My "Project/Build"

[Dominic.G.]

Hey everyone I just joined this forum and so far you all seem really chill and nice :thumbup
Just thought I would make a thread showing my cars life. Think it should be more of a thread about its life rather than a build since I don't really plan on doing anything really crazy or any power mods.

My car is a 1999 Jet Black 323i E46. Bought it about a year ago when I was 18. So yes I am 19 and ending my freshmen year in college right now over in Washington DC. My car stays at home in Nor Cal while i'm at school :(

The engine has about 90,000 miles on it while the rest of the car has about 130,000. This is why I don't plan on doing any power mods and the fact that it is a 323i lol

So i'll start with the pictures, let me know what you think. And yes I started off in a direction (murdered out) but have since changed my taste as you can start to see by the stuff i'm buying :thumbup

Here's the earliest picture I have. It's a little after I bought it. Only thing so far is matte black grills and window tint

http://i1227.photobucket.com/albums/ee434/DominicNathanGrillo/My%20Car/l_f87cc4e357eb4b7c8a9f6b7bd412a6522.jpg

Then I bought some rims (Motegi MR116 18x8)
And Tinted the tail lights with VHT Niteshades
Oh... and put a ford 250 exhaust tip on that I found on the road since my car came with only a nasty little pipe haha

http://i1227.photobucket.com/albums/ee434/DominicNathanGrillo/My%20Car/l_d7aa801d37fc41d19c9daf86be6e98842.jpg

http://i1227.photobucket.com/albums/ee434/DominicNathanGrillo/My%20Car/l_8eb3f44038db4b4da6657e6e2b6fe55f.jpg

Next were some R/C/R Tail lights because I got a ticket for the tinted ones
and Smoked corners

http://i1227.photobucket.com/albums/ee434/DominicNathanGrillo/My%20Car/l_14975f41f82947f58c6511a19ed55275.jpg

Then sold the rims for a lot more than I bought them for ;)

http://i1227.photobucket.com/albums/ee434/DominicNathanGrillo/My%20Car/DSC_0567_2.jpg

Then one of my smoked corners fell out on the way to Oakland :( so I thought I would try clear corners (I like smoked better)

http://i1227.photobucket.com/albums/ee434/DominicNathanGrillo/My%20Car/DSC_0303.jpg

http://i1227.photobucket.com/albums/ee434/DominicNathanGrillo/My%20Car/DSC_0321.jpg

That is how it sits right now but I have been continuing to purchase parts to be put on in the near future I hope.

I started with a rear bumper

http://i1227.photobucket.com/albums/ee434/DominicNathanGrillo/My%20Car/DSC_0258.jpg

Then My exhaust tips from Ebay

http://i1227.photobucket.com/albums/ee434/DominicNathanGrillo/My%20Car/DSC_0039.jpg

Then Raceland Coilovers from Raceland

http://i1227.photobucket.com/albums/ee434/DominicNathanGrillo/My%20Car/2.jpg

[Dominic.G.]

And last but not least for right now I ordered some aggressive rims (last friday) ;) Want a teaser for now?

[kayger12]

Nice work. Car looks good.

I merged up all of your posts for you so it runs cleaner.

And yes-- of course we want a teaser pic!

[jjcools]

Looks like fun

[Dominic.G.]

Looks like fun

What do you mean? haha :)


Nice work. Car looks good.

I merged up all of your posts for you so it runs cleaner.

And yes-- of course we want a teaser pic!

Thank you! Ok here's the teaser pic (just a snapshot of the wheel from the internet) They should arrive tomorrow, but I won't even be home because i'm still in school until May 7th :(

Can you guess what they are? ;)

http://i1227.photobucket.com/albums/ee434/DominicNathanGrillo/My%20Car/Screenshot2011-04-02at121407AM.png

[danewilson77]

Ahh.....car is delicious. In for rim/rear bumper/tips pics.

Your entire initial post is a tease. WTF?

Starting off right. I like eeet.

Droid! Srs Legitness!

[Dominic.G.]

Ahh.....car is delicious. In for rim/rear bumper/tips pics.

Your entire initial post is a tease. WTF?

Starting off right. I like eeet.

Droid! Srs Legitness!

Sadly none of those parts are installed if thats what you mean by it being a tease haha. I'll probably only install the coilovers and rims and one pair of tips on the stock bumper soon. I need to get tires though and i'm not sure what size I should get since I want to be stanced

[Dominic.G.]

Oh and I need to get adjustable endlinks before I can install the coilovers, but those aren't that expensive. The big problem is that the gf is putting a big dent in my money that I need for car parts :P I gotta save $400 bucks to go sky diving for her birthday on June 24th! I'm just playing (kind of). I can't wait to take her skydiving though.

[Marcus-SanDiego]

Yeah. Dane is the king of teases, so he was complimenting you, Dom.

[mimalmo]

Sadly none of those parts are installed if thats what you mean by it being a tease haha. I'll probably only install the coilovers and rims and one pair of tips on the stock bumper soon. I need to get tires though and i'm not sure what size I should get since I want to be stanced

Looks like you have a good start with your car! There are a number of good sources out there to help you decide tire size. In the end it will depend on your ride height, camber, wheel offset and tire model choice.

[Hornung418]

Hamman rims?

[Dominic.G.]

Yeah. Dane is the king of teases, so he was complimenting you, Dom.

Oh ok thanks Dane! :thumbup


Looks like you have a good start with your car! There are a number of good sources out there to help you decide tire size. In the end it will depend on your ride height, camber, wheel offset and tire model choice.

Yea but being a noob at tires i'm trying to understand. Right now I'v been told I should use 235/35R19... What do you think of that? Wheels are 19x9.5 ET33 and I hope to not change the camber and to lower the car as low as possible


Hamman rims?

Nope guess again :P

[danewilson77]

Might be a good read for you here....

http://www.zhpmafia.com/forums/showthread.php?527-Wheel-Fitment-101

[gr330zhp]

OZ Wheels

[mimalmo]

Yea but being a noob at tires i'm trying to understand. Right now I'v been told I should use 235/35R19... What do you think of that? Wheels are 19x9.5 ET33 and I hope to not change the camber and to lower the car as low as possible


235/35/19 on a 9.5" rim is a good size if you just want a little stretch. Be sure to pick a tire with a rounded sidewall like the Toyo T1R or Falken FK452.

[Dominic.G.]

OZ Wheels

close, I'm not that baller though :P


235/35/19 on a 9.5" rim is a good size if you just want a little stretch. Be sure to pick a tire with a rounded sidewall like the Toyo T1R or Falken FK452.

Need a rounded side wall to stretch it?

[mimalmo]

No but if you're going for a slammed/stanced look, squared-off sidewalls don't look good. Additionally, square sidewalls make it harder to get aggressive wheel fitments to work.

[mimalmo]

Here's a Falken FK452 235/35/19 on a 9.5" wheel. (http://tyrestretch.com/9.5_235_35_R19/9.5_235_35_R19_Falken_452.jpg%20Warning:%20%20html specialchars()%20[function.htmlspecialchars]:%20charset%20%60UTF-7'%20not%20supported,%20assuming%20iso-8859-1%20in%20/mounted-storage/home34b/sub001/sc27915-YPZT/tyrestretch.com/zp-core/functions-basic.php%20on%20line%20172%20.php)

http://tyrestretch.com/cache/9.5_235_35_R19/9.5_235_35_R19_Falken_452_595.jpg

[Dominic.G.]

Do you think I could go skinnier and thinner? I don't want the 19's to bend though. What do you think?

[mimalmo]

You certainly can go skinnier. There's plenty of examples on www.tyrestretch.com It's all up to you to decide on the look you are going for.


Your new wheels:
http://www.modbargains.com/zoom_img/_1229611898.jpg

[Dominic.G.]

Yup you got it, I hope they arrive today.

[Dominic.G.]

Called the dealer (BavarianX) because they didn't arrive on monday. They said they shipped them out today :thumbup