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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):






 
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#78 ·
while i was in the closet i dug up some of my carbon fiber materials, this summer i hope to experiment with this, hopefully learn vacuum bagging and some of the basic carbon fiber techniques. i dont plan to make any peices for the car with it, just get some practice and get my feet wet before i plan out car parts


1 yard of 2X2 twill carbon fiber from a 50 inch wide roll which equals to about 10 square feet.

Weave stretched out

stuff pictured are:
2 mixing sticks
a teflon/wax mold release
a squeegee for the resin
about a pint of steel grey paint left over from my paint job
2 pairs of gloves
a brush incase i decide to brush the resin on instead of squeegee it
2 small bottles of epoxy resin and 2 bottls of hardner
and a wedge to get the part out the mold :thumbup:
 
#79 ·
Presns323i said:
i was thinking about mounting it more like, at the bottom of the front bumper, rather than in the kidney grill
know what im talkin about?
but im afraid of rock chips on the lens and stuff.
are the cameras waterproof?
yea my cams are water proof except for the one with the exposed backing, i was planning to mount one in the mtech grill actually, there is a plastic peice that goes around the center duct, i was going to drill through it in the center and place a pin hole cam in there :thumbup: i dont have your bumper and i'm not too familiar with it so i'm not sure on mounting for you :dunno:
 
#84 ·
Very Impressive

All I can say is SUPER MARVELOUS JOB!! :bow: :bow: :bow: It's amazing how comfortable you are now with fixing an E46 (the way you have responded to some questions). You make the job sound so easy :)

My question to you is, since you have pretty much x-rayed the whole car, what do you think of the quality and craftman ship in a BMW? From a scale of 1 - 10 (10 being the highest) how would you rate BMW (e46) for the quality of parts/engineering/electronics used? I am asking this question from more of a 'behind the scenes' perspective and not from the user perspective. By the way, did you rent the tools or kept on buying tools on need basis? Once again, GREAT JOB and I must say that I have never read such an interesting and touching thread before. Good luck with your future mods :thumbup:
 
#88 ·
What part of Queens are you in?

From the pics it looks like shitty Ridgewood or Glendale.
 
#90 ·
niL said:
no where near those, jamaica queens.
amazing job man - im impressed - great story for the life of that car and urself - u worked hard and u did a kick butt job!

u should consider running some shop on the side one day as u seem to have a knack for installing mods.

i hope u use ur skills twds school or something technical -

most impressed i was with ur lack of flamboyancy as many of the other e46fanatics do 2 often 'look at my $$$ rims!' 'look at my dde's that i payed someone to install' etc SHUT UP 2 them! have some modesty like urself - i want to punch those fanatics
 
#92 · (Edited)
just updating the pics of the car with the newly finished rims and all the rash gone :) fixed all the rims my self, used spot putty, dremel, and various grits to get the rim to metal before primer. i followed the NASA DIY on audi world, worked great, however i chose a whole new color as i liked the brake dust color better, the color is called graphite, i also worked on the trunk panel for kicks since i had nothing else to do on the car. the carpet is hanging a tad in the pics, but i have taken it down to recover it when i complete my system :)
 

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#95 ·
last set, also trunk picture is the start of my system, i have 3 kicker amps and a undecided subwoofer(s) and 2 more tv's as well as maybe a bottle of laughing gas for show, i currently took down the trunk panel to recover it in black carpet, the system i will start next week, by then hopefully i have some money left over to put my hamann kit on :)
 

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