obvious from the pic but now realise there is no reason why it would be).

Were the bendy steel ones tube or solid? and were they slotted to accomodate the little points used for cover retention? The bar on these is 21.5mm diameter, with a distance between jack and body of like 60mm, so it should pretty much all be in shear.

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Were the bendy steel ones tube or solid? and were they slotted to accomodate the little points used for cover retention? The bar on these is 21.5mm diameter, with a distance between jack and body of like 60mm, so it should pretty much all be in shear.

The ones that bent were from a traditional US supplier... tubed steel with the slots. TBH I'm not sure of the parameters required for a "good" one and I'm certainly not criticising yours. Are yours solid or tubed?

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Solid.

Basics of the parameters is the further away from the car the jack sits, the more torque will be put on the lifting thingo. Similarly, the larger diameter the bar or tube is the more strength it can take (it's ^2 for shear, and ^4 for bend iirc).

End of the day though, I don't want to sell anything that has a change of breaking and damaging your cars. Perhaps we need to find someone who has whatever the heaviest model with these lifting points is, and send one to test, plus a couple of really fat chicks to add a bit of test ballast...

Edited by tawatech
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I think the 8 and 5 series of the era use the same points, I'm sure we could get Martin (BreakMyWindow - M5) or Julian (jeffbebe - 850) to test them.

My M3 is comparatively light so tbh, if they work for you they'll probably work for me!

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Interesting. I made one a while ago using 500E 16mm rod steel for shits and giggles. Only protruded about 100mm form the body but still folded, albeit very gradually. Should have another try with 20mm instead, I never bothered measuring the ID of the lifting point hole - beers may have been involved ;)

TBH they look like they've been primered going by the photo :)

How many times have you used yours to lift the coupe and is there any measurable deflection?

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Have only lifted it once to get the front wheel off, the test will be when one side is already up and the second side is lifted...

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