M42club.com - Home of the BMW E30/E36 318i/iS

FAQ / REFERENCE => Member Profiles => Topic started by: Shift_Now on May 20, 2007, 11:15:16 AM

Title: Shift_Now
Post by: Shift_Now on May 20, 2007, 11:15:16 AM

Well I've been a memeber of this site for some time, and I've never poseted a picute of my car, so here it goes: I bought it as a "total loss" vehicle (it had the rear quarter panel and rear panel smashed in) mostly for the wheels, but then I felt obligated to see it back on the road.  It curently has over 306,000 kms on it, short shifter, chip, 4.45 differential,  21mm front sway-bar, 14.5 rear sway bar, M-Tech II front and rear bumpers, M-Tech II spoiler, 16" BBs rims, ///M3 springs (soon to be replaced by proper lowering springs), full alpine stereo, black Recaro seats out of an e21 320i, and a custom 2.25 exhaust(cat delete, resonator, Dynamax muffler).  Enjoy.

Title: Shift_Now
Post by: rhogg on May 20, 2007, 11:37:26 AM

Nice Job - very clean.  

As a Canadian I'm curious as to where you are sourcing parts.  We are  3 months into our rolling restoration and while parts are available I am getting either killed at the dealer, or killed with shipping from the US.  Any Canadian pointers?

Title: Shift_Now
Post by: Shift_Now on May 20, 2007, 11:49:13 AM

I've gotten most of my parts from parts cars.  The body kit+spoiler I got when I bought a "total loss" e30 M-Tech 320i (2.0L inline 6) some kid imported from Japan.  As for the actual body panels, I had to take the hit and buy from the dealership (only about $1000 for quarter panel and rear panel).  And most of the little parts I've either bought from small independent BMW repair shops, eBay, or used one of my dad's 3 parts cars (he currently ahs 2 complete cars parted out into about 20 large Rubbermaid containers).  my dad and I are into the e30 restoration as well, we have already restored a '87 325i convertable, and we are in the process of fixing a e30 320it (TOURING!)

Title: Shift_Now
Post by: Alpine003 on May 20, 2007, 12:05:23 PM

Very nice. Now you just need some sideskirts to complete it.

Title: Shift_Now
Post by: silverblades181 on May 20, 2007, 08:37:56 PM

How do you like the 4.45 in everyday driving? Did you run the 4.10 before to compare? Is it LSD? Nice car. Restoring E30s is very noble! Good job.

Title: Shift_Now
Post by: Shift_Now on May 21, 2007, 04:03:20 PM

in everyday city driving, the 4.45 is really nice, it makes it really easy to launch the car and it makes it so you don't always have to downshift to go places, and on the highway, it keeps the revs at 2800 at a steady 100km/h, and higher than that and the revs tend towards 3500.  No, unfortunatley it is an open diff.  And yes, I have M-tech II sideskirts, but I don't knwo if I want to drill all the extra holes in the body to put them on, so I'm looking for a different alternative.

Title: Shift_Now
Post by: gearheadE30 on May 21, 2007, 04:28:09 PM

Looks like a nice car, and an Alpine, too!!

What car is the 4.45 out of? I was under the impression that the numerically highest stock ratio was the 4.27 out of the 318i convertible.

Title: Shift_Now
Post by: Alpine003 on May 21, 2007, 10:41:15 PM

Quote from: Shift_Now;26240

And yes, I have M-tech II sideskirts, but I don't knwo if I want to drill all the extra holes in the body to put them on, so I'm looking for a different alternative.

I've never seen the insides of the Mtech2 sideskirts but you might want to look into 3M body panel adhesive. This is the stuff a lot of the OEM manufacturers are starting to use. Once attached, it will not come off.

Title: Shift_Now
Post by: Shift_Now on May 24, 2007, 01:50:37 PM

The 4.45 came out of the 320i M-tech I bought out for SGI Salvage.  that car had an automatic transmission, so my guess the 4.45 was to compensate for the loss in acceleration caused by the automatic.  And I read somewhere that some European Evo III M3's came with a 5.20(or something around there).

Title: Shift_Now
Post by: gearheadE30 on May 24, 2007, 07:10:59 PM

Thanks for the info, although with a 5.20 wouldn't the M3 only be able to get up to about 120? Sure, acceleration would be killer, but it would kind of suck on the highway...

I also learned that the E36 318it had a 4.45, although LSD is almost impossible to find.

Title: Shift_Now
Post by: Shift_Now on May 24, 2007, 10:08:37 PM

yea, but I tihnk those Sort Evo M3's were built so BMW could put them in a certain race class or something like that, so they were pretty much race cars, with thinned windows, and lighter pannels, so 120 would probably be about right.  To be honest I don't even know if 4.45 came in a LSD.  Maybe it did, but I recently bought the "e30 BMW Restoration Bible" and it didn't even list a 4.45 as an optional differential.  But here one is.  But yea, I wouldn't go back to a 4.10, becasue the 4.45 makes me think twice about speeding on the highway, and being only 16 years old, thats a good thing!