Hi All!
New member here! :). As some of you may know, I recently picked up Ethan’s of 8380 labs e30 (sale thread here). It was obvious to me that Ethan had great pride in ownership and his e30 was exactly what I was looking for. My intentions align with Ethan’s – to have a well-sorted, OEM+ e30.
Though Ethan did all of the hard work, (see original project log here) on this e30 over the past 5-6 years, there are still a few lingering issues that needed to be sorted out. I’ve fixed a few of them, and am in the process of fixing a few others.
I wanted to continue Ethan’s project log for those that might be interested. I tend to be verbose, so I’m going to attempt to keep this to cliff notes length.
Here is a brief summary of my ownership as of last Thursday:
- Before selling the car, Ethan had taken it to Levent at www.gutenparts.com to have several things done along with an overall tune-up. While at GPS, I decided to have a few more things done:
1. AC Repair (New Condenser, Condenser Fan, Fan Switch, Expansion Valve, Receiver Dryer, Fan Resistor)
2. BMW E30 IS Lip painted
3. 15” Euroweaves with Dunlop Direzza tires
4. US Ellipsoids
5. Ireland Engineering Red Powdercoated Strut Bar
6. Mark D Chip (for 17# injectors and 91 octane gas)
7. Powdercoated light grill/surround
-Ethan warned me of leak he had been tracking down. When I received the car, I noticed that the carpet was completely saturated with water and there was standing water underneath it. I tore the interior apart and found that the leak was coming from the below-pictured taillight weather strip, which was kinked. Turned out to be an easy fix.
-The car was not running well and hard to start. I diagnosed the problem to be a bad fuel pressure regulator.
-Replaced spark plug wires (#6 wire was loose)
-Replacing spark plugs with Bosch Super Plus but might try the NGK ZGR5A’s at some point.
-Fuel hose was leaking, so I am replacing that and its hose clamps
-I’m undecided about HID’s in the ellipsoids due to light scattering, so for now I threw in some Silverstar ZXE’s, which are adequate but not great.
-Interior blower fan was squeaking badly, so I lubricated that and it solved the squeaks
-Ordered miscellaneous exterior trim clips/grommets
-New wheel roundel
-Leather dressing on interior
-Panel/Trim dressing
-Cleaned/re-oiled K&N air filter
-Next up on the agenda is a professional steam cleaning/sanitizing/sealing of interior carpet, which happens this Friday. I will post before and after pics of this soon.
-Once I have all of these issues sorted, it’s on to a full exterior paint correction. Chris and Dylan, both formally of Adam’s Polishes, are now testing out some of the new products that Dylan is developing for the company he now works for: www.SurfCityGarage.com. I look forward to the results.
I’ve attached some pics below and will keep this thread updated with progress and pics. For reference, here is Ethan’s original project log.
Overall I’m very happy with the car. Thanks to Ethan, Levent/GPS and jlevie, all of whom have been very helpful. Also a huge thanks to my good friend and fellow board member griffincox, who let me burrow his e30 Bentley manual, which seriously rocks, as you know.
Thanks for reading! I’m glad to be part of r3v and hope I can contribute soon!
JD
Hope you like the pics!
Ireland engineering strut bar
life saver!
On the way to the car wash
First wash
First signs of water, sucking it out with green machine
Stripping out interior
Spilling fuel all over!
First wash
More water! GRRR
Leak found!
Bath time
Sunday cruisin
Hibernation
Love new roundels!
I'll post some before and after pics of the carpet later this week.
New member here! :). As some of you may know, I recently picked up Ethan’s of 8380 labs e30 (sale thread here). It was obvious to me that Ethan had great pride in ownership and his e30 was exactly what I was looking for. My intentions align with Ethan’s – to have a well-sorted, OEM+ e30.
Though Ethan did all of the hard work, (see original project log here) on this e30 over the past 5-6 years, there are still a few lingering issues that needed to be sorted out. I’ve fixed a few of them, and am in the process of fixing a few others.
I wanted to continue Ethan’s project log for those that might be interested. I tend to be verbose, so I’m going to attempt to keep this to cliff notes length.
Here is a brief summary of my ownership as of last Thursday:
- Before selling the car, Ethan had taken it to Levent at www.gutenparts.com to have several things done along with an overall tune-up. While at GPS, I decided to have a few more things done:
1. AC Repair (New Condenser, Condenser Fan, Fan Switch, Expansion Valve, Receiver Dryer, Fan Resistor)
2. BMW E30 IS Lip painted
3. 15” Euroweaves with Dunlop Direzza tires
4. US Ellipsoids
5. Ireland Engineering Red Powdercoated Strut Bar
6. Mark D Chip (for 17# injectors and 91 octane gas)
7. Powdercoated light grill/surround
-Ethan warned me of leak he had been tracking down. When I received the car, I noticed that the carpet was completely saturated with water and there was standing water underneath it. I tore the interior apart and found that the leak was coming from the below-pictured taillight weather strip, which was kinked. Turned out to be an easy fix.
-The car was not running well and hard to start. I diagnosed the problem to be a bad fuel pressure regulator.
-Replaced spark plug wires (#6 wire was loose)
-Replacing spark plugs with Bosch Super Plus but might try the NGK ZGR5A’s at some point.
-Fuel hose was leaking, so I am replacing that and its hose clamps
-I’m undecided about HID’s in the ellipsoids due to light scattering, so for now I threw in some Silverstar ZXE’s, which are adequate but not great.
-Interior blower fan was squeaking badly, so I lubricated that and it solved the squeaks
-Ordered miscellaneous exterior trim clips/grommets
-New wheel roundel
-Leather dressing on interior
-Panel/Trim dressing
-Cleaned/re-oiled K&N air filter
-Next up on the agenda is a professional steam cleaning/sanitizing/sealing of interior carpet, which happens this Friday. I will post before and after pics of this soon.
-Once I have all of these issues sorted, it’s on to a full exterior paint correction. Chris and Dylan, both formally of Adam’s Polishes, are now testing out some of the new products that Dylan is developing for the company he now works for: www.SurfCityGarage.com. I look forward to the results.
I’ve attached some pics below and will keep this thread updated with progress and pics. For reference, here is Ethan’s original project log.
Overall I’m very happy with the car. Thanks to Ethan, Levent/GPS and jlevie, all of whom have been very helpful. Also a huge thanks to my good friend and fellow board member griffincox, who let me burrow his e30 Bentley manual, which seriously rocks, as you know.
Thanks for reading! I’m glad to be part of r3v and hope I can contribute soon!
JD
Hope you like the pics!
Ireland engineering strut bar
life saver!
On the way to the car wash
First wash
First signs of water, sucking it out with green machine
Stripping out interior
Spilling fuel all over!
First wash
More water! GRRR
Leak found!
Bath time
Sunday cruisin
Hibernation
Love new roundels!
I'll post some before and after pics of the carpet later this week.
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