Hello all...
Quick introduction, I recently purchased my first e30, a 1989 Lachsilber 325is from a board member here, jweb.
pic from the listing:
Short background on my experience, this is my 3rd bmw. Previous equipment was a pair of '98 M3's, one estoril on dove and one arctic on black. Family has owned bmws since the 70s, an e21, e34, and now an e46 touring.
Also enjoy the offroad scene, I'm fabbing a tube chassis buggy on my spare time, previously owned a lifted and armored grand cherokee, and my DD before the E30 was a 2002 F-250 Superduty 7.3L.
Anyway, enough about my lame ass. I picked the car up from Jamie on 5/7/2009.
Stats as she sat:
H&R Cup Kit
Zionsville Autosport E36 M3 Rack
Dinan Chip
RT615s on stock Baskets
Sparco Strut Bar
HIDs
Magnaflow Muffler
Within 5 minutes of signing the title, I had ripped off the is lip, driven over it, and torn down and folded the hard fuel line all while trying to load her onto the trailer. IS lip went into the trunk, did a quick field repair to get her running, and got her home.
Once home I fixed the fuel line properly, reflared the line further up and ran a ~6" longer piece of rubber line from the filter. Got it all tucked up and out of the way just in time for me to head to Germany for 2 weeks for vacation.
Fastforward to the end of may. She was in pretty good shape from Jamie, but I set about a few standard maintenance tasks and a few other projects. 4 orders and a couple hundred dollars later I had a whole pile of goodies from Pelican:
Timing Belt Kit
Dizzy Cap
Rotor
Shift Linkage Rebuild Kit
Z3 1.9 Arm
Thicker spring pads
Original amber turns and sides, cuz i'm retro-lame
Belts, Gaskets, nuts bolts, odds and ends, etc.
The boy ricer in me also bought stuff to shadowline, some lamin-x yellow fox covers, and do some red gauge needles along with trim rings.
She went up jackstands and stayed there for two weeks. First order of business was 10mm spacers rear and 9mm front. The car dragged EVERYWHERE I drove it, including in and out of my garage, and every speed bump in my work parking lot. The H&R Cup Kit is a bit too aggressive of a drop for my tastes, but I can appreciate its badassness so I figured some spring pads would be a decent ride height compromise. No pics of this, standard suspension teardown and reassembly.
Next was the shifter rebuild. I'm assuming the shifter was stock, it was in pretty sad shape:
The metric mile shift throw (gaves my 6spd diesel shift throw a run for its money)
Pretty new parts:
1.9 Z3 arm comparo:
new bushes in and cleaned up:
Video of the new throw:
After re-installation the selector rod was rubbing on the d-shaft vib damper in 2nd and 4th gears. Tore it all back apart again (gd bitch clips....). Quick "modification" with a deadblow hammer and it clears fine now.
On to the timing belt.... Pretty standard stuff, you guys have all seen it before. Replaced the tensioner pulley, spring, and pin along with. No pics of that.
Distributor cap and rotor....
Old and busted:
New hotness:
In:
Purdy new texture coat valve cover:
Shadowlining, used plasti-dip:
Gauge trim rings and red needles:
That about wraps up the in-work pictures I took. Pretty lame selection in retrospect. I also stripped the IS lip down to bare plastic (probably 3 different layers of paint on it), sanded, fixed the cracks from me driving over it with jb weld, sanded back to shape, and re-painted with duplicolor truck bed coating.
In other news, as you other Georgians may know....finally, after 3 long years, we finally had our drought watering/washing ban lifted. So...a few snaps after a her first scrub. Grabbed these with my point and shoot. I'll have to do a set with the DSLR at some point.
my beautiful seats:
engine:
gauges in action:
Obligatory E30 shot:
My two toys, note my neighbor's Charger GSP patrol car:
Quick introduction, I recently purchased my first e30, a 1989 Lachsilber 325is from a board member here, jweb.
pic from the listing:
Short background on my experience, this is my 3rd bmw. Previous equipment was a pair of '98 M3's, one estoril on dove and one arctic on black. Family has owned bmws since the 70s, an e21, e34, and now an e46 touring.
Also enjoy the offroad scene, I'm fabbing a tube chassis buggy on my spare time, previously owned a lifted and armored grand cherokee, and my DD before the E30 was a 2002 F-250 Superduty 7.3L.
Anyway, enough about my lame ass. I picked the car up from Jamie on 5/7/2009.
Stats as she sat:
H&R Cup Kit
Zionsville Autosport E36 M3 Rack
Dinan Chip
RT615s on stock Baskets
Sparco Strut Bar
HIDs
Magnaflow Muffler
Within 5 minutes of signing the title, I had ripped off the is lip, driven over it, and torn down and folded the hard fuel line all while trying to load her onto the trailer. IS lip went into the trunk, did a quick field repair to get her running, and got her home.
Once home I fixed the fuel line properly, reflared the line further up and ran a ~6" longer piece of rubber line from the filter. Got it all tucked up and out of the way just in time for me to head to Germany for 2 weeks for vacation.
Fastforward to the end of may. She was in pretty good shape from Jamie, but I set about a few standard maintenance tasks and a few other projects. 4 orders and a couple hundred dollars later I had a whole pile of goodies from Pelican:
Timing Belt Kit
Dizzy Cap
Rotor
Shift Linkage Rebuild Kit
Z3 1.9 Arm
Thicker spring pads
Original amber turns and sides, cuz i'm retro-lame
Belts, Gaskets, nuts bolts, odds and ends, etc.
The boy ricer in me also bought stuff to shadowline, some lamin-x yellow fox covers, and do some red gauge needles along with trim rings.
She went up jackstands and stayed there for two weeks. First order of business was 10mm spacers rear and 9mm front. The car dragged EVERYWHERE I drove it, including in and out of my garage, and every speed bump in my work parking lot. The H&R Cup Kit is a bit too aggressive of a drop for my tastes, but I can appreciate its badassness so I figured some spring pads would be a decent ride height compromise. No pics of this, standard suspension teardown and reassembly.
Next was the shifter rebuild. I'm assuming the shifter was stock, it was in pretty sad shape:
The metric mile shift throw (gaves my 6spd diesel shift throw a run for its money)
Pretty new parts:
1.9 Z3 arm comparo:
new bushes in and cleaned up:
Video of the new throw:
After re-installation the selector rod was rubbing on the d-shaft vib damper in 2nd and 4th gears. Tore it all back apart again (gd bitch clips....). Quick "modification" with a deadblow hammer and it clears fine now.
On to the timing belt.... Pretty standard stuff, you guys have all seen it before. Replaced the tensioner pulley, spring, and pin along with. No pics of that.
Distributor cap and rotor....
Old and busted:
New hotness:
In:
Purdy new texture coat valve cover:
Shadowlining, used plasti-dip:
Gauge trim rings and red needles:
That about wraps up the in-work pictures I took. Pretty lame selection in retrospect. I also stripped the IS lip down to bare plastic (probably 3 different layers of paint on it), sanded, fixed the cracks from me driving over it with jb weld, sanded back to shape, and re-painted with duplicolor truck bed coating.
In other news, as you other Georgians may know....finally, after 3 long years, we finally had our drought watering/washing ban lifted. So...a few snaps after a her first scrub. Grabbed these with my point and shoot. I'll have to do a set with the DSLR at some point.
my beautiful seats:
engine:
gauges in action:
Obligatory E30 shot:
My two toys, note my neighbor's Charger GSP patrol car:
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