Rohil 30 Report post Posted October 25, 2016 (edited) The dream as a kid was always to have a car I could race, and have fun with a bunch of mates. The idea was to do some autocrosses etc and build up skills to eventually do a couple track days. Lucky for me i have that bunch of mates, who share that very vision, AND also dont have thousands to spend on a car. We invite you to join us on this low budget journey. There will be heartbreak, betrayal but mainly greasy hands and lots of swearing..... The search began, now when I say budget I mean budget. Rwd and manual were 2 things we needed. One day a $1 reserve E36 pops up on the ol' tard, which we swiftly go and visit. The car checks out, it's a 1996 325i, auto however but has wof and reg and a sunroof! Leather interior and heated front seats. Thursday 8pm is when the auction closed so the bidding war began naturally at about 7:50pm. One of us bids while the other 3 cheer on trying to win this as cheaply as possible. Success! For a fiver under $600 we have a fully road legal e36 coupe! The manual conversion came about with a bit of wheeler dealing by me. A PS3 plus tons of games was traded for a Getrag 220, linkages and flywheel. The rest was bought which wasn't so bad. Eventually when its 'done', we need to get it weighed for the sake of science! If you're interested in how we get on, give us a like and stay up dated https://www.facebook.com/absolutefinesse/. There's other projects such as a classic mini clubman and photos from my Cuba trip. Please feel free to give us suggestions on mods, cheap things to add/delete. Any advice would be appreciated, flick me a msg and come down for a chat, we're working on the car most weekends! We dont bite, and are more than happy to meet new people. If you have any questions as well, feel free to shoot away! Heres' the day we picked it up before the debauchery begins.... The car got treated to a car manicure, a car wash on its maiden voyage back home. Rory and I also tested its um water tightness or rather, lack of...see for yourselves Edited October 25, 2016 by Rohil 4 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rohil 30 Report post Posted October 25, 2016 (edited) First day of proper work on the car.... - Get the windows working (with a big hammer of course) - Strip out everything we don't need *Ring ring* Caller: "Hello Mr. Sood what are you up to" Mr Sood: "Basically f*ck all m8, just lounging around on some heated leather E36 seats" Edited October 26, 2016 by Rohil 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rohil 30 Report post Posted October 25, 2016 Second day of work: - Remove headlining - Paint wheels - Yellow headlights Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rohil 30 Report post Posted October 25, 2016 (edited) On the third day of Christmas my true love said to me... "Lets lower the car" So we used some unknown springs which looked "about right" and stuck them in purely for laughs. Paint the wheels white one week, leave them outside in the sun for another and what happens next? Well the pictures will explain.... the 'creme de la creme' of wheel colours. How it sat after front bumper removal and lowering ONLY in the rear might i add: A rare glimpse at my touring beside it, getting its ICV cleans: Edited October 25, 2016 by Rohil Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rohil 30 Report post Posted October 25, 2016 Somewhere along the line where the chronological posts stop we put in the pedal box, 'gas strut mod', M-Sport 'stitching' (but not as you lot know it), aluminium door cards with complimentary stickers from a bus and a fire extinguisher bracket. Tagging in AJ because my back had given up installing the pedals: But hey! We got it done in the end: Low tech solution to a problem that probably shouldn't even exist if we'd bother to get some gas struts M-Sport 'stitching'... 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rohil 30 Report post Posted October 25, 2016 (edited) As i type this we're 95% of the way through the manual conversion. Master cylinder is missing the pushlock clip so thats on its way, bleed the clutch and fingers crossed we're on our way! AC system was fully removed, forgot the cast mounts on the front of the engine. The heater lines are looped, dash is a steering wheel removal away from coming out. Heater core will then be deleted and the dash replaced with a non-airbag one. Need a seat subframe to mount my Recaro. Door cards are getting tidied up, and the aux fan is being manually switched. A bit more work to go and it should be ready for summer! Heres a clip with straight pipes (no cats and resonator), and also no rear section of the exhaust: Edited December 3, 2016 by Rohil Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rohil 30 Report post Posted October 25, 2016 (edited) Rear section of exhaust on. Straight pipe int a stock exhaust then out, sounds not too shabby if i do say so myself. Edited October 25, 2016 by Rohil Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rohil 30 Report post Posted October 25, 2016 (edited) Fresh from a trip to the States, Jamaica and Cuba i managed to bring back a few goodies back for the car. - Front and rear braces - 6 puk clutch - Bonnet latches - Short shifter Heres a teaser from the next photo set ill be working on after exams are over....Cuban Cars!!! Edited October 25, 2016 by Rohil Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rohil 30 Report post Posted October 25, 2016 Manual box went in, the auto box is terribly heavy so thats some weight savings right there i hope. Strut braces went in, overall we managed to be a bit more productive. Getting to this point meant we were over halfway. Removing the auto transmission is a lot harder than fitting the manual trans: Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rohil 30 Report post Posted October 25, 2016 Clutch all in! Apparently the red pressure plate adds at least 10rwhp, common knowledge that red means faster. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rohil 30 Report post Posted October 25, 2016 This part gets a special post on its own. Because it was an extra pain, and because i channeled my inner Jeremy Clarkson. "I fixed it with a big hammer and fire" - Rohil This may be frowned upon, but hey, at least it wont be your car that grenades itself. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rohil 30 Report post Posted October 25, 2016 (edited) "The biggest pain in the....front end" was undoubtedly having to take the whole intake manifold off to get to literally two starter bolts. What an absolute pain, but had to be done as well as getting a thorough cleaning. An alarming amount of oil was in the intake.....did i mention the engine has over 300,000 kms on it? Thats probably why. Edited October 25, 2016 by Rohil Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
huff3r 347 Report post Posted October 25, 2016 Have you got any plans for a demister for front screen once you remove the heater box? You will need it if you want to run in any motorsport (including clubsport) events under schedule A, and it's a good idea anyway, once it's gone you'll probably find you miss it! Trying to get ideas for mine Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rohil 30 Report post Posted October 25, 2016 Just now, huff3r said: Have you got any plans for a demister for front screen once you remove the heater box? You will need it if you want to run in any motorsport (including clubsport) events under schedule A, and it's a good idea anyway, once it's gone you'll probably find you miss it! Trying to get ideas for mine This will sound terribly stupid but there was a debate on the RCIS page at length a week or two ago about this. People seemed to have a high rate of success with a 12v portable car demister. Just plugs into your cigarette lighter and you're away. Not sure about the 'frowned upon-ness' of that solution. Marine stores have some products of the like i am told. Ill be looking into these options shortly, all i needed to know s that there is a way! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
huff3r 347 Report post Posted October 25, 2016 25 minutes ago, Rohil said: This will sound terribly stupid but there was a debate on the RCIS page at length a week or two ago about this. People seemed to have a high rate of success with a 12v portable car demister. Just plugs into your cigarette lighter and you're away. Not sure about the 'frowned upon-ness' of that solution. Marine stores have some products of the like i am told. Ill be looking into these options shortly, all i needed to know s that there is a way! Sounds good to me. I was toying with the idea of a smaller heater box using PC cooling components but not sure if it'll have the airflow needed. Also no reason not to hardwire it in if it's frowned upon as a plug-in 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rohil 30 Report post Posted October 25, 2016 Just now, huff3r said: Sounds good to me. I was toying with the idea of a smaller heater box using PC cooling components but not sure if it'll have the airflow needed. Also no reason not to hardwire it in if it's frowned upon as a plug-in Surprisingly easier to hardware than plug it in a car which has almost nothing left. People have said little travel hair driers but id rather not look that 'Haggard'. Id imagine even these plug in units whether hardwired or not would try to draw a decent amount of power heating themselves up, but hey ill try it and see what happens haha Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jibs05 86 Report post Posted October 25, 2016 MINT! Ps. you dont need to take the intake off to get those two bolts haha Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rohil 30 Report post Posted October 25, 2016 Just now, jkhan05 said: MINT! Ps. you dont need to take the intake off to get those two bolts haha Jibs please dont tell me that now hahahaha Ours had a nut and bolt situation going on, some are just threaded into the starter, we werent that lucky. Retrospectively it was the only time we would've bothered to properly clean out the whole intake system, so i guess there is some sort of silver lining even if we didn't have to remove the intake. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jibs05 86 Report post Posted October 25, 2016 yeh nah, you dont need to take it off. but its also good to clean things! Keep it up 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rohil 30 Report post Posted October 25, 2016 Just now, Jibs05 said: yeh nah, you dont need to take it off. but its also good to clean things! Keep it up Then its just practice for a M50 manifold swap for my car later (i WILL justify taking those damn bolts off any way i can) Cheers man! Much appreciated, cant wait to see the mega meet coverage of Franken! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
E36_Turbo 84 Report post Posted October 25, 2016 6 hours ago, Rohil said: The dream as a kid was always to have a car I could race, and have fun with a bunch of mates. The idea was to do some autocrosses etc and build up skills to eventually do a couple track days. The search began, now when I say budget I mean budget. Rwd and manual were 2 things we needed. One day a $1 reserve E36 pops up on the ol' tard, which we swiftly go and visit. The car checks out, it's a 1996 325i, auto however but has wof and reg and a sunroof! Leather interior and heated front seats. Thursday 8pm is when the auction closed so the bidding war began naturally at about 7:50pm. One of us bids while the other 3 cheer on trying to win this as cheaply as possible. Success! For a fiver under $600 we have a fully road legal e36 coupe! The manual conversion came about with a bit of wheeler dealing by me. A PS3 plus tons of games was traded for a Getrag 220, linkages and flywheel. The rest was bought which wasn't so bad. If you're interested in how we get on, give us a like and stay up dated https://www.facebook.com/absolutefinesse/. There's other projects such as a classic mini clubman and photos from my Cuba trip. Please feel free to give us suggestions on mods, cheap things to add/delete. Any advice would be appreciated, flick me a msg and come down for a chat, we're working on the car most weekends! We dont bite, and are more than happy to meet new people. If you have any questions as well, feel free to shoot away! Heres the day we picked i up before the debauchery begins.... Awesome project and great progress thus far, looking forward to seeing it near completion ? 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rohil 30 Report post Posted October 25, 2016 41 minutes ago, E36_Turbo said: Awesome project and great progress thus far, looking forward to seeing it near completion ? Cheers man! Appreciate the kind words, its all a bit of fun and learning at the end of the day. Itll be getting close to 'completion' soon, after exams ill be able to allocate more time towards it. Looking forward to following your fitting tribute build man! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rohil 30 Report post Posted October 25, 2016 (edited) Exhaust time! So as mentioned earlier with the sound clip, we removed the cats and resonators and replaced them with some straight pipes. Cheers to Nathaniel for tack welding them into place! And for always lending a hand with the build (Check out his classic clubman stage 1 build on our FB page. A-Series with a stainless steel straight pip center exit exhaust, the perfect mini sized foreplay for any ear hole). The caption " Cats and resonators cut out and replaced with....straight pipe. "We've only had one small fire" " sums it up nicely. As shortly after this photo was taken, the towel underneath caught fire. Lets call it an 'oversight' on our part. Then off to the Welding Wizard of Oz Mr Ronnie Lim himself from RSL to get the pipes properly welded in! Once installed, just had to short out the 'catalytic converter' overheat light. More commonly known as the 'Hot Pie' light on the dash. Yeah so i dropped my phone and the camera smashed, hence the black dots but you get the idea.... Edited October 25, 2016 by Rohil Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Garett 103 Report post Posted November 1, 2016 The demister issue re the heavy heater box removal with the a/c system, find yourself a Nz new non a/c e36 heater box, they weigh nothing... good luck with the build looks like a lot of fun 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rohil 30 Report post Posted November 1, 2016 2 hours ago, Garett said: The demister issue re the heavy heater box removal with the a/c system, find yourself a Nz new non a/c e36 heater box, they weigh nothing... good luck with the build looks like a lot of fun Ohh that might be the go, ill have a hunt around. But worst case scenario to button it up the old 12v demister might have to do for now. Exam time right now which is a pain, iv got some cool little things i want to add to the car, but priorities i suppose. Cheers for the advice and kind words......an update is about 10 minutes away Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
