Tuesday, November 22, 2011

94. Installing angel eyes on BMW E36

Well, this weekend I installed angel eyes on my friends 323ti Compact. (Check out my last post)


I was skeptical about those add-on angel eyes rings, but, I must admit that I was wrong. Installation is extremely easy and quick, and the AE rings look completely stock. My main concern was fixing the rings on the head lamps. BMW angel eyes kits are often sold with a 'No need to drill/glue/hokus-pokus' lines... Well - it's true. No need to do anything horrible to your headlights. The installation is 100% reversible. And, best part is - they are really fixed in their places when you're done.

So, here's a quick step by step:

1. Disconnect and take off your headlamps.
2. Take them apart:


3. Take off the round inner lenses from the headlight cover (As pictured, I had to use a screwdriver to undo the screws - 3 per lens. Some headlights have the lenses glued with silicone, so you must use a thin knife to take them off)
4. Insert Angel eyes rings into the headlight cover. Try to be gentle as possible.
5. Put the inner lenses back on. It'll probably go harder back in...

6. Put the headlight back together (route the wires to the rear of the light - to the bulb socket cover)
7. Connect the rings to the supplied inverters (one inverter per headlight)
8. Connect the two wires from the inverter to your parking light bulb.
9. Glue the inverter with a two-side adhesive tape inside your headlight. (There's a lot of space, don't worry)
10. Put the lights back on your car, connect them, and adjust the height.

That's it. Took me 30 minutes for both headlights.

Here's a few photos of the car with angel eyes:
(The rest are in the post before this one.)





Where can you buy BMW E36 Angel Eyes ???
Try Amazon! :)

Monday, November 21, 2011

93. E36 323ti Compact - A few photos

It's been a while since my last post. Sorry for that. I'll try to bring you all up to speed in the next couple of days.

For now, I'll share a couple of photographs I took yesterday.

















The car pictured above is my friends E36 323ti Compact. (You might remember his 323 Coupe in Dakar Yellow...) He bought the Compact about two weeks ago. The car was already on M-Tech suspension, it has a M50B52 engine, and a couple of other modifications. Oh, the car's actually from the BMW Individual line, so, that explains the unusual interior color combination.

Here's a list of things he modified in the last week or so...
1. Replaced complete brake system (was modified for drift use)
2. Had front seats re-upholstered (were totally torn)
3. Retrofitted the ///M steering wheel (it had a regular 4 spoke item)
4. Installed angel eyes kit
5. Fitted BBS 17" rims and winter tires (was sitting on some 15" steel rims, with wrong tire size)
6. Installed new speakers and head-unit (there was none)
7. Fitted the mesh in the M bumper (again, there was none)
8. Complete engine service (that's normal)
9. New alternator (the old one was squeaking)
10. (and probably a lot more stuff I don't really know about) :)

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the car when he bought it.

Update

This Compact was upgraded to 328ti - I'll post a few pictures soon :)
The car was then sold, and now it serves as a track-tool/drift machine.