1987 325is, Ongoing improvement process.

[Pocket Chant]

I posted this a while back in the Members Rides section, but I figure it'd be better suited here. I'm going to copy a bit of that now, to save time.

So, I (finally) decided to post some pictures of my 87. I bought it off of ebay for a little too much money, but after nearly doubling the price (Fuel pumps, clutch, various upgrades) I feel much better about it. The car is really in great shape, runs almost perfectly now, and I feel like I saved it from it's previous owner.

Here are some pictures from a photoshoot of my friend's. Full Gallery.






The interior, which was reupholstered.




Here is the current deal:
1987 325is
Body:
Kamei "80's-tastic" side skirts
Zender Spoiler
Zender rear Valence
Custom Plates


Interior:
Fully reupholstered in leather
Kenwood HU
Polk 5.25 in kick panels
Polk 6.5 in rear deck
Bass Blockers on tweeters
ZHP Shift knob
Leather Ebrake boot


Performance/engine:
Kamotors CAI
8mm Ignition Wires
New Bosch spark plugs
IE HD Rocker arms.
UUC Short Shift kit with DSSR
173 ECU
Dinan Chip
Bilstein sport shocks
H&R sport springs
215/17/45 BF Goodrich Geforce Sport comp2's on Damani rims (No, I don't know what they are either)


Timeline (Rough)
Got the car around mid-april. It came with a new shift boot, and in an effort to swap that, I popped the shifter out of the linkage Took the car to be inspected, they replaced the C-clamp and it was on it's way.

Somewhere in here the fuel pumps died. Had both of them replaced.

Next was the horrible tint it came with, and a rear window sticker. Not many pictures of this or the next few jobs, because I wasn't running a thread then. I used a steamer and razor blade, followed by a scraper and some Goof-Off. Here's an in-progress shot:


Car came with some "Wanli s1088" tires, god awful. Terrifying to drive in the wet, so I picked up some BF Goodrich's, which made it handle better, ride smoother, and sound quieter. Other than a lighter wallet, no downsides!




Next came a stereo upgrade. I'm a big fan of music, and I have to say, this does sound pretty good for 6 terribly placed speakers. I replaced all the speakers with Polk DBs, which I have been very happy with, and a Kenwood HU. Kept the stock tweeters, threw bass blockers on them, to keep whatever life I have in them. The stock Premium speakers have actually four posts, because of the tweeters. My solution:


Cleaned her up a bit after, lawd was she shiny:



PO had put a cone filter in, but instead of reverting, I got a (slight) upgrade with a KAMOTORS CAI. Have a terrible photo


A week or two later, I decided to overhaul the ignition system because it took forever to start (I would later find out this was because of a bad ground) New plugs, ignition rotor, ignition wire and distributor cap. Had a bit of trouble getting a stripped screw off, though:





And done!


Then my friend came down to take the pictures you see above.


Had some fun there, then a few weeks later, I decided to work on some iffy things. P/S Leak, ODO and cruise weren't working.


Ripped the cluster out, found everything in working order. The ODO works intermittently, now.


Gave up on CC, decided to just rip it out.


Nothing happened for a while.
Clutch started to slip, so I got a new one put in, along with a UUC SSK with DSSR, and a ZHP knob. Fantastic, and though it's expensive, I recommend this setup to everyone.

Picked up a 173 DME, threw a Dinan chip in there



Euro grilles came next, I'll post a picture of the ebrake boot, too.




Grabbed a mildly destroyed Husco, fixed it up. Luckilly it can hold a large Baja Blast :up:



I know this photo is terrible, I was messing around with the settings on my phone at the time. I'll take a better picture, but in the mean time, here it is currently

[canakami]

I have those same speakers, they do sound quite nice for the money.

[Pocket Chant]

As I forgot to add it before, I'm also in the Bavauto headers buy, so I have those coming in a few weeks.

[blocke]

Nice start. Looking good. That interior looks sexy

[sayed ali]

Nice interior man

[sector6]

Looks great!



lol, your bro needs to get his feet off the f*cking seats!!

[Pocket Chant]

Thanks all! The PO reupholstered the interior, and I'm glad. It looks really good, but different. My headers should be here in a few weeks, so that'll be fun.

[Pocket Chant]

Figured I'd make my 100th post special with an update!

Recently I got a new Husco cover, it looks great



Then, my blower motor resistor died. It'd only work on the highest setting, and with temps of 92+, it was getting annoying:

New (left) vs Old



Also replaced my antenna grommet (Most of those cuts are from me removing the old one)



Picked up some M50 injectors:


Got those installed, which was a bitch, and I accidentally cracked the fuel line. That should be coming tomorrow

I put on the 325is badge, as well


Then, I decided I needed more low end in my sound, so I picked up a medium size sub


I ran the chord up the middle and through the carpet, and had to completely pull the center console apart. That was time consuming.

[MattAvino]

Looks nice. That interior is really clean.

[Pocket Chant]

Wow, haven't updated this for a bit.

I mentioned the headers before, and got those on. Car had a much better midrange and low end. With the Dinan Chip in there, and the 17lb injectors, the car has a slightly better than stock midrange and a much better high end.

The best picture I have at the moment:


Replaced my front brake pads today with Mintex Xtremes. Still breaking them in, but so far the difference is astounding.

[Pocket Chant]

In other news, I picked up an interior light dimmer from George Graves



It was a bit annoying to get in, but not overly hard, and the instructions were spot on.




Also, when I replaced the Brake pads, I noticed another upgrade the PO had done



I was planning on doing this when I replaced the control arms in a while, but I guess I don't have to (If the CABs are still in good shape, then.)

Only other thing I've done is replace the RSMs with new Meyle HD ones. The old ones were in rough shape.



The center on the old one was almost completely free, and the rubber was stiff as a rock.

[Pocket Chant]

The E30 has been busy lately.

Picked up some Doorhandles from RobertK's black friday sale. I love these:


Same day, another goodie arrived, courtesy of CATuned:


Twin 76mm tips, I'll take a photo later of it installed. It was kind of a bitch doing it by myself, but not too bad.

New vs Old:


Drove her quite a bit after that, and hard. I think this is the dirtiest she's been with me:


Also, I had previously put in an M30 AFM. The car ran kind of shitty, so I took it out, and the M20 AFM seemed to run a lot better. Now that I have exhaust/injectors, I put the M30 AFM back in and it gave it a noticable boost. Sure, it sounds like my car is running a cam on idle, but throttle response is much better (I even switched them once more to make sure I wasn't dreaming it.


Oh, and picked one of these up. I love it:




Also, I have an early christmas present for the car coming soon, keep an eye out for that!

[efficient]

nice car!

[Pocket Chant]

So, figured I'd update.

Basics are, I got a Miller MAF, chased an electrical gremlin that ended up being my CPS, replaced my TPS, found a vaccum leak, my HID ballast died, I put in an E36 M3 steering rack, did E36 window switches, put in rear headrests, fixed my passenger side window, replaced my trunk gasket and got a new radiator.

If anyone is interested in any of the above, I'll go into it, None of them were all to exciting though lol.

[Pocket Chant]

I know, I'm terrible without pictures.


Anyway, I put on new wheels, Apex Arc-8s. Here's how she sits.



I also gave the car a good cleaning before my first Autocross event, this being the first time I pulled the seats out.



Had a lot of fun at autocross, kinda sucked that it was in the rain, but whatever. This is the first timed run I did, after three practices. I left my Gopro on during lunch, so I only got this run. my time was down to a 66 at the end of the day.

I finally bit the bullet and ponied up $250 for a new blower motor, so worth it. It's so nice to have speeds 1 and 2 back, as well as it being quiet (and faster) on all fronts.




I just picked up a set of GE coils that will go on next week, I'll actually take pictures of that. I feel like I may need to roll my front fenders, though. Oh well, next set of tires will be 215/235 40.