Geese guys this is sweet. I have been away from the forums for the last few days and the first thing I saw when I came back was "Sean's E36" under the picture that was not loading. I clicked on the link just hoping that it was actually my car that made the feature. Sure enough the first thing I see is my favorite pic I have ever taken of my car
I want to thank bimmerforums, all the members and all the other bimmer-heads out there for this great honor. This project is one of the best things I have ever took on in my 19 years of life and quite the learning experience about shady companies and people. There were many very upsetting and irritating phases of this project due to the very unprofessional, half assed work of the sponsoring body shop called M1 AutoBody based in El Monte, CA but we all live and learn right?. Even through getting lied to and shafted by M1 left and right during the building process I was just happy to get the car away from them and start to enjoy what I had. The idea for the body work all started from a very vivid dream I had almost 2 weeks after totaling my beloved M3 which was a vary hard time for me considering all the hundreds if not over a thousand hours of labor my dad, my friends and I had into her. In the dream I saw what I knew was obviously my "Dream Car". A few things that really stood out from the dream which I can still remember like it's the morning after was fender flares, shaved handles/moldings, and the most memorable part was the 5 series headlights and hood molded onto this E36 3 series that I envisioned. The next day I spent most of the day searching the forums to find any E36 with this headlight conversion. I finally came up with these pictures...
PIC 1
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I ended up getting in touch with the owner of the car and he gave me great information about the process of the conversion.
At this point everything started falling right into place. First my check came from the insurance co. for the ///M and then a day later the check came for my custom stereo that we built from scratch which was jacked from the totaled ///M that I had towed to the front of my house to pull off some parts. I don’t even want to get into that whole story because it is very long but here are a few pics to give you an idea of the car and the system...
M3 PIC 1
M3 PIC 2
M3 PIC 3
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System PIC 1
System PIC 2
Anyways after I got my checks I had to pay my parent the rest of the money I owed for the M3 which was around $5,000(I had been paying $500 a month to them from the start). Having to pay for something I only had memories of was hard but that’s just how the world turns. I looked at the budget I had and moved my dream car plans into high gear.
The first step was calling DTMAutoHaus to get detailed info on the Rieger Infinity 2 wide body kit. I told them all the plans I had for my new project and they threw out a good price for everything I was going to need. I then asked if they had any info on good body shops that had good labor prices and could do headlight conversions. This is when I learned about M1 AutoSport. I have no idea about how a professional company like DTMAutoHaus could be related to M1 AKA the shit-shop but at the time I was very eager to get the project underway and was ignorant to the way M1 runs there scams and how they work with customers.
Well on a better note I made the call to M1 and threw out every idea I had for the car to them. Right off the bat they sounded like they had some brain power which was a plus but they did tell me they were going to need me to do up a concept picture to make sure they can handle it. I told them that it would be no problem considering graphic design is my gig and it’s were I get all my money for being the modoholic I am.
All this was really bringing my spirits up and was giving me something to do besides thinking about the crash. I got on Photoshop right away and started putting the dream-car into a picture to show M1. Well here is the first picture I submitted to them…
Plan A
They absolutely loved the plan and told me they could pull it off. I also told them I was still looking for the 3 series to use and guess what..The owner of the shop had been trying to sell his old 93’ 4D/325i. After hearing this is when the money talk came in. Here was the deal if I buy there bmw they will sponsor the project and cut a lot of the labor price off. It all sounded like it was going to work out.
A day or 2 later I was down at the shop with my pops to inspect the car and test drive it. I also brought a print of my Plan A design and a letter I made up with all the parts I needed and how I wanted the work to be done
Take a look at the list
Now for the test drive…Wow it felt sooooooo good to be behind the wheel of an E36 again. It sure as hell was no M3 but it ran strong and actually really surprised me as far as acceleration and handling for an old 93’. My dad and I both agreed to take the car and start the project because we both knew it was what I needed to get my mind off the M. We started talking prices after the looked over my list. We came up with some of the major prices as you can see here…
Price Breakdown
Well this was definitely out of my budget due to the cost of the headlight conversion and the fact that there was a lot of other things to add the that price breakdown so it was time to head home and try to think up a different front end design. After not to long I had Plan B ready and I really started to like it even more then my Plan A. Here is the compairo…
Plan A VS. Plan B
And here is the final design of Plan B…
Final Plan B Design
After a lot of thought and with the help of you bf guys and from the dtmers from the project threads I was sold to go with Plan B.
BimmerForums Thread
DTM Power thread
Shortly after making the final decision of Plan B we were down in LA again at M1 finalizing the deal and giving them a few different Photoshop pics I did that had to do with Plan B. Check them out..
Close up of vent design(don’t mind the flares on the front clip
Close up of custom nose piece design
Things are really starting to come together now and they next step is to source some nice rims for her. Well guess what another dream is about to come true HRE’S are on the horizon. Thanks to Ryan Castro whose car has always been an inspiration to me I got my hands on the wheels that would always drop my jaw in my M3 days. 19” HRE 546’s. Wow now that was a great moment in the project. Castro only lived 10 mins. Away from M1 too so he dropped off the wheels for me at the shop and they then got started with the body work…WooWooooo.
Here are some pics of the car when she was under the knife…
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Well for some odd reason they did not put the HRE’s on while the worked the flares in and guess what the wheels did not fit for shit. My dad and I started realizing that these guys did not pay any attention to detail so we decided to go down to LA again and make sure they did it right this time. Here are some pics of my dad and me redesigning the flares and making them all consistent(The right front flare was an inch lower on the 1/4 panel then the left..Damn they are dumb) any ways here are the pics..
Re-Design 1
Re-Design 2
Re-Design 3
Re-Design 4
And after tons of drama and M1 messing up a lot here are the final pics....
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That should do for now. I just wanted to thank everyone again and the bf staff for this highlight in my life. And all the people that have been following the project from the start I hope you all know that you guys are all a part of this car too and that I really hope you keep checking in from time to time because all the body work was just the first step of this project and I have some really cool plans that I will be sharing with you all once I get underway with them. In a little over a week I will be heading down to SBCC to start my first year of college so I am not going to be getting the chance to start any major stuff but I will definitely be keeping everyone up to date so keep in touch. If everything works out and I get a job in SB then when I get home this summer I am going all out with some fiberglass work and start the interior planning.
I really enjoy all the props you guys always give me because it keeps me from giving up which I have considered due to all my bad luck but when this car is %100 done which will take at least $10,000 and at least 2 or 3 more years it will all pay off I can just see it.
Well I better get back to work now I am about 3 or 4 hours behind lol.
Well guys keep it real and feel free to ask me any questions you have, I’ll be more then happy to answer any questions.
Sean Behm