2006 Deep Black Track Shed BudgetBoltOnBuild

[Chris]

Excuse the dust and blurry picture but I had to get the missus to take it... Big milestone today.

Blimey! Big milestone!!

 

[Pav]

grats..

 

[Helpimonfire]

So. First post in quite a while. Still got her. Still using it as a daily.

Updates...
There really wasn't anything new after I had my manifold and remap done at Engine Dynamics until December/January when I had the dreaded balljoint clunk. So we dropped some cash and basically refreshed the suspension all round where needed.

The H&R springs I had on were proving too harsh for daily use and my shocks had seen better days, So I ordered some Eibach Pro springs and a full set of Cup shocks, new top mounts and rear spring cups. Bought a new nearside inner and outer hub assembly and new wheel bearing as the balljoints were 113k miles old and were standard, so I decided there was no way they'd be coming out in one piece.

I got rid of my Heko wind deflectors as they were always dropping and causing the windows to pinch, I kinda prefer the car without now.

Then I paid a man to tidy the car up, Simon at Vehicle Valeting & Detailing in Fakenham took my car and gave it a 2 stage machine polish, wax, polish etc... Wet vac inside and even cleaned my roof lining. I didn't realise how dirty I'd let the car get until I saw the before and after photos...

This week I went and spent even more money with a new set of Calibre Suzuka wheels (17x7.5) and a pair of Goodyear Eagle F1's to replace the Yoko's I still had on the rear. So F1's all round now. Also fitted a K-Tec induction kit this morning while they've got their 10% off sale, my old airbox had a broken lid and really wasn't doing much in the way of filtering the air. Nice and bassy note on acceleration now, making me giggle like a child when I took it for a drive this afternoon.

So yeah. Now we're up to date. Excuse the dirty car, we've got seriously hard water here and cleaning a black car when it's hot and sunny out is a recipe for water marks!

 

[sevenfourate]

Good to see you around.

Bet the cars driving fab with recent refreshments !

Wheels look the bullocks. Pricey ?

 

[Pav]

another expensive update..just shows how much people love these cars..thumbs up..

 

[Helpimonfire]

Wheels look the bullocks. Pricey ?

Genuinely, no. £400 delivered. Came with 'tuner' bolts which will be coming off once I've got the stud conversion sorted, I ordered it but realised I'd ordered the wrong length studs, they're WAY too long!

another expensive update..just shows how much people love these cars..thumbs up..

Yeah they're expensive when something needs replacing, I think it was £800 for the manifold and remap, around £1200 for the suspension refresh and a few other bits (I had steering rack ends and track rod ends replaced too while it was all apart) and another £800 on the KTec induction, wheels and 2 new tyres.

But hey, it's awesome fun and it's never let me down in 2 years and 20k miles of abuse!

 

[rcwsr]

Nice to see some DB clios at the top of the projects forum! So difficult keeping them clean

Those wheels look great, you got spacers on too?

 

[Helpimonfire]

Nice to see some DB clios at the top of the projects forum! So difficult keeping them clean

Those wheels look great, you got spacers on too?

Yeah I'm really happy with them. No spacers, the offset is just right. I might run a 5mm spacer on the rear at some point but that's once I've sorted the stud conversion out.

 

[Helpimonfire]

Weather was nice. Polishing happened.






Bad news is I've found some rust bubbles forming on the rear quarter panel at the front of the wheel arch. Hopefully I can keep it at bay but it looks like it's been there for a while now. The front of the rear arches has been pebbledashed pretty hard so I'm under no illusion that it'll need some bodywork in the near future. I may do it myself when I get my workshop built and then I'll get the car wrapped I think.

 

[Big Ben]

Looking good mate

 

[Helpimonfire]

Long overdue bump again but this time it's not the best of news...

After reading @tombate911 build thread on his 330Ci, I realised how much I missed my old E46 so the hunt was on for the cleanest 330 I could find. It took several months and I kind of made myself believe that throwing money at the Clio would make me keep it but sadly I'd fallen out of love with it. The draw of a big 6 cylinder, RWD jack of all trades was too much to ignore!

So here's the replacement!
2003 (53) BMW 330Ci Sport
Heated electric memory leather interior
Harmon Kardon Premium sound system
Cruise, climate, parking sensors... The works. It even has the expensive as hell option Adaptive HID headlights which follow the steering angle as you drive!








The main kicker for buying this one however was a £1,000 extra that the previous owner fitted which is a Quaife ATB LSD. Cost hime £1,066 to buy from James Bird (who I believe is the UK distributor?) and another £500+ for fitting.

I'll keep popping in as I always do as I love seeing the builds on here, you guys are nuts!

 

[Pav]

 

[Big Ben]

Good luck with the bimmer. Any future plans or mods for it?

 

[Helpimonfire]

Good luck with the bimmer. Any future plans or mods for it?

At the minute just wheels and a map. I can't justify going all out on a track monster, I never tracked the Clio so I doubt this would ever see a track!

 

[Pav]

 

[tombate911]

This is great! I've only popped on here to catch up on a few messages but I'll make sure I keep an eye on what you do with this. If you have any questions with the E46 don't hesitate to give me a shout.
If anyone is looking for the build thread which swayed him...
Look no further - https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=47&t=1781719&i=999999

Cheers!

Tom.

 

[Helpimonfire]

So this happened the other weekend. I was never going to track this but a last minute space at Curborough sprint track came up on the RSUK Facebook group, I'd kinda been toying with the idea of doing something with the Clio and now it's starting to snowball!

I pushed my limits at Curbs and the car had more to give until the end of the day, I started to run out of brakes which wasn't much fun and the tyres were beginning to struggle, not bad for standard Brembo pads and Goodyear Eagle F1 tyres. I got back home and the next day I'd "accidentally" ordered some DS2500 pads, HEL braided lines, Motul RBF660 and a few other bits and pieces. Then this morning I took advantage of eBay's 20% off code and snagged a set of NS2Rs for bargain price of £260 delivered from Demon Tweeks eBay store.

I'm still debating what suspension to run, bare in mind I refreshed most of it in January last year. I've toyed with the Yellowspeed coilovers which come in at the same price as Bilstein's BUT come with adjustable top mounts. They seem to get decent reviews. Some saving to be done first, however.

I still have the BMW that replaced this but it's currently a little poorly with VANOS and CCV issues, once the weather stops being quite so terrible I'll tackle those. The Clio is in daily use by the missus as her Corsa had a water pump failure, currently awaiting the garage to repair under warranty. So yeah... That's the yearly bump done

 

[Helpimonfire]

The BMW however hasn't been unloved. It got some new wheels and then just keeps getting money thrown at it. It's been issue after issue with the Panzerwagen and it's been up for sale twice when I've been sick of the issues, forgotten about it several times and just used the Clio instead. It's been a bit of a love/hate journey with the 330 so far! Best bit is the ice cold climate control...

 

[Big Ben]

There’s me thinking the Clio had gone! Nice to hear from you

 

[Helpimonfire]

There’s me thinking the Clio had gone! Nice to hear from you

I tried selling it but it stayed for 2 reasons...

1) Most potential buyers were absolute morons
2) I made the mistake of putting a fresh MOT on it and taking it for a blast.

Hopefully there'll be more updates coming, we've got a tyre fitting machine at work so that'll be interesting to try out when the NS2Rs turn up!