1983 Grey Market 323i - The resurrection of Betty Blue

[markt51]

Well after my half year hiatus from e30s i have finally settled down in my new house i bought back in the summer and bought another e30 as a christmas present to myself. Which with any luck i will not be selling, and ill hold on to for quite a while.

2 weekends ago i bought this beauty from the original owner with 152,xxx miles (said odometer still works), who bought it new in 1983 when he was a student in Spain. Upon finishing his school there he imported it to the US here in the port of Houston and continued to love it until i bought it. Despite his meticulous maintenance he let the timing belt go a year or 2 ago and blew the engine.

Other than the engine needing to either be rebuilt or replaced, the car is very solid and in great condition for a 30 year old car. Only a little bit of surface rust on the battery tray, and a nice little dent that has been straightened out on the driver front fender. Just needs some body filler and respray on the fender. The paint overall is great but could use a buff and wax to look good again. Other than that its straight and rust free.

The car still has all the typical euro trim and even has a set of BMW steelies which i have never seen before. Along with the keys i got a binder full or receipts since the day it was bought.


Current issues:

• Despite the leather being in great shape on the seats, they need to be replaced. The springs etc are worn out and you sink in the front seats.
• Interior door handle on the driver door needs to be reattached.
• Either need to rebuild the engine, or rebuild and swap in an american BMW engine if i cant find the internals to rebuild the m20b23.
• Fix front of the driver fender.
• Possibly needs a respray if buff and wax doesnt turn out how i like it

My Vision for the car:

• If i cant rebuild the current engine, then swap in a M6x after i rebuild it
• Houndstooth interior or one of the Plaid BMW interiors.
• Clean ass exterior
• Maybe a tasteful hartge or mtech 1 kit

Other than that just make it overall clean/mint and stock again is my goal. I just got a new job working on servers and infrastructure for a school district so getting great pay now and will have plenty of extra money to sink into this thing.




Here are a few pics of what it looks like waxed and clean:














And here is the current dirty condition and way it looks:


































Finally put together a work bench i got christmas 2012 from my mother in law, and also setup one of my wireless receivers and a monitor to watch tv on in the garage:





Thanks for looking! updates to come as i get parts etc in. Going to get an engine hoist and engine stand next week to pull the engine.

[Farbin Kaiber]

Way to go. I can't wait to see what ya do with her. grey market 323i r3vers unite! I love mine, likely more than any other e30 I've owned.

[kronus]

yesss

[korky]

Welp you're onto something. Definitely cool.

That engine bay needs a real good clean up. Be extremely careful on m20b23 to write a note on every hose or take pictures if you move stuff around, cuz if you take a look beside the intake manifold, you can begin to notice the "spaghetti salad", as we call it here, haha.

Anyway, it's cool and rare to see a 323i around here. Especially for your guys in the US!

Btw those steelies are a normal thing here, I have them too on winters. Ordered brand new from BMW last year.

If you need any help or parts don't hesitate to shoot me a PM, I own one too and have contacts for all kind of parts. But mostly they're the same as the 320 - which you have in the US if I'm not mistaken.

[markt51]

Welp you're onto something. Definitely cool.

That engine bay needs a real good clean up. Be extremely careful on m20b23 to write a note on every hose or take pictures if you move stuff around, cuz if you take a look beside the intake manifold, you can begin to notice the "spaghetti salad", as we call it here, haha.

Anyway, it's cool and rare to see a 323i around here. Especially for your guys in the US!

Btw those steelies are a normal thing here, I have them too on winters. Ordered brand new from BMW last year.

If you need any help or parts don't hesitate to shoot me a PM, I own one too and have contacts for all kind of parts. But mostly they're the same as the 320 - which you have in the US if I'm not mistaken.

Yea i took alot of pics before i started digging into things today and labeled some hoses and what not too. Ive never seen the steelies here in the US but assumed they were common in EU.

Ill definitely keep you in mind if i need help getting parts that are not available here. From what ive taken apart so far, it looks like the engine is toast and ill need just about everything for internals. Found a freeze plug with a dent in it that made it pop out(thinking a piston blew up and popped it out). Hopefully the bottom block just needs honing and new pistons.

[kronus]

I've got pretty much the entire vacuum system burned into my mind so if you're confused about any bits just ask.

[Farbin Kaiber]

Mines all stock still, so I can get pictures too! I had a hell of a time with finding a distributor for mine... Everything else, pretty easy.

[markt51]

Yea im pretty sure ill be asking for pictures of the distributor when it comes time to put that back together. Mine was already disconnected from when the head was taken apart before. Here is what i got disassembled today. Getting everything ready to pull the engine when i get my hoist next week.





here is the freeze plug i found hiding in the engine bay. Nice big dent in it, presumably from a piston killing itself when the belt broke.



More to come soon.