#shadowfriends

What happened to shine’s E36?

shine’s first car was a BMW E36 318is with a M42B18 engine inside. It had M bumpers front and rear, recaro leather interior, alcantara roof (interior), aftermarket steering wheel, shortshifter, TA Technix coilovers all around, custom exhaust system that was quite loud and few other cool things.

shine: “When I was looking for my first car I knew I wont have a lot of cars to choose from because I didn’t have enough money on me to buy something really cool, and without help from my friends I wouldn’t even be able to buy what I ended up buying.

There were only few things I wanted from the car: rear wheel drive, cheap parts, ok reliability and good fuel economy.”

“Originally, I’ve always wanted a Japanese car like Toyota Corolla AE86, Nissan 180SX (200SX in Europe), Nissan Skyline R32 or at least something similar to any of these. In Europe none of these are easy to come by, not to mention how overpriced they are, especially in good condition. So for an Eastern European guy from poor Baltic country my best shot was BMW E36, as it is the cheapest RWD we can buy and maintain here.

I wanted specifically 318is with a M44 or M42B18 engine inside, as it revs higher than other E36 engines (except for M3, obviously), has plenty of power and does good on fuel. Also, I had people telling me that it’s quite reliable unless I go crazy on it without proper maintenance. I wanted specifically a coupe too, because compacts, sedans and tourings are ugly, but that’s just my personal opinion/preference.

I searched for quite some time and couldn’t find anything, until I stumbled upon this one ad in Neighbour country Lithuania. Next thing I knew I was on my way back home behind the steering wheel of my BMW. “

“When I checked it out back in Lithuania I didn’t have an opportunity to see the underbody, but I sniffed around it as much as I could, and it totally looked like the chassis was in a good shape. The car had relatively high mileage, but I thought it probably wouldn’t be too hard to pass inspection with it and deal with issues when I have to face them, so I thought the price was fair, and trusted when the person who was selling the car and said that there would be nothing too serious rust-wise. But back at home I got a good look at the underbody, and got quite disappointed... After poking it a bit with a screwdriver the floor under drivers seat just crumbled and started falling apart in big chunks. That wasn’t the only place that had this issue.”

“Although I was really sad about my first car being a rusty BMW (I used to hate BMW’s really much, by the way) I managed to somewhat get it all together and “fix” the car. I even got it registered and road legal with all of pay-check money, and as a result I got to drive it around for around two months in total, but I still spent countless days and nights working on it together with all of my friends, because it just kept breaking down no matter how much money I had put into it or how much work I did on it. Classic BMW cooling system issues, bushings, door cards, door handles, wiring, so on and so forth...

Honestly speaking, I enjoyed the process of owning the car way more than I expected. I enjoyed working on the car with my friends and getting to drive it after it finally started working as it should, but it kinda felt like it was not worth it all. I didn’t buy a BMW to sacrifice my entire life for it. The rust especially kept bugging me, because the welded places weren’t done by a professional and they probably wouldn’t last very long anyway. By the end of all this mess, I thought to myself that there are more fun and reliable cars out there, and that I should get rid of this BMW.”

“The worst part is that it was totally not a great car, but I still felt really sad when I was putting it out for sale. But, oh well... I managed to sell it on my first day off to the first person who came by. He asked some questions, said he knows that its nothing near perfect, but he owns a couple of other E36′s and he knows what he is dealing with more or less. And that’s how the story of my E36 Coupe ended.

Is BMW E36 a bad and a boring car? No, but finding one that’s well maintained, still in a good shape, without rust issues and it not showing its age is really hard, and it costs totally different amounts of money. Will I buy another BMW E36 and am I ready to pay more money for one that’s in a better condition? Not really. For me personally, it’s not worth more, and I don’t want to spend years of time and loads of money rebuilding a car like this.”

Chill’n’Grill at Lake Vištytis, Lithuania.

We got another chance to visit an amazing car-event just recently. This time we went to Chill’n’Grill in Lithuania. Again as a media team. It took us a while to get there and come back home, but we didn’t regret it even a slightest bit. P.S. Don’t forget to check the video in the end of the post.

Even though we were late, we managed to get in without any problems and enjoy our time there, thanks to friendly staff. Once we entered, we instantly got overwhelmed by the atmosphere. The place played its role very well. A camping zone next to a big lake, filled with tons of tents, beautiful cars, good music, and a smell of tasty food all over the place.

When we entered the camping zone, and understood how cool it is, we decided that we would just enjoy our night there, and leave all the “work” for the next day. We set up our tents, walked around, checked out all kinds of project-cars and even had a little BBQ.

The next morning we woke up earlier, so we could quietly walk around and take some shots of cars and the place. It was a very calm and quiet morning between us and all the projects there. A magical and inspirational experience, that made us promise each other, that next year we are coming here with at least one project car to show others.

Another thing to mention would be that we finally met TEAMIXX66, and had a chance to share some stickers with them. The work they’ve put into their cars is insane. Attention to detail, their style and all the custom body work is mind-blowing!

We also stumbled upon some cars that we’ve seen in other events, and some of them had to travel even greater distance than us, but that just proves how much of a fun event it is, and that no one should miss out on it if they have an opportunity to come.

The shots we made wont be enough to show You all of the great experience we had at the event, but we can at least show You some of the amazing project cars that we saw there. Thank You for having us, Chill’n’Grill!

From Germany to Latvia and back on a ‘90 Honda Civic EF.

This summer we had our first SHADOW FRIENDS MEET which we held in one small Latvian village that Faby decided to come to - all on his own - on his 1990 Honda Civic EF. The distance was approximately 1800 km between his home and the place where we decided to meet, and this is how it went.

Faby had decided to split the road in two parts. First one was to get from Frankfurt (Germany) to Warsaw (Poland) where he would stay at for the night, and second - from Warsaw to Riga (Latvia) where he would meet shine in the evening and stay at his place. Car did it easily, ate no oil, no leaks and no issues in general.

Not long after Civic went through a bit of harsh driving on back-roads at midnight and driving on abandoned fields that “magically turned into auto-cross tracks on their own” on Shadow Friends Meet. * Note: Faby’s Civic was faster than Reezmi’s Lexus IS200 and Milz’s Subaru Impreza in time-attack runs by more than 6 seconds, and he won a bottle of cola for that.

Faby had decided to stay for a little bit longer in Latvia and help shine fix his BMW that refused to work properly no matter what. Faby also gave shine his car for couple of days to drive to work with, and as a result of overwork (both job and working on his BMW) shine bumped into something and crushed rear-left fog light on the Civic. Quite a sad turn of events for a car that had 0 issues after all it went through. Both of us tried to cheer each other up and not to fall into depression, because it felt equally bad for both of us, and we understood each other quite well. What made our mood better was the first set of banners that we made for all our cars rear-windows.

Once the situation with shine’s BMW cleared out it was time for Faby to head back home. He took the same route back through Warsaw where he slept over and then got back home. The car again managed to do it without any issues, and returned back to its daily routine with no problems.

This winter Civic is going to see some heavy changes and mods, so this trip will be a good memory to look back at and compare how much things have changed.

* a little word from Faby *

Why did You do this entire trip?

Faby: “I’ve been in Latvia a few times already, but the rest of Shadow Friends had never seen my Civic in real life before, even though they were the ones who inspired me to get one. In short, I just wanted to see them once again, show them my car and enjoy the car-friendly environment.”

Was it worth it and would You do it again?

Faby: “It was definitely worth it, I had a lot of fun. Also I helped out shine in the progress, since his BMW needed repairs and he relied on a car to earn money. I would do it again, but I can do it only once per year, sadly. I’m working full time, it’s pretty expensive overall, and it puts a lot of stress on my car. All of that shouldn't stop me from doing it again though, since owning the car alone in Germany is lame. It's supposed to run alongside my teammates and their cars...”