E46 Fanatics Forum banner

My car from start to finish...

52K views 159 replies 105 participants last post by  TitaniumSilber 
#1 ·
Well i never really posted much about my car, i've been on the board since the old layout before vB. I didnt register until my current join date and i only purchased my car a year ago. I'm only 18, turning 19 in april and the route i chose thinking i could save some money being young and wanted a 330, not settling for a used 328/325/323, i decided to check out salvage cars. I came upon this:



yeah i know it looks horrible, but when i saw it, i thought it could be fixed. So i went home with the pictures and wrote down a rought outline of what i needed:

Headlights
Bumper Skin
Door
Door Glass
Bumper and Door Moldings
2 Fenders
Hoods
Grill
Radiator
Rim+Wheel
Rocker Panel/Kick panel/ Center B pillar to replace this:


Okay so i go over the list, at this time forgetting all the small crap, like bolts and ducts and fog lights etc and head airbags which i forgot to add up, so i decided to take a friend who would be doing the body work to see if it was a good buy. We first checked out the chassi, it appeard there was no bends in it as this accident was a curb accident then bounced off something. After having my rough parts outlined we worked out the paper work, for those intrested it's a 2001 330i with PP/SP/Leather/HK/Sunroof 5SP Steel Gray on black with 23k on the clock, for 12,500. For the price, thinking i would come out under 20 or near or above 20 i eagerly purchased it. Before i continue here is a few more pics of the car crashed, this is how the company recieved the car:


The suspension was gone since it was curbed as well as the oil pan, When purchased from them, the M68's were removed and swapped with OZ Superlegerra's off another crashed car, the windsheild was fixed, and the oil pan and suspension was fixed, the way i towed it home looked like this (BTW the car started and ran before taking it home):






 
See less See more
9
#4 ·
Few more pics crashed:



Okay so now the car's home

This is the crappy key i was stuck with:


Salvage cars cannot order new keys, but the guy at my parts desk pulled a fast one and somehow ordered one for me, as well as hooked me up with the shop i bought it from account (with their permission of course) offering me their 25% discount on all OEM parts.

I take a closer look at the car, crap... 2 brake lines gone. ebrake lines snapped, exhaust bent up, and engine mounts broken, sway bar bent, dsc wheel speed sensors cut/missing. now i started to price out the small stuff, clears, grills, clips, window trim, god damn it adds up, i'm not gona go into prices because it will take too much time. but first thing first was to get to ordering!

My first box:

UUC Sways

Second Box:

Gruppe M from rennsport on special last year :)


Next was to order a new rim, thanks to Eric@SPP he got it to me in about 2 Weeks, too bad they sent a Audi bolt pattern one, i really needed to get the car rolling to start doing work, anyway eric had it picked up (A+ Customer Service) And refunded me promptly, I ended up ordering direct from OZ.

Next was to order my headlights, got them from bekkers for 1100 with the black trim, i wanted to ditch any chrome/titanium on my car. I also ordered lots of clips for the bumper, rogue under drive pulleys (i figured my radiator is out, why not replace em now?) wheel power enhanced halo's (v1 at the time, latest and greatest) and my brake ducts and center kidney grill duct
 
#8 ·
Also not pictured above was my airbags, shift knob, and replacment tool kit tools (i wanted my car with everything back) and a new flashlight for the glove as it was missing. 2 brake lines, 2 engine mounts, 2 ebrake cables and lots of other bolts and the full front radiator with ac condensor and all the parts listed on my original rough part draft. This was my dad's idea, but he looked into aftermarket fenders and hood, i was a little sketch, and pissed to say, i wanted OEM. But he went ahead and bought after market fenders and hood for my car. Well no say there, if it didnt fit i was pulling it off and going OEM.

a few more pics before i go to the paint



Misc paint for engine covers etc, grills, and bulbs.

Next up i had to get this strut from BFP since it was on special for 400!
I didnt need it, but for 400, why not?


 
#9 ·
I know i'm skipping some pictures here, but this is because all it is body work pics, so i'll go straight to the outcome:

Car was fully repainted and new b-pillar and kick panel was welded in, chassi was checked for straight ness, engine mounts went in (Brake lines, and ebrake and exhaust was on me to try and save money)




(Previous owner did some funky caliper stuff...)
 
#11 ·
Okay so now after the car was painted and interior put back together, towed it home it went... Tried to start it, damn... nothing. Starter bad. Before fixing this, i took the time to do the ebrake and brake lines, and also do all the wiring for the car as the guy only did the body work for the car. all 4 wheel speed sensors had to be replaced, all headlights and dde's were wired at this time as well as all the new sensors and maf since the original one was damaged, these are some pics of the car after the body shop and towed home:



Pro Mount clip and Nextel phone holder

DDE's Wired

Exhaust hanging still... Could not locate a used cat back at the time


Crappy bimmian roundels that dont match.
 
#12 ·
Okay so im gona fast forward a little bit, i take care of the salvage inspection for stolen parts, pass that, and boom register it, and now i'm on the road. I come to realize my mirrors which i thought were good, were broken! first step again, order new ones. i decided to go with hagus, i love their style. So ordered they were, next i knew i was dealing with a 4x4 here, so i went ahead and ordered intrax springs from a fanatic. I put them in myself, but turns out these wore out my stock shocks and the ride turned into crap (when the shocks were good the ride felt just as good with my now future coils though)

here is the only pic i have of the mirrors and intrax springs on the car
 

Attachments

#13 ·
After this stage, and only putting 200 miles on the car, CRAP i hit my differential on a pot hole, the car is put back on jackstands, for a month while i locate a diff. I could not find a 3.38 at the time, so i picked up another 2.93 for 100 bucks from RR_BugGz (Thanks!) and took the time to put some other mods on which i will show a little more down..

these are pics after the car was back on the road


My beater headunit, Pionner AVH6400CD (Seperate DVD player+TV Tuner mounted under glove) Not pictured yet.. As well as a slim PS2 in the glove not pictured yet.


two olsen 7inch wide screen visors, these bolted on directly, however not pictured now is that they have been re-done with the stock visor mounts (i did not have time when i took the pics) and the switch panel by the sunroof controls, 1 switch for tv's, 1 for dde's, the other 4 are blank as of now but will be used for future system.



Two XO Vision 7 inch wide screens were thrown into the headrest by me to complete the video deal of the interior.

Also not pictured is the pac swix eye mounted under the key hole, works pretty well in that location.
 
#15 ·
Next was to swap out the springs for some coils! :thumbup: Thanks to RR_BuGgZ again i got a good deal on some h&r coil overs, these are directly after the install, the back was raised up in fear of hitting my differential, but tomorrow im going to lower it to get some tuck again just like with my intrax springs :thumbup:




after that, it was time to get a little more going on outside, didnt wanan do anything drastic, so i just added a ACS Roof spoiler as well as a M3 Lip spoiler and 6000k xtec headlights, as well as 6000k xtec hid kit for the fogs and the new 6000k dde titanium editions



fresh after a wash with ACS3

bad pic of 6000k, my cam sucks

 
#16 ·
Now after this wash above, i noticed i messed up the front bumper on these nyc roads :( So next move... Club sport splitters



I really wanted to go with the hamann add-on or aqray (but with NYC roads, its just not possible for a daily driver)



I decided not to paint as of yet, i wanted to see if i scratch them first (which i did already) then paint them, however i am in the process of ordering a new rear bumper and side skirts so it will all be painted at once :thumbup:

Oh cool random pic taken by spyder i thought i'd throw in while im here:



Okay back on topic with a few random and latest pics of my ride before i change it up again.


close up of my non oem fender, looks pretty good to me, not bad for about 140 bucks a side


sorry this pic came out REALLY blurry, i cant hold a cam lol

UUC TSE2 was thrown in to replace that hanging crap of a stock exhaust i had
 
#18 ·

dirty under hood pic

also UUC SSK on the way :thumbup: Cant wait to start short shifting, hopefully side skirts and rear will be here by the end of the month and i can get this thing somewhat done before spring, summer goal will be some 19's of course :thumbup: tomorrw if im not lazy i'll also do the corner delete mod. I plan to update this thread as i do stuff to the car, thanks for checking out my progress of my rebuilt car, and as for how it drives, the car has 27k miles on it right now, 27,002 miles exactly, and it drives perfectly straight, no pulling, vibration, or any awkward ness, the car feels new (i've driven a new 330 before) the car is fixed to perfection, i may not get jack back when selling this because its stamped with a salvage title, but i bought this car for me, i plan to keep it for a long time, maybe even pass it down one day, the money invested into this car being salvage, will never be made back, i bought this car for personal use :) again, thanks for looking at my thread :thumbup:
 
#20 ·
Damn!!! I didn't know we had such a touching BMW story on our forums!!! :bow: :bow: Big time props bro, it certainly makes me apperciate the hardwork that you put in did pay off. Still is paying off to I can see since you're still modding. :thumbup:
 
#21 ·
rusty0099 said:
very impressive.. :thumbup: How much did it cost you if you don't mind answering?
in the end? without the mods put in, and cutting back on some stuff i could of done this for 20-21k, it cost me about 22-23k without mods, i replaced all the plastic moldings on the doors and bumper, the black window trim wasnt needed, i could of easily bought the chrome replacement peice and not the full black kit, there was lots of stuff that had small defects in them that i changed to new, i wanted to have that new car feeling. with all the mods in it though, i'm at the 30k mark. my reciepts for the car about about 7 inches high, one day i will tally it all up. the car cost me about 13,200 with tax btw
 
#24 ·
AssassinGT said:
Damn!!! I didn't know we had such a touching BMW story on our forums!!! :bow: :bow: Big time props bro, it certainly makes me apperciate the hardwork that you put in did pay off. Still is paying off to I can see since you're still modding. :thumbup:

Thanks man! this may not be a thead about me re-doing my car into a widebody or super custom work, but it feels as if i did just as much work rebuidling this car, hopefully one day though i can do a widebody :thumbup: if i had the cash, i had the perfect oppertunity to widebody the car since it was hit and needed a full paint job, i also had the oppertunity to facelift it, but i had a budget, and i met it, and i'm happy with the outcome :thumbup:
 
#25 ·
i would like to add besides the body work, welding, and paint, everything else mechanically and electrically was done by me and my dad on jack stands in my backyard, including dropping the tranny down a tad and removing my intake manifold to put a new starter in, as well as bending the brake lines for the rear brakes, installing my new diff, exhaust, and installing my radiator, all the electrical was done by me, wiring up the tv's, and new sensors was done by me as well as doing my springs. before narrowing the problem of my car not starting to the starter, i was skimming through the wiring diagrams in the service manual trying to figure out what the problem was, i took out the whole dash to check the main wiring harness, in the end it was the dumb starter :banghead: i feel that going this route, i know alot more about my car. i feel i know it inside and out... when something goes wrong, i can instantly know whats wrong with the car. i feel i can tackle anything on my car, i actually cant wait to dip into the engine. i've messed with honda engine's a little, but it would be a intresting project to go into the head of my bmw. i would love to drop my oil pan and put some locktight on that oilpan nut i read posts about, i just cant do it on jackstands :(
 
#26 ·
theitalianjob said:
Hard work and patience pays off :bow: :yikes: :thumbup:
Thanks man! it does :thumbup: it took me about 9-10 months since i bought it and to fix it and put it on the road, however by having the patience i saved alot of money doing some stuff myself, and researching to get my parts at the cheapest price :)
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top