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Diamantschwarz Forever: An E30 Love Story. Re-shell & Restomod

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    Originally posted by E30 Wagen View Post
    Did you clean the dash and then put some kind of coating on it? I've got a cleanish dash, but there's an annoying little scuff on it that I wish I could cover up.
    Yeah, based on people's recommendations here, I used several coats of 303 Aerospace cleaner. That stuff is strong. My dash was rather faded before.

    1991 BMW 318i (Old Shell RIP, Now Being Re-shelled & Reborn)
    1983 Peugeot 505 STI
    1992 Volvo 240 Wagon
    2009 Toyota 4Runner SR5 Sport 4WD

    Comment


      The elusive small case 4.10 LSD! They must only exist in CA. ;)

      Nice update!

      Comment


        The LSD made such a big difference in my car.

        OBDI M62B44/6 swap
        Transaction feedback
        - jpod999

        Comment


          Originally posted by mike.bmw View Post
          The elusive small case 4.10 LSD! They must only exist in CA. ;)

          Nice update!
          Thanks Mike! I'm glad I held out for a small case, with all the medium cases floating around on Craigslist. The one I scooped up wasn't actually for sale, and it worked out to be a fantastic deal.

          Originally posted by jpod999 View Post
          The LSD made such a big difference in my car.
          Dude it's crazy. Cornering in a different dimension hehe.

          In other news, my dash is totally dialed in now. Adjusted and sitting flush enough to keep my OCD at bay. So road trip time next weekend!

          1991 BMW 318i (Old Shell RIP, Now Being Re-shelled & Reborn)
          1983 Peugeot 505 STI
          1992 Volvo 240 Wagon
          2009 Toyota 4Runner SR5 Sport 4WD

          Comment


            Damn dude, quite the freaking journey.

            Logged in (for the first time in years, haha) just to give props on the re-up. Looking great.
            sigpic

            Always chasin'

            Comment


              Originally posted by canakami View Post
              Damn dude, quite the freaking journey.

              Logged in (for the first time in years, haha) just to give props on the re-up. Looking great.
              Thanks brotha. Did you end up making moves on that 4d on the Peninsula?

              1991 BMW 318i (Old Shell RIP, Now Being Re-shelled & Reborn)
              1983 Peugeot 505 STI
              1992 Volvo 240 Wagon
              2009 Toyota 4Runner SR5 Sport 4WD

              Comment


                How is the spacing on your Mtech2 steering wheel? I used the spacer everyone talks about, and I still crash my big ass hands into the stalks.

                Nice progress though, thats dedication my friend!

                Comment


                  I had the exact same experience when I swapped in my LSD, the handling was night and day different.

                  Keep it up!

                  P.S. I dig the tribute stickers from the old shell

                  Comment


                    Originally posted by scabzzzz View Post
                    How is the spacing on your Mtech2 steering wheel? I used the spacer everyone talks about, and I still crash my big ass hands into the stalks.

                    Nice progress though, thats dedication my friend!
                    Thank you sir, I've been following your build on here and on Instagram - it'll probably drag my ass into finishing the body work and paint .. sometime this year :p

                    Spacing is just right, I used an extra stock steering wheel spacer and it's working just fine.

                    Originally posted by zwill23 View Post
                    I had the exact same experience when I swapped in my LSD, the handling was night and day different.

                    Keep it up!

                    P.S. I dig the tribute stickers from the old shell
                    Thanks! It's weird having so much grip in corners.

                    1991 BMW 318i (Old Shell RIP, Now Being Re-shelled & Reborn)
                    1983 Peugeot 505 STI
                    1992 Volvo 240 Wagon
                    2009 Toyota 4Runner SR5 Sport 4WD

                    Comment


                      did a few little things over the last couple of months. Work has been (still) killin' me so haven't had too much time to update or log onto my personal laptop lol.

                      First order of business was completing my sound system. I had already swapped in my Blaupunkt head unit from the old shell, as well as the front premium BMW speakers, front premium BMW tweeters, rear premium speakers & tweeters - but was still missing some real bass. So I took my old shell's enclosure, threw out the two broken & cheap/shitty JBL's, and the shitty ghetto "Bolt" amp that was physically lost in my accident.

                      Then I bought a pair of nice Kicker 10" subs that were on sale at Best Buy, as well as nice and compact Alpine Mono Amp.



                      Fast forward a couple of weeks, found some time to drive out to a colleague's house and some company to entertain while I wired & installed everything. First wiring as clean as I could.



                      Then mocked up the old box in the new shell's trunk. Note the original car's spare wheel & tire that I pulled from the old shell's wreckage for ultra sentimental good times



                      Carpeting panels back in place...



                      Then we mounted the amp on top of the sub box (it's probably going to move to a better spot..like the right side of the box since I ran the subs wiring in parallel out one side)



                      And all mounted in place. Man this thing knocks hard compared to my old setup. I have it turned almost all the way down at the amp and at "-7" on my head unit. So ridiculously awesome and unnecessary. I feel obliged to drive out to Compton sometime and let it bang.



                      The next day, my cousin and I drove the car out to Joshua Tree National Park and poked around. All the while, blasting bass heavy gangsta rap until our ears and noses bled.



                      The car's vacuum probz became a little more apparent at the altitude and heat.



                      At Joshua Tree, we literally ran into 9 different couples/people/families who approached my cousin, uncle, and I speaking German. Two of the couples asked to take photos with the car. One of the guys was a die-hard E30 head and had owned many. We conversated (sorta) in my broken German and had a good laugh.



                      Car got extremely dusty and dirty after Joshua Tree. So came home the next day and washed the shit out of it after work one day.



                      Then a buddy from my Chicago days flew in and hung out for a good few days. He hadn't seen me since last summer, when I left Chicago and toured 6,000 miles around the continent in my old E30 (shell). He was stoked to see the car living on in the new shell.



                      It was his first time ever in California, so took him on the touristy Newport Beach Balboa Island ferry and caught this cool shot at sunset



                      The next week after he went back to Chicago found a scrap of time to get back to the E30. Put it up on a local shop space's lift to inspect the rockers and rocker rails that will need to be pulled and straightened. Here's a glam shot of the stance that I'm super content with.



                      One of the previous owners was a careless idiot so I'll have to pull and straighten the driver side rocker rail surely..



                      And here's the passenger side rocker, which has a big ass dent (from idk what) that will need to be properly pulled out



                      Then I dropped off my red front bumper at a local paint joint. They sanded it down and resprayed it in fresh Diamantschwarz for a nice price. It's going to be painted again with the whole car, so this is to just hold me in the meantime.



                      Weeeee



                      Came home and and slapped some fresh goodies on it last night. Brand new ZKW corner light from the dealer



                      Finally satisfied my OCD (for the time being)



                      And here's a god-awful photo taken last night out grabbing din



                      This may look ricer/tacky/stupid/whack (and it is)... but Auto Becker Klausmann is the dealer where my original E30 (old shell) was serviced at while living in Germany back in le day. I stopped by at the dealer (in Krefeld, a city outside Dusseldorf) while visiting my uncle last fall after Oktoberfest, and a month or so after the accident. They were super stoked when I told them my story and shared the plans of the rebuild. They hooked it up with some swag including this plate frame.



                      That's it for the petty updates for now... more petty updates to come soon :-)

                      Sina

                      1991 BMW 318i (Old Shell RIP, Now Being Re-shelled & Reborn)
                      1983 Peugeot 505 STI
                      1992 Volvo 240 Wagon
                      2009 Toyota 4Runner SR5 Sport 4WD

                      Comment


                        Nice man, all panels match now. Dude, I'm up in the bay so you ever need a helping hand, I'd love to come out and help or chill with dude. Glad your okay after the accident and it's awesome to see your drive with this new shell

                        Comment


                          Originally posted by JonTheHero22 View Post
                          Nice man, all panels match now. Dude, I'm up in the bay so you ever need a helping hand, I'd love to come out and help or chill with dude. Glad your okay after the accident and it's awesome to see your drive with this new shell
                          Thanks man! Maybe during the next time that I'm back up in the Yay!

                          Here are some small updates since the last time I crawled on here...

                          Had a a local shop up in my island hometown fix up my rocker panels. The previous owner left a nice, long, and terrible gash on the passenger rock (from a curb, I think), and had twisted up the bottom seam on both the driver and passenger side from arrogantly using the spare-tire jack in all of the wrong spots. The shop did fantastic metal work, as they had done on my Peugeot several years back (except that was the entire rear half of the car) Here's a quick before and after:





                          And the side view (apologies for the gross over-editing, lighting was poor)



                          Also on my last trip up to the Bay Area, I dropped off my original car's European instrument cluster off with the famed "E30_Dad", aka Diego. He's famous for doing amazing one-off work, as featured on his Instagram. For mine, he did a pretty subtle aesthetic job, though thoroughly overhauled its internals and swapped a miles odometer/trip meter into my metric cluster. Very very satisfied with the results. So satisfied that it was hard to keep my eyes on the road on Highway 5 down from the Bay Area to LA. :)





                          Low quality photo, but shows the before & after:



                          And from the drive back down to SoCal...



                          Then lastly dropped off the car at a local shop around my parts. Getting some much anticipated stuff done on the front end that requires welding :)

                          Also, hoping my M42's god awful (though deceptive) vacuum/start-idle issues go away. Both Fingers and toes crossed right now, as I have spent the last 6 months trying to figure it out. Playmate pictured is Robert's (robrez)'s Diamantschwarz 91 318i/4. His car been an inspiration for me since way back in high school. Hoping mine will look a little more like his in the near future :)




                          That's all for now. Will report back soon.

                          SP

                          1991 BMW 318i (Old Shell RIP, Now Being Re-shelled & Reborn)
                          1983 Peugeot 505 STI
                          1992 Volvo 240 Wagon
                          2009 Toyota 4Runner SR5 Sport 4WD

                          Comment


                            Wow, I just read through all 11 pages. Great to see this come back to life in a new shell! What an incredible amount of dedication and hard work. Looks great - very jealous of the euro weaves & Mtech 2 wheel
                            1988 325 Lachs Sedan SOLD

                            1989 325i Bronzit Beige 2 Door
                            SOLD

                            2018 Volkswagen Alltrack SE DSG
                            Past:1988 325iS Lachs 5 Speed

                            Comment


                              Beautiful work on the cluster AND the rocker panel. Nice!
                              '89 Schwarz E30 M3 Cabriolet Build

                              Comment


                                Hey guys & gals,

                                Haven't posted much lately, but a few updates - some more important than others.

                                First off as mentioned numerous times prior in this thread, the car had been running funny since doing the "M42 Mess Under the Intake" Mod with a couple peeps back in January. By running funny, I mean dying at start up, idling rough, running very rich, and not at full power. Scratched heads for a good 7 months, while I probably destroyed my cat. After over half a year, some dude on the R3V Facebook group suggested two random little wires under the firewall wiring harness cover that he claimed should be disconnected on my US spec car. I laughed at first, but after looking under my hood, I found the 2 wires connected. Sure enough, after 7 months of woes, disconnected and now the car runs damn near perfect. Was stoked so took it on a celebratory drive up ACH with a friend.



                                We got past Newcombs Ranch, but ended up at a road closure sign.



                                Funny how gargantuan new BMWs are compared to their ancestors.



                                Another little thing that was bugging me since I bought the car was a leaky fuel filler gasket. It'd often leak puddles of excess gas fill on the ground behind the rear passenger wheel. Quick replacement eradicated that. Comparison:



                                And installed...



                                Was also tired of the hood falling on my head (and the head of friends) so replaced the hood shock:



                                The car came with a rather disgusting glove box. The inside was all gross, torn-up coating, and had a broken latch. Was able to locate a pretty darn perfect glove box with the inside coating fully preserved, bought a new latch for the inside, so installed it and returned the glove box I had been borrowing from a friend on here.



                                Got to love an clean glove box. Original manual/document folder from the dealer to boot:



                                A little more significant, Ireland Engineering 25mm front sway bar with adjustable E30 M3 end-links and strut housing mounting tabs.



                                Mitchell at Offset Motorwerks did a nice job welding the tabs on and painting the housings. Very pleased.



                                Then last weekend the girlie and I took advantage of the Labor Day Weekend and drove out to Nevada, Arizona, and Utah. First stop was Vegas. Snapped this pic of the temperature reading 50 miles north of Vegas, where I had parked at a gas station without an awning or roof. Returned to the car after 15 mins to see this lil' sizzle.



                                Hanging out at the Valley of Fire State Park.



                                Cooling off in the Canyons..



                                That night we came back to Vegas, then drove north again, this time to Zion National Park. All in all we logged-in a tad over 1,000 miles in the one weekend. Quite pleased with how the car performed, save for the AC compressor which I think started sliding in stop-and-go traffic at 115 F degrees. It's since worked perfectly without a hitch. Think it was the high temps outside.

                                Had some new tires mounted up front, as the old ones were cupping. Also had an alignment done with a lifetime warranty (whoop!). Ordered a pair of front wheel bearings, rubber E90 front spring pads/gaskets (that sandwich under the e90 front drop hats) as they are both torn. Ordered a couple little other odds and ends that I hope will end all clunking/clicking from the front end. That's all for now. :-)

                                Sina

                                1991 BMW 318i (Old Shell RIP, Now Being Re-shelled & Reborn)
                                1983 Peugeot 505 STI
                                1992 Volvo 240 Wagon
                                2009 Toyota 4Runner SR5 Sport 4WD

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