how bout this for an idea

Running two cars is expensive. That's why my Golf isn't insured - it'd be a £600 hit to tax, insure and MOT it, which isn't a sensible way for me to spend cash at the moment.

OTOH you are more likely to mod something if it doesn't matter if it breaks. The most important thing, IMO is to do one thing at a time. Doing umpteen things whilst it's all in bit seems like a good idea but always results in the car being in pieces for a very long time. I'd now rather do and finish one job at a time, and have a working car most of the time.

Basically, if you want to mod a car, you need a good amount of cash and time. If you still live with your parents, you've probably got that. If you don't, you may prioritise car meddling over getting the f*ck out ;)

No, your idea is the road to disaster.=20

That Bimmer is your dailer drive, the one you need and depend on to get=20 to work. That drive takes longer and is far motre important than those=20 week-end-drives to impress the GF. Drive your BMW -which is a nice car-=20 untill it dies or needs a very expensif repair. Save your money untill=20 you can buy a *sorted* classic car.

Garages all over the world are full of "classic cars under=20 restauration", most of those garages are moneypits. Buying a classic car=20 is not always easy but a sorted one will cost you about 4 to 5 times=20 less that restauring one.

I have a friend in the car restauration business: a minimum on any car=20 is 100 Hr of work without parts. I don't know the hour rates in the UK=20 but 1000 Hr of work translates in =B120 kUPD. Correct me if your desired=20 (future) classic will be worth that amount of pennies. Mind also that=20 you'll need to be able to live with it: a 500 HP US-mussle car can be=20 nice for starters, but will you like it (and can you afford it) after 3-

4 months when the weekly 100 l of petrol is going into it?=20

You've got a nice toolbox? Great: start doing your own maintenance=20 (oil/filter/brakes) on your Bimmer, it'll save you quite a bit and=20 you'll gain knowledge needed later when your classic breaks down in the=20 middle of nowhere. We've all been down those trails.

Tom De Moor

No, your idea is the road to disaster.

That Bimmer is your dailer drive, the one you need and depend on to get to work. That drive takes longer and is far motre important than those week-end-drives to impress the GF. Drive your BMW -which is a nice car- untill it dies or needs a very expensif repair. Save your money untill you can buy a *sorted* classic car.

Garages all over the world are full of "classic cars under restauration", most of those garages are moneypits. Buying a classic car is not always easy but a sorted one will cost you about 4 to 5 times less that restauring one.

I have a friend in the car restauration business: a minimum on any car is 100 Hr of work without parts. I don't know the hour rates in the UK but 1000 Hr of work translates in ±20 kUPD. Correct me if your desired (future) classic will be worth that amount of pennies. Mind also that you'll need to be able to live with it: a 500 HP US-mussle car can be nice for starters, but will you like it (and can you afford it) after 3-

4 months when the weekly 100 l of petrol is going into it?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Eh? That's a bit of an immense generalisation.

Vamp - just make sure you do plenty of research so you know exactly what you need to do, and then make an informed decision based on your skills, your mates skills, your tools, budget etc etc. If it's a comversion thats been done before try and talk to the people that've done it and get some advice. And consider all you're options - for example would a bigger engine be an easier substitute for forced induction?

It sounds like it could be a fair bit of work, but if you reckon you can do it go for it!! The hardest thing with a project like that is staying motivated.

No, your idea is the road to disaster.

That Bimmer is your dailer drive, the one you need and depend on to get to work. That drive takes longer and is far motre important than those week-end-drives to impress the GF. Drive your BMW -which is a nice car- untill it dies or needs a very expensif repair. Save your money untill you can buy a *sorted* classic car.

Garages all over the world are full of "classic cars under restauration", most of those garages are moneypits. Buying a classic car is not always easy but a sorted one will cost you about 4 to 5 times less that restauring one.

I have a friend in the car restauration business: a minimum on any car is 100 Hr of work without parts. I don't know the hour rates in the UK but 1000 Hr of work translates in ±20 kUPD. Correct me if your desired (future) classic will be worth that amount of pennies. Mind also that you'll need to be able to live with it: a 500 HP US-mussle car can be nice for starters, but will you like it (and can you afford it) after 3-

4 months when the weekly 100 l of petrol is going into it?

You've got a nice toolbox? Great: start doing your own maintenance (oil/filter/brakes) on your Bimmer, it'll save you quite a bit and you'll gain knowledge needed later when your classic breaks down in the middle of nowhere. We've all been down those trails.

****************************************************

Ummm, that's all cool Tom, and as factual as ever, but where did restoring classics, or even classic cars come into it? Vamp was gonna buy a cheapo shed to commute to work, and take his Beemer off the road to do work to it (such as new suspension etc..). He didn't mention buying or restoring a classic anywhere, he just started the post with the fact he went to classic car show...

E36s are generally s**te.

Sell it and buy something better. Seriously. You won't make any improvements to it that will make it significantly better to drive - and given the price of E36 M3s these days, you'd be *much* better off starting with one of those and modding to suit.

Personally, in your position, I'd consider ditching the E36, buying a snotter for commuting and possibly sticking my spare cash into a nice

944. They can't get any cheaper and I reckon once we've pulled out of the current financial crisis, they'll start to appreciate. Also, they're not too complex and valuable that you couldn't do a bit of tinkering and modding on them if that's what you wanted to do.

Practical Performance Car had several issues with someone building an E30

335 Turbo that will show you roughly what's involved in fitting a turbo. If it's just a weekend car for blasting round country roads and trackdays and you're not bothered by no aircon/roof/windows etc then a kit car would be a very good choice. You can put stupid amounts of power into a lightweight car and the insurance is very cheap even when you don't have a NCB to use on it.

Because, Dan, a cheapo car will not get VAmp at work. Taking the Bimmer off the road and work on it with no or close to no experiance on it, is asking for burning the wallet. Its complete exhaust line for example will be about as expensif as his total budget would need to be. Furthermore the Bimmer will require tools and equipement that Vamp won't have acces to.

The Bimmer is reliable, a (iirc) 328i is a nice car but by no means an inexpensif car (brakes, suspension) surtainly not if you start to mod it. 3 paires of throttlebodies cost in my book a lot more than motor which you have to get out at the wrecker yourself.

The first project should be something fun, light (in weight: nicer to pick up a bike engine than a straight 6 BMW-engine), not expensif and done within max 6 months. If possible with some free advice around on a dedicated newsgroup.

A lotus 7-esk anyone? Locost, MK Engineering or similar? To be found for around 1500 to 2000 UKP, 1300 cc engine and suspension for tenners etc. No roof, so no problems with roof; no ABS, no powersteering, not assisted brakes: so can't go wrong and cost nor weigh anything. When finished a little bomb 550 kg for 80-100 HP, with huge brakes and even better roadholding...

Always the same: first crawl, then walk and then run. Starting modding the Bimmer and blowing up the engine will leave Vamp with a wreck; blowing up a 10-20 UKP 1300 cc Ford-engine will send him a afternoon in his shed to dismantle it, getting aluminium and iron part to the recycler and with the money recieved getting in the evening to the wrecker to pick up his "new" 1300 cc 4-potter. He might even get some change for the underbody pink neons on his 7 ;-)

Tom De Moor

Yea why not :-) Go for it dude, I'd start with suspension as it's not that hard to fit, and it'll make loads of difference over your shagged out 10 year old/100k mile shocks and springs. If you're not using it as a track weapon as well I wouldn't bother with coilovers though as they don't really offer much over the lowered/stiffened uprated stuff on the road, except a harsher ride most of the time heh! A really decent uprated dampers an springs setup can be stiffer and lower without being detrimental to the ride quality as well, but lowering too much will give you issues on really bumpy lanes and the like if that's where you're fancying going - nothing worse than the sound of the sump smacking a bump in the road... Trust me on that one, it's a nasty sound...

Didn't you once talk about some easy inlet mods you'd found? Or was it something you could swap on from another engine or something that freed up a nice chunk of power? I can't remember now, but I'm sure you had once mentioned an inlet or something that you could swap onto yours off of another BM engine for a little power hike. So, you should remind me what it is, then do it :-) Then perhaps some exhaust work - how many cats have you got? If you've got a pre-cat, get that swapped out for straight thru, an swap your primary cat for a sports cat or even better, a straight through de-cat, if you can be arsed to swap the cat back on for each MOT, as it seems to be the older the cat design is you've got, the more power they sap. And it's probably a fair bet the E36 cats were the same from the start of E36s to the end isn't it? And didn't the E36 start in like, 1992?

Actually, having read the other replies, I reckon you should go with either the kit-car / locost idea, or the 944 that SteveH suggested. So, flog the Beemer on Ebay, you'll get more for it on there I reckon, making sure you show all the history and that it's had Nikasil issues sorted, with photos of all the papers etc :-)

Tom De Moor gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Of course it will. Don't be daft. A grand will buy a very presentable car with years of reliable life in it. It doesn't even need to be an uninteresting car - it could buy something far more interesting and far better than an E36...

He's gonna spend a grand on a car. There are plenty of cars around for £1k which will get him to work and back. And like he says, he's got a decent set of tools so when it needs servicing or something needs fixing then he can do it. TBH if he plans the work on the Beemer properly then unless he's unlucky, if the work shed is off the road for a couple of days until he can fix it then he can use the Beemer.

As much as a grand?!

500 quid will get a reliable snotter for commuting - a grand will, as you say, buy something really rather nice and interesting.

You'd just about get a usable 156 or even 166 for a grand these days.

I approve of either approach.

The good thing about a 944 is that it's a great car for driving 'to' the track as well as 'at' the track. Not monstrously powerfull, but that really isn't everything.

There's plenty of potential projects out there - my list of future ones is forever growing!! But if it's the beemer Vamp really wants to mod then he should just go for it. Personally I'd go for an E30 S6, but that's just me.

It's worth considering insurance though - with Vamp's history I dunno what slapping a turbo on a 'modern' car will do to the premium. IME older cars (especially those you can get on a classic policy and/or limited mileage) work out uber cheap and more often than not they don't seem to care how you modify it.

You can do reliable for =A380. You can do luxury reliable for =A31k. It will just be old luxury.

--=20 Carl Robson Get cashback on your purchases Topcashback

yeah a manifold and throttle body from a 325 will give you in instant increase from 193bhp to 220bhp or there abouts due to the engine being restricted (like the merc and audi's were of the same age) because of the german company car tax law at the time, keeping it to 193 stopped it going into the next band or something, i've also heard that if you add US M3 cams you can get close to 250bhp

i do like the kit car idea i have to admit and having been in a westfield i really do like them! any idea on what a kit would set me back?. 944 also a sweet idea might keep that in mind too.

Have a look on Caterham and Westfield's sites but a full kit is in the order of £16-17k.

There are cheaper kits running from about £4k and up from the likes of Robin Hood, Sylva, Tiger, Dax and others.

Have a root around on Pistonheads to see what people are asking for ready made ones, and remember that they don't weigh a lot so massive engines are not required to go really quite fast indeed so don't get too hung up if it's "only" a 1600. You can always swap in a bigger engine later.

It's usually far cheaper to find a finished and SVAd Locost or kit car rather than build your own but you don't get the spannerisfaction.

ISTR Bob Sherunckle and perhaps Tony Bond are amongst others appear to be the masters of cheapness in this respect, perhaps they can offer more advice.

you can do unreliable luxury for £100 :-)

I do that rather often.