ROUND 4! 88 Lachsilber / Cardinal IX coupe

[Southernboy]

Wow, now that is some rust repair. I have to tip my hat to you.
Now I almost feel guilty that mine was “relatively” rust free. There were a few small spots that needed attending to, but nothing like this.
Brad, you’re my iX hero…:) Job well done!
Plus I love the Lachs and Cardinal combo. Very stylish.

[bradnic]

I spent part of last night reading the restorides link. I was showing my wife some of the parts the were making and even she seemed impressed. I've done plenty of heavier metal fabricating in the past, lighter gauge work will take some practice. I may stop on the way home tomorrow and grab some 16, 18, 20 gauge sheet metal and a refill for my wife feed to practice with.

I'm cranking on the vert right now, but I'll let you know when I get this beast down to the shell.. You're welcome to commiserate lol.. Any metal bender is welcome actually :-) I have a Lincoln 180C in the garage, but not much in the way of metal bending tools yet

[ThatOneEuroE30]

Oh I'm not hating. I know you can save it and should save it. Im just saying man that rust haha. Once you get rust cut out it really isnt that bad. Its looking at all the rust that intimidates you. If you have any questions feel free to pm me. Cause there was tricks i used to get this how i wanted them.

[bradnic]

^ this. there's Brandon.. haha
thanks man. that means a lot

[stonea]

Oh god, I'm terrified to dig into my ix even more than I already have. Amazing dedication though!

[bradnic]

Oh god, I'm terrified to dig into my ix even more than I already have.

hahahaha I SOOO know what you mean man. There's what you WANT to be and what really is. Do you REALLY believe that little rust hole you can see doesn't extend to other places you can't see? lol.

Just take a look at that floor pan pic from the parts car. I *knew* it had to be there because there was some fishy stuff under the car. I chose to ignore it for close to 2 years, sinking money into mechanicals.. Guess I knew I'd just swap everything over.

Amazing dedication though!

I guess it's because I played that hide and seek game already. To me it's all about making what you really want real. I really want a clean 88 IX the way it came out of the factory, OEM+ and with whatever bits didn't get ordered when new. No color changes, just fully equipped.

-I tried a super clean red IX coupe - didn't like it.
-A red no rust coupe - just needed a color change - didn't like it.
-A really nice white coupe with some relatively minor rust issues - switched to the car I really wanted all along, rust and all.

I'm done with that. Fix the damn thing right - strip it down and fix it all. Then score the arm rest rear seat I'm missing, retrofit the heated seats and do all the usual OEM+ stuff I do. I'm happy as a clam lol.

[AWDBOB]

Holy rust batman. Hey if you're motivated enough to tackle it I can respect that.

I'm going to list my rust free '88 car in the next few months, you should've waited ;)

[Kershaw]

That is a serious amount of rust. The hood and interior look great though! Best of luck restoring it.

[bradnic]

Holy rust batman. Hey if you're motivated enough to tackle it I can respect that.

I'm going to list my rust free '88 car in the next few months, you should've waited ;)

How are ya man? You moved? You should look up Kyle.. Cleanest E30 vert and coupe you've ever seen.. A bunch of Indy scene E30 folks hit the vintage every year.. Wife and I are taking the convertible this time.

And yeah I probably would have bought Heidi had I known. Oh well now I'll have body panel welding experience :-)

Gonna stay out of this motor for a while and sink the engine $$ into the vert.

[bradnic]

88 IX Motorweek Review - Exactly this car!

That is a serious amount of rust. The hood and interior look great though! Best of luck restoring it.

Thanks Kershaw!

Some of you hard core IX types may have seen this on Youtube, but posting is here. Car is exactly like mine, even the interior. The chubby guy testing the interior cracks me up. Might as well be me

[bradnic]

car's parked while I work the vert.. I am picking up parts though.

Scored a cardinal arm rest rear seat. will need some dye work but there are no tears



Also found out you can still purchase the heated seat elements from BMW. So rather than take a chance on some used ones I picked up a set.

and I have a replacement OEM radio and a non-working spare for parts, KE-81 ZBM-02s made by Pioneer.


I have more slider radios for parts than I know what to do with, but of course this is an 87 build car with a different unit. At some point I'm gonna mod the internals with new electronics while leaving the display and controls functional.

[bradnic]

2095 manual IX 5 speed Coupes made,
216 with Cardinal interiors
66 of those were Lachsilber

production data from this thread

[iXguido]

I want to see the 1 with crimson on diamondschwarz!

[bradnic]

Yeah DS with red is da bomb. Hard to find that combo in any E30.
Crimson is even harder to find, though the pics I've seen online are hard to tell apart from cardinal. Then again red interior pics with flash look absolutely awful. The color just isn't easy to photograph.

Did see this JasonC quote about it

There is 3 different red interiors. Cherry,Cardinal,and Crimson. I got Crimson out of a 1990 e30. Crimson also has red matching carpet too where Cherry don't and Cardinal only had one year matching carpet.

My interior has the red carpet and package tray, so 88 must be the 'one year matching carpet' year.

[AWDBOB]

How are ya man? You moved? You should look up Kyle.. Cleanest E30 vert and coupe you've ever seen.. A bunch of Indy scene E30 folks hit the vintage every year.. Wife and I are taking the convertible this time.

And yeah I probably would have bought Heidi had I known. Oh well now I'll have body panel welding experience :-)

Gonna stay out of this motor for a while and sink the engine $$ into the vert.

Sorry I missed this, I have been away from R3V since I'm away from good ole Heidi.

I moved to Indianapolis last March! It's been smooth sailing once I landed decent work, and I'm almost ready to pick up an E30 out here to get me cruising at least.

I would love to cruise out to vintage. I'll have to link up with them. There is a decent scene here due to Reggies shop being right in Noblesville (down the road from Indy).

Hope all is well man!