68. Fixing up my audio system...

Unfortunately, my old head unit died on me... probably because of the heat... Last month was scorching hot here... So, i had to buy a new one. I had great experience with Alpine and Pioneer head units, so this was what I was looking for. And, on top of that, I wanted one with USB input, orange illumination (to match the BMW dashboard), and with iPod compatibility. Lucky me - I found a perfect one, with the addition of Blue Tooth. And the price was minimal. So, here it is:
Alpine CDE-111RM

And, then, I decided to upgrade my speakers. For now, I replaced the ones in the foot well, and in a month, I'll replace my rear ones, and my two pair of medium and high tones on the door. This is what I bought:

Nothing fancy. SXE-1325S two-tones. I was never a big fan of car audio installations... But, as it looks now, I'm going for a all-Alpine installation. :) So, stay tuned. :)

Right...

When I removed my old head-unit, I found a bunch of messy wires.

I decided to fix things a bit, since I had all the connectors in my garage.

And, this is how it looks now:

My friend was so impressed with it, that he bought the same unit the next day:

And, for the end, here's a couple of photos of the speaker installation...
Boy, those Nokia speakers were playing from the day the car came out of the factory:

That's it for now... Next post: general updates on my E36. ;)

67. Redneck Racing

Well, this is how the red 325 ended it's career.
My friend guarantees, that it's extremely fun to drive around like this...
I'm not so sure...

And to think - this is the car he was repairing all winter long... (Bought it wrecked)
Here's a photo of the car before he started to disassemble it:

Right... If you remember, I wrote about this one a couple of times...
- 60. Mine & friends E36 photoshoot
- 59. Fixing electrics on a 325i
 ... and so on... :)

Well, it suited me just fine when he decided to part out the car. I bought a lot of goodies for my E36. :)
(Stay tuned...)

This is how this red E36 looks now:

Oh yea:
DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME!
Do it at your neighbor's.

66. BMW E36 Speakers

So, I replaced my head-unit in the car, and now, I'm thinking on replacing the speakers, as well.
So, I wanted to know the sizes of the speakers that go into my E36 limo. Here's what I've found:


BMW E36 Coupe/Sedan w/ Standard:

5.25" Front Midbass
2.5" Front Midrange
~5/8 Front Tweeter
4" Rear Midbass - Inside Enclosure
~5/8 Rear Tweeter - Inside Enclosure

BMW E36 Coupe/Sedan w/ HK(Premium)

5.25" Front Midbass
2.5" Front Midrange
~5/8 Front Tweeter
6x9" Rear Midbass - Inside Enclosure
~5/8 Rear Tweeter - Inside Enclosure

BMW E36 Cabrio w/ Standard

5.25" Front Midbass
2.5" Front Midrange
~5/8 Front Tweeter
4" Rear Midbass
~5/8 Rear Tweeter

BMW E36 Cabrio w/ HK(Premium)

5.25" Front Midbass
2.5" Front Midrange
~5/8 Front Tweeter
5.25" Rear Midbass
~5/8 Rear Tweeter
~8" Subwoofer in Ski Pass

In a day, I'll take my E36 on a one-week vacation, and I have A LOT of news, so, when I come back, expect this blog to be flooded with posts :)

65. 318is loosing power between 2-4k RPM

After a few days of driving around with my E36, I noticed a weird power-loss between 2k and 4k. (RPM)

Well, it's an old car, and stuff like this is to be expected.

Possible reasons could include:

• Clogged fuel filter
• Bad fuel pump
• Defective lambda probe
• Bad spark plugs and/or spark plug wires...
• (I could go on for ages...)

So, why am I writing this post?

I was digging trough BMWslo forum, and I found a great post about this...

 In some cases, the relay that is providing power to the injectors can overheat, and the injectors could lose power for a moment. (White relay on the picture) - That relay is the same on all BMW's from E28 onward, so you can easily swap it.

So, this is a new info for me, and IMO, a very useful one...

I'll change the relay today, and see if this is the case... If not, I already bought a new fuel filter, and I have 2 spare lambda probes at home... So, I'll keep you updated.

64. How to paint a car

Well, I didn't really paint the car, but I had to paint the rear wing (spoiler) to mach my car's colour.
The spoiler came from another E36, and it's an original BMW Zender-2 spoiler with Hella stopping light.

Here's a link where you can see the car I took the wing off.

So, this is the wing:

You've noticed that this is not the GTR wing that I have for my E36? Well, I'll be driving this car on the road for a couple of months, and I don't want my 'big wing' to be damaged, and I really don't want to spray it black now, and then blue in a couple of months... (I think I'll paint my drift E36 blue)...

So, I've painted the spoiler in about 2 hours...
Here's a quick TO-DO list:

1. Remove the brake light .
2. Sand the wing with (I-don't-know-180) sanding paper.
3. Sand it out with water (I-did-it-with-1000) sanding paper.
4. Sand BLAST the part where the manufacturer tags are... You can't really sand that out, unless you destroy the lettering. And, I don't want to do that. 
5. Clean it. 
6. Dry it out. And do a good job! I mean it!
7. Hang the spoiler in air. It's easier to  paint it if it's hanging in air.
8. Spray it with some good quality filler. (I used a spray can)
9. Sand it out with water (I-did-it-with-1000) sanding paper.
10. Again, clean it.
11. And, again, dry it.
12. Spray the paint on. Do this slowly, in more turns. Don't spray too much paint in the same spot.
13. Before the paint dries, spray the clear-coat. Quickly. :P
14. Wait for it to dry.
15. Put back the brake light.
16. That's it.

Right, this is a QUICK to-do list. If you need any details, let me know. I used filler from a spray-can, but the paint and the clear coat were sprayed with a proper paint gun. I could buff out the minor imperfections, but they don't bother me. Be sure to read the instructions on the paint and other supplies before using them. Buy some additional equipment that's essential, like paint-density-check-filters, mixing cups, and so on... It all costs just a few bucks. And, give an extra buck to buy plastic foil, so you can wrap your garage in it :P - I didn't do that, but I should have done it. That's it really. No big deal. No special tools needed. Just an air compressor (quite small), paint gun (the cheapest one I could find), and some paint. Haha... And in the end - the spoiler looks great! (P.S. note the tags? - I have MOT, insurance and it's finally road-legal!)

Some stuff you might need:
(and some cash for me, if you buy it) :P

63. Black out

There's been a little change in my project... I'll be using my E36 as a daily driver for a couple of months, so I've 'styled' it a little bit...

The fastest, easiest and cheapest thing was to black out as many things on the car as possible...

So, I've sprayed black the kidneys  and the BMW roundels... You wouldn't believe how many BMW owners were offended by that... :P

Ok, so, here's a couple of pictures:

Oh, those ugly stickers on my trunk lid were really getting on my nerves... So, I took them off. And what did I find? Holes! So, I've decided to slam on a spoiler to cover them... (Read the next post...)

Now, the next things that I'll black out are the rear lights and side indicators... And, I'll maybe tint the windows.
Don't forget - this is just for a couple of months... I'll continue to buy 'drift' parts, and then I'll start converting this E36 into a drift machine.