Ownership Verified: Someone stole my trunk and 2 cylinders - a compact winter beater

nicjasno

BMW Perfectionist
DONOR
Joined
Jul 15, 2007
Messages
5,851
Location
Maribor, Slovenia, Europe
Car(s)
'89 BMW E30 325iT, '95 BMW E36 318ti compact
Winter is coming..

... and i need a vehicle during those months of dread salt and misery.

So while the e30 will be doing its winter hibernation i would be needing another ride. The past 2 winters i have been borrowing cars from people, and hitching rides, but this is neither practical, nor fun.

I wanted a car that has rwd, enough power to have some fun with and is cheap.

So the obvious choice was to look for a bmw. I wanted an e36 something this time and after going up and down through avto.net, kicking a few tires, i found the perfect candidate for 800 eur.

A 1995 nepalsilber-metallic e36 318ti compact :p

Let's get this out of the way first:


And this is the extent of the rust on the car:



Underneath:




Car itself:





The car was initially equipped with a casette player and had the magic casette storage box.




It had this junk when i bought it (car has currently the radio delete option installed :) ):

Today i just did a general cleanup and assesment of the car.

The rust will be taken care of by a friend, who recently restored an e21 and is very handy at such things.

When i bought it, it ran like a diesel and there was only a few mm of oil visible on the dipstick. 3l of oil later it runs like a charm and is almost at half point between min and max.

It is a good car. Drives as good as can be expected, engine has some vacuum leaks, which will be adressed, new rubber brake lines are needed, suspension will get the full PU treatment and exhaust needs some welding (though it is not loud).

The headliner is sagging of course and the drivers side window doesn't close properly because the scisor mechanism seems to be a bit fucked, so it's in the closed position for now.

A/C works, but needs to be filled up, central locking works, but will probably be upgraded to a remote system, because i cba to use the key to unlock the car.

Steering wheel needs a refurbish (gearstick is back on after the proof pic was taken) and that's about it.

Nothing major and nothing that really needs to be adressed immediately. I have bought it now, so i have plenty of time to get it ready for winter, since i much prefer to work on cars when it's warm.
 
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Even if you're saying a beater, I'm expecting this to be 100,1 % mint E36 Compact in few months time! :lol:

Anyway, short wheelbase will be fun on winter!
 
I can't stop watching the radio video, it's tragic. The idea was good but the execution was terrible. I almost want it myself. :lol:

I also have every faith that despite winter road salt this car will be better after winter than it is now.
 
With some love and care, it should be a fun winter beater, and maybe a fun daily if you want to coddle the e30 a bit.
 
That radio is awesome! :lol:
Also, congrats
 
Looking forward to your work on it and I'd like to try it out at some point!
 
Looking forward to your work on it and I'd like to try it out at some point!

You are welcome to a test drive when you arrive. :)

Meanwhile i did some ghettofixing before i order the new part:

 
That cassette player was so cool back in the day and it did cost a hefty amount of monies, but like gadgets do, their time under spotlight is short lived.
Winter is coming, you need LSD!
 
Decided to see what's hiding behind the headlights:



Fixed the broken and badly fixed foglamp. Some superglue and some proper ziptie engineering later it's all good.



Cleaned the insides of the headlights and the lenses. Instead of all milky, looks nice and clear like new:



Front looking nice and clean now:


 
:D
 
Today i was at a friendly me3chanics place filling up the AC on the compact. Yay for working AC :)



 
I cleaned the car on the outside and hand polished it a little bit (still needs a second round).

Replaced the panels under the wipers, because the rubber between the plastic and windshield has perished.








To do:
- repair rust on rockers
- fix exhaus leaks
- change aux belts
- refurbish steering wheel
- winter tires

Optional:
- refurbish headliner
- deep clean carpets and seats
 
Thanks to a fellow compact owner got a "new" badge from the rear of a trashed e36 sedan to replace the slightly worn front one :)



 
I still think the Compact is ugly as hell, but I?ve heard it?s a good car to own and nice to drive.
This will be one of the best Compacts in no time as the work has already started. Great stuff once again!
 
The nokian hakapelita winter tires from 1996 have been discarded and replaced with 2012 continentals on refurbished style 6 rims. SO much better.





Oh... and the car was washed for the first time since i got it :)
 
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Those wheels really suit the car! Nice choice!
 
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