Hey guys,
I hope you all are doing well, Pakwheels.com sure is I've been mostly away for a while now due to relocating to middle east and haven't posted much ever since. So I thought it would be nice to change that today I am going to share the details of my first ever own car which I bought six months ago. Well, immediately after getting my driving license here (big deal!), a friend handed me over his 2013 civic and went to Pakistan for a few months so I did not have to worry about buying a car. I did however, used to browse used cars for sale in case a good deal popped up.
Now, most of my friends here financed newer Civics or other relatively familiar Japanese cars which make perfect sense in terms of running costs, resale value and peace of mind. But I wanted to stay out of this financing game and also wanted to buy something 'interesting', if not exquisite. However my budget was not very high.
I have been a BMW fan ever since i was a child and the first car I could ever recognize was a BMW 3 series e36. I remember putting it as a wallpaper on my first computer back in 1998 or 99. I always wanted to have that car. To me, it has the perfect timeless classic shape and also some characteristics of an entry level sports car. Its neither a big gas guzzler nor a small, dull econo box sedan. Its also the first car of countless petrol heads across the world so it won't be a bad start.
So while browsing ads, I came across one, the demand was much lower then the market price, car looked reasonable in pictures. Just as I was thinking about it, a close friend sent me a screenshot of the same ad (knowing my interest in such cars) and said i should pick it up as a project. That was it. I picked up the fone and called the then owner of the car, a Pakistani guy. He informed me that the car needed some work, namely front power windows not working, a/c needs new compressor and tie rods need replacement without which it would not pass the annual inspection done here on cars before renewal of registration. He reduced the price further and I did not feel the need to bargain on an already low price and agreed to see the car.
It was ramzan in 2015, I was in the northern most city of UAE and the car was in Abu Dhabi, 230 kms away. I left from here, picked up the friend (who sent me the screenshot) from Dubai and reached Abu dhabi in day time. We inspected the car thoroughly. At that time I did not know anything about BMWs so inspected it from a general view point that can be applied to all cars. It was dirty because the registration had expired 2 weeks ago and the owner was using his newer car. But beneath the dirt, I could see an overall nice and smooth body work, no rust, not much scratches and no apparent flaws. Tires had plenty of life left however interior was dirty and so were the head lights, one fog lamp was missing. Engine sounded fine, automatic gearbox shifting well and over all I could see that there's nothing I cannot fix with a little bit of effort. Deep in my heart i just wanted to buy the car right away no matter what. So, I did Paid the owner token money and agreed to visit again in 2 days to take the car away.
I was soo happy to buy a car I could not even drive at that time!!!
So, here it is, 1994 BMW 320i E36 2000cc 6 cylinder automatic transmission. The below pic is from later on in the project. Over the course of next few months leading up to present days, I have been working on the car to fix it and improve it in whichever way possible in a limited budget in terms of time and money, one small step at a time. It has been a learning process for me regarding BMWs and thanks to my excessive googling habit, I know plenty about bmws of those days now
I will share the progress of the car and DIYs that I have done over the next few days. I hope you guys will enjoy!