My new 190e M104 3.2 Sportline blue/black build

[MightyE30]

Hi all, new member, had the car about a month... 190e Sportline with an M104 3.2 installed, underside and all suspension had a full restoration last year by previous owner so I've been enjoying doing some cosmetics.

Came on 18's which were a bit big for my liking so got some staggered AMG 17's, had them shot blasted, powder coated and all new Falken 'A' rated tyres fitted.

It had some flaring on gear changes so pulled the box sump and replaced the K1 & K2 actuators in the gearbox along with new oil and filter and its now silky smooth as is the M104

I was going to use the flaring as an excuse to manual swap it but it drives so bloody lovely now the auto's right and its a surprisingly snappy change that I'm going to leave it as it is now lol!

Had the 380mm Sportline steering wheel fully refurbed and re-trimmed, stripped and painted the C36 4 pot callipers, new bonnet insulation installed and removed the centre console screen and fully restored it back to OEM with a single DIN bluetooth Blaupunkt, new shifter and surround.

Restored the dash needles back to orange, engine oil and filter change, new coolant and brake fluid changed.

Finished off with some new dealer plates, made my own 3.2 badge and spent a week doing a three stage machine polish, the paints absolutely gorgeous.

Some before and after pics added too, absolutely in love with it... my other cars an Alpine White two door 325i I've restored to mint OEM over the last few years, both of these will be keepers forever

Theres a build blog on here from 2012 by Carat and Poormansporsche which I enjoyed reading through, always great to know a cars history




































My 325i

 

[91dm]

That looks super clean, really nice!

Excellent work on the refresh.

 

[SpikyMikey]

Proper old skool kool
As is the Beemer
Thanks for sharing.

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

Love it - great to see a modern classic being kept as it should be.

`Now - Rock Valley - have they "finally" got round to redeveloping the old Metal Box / Barring Wallis factory site yet ?

 

[poormansporsche]

Looking good.

Back in the day the 2.6 bonnet insulation was NLA and the for some reason the 2.0 insulation did not fit. I seem to remember you needed to buy a W126 one or something and chop it down. I did have one on order but it didn't arrive before I sold the car. It was definitely something that irked me !!!

I did buy a fake 3.2 badge of eBay but it was £hite so never actually fitted it, good work there

I didn't fit the C36 brakes, we did have a set of C32 brakes knocking about but never got round to it.

The 17s ride so much better, I had a set of 18s (plus loads of others !!) on it but the 35s just killed the "190ness" so was running a set of 17" Evo 2s when I sold it which imo suited it perfectly.

Keep it up.

 

[Jobsworth]

Lovely that

 

[MightyE30]

That looks super clean, really nice!

Excellent work on the refresh.

Thank you mate.. a few more bits to do

 

[MightyE30]

Love it - great to see a modern classic being kept as it should be.

`Now - Rock Valley - have they "finally" got round to redeveloping the old Metal Box / Barring Wallis factory site yet ?

View attachment 162543

Yes, they've finally started leveling and building... only the clock tower left of the Metal Box building now though sadly.

 

[MightyE30]

Looking good.

Back in the day the 2.6 bonnet insulation was NLA and the for some reason the 2.0 insulation did not fit. I seem to remember you needed to buy a W126 one or something and chop it down. I did have one on order but it didn't arrive before I sold the car. It was definitely something that irked me !!!

I did buy a fake 3.2 badge of eBay but it was £hite so never actually fitted it, good work there

I didn't fit the C36 brakes, we did have a set of C32 brakes knocking about but never got round to it.

The 17s ride so much better, I had a set of 18s (plus loads of others !!) on it but the 35s just killed the "190ness" so was running a set of 17" Evo 2s when I sold it which imo suited it perfectly.

Keep it up.

Cheers mate, yeah really happy with how its coming on. Its got a really nice clean 190 leather interior so I just need to get the door cards re-trimmed with matching black leather inserts.

I randomly got new old stock 190e bonnet foam from AutoDoc of all places... £62 inc delivery from Germany . Really happy with the 17's, just look right.... the 18's were just a bit too much, never really thought they look right on a 190

 

[poormansporsche]

I randomly got new old stock 190e bonnet foam from AutoDoc of all places... £62 inc delivery from Germany . Really happy with the 17's, just look right.... the 18's were just a bit too much, never really thought they look right on a 190

Result, the 2.6 foam was over 300 quid when last available from MB whilst the 2.0 was under 100 quid strangely........

 

[poormansporsche]

BTW for your info. There is only one ergonomic design fault on the RHD 190. The steering wheel is slightly offset (but not on the LHD strangely!)

Not a big problem but whilst the pedals are level with the seat and the steering wheel is offset with a RHD manual it's a lot more noticeable and uncomfortable. With the auto box it's just not an issue.

Even when I picked up the donor 3.2 190 I was still undecided about doing the manual swap and the 2 hour drive to Carat showed how suited the engine and auto box were.

I had at the same time a 300 24v swapped manual 190 and was certainly more fun but simply was not very nice to drive, ok a dog leg/w203 6 speed/E46 box may have helped but not enough in my opinion to hide the poor ergonomics of the steering wheel position.

 

[noogieman]

Lovely car

Old skool MB's are the best, should stay away from new cars to much problems with them!

What did you use to paint the dash needles with?
They look very nice in orange.
Do they illuminate well at nite?