WHO | Andrew Everett, Contributor
WHAT | E36 318iS
MILEAGE | n/a
YEAR | 1994

It’s all been a bit quiet as far as this is concerned but yes, it’s all finished, fully sorted with everything working as it should – and it has been on the road in 2011. In fact, I’ve just MoT’d it again; I put it through a test in September 2010, after which it sat idle in a corner of the workshop.

In January we decided to run an article on replacing E36 rear arches so the Coupé was taken to my local bodyshop to have a new arch grafted in. The passenger side rear arch was scabby rather than rotten so it was bare-metalled and repainted, while the driver’s side got the full arch replacement.

L980 PWU was one of those cars where there always seemed to be something to do or improve. A couple of very small scabs on the lip of the bootlid were done in August, scuffed bumper trims replaced when mint used ones were found at the breaker’s and I finally got the front fogs to work - after an hour with new connectors and general faffing about got them both glowing nicely.

Another addition was the plastic side sill covers. These aren’t strictly correct for a 1993 car but the E36 looks so much better with them on. I had a mint pair from a Compact I broke up – yes, E36 sill covers are all the same length. A local bodyshop painted these Alpine White 11 for me and managed to save the expensive black rubber seals by using masking tape to hold them back out of the way. Fitting these sill covers can be a pain – some use great dollops of sealer but I wanted to do it properly with the correct clips. BMW dealers had a plastic sill template that gives accurate hole drilling points and I borrowed one from my local dealer, drilled the correct sized holes (8.5mm if I remember, but do check), fitted the green plugs and the sill covers snapped into place with a few decent thumps.

 To read more about this BMW see the February 2012 issue of Total BMW.