We found this vehicle on October 29th, 2020 on the Ebay classifieds platform. It was advertised as “Slaughter Festival original BMW E36 318is Class 2”, the condition was really miserable, as can be seen in the pictures below. The engine did not start. The seller, a very nice man, by the way, thank you very much again for the nice reception, had just recently bought the vehicle himself.
Here is the original ad in which the vehicle was offered:
This vehicle is one of 2500 built special models of the BMW E36 Class 2, which was built in 1994 in a limited edition of 2500 copies. All vehicles with chassis numbers can also be found in our BMW Class 2 register, click here on the link.
What makes this vehicle even more special, however, is the fact that only 17 copies in total were made in white. Our vehicle is the 14th of the 17 BMW E36 318is Class 2 vehicles ever built and the 2037 vehicle out of a total of 2500 vehicles built and the ONLY WHITE CLASS 2 SOLD IN GERMANY!
According to the seller, the vehicle had been standing in a meadow for years and was rotting away. And indeed, the vehicle was so overgrown with vegetation in all cavities and the creepers even fought their way through the tank and between the tank nozzle lines. The wasps probably also regarded this vehicle as an excellent place to live, the entire vehicle was full of it.
Due to the desolate condition, the owner, incidentally a very talented screwdriver who has a small but very well-equipped hobby workshop, decided to dismantle some parts such as the interior and the glove compartment strip and use them for his project vehicle. This was a BMW E36 316i sedan in Mauritius blue that was first hand and had no rust at all. He converted this vehicle into a Class 2 Reblika. The engine and gearbox from another 318i was also already in the corner for transplantation to round off the project. Unfortunately, since the rear spoiler and the entire front bumper were already missing, the owner resorted to a Class 2 replica spoiler for the rear spoiler and gave his vehicle an M package. This decision was understandable given the condition of the Class 2.
Under normal circumstances, the vehicle could no longer be saved, because the body work and the required repair moldings, insofar as these are still available, run into the thousands, including the missing special parts such as rear spoiler, front apron, sword mounts. Not to mention the glove box strip and interior fittings, some of which are no longer available.
However, since we have set up a small warehouse with, among other things, rare parts for years, all of these parts are already available.
After we brought the vehicle back home from near Munich, we had the vehicle, which had the engine no longer running, still running on the trailer because we absolutely wanted to drive the vehicle off the trailer. The fuel pump (totally rusted) and the fuel pump relay were defective and the control of the fuel pump on the board of the DME had burned out and had to be replaced. Then the engine started, but the candle shafts were full of water so that the spark did not jump over properly. After the candle shafts were dry, the engine ran and we were able to drive the vehicle on its own axle with its own drive into the garage for inspection.
The inventory was, as expected ….. terrifying! So we decided to remove the rust from the vehicle immediately so that the whole thing doesn’t get worse. We will therefore do all the body work in the coming weeks and then seal the entire body …..
When clearing out the vehicle to prepare for the welding work, we found an old sales sign from the previous owner in the vehicle, who had apparently offered the vehicle for sale for a long time without success, which has completely faded. Interesting that the owner at that time also stated that the vehicle was FIRST HAND !!! is.
Originally, the vehicle had left the factory in Munich without air conditioning, which we knew from research in our database www.bmwclass2register.com. We were therefore astonished that an automatic air conditioning control could be seen in the vehicle’s interior on the pictures of the seller’s advertisement. After researching at BMW, the previous owner had an original automatic air conditioning retrofitted at BMW in 1999, which makes the vehicle even more interesting due to its history.
Here are a few impressions of our just purchased BMW E36 318 IS Class 2 when it was picked up in October 2020 near Munich.
The moss in the engine compartment of our BMW E36 Class 2 gives an idea of how the vehicle had fared in recent years …
Here are the pictures of the inventory, as we bought the vehicle …
Restoration began, almost a year later, at the end of November 2021
After the vehicle was parked here for another year, plants were already sprouting out of the car …
….. It was therefore time for us to finally tackle the problem!
The rest of the fender …
We have cut these frame parts out of donor vehicles. These are now helping us to save this rare vehicle.
We dismantled the exhaust system with the original catalytic converter, as the rear muffler unfortunately did not make it rust-technically anymore… The original KAT will be reprocessed!
