After some recent life changes I have re-loacted myself back to the Denver area with the intention of pursuing my first true passion, automobiles. Anyone who knows me has seen my various motor-head manifestos from a beat up BMW 318i to a super fast Saab 9000 Aero and of course the always sideways Subaru Legacy. Now I have something new (to me) and it comes in the form of another bavarian beast, the BMW 328is.
I was lucky enough to find someone who wanted to trade for my R50 Nissan Pathfinder (not a good city car) The E36 was in dire need of some love, there were live wires in the engine bay, puddles of water in the foot-wells and a bunch of hodgepodge dinkery. I jumped in with both feet and began gutting the interior in order to ease troubleshooting for electrical issues.
My intentions were (and still are) to make the car as fun as possible with little to no budget. Eventually the car will see track time but first I had to create a reliable daily driver. I’m not going to get into detail about everything I have done because it hasn’t been that exciting yet…
A rather terrifying event to note is that on the maiden voyage (after modification) I had the hood latch fail on me and send the hood into the upright position creating a nice crease across the middle of the hood! I was able to bang it out, and its not pretty but it sure is functional and won’t be coming up again with my home-made hood bolts with lock-wired security nuts!
I had also been spending countless hours browsing craigslist for parts and came across someone who was interested in trading wheels. Now the wheels that came on the car were 18’s a bit too big for what I am wanting to do, so I traded the “rare” BMW Style 71 wheels for a set of M3 DSII’s (LTW) and they we mounted with brand new tires!
Loving this setup minus the huge fender gap! I have removed around 300 lbs of weight from the car causing it to “lift” but they have a thing for that these days and they’re called “coilovers” hopefully I’ll be able to get this old girl back on the ground where she belongs!
Note that all of this work has been done by myself in the snow during the past 2 weeks in the snow and cold but creating something for yourself feels so much more rewarding than having someone do it for you. She may not be that pretty but she’s gorgeous in my eyes!
Stay tuned for more and be sure to follow my new Facebook page TheCampayne and Instagram profile @TheCampayne for daily updates on the E36!
Also, be sure to check out my new YouTube channel where I am doing a mini series on this car.
-Cam
TheCampayne 