Eva! My Journey With An E36

AA3 · June 1, 2015

What' s the reason for current condition ?

Octanehead · June 3, 2015

Giving it a lick of paint!

Octanehead · October 9, 2015

Okay boys and girls. Time I updated this thread properly. A lot has happened since my hiatus on this forum. Where should I start is the question! Before I begin I would like to remind everyone what the car looked like when I got it....

Yes it looks it age here!

and so this is how it all started

Step one was to start by stripping the interior. Dashboard is about to be removed here for my new Digital climate control conversion

Above is the old heater matrix that some fella in Lanka decided to convert to a AC unit. It was an epic fail, spent many a hot afternoon sweltering in the heat. Add to that the car is black so you do the math on interior temps. Since my car never came with factory AC I had to purchase pretty much every component required to complete the conversion. So a new cooler box with dual zone digital climate control, condenser, fan, piping and drier bottle was acquired. A bmw Compressor and mount was also needed to finish it all off. The whole system has been re wired and it works beautifully. Shall upload pics of the completed set up soon.

Edited October 9, 2015 by Octanehead

Octanehead · October 9, 2015

Once that was removed and out of the way the rest of the car was taken apart to prep it for its paint job

and I was greeted to a lot of this.....

The rear windscreen had to come off too for rust repair

A major visual upgrade was the new genuine M Technic body kit

\

Managed to source the front and rear bumpers with twisted side skirts

Edited October 11, 2015 by Octanehead

Octanehead · October 9, 2015

Just after it got its final coat of lacquer in the booth

Got the wheels off to give it a fresh coat of Silver paint as well. Will be sticking to these for awhile, got plans of putting some 17s on

Octanehead · October 9, 2015

I managed to source all the original decals as well for the car. This was my inner OCD kicking in.....

This is how she looks as of now... Shall update the thread again soon

Edited October 9, 2015 by Octanehead

fiat fan · October 9, 2015

Woaaaaaaaah thats a beaut... nice one dude..love that face. "runs off to wipe the spit that fell on the phone"

Sierra Charlie · October 9, 2015

That my friend is something else. Let's just say that I'm gonna touch myself tonight looking at these pics. Congrats on a job very well done.

More pics please before the night gets old BTW.

Ruslan · October 9, 2015

Great Job, Interior Pics please..!! would love to see the Climate Control job you've done!

Devinda_Z · October 10, 2015

On 10/9/2015 at 3:59 PM, Sierra Charlie said:
That my friend is something else. Let's just say that I'm gonna touch myself tonight looking at these pics. Congrats on a job very well done.
More pics please before the night gets old BTW.

Too

Much

Information

lol

Octanehead · October 10, 2015

On 10/9/2015 at 2:07 PM, fiat fan said:
Woaaaaaaaah thats a beaut... nice one dude..love that face. "runs off to wipe the spit that fell on the phone"

On 10/9/2015 at 3:59 PM, Sierra Charlie said:
That my friend is something else. Let's just say that I'm gonna touch myself tonight looking at these pics. Congrats on a job very well done.
More pics please before the night gets old BTW.

Lol Thanks guys... Managed to take some shots with my DSLR today! Till I finish editing here's one from the lot

Octanehead · October 10, 2015

So before I post any more "in the process" shots, thought I would share these. Mind you car is still not done, missing a few things like the rear roundel. And for everyone who asked for interior shots will have to wait a bit more cos sadly like all projects ran out cash getting the details right. Next year will get started on the interior and everything else. For now enjoy these

One with the Halo's on is a must!

Octanehead · October 10, 2015

Keen eyes may spot that I removed the rear spoiler. Wasnt working for me. So got a roof spoiler instead (Yet to be fitted) and will order one of those tasty lip spoilers for the boot later. If you guys were wondering what the exhaust was, its a DTM style Remus. Cost a pretty penny that but I think its worth it. The main reason for me getting it though is because the slick Remus logo's which have been laser cut into the tips. I'm a sucker for details like that......

Edited October 10, 2015 by Octanehead

Octanehead · October 11, 2015

Okay back to some pics from when I was putting the car back together.

As much as I like pro audio, putting the best in could have bought me another car so opted for these Infinity components in front and 6X9s at the back powered by a Rodek amp. And dont worry I didn't cut the rear parcel shelf to accommodate the 6x9s managed to find some nifty adapter plates. No one will know the difference

Devil is in the details they say......

Something I really wanted was Premium grade fabric for my hood lining, parcel shelf and pillars. The M3's used to come with a very soft suede like material in charcoal black. Very classy. Managed to find something similar and my god does it look good!

Next up was the map light conversion. Was lucky to get on in black, also installed a Auto dimming rear view mirror which helps in Sri Lanka I must say! All the interior lights have been converted to Warm white LED's too just to give it that classy finish......

The next thing on my to do list was the interior carpet. I was adamant that it should be jet black to match the hood lining. Buying a second hand black carpet to replace my grey one (which was in pretty good nick) would have been a waste of money so the best solution was carpet dye. Thank God I have a friend who is crazy about BMW's too and ships down a lot of goodies for old Bms....

Thats how it looked and below is the final result

My phone camera isnt the greatest, in reality its a much deeper shape of black

Sierra Charlie · October 11, 2015

Whoa! That is some detailed work on the interior. Did you get the hood lining wrapped that good locally?

Davy · October 11, 2015

Excellent work! I miss reading threads like this on the forum.

H.C · October 11, 2015

Nice work! . Like charlie said describe bit more about hood lining restoration.

Octanehead · October 11, 2015

On 10/11/2015 at 10:24 AM, Sierra Charlie said:
Whoa! That is some detailed work on the interior. Did you get the hood lining wrapped that good locally?

On 10/11/2015 at 12:41 PM, H.C said:
Nice work! . Like charlie said describe bit more about hood lining restoration.

Yes of course, locally done job. We stripped the old stuff off and pasted the new material in

iRage · October 11, 2015

She looks gorgeous !!!

On 10/11/2015 at 1:06 PM, Octanehead said:
Yes of course, locally done job. We stripped the old stuff off and pasted the new material in

"we" as in you ? do you under take other headlining jobs too ? If so.... I think you just found yourself a few potential contracts on AL

pug306xsi · October 11, 2015

Nice to see her after a while!

How about a business CD player and obd?

Also can you write about the climate control retrofit? Thanks

Octanehead · October 11, 2015

On 10/11/2015 at 1:14 PM, iRage said:
She looks gorgeous !!!
"we" as in you ? do you under take other headlining jobs too ? If so.... I think you just found yourself a few potential contracts on AL

Lol I can take you to the guy, I used to work close by to his workshop so spent quite a few hours making sure it was done right

Octanehead · October 11, 2015

On 10/11/2015 at 2:36 PM, pug306xsi said:
Nice to see her after a while! How about a business CD player and obd? Also can you write about the climate control retrofit? Thanks

OBD and everything will come next year. Business CD player maybe, they're aren't the greatest when it comes to sound quality. What do you need to know about the climate control retro fit

pug306xsi · October 12, 2015

since you are going in to greater detail thought an original business unit may fit nicely leading in to a multifunction steering wheel maybe

on the climate control- is it straight forward putting the unit and coding? or else you have to put a temp sensor stalk outside the bay to control the air flow etc and any other things to change?( in vw you need to put sensors to each vents as well) sorry all the questions because planned to get a e34 as a project

Octanehead · October 13, 2015

On 10/12/2015 at 4:25 AM, pug306xsi said:

since you are going in to greater detail thought an original business unit may fit nicely leading in to a multifunction steering wheel maybe

on the climate control- is it straight forward putting the unit and coding? or else you have to put a temp sensor stalk outside the bay to control the air flow etc and any other things to change?( in vw you need to put sensors to each vents as well) sorry all the questions because planned to get a e34 as a project

Original business unit will be very nice actually, sadly the E36 never came with a multi function steering so it will be quite a complicated retrofit, possible but I dont think I want to do it right now lol

Climate control is kinda straightforward. Installing all the components are just plug and play. Just need to do the wiring which is the complicated bit. There is one temp sensor on the control panel itself which detects cabin temps Im not really sure about the external temp sensor.

Hoonigan · October 13, 2015

Very nice attention to detail and the car is coming along beautifully! Especially considering the difficulty finding the right parts that actually fit and work!