Stupid things that PO's did to your car

[semaj4712]

Overall I'd say I got pretty lucky, however 3/4 of the car has been resprayed without any sanding or any primer (i know because theres a spot where the new red paint has chipped away exposing the factory pinstripe)

Also someone siliconed the oilpan because they were too cheap to replace the gasket the right way . Honestly its not that big of a deal but seriously stuff like that just pisses me off

My car is painted that way too, a little pissed about it...actually im furious...but what can I do...time to save up for a proper respray

[MazterDizazter]

My car is bone stock, thank jeebus! I didn't notice any weird wiring, or "custom" $#!t. Just needs an exhaust and some maintenance stuff. I did just park it at my friend's body shop and the oil managed to somehow drain all over the ground... so that's not good!!

[Rose E30]

One of the Previous Owners got into a crash in 2004 and had some super shitty body work done. This involved cutting the original front spoiler to make it fit with the new slightly bent front end shape. About the only thing they did right was replace the front fender. (At least I got money off because of it!)

[Simple_Smith]

Fart can :(

[Wild Ride]

Both of my dailys were 6k plus cars and worth every penny but I always had a thing for sub 1k cars and wanted a restoration project.

The PO was a tweaker high school kid that took a well maintained beautiful Original paint ONE OWNER Alpine on Cardinal 325is and turned it to shit in two years. I bought it not running for $850 "needs a fuel pump then it will smog perfect" somehow I suspected it was much worse as I could not test drive the car or run the engine and it had numerous noted issues. Thankfully this kid never attempted to fix anything under the hood and resorted to pep boy mods and stereo install et45 17" honda chinese rimz that rubbed on the inner fender wells (beat that everyone who rubbed on the outside). Everything else pictured is just 100% pure neglect. This is about 5% of what I found, these are just the rings that photograph the best. So if you ever wanted to know what the difference between a sub $3k e30 and a $5400 e30 this is it.

towed it home:


Anyone like Gum?


Getting laid in mah BEEMER! Trojan Heat cycled


Stereoinstaller will LOVE This! PO took the new speaker out of the package and left the optional ring on for custom installs on and used two drywall screws to hold it in place. Note speaker wiring on top of parcel shelf.


Thats funny without the optional piece of removable ring the speakers sit properly in the stock housings and the grills will fit on top, oem screws even worked.



Two days of clay bar saved the paint to mirror perfect. The whole car looked this bad. Gotta love the single stage Alpine 1.








Wondering why the exhaust squeaks? YUP $5 part



POS PEPBOYS stick on chrome strips on all the fenders and windows


It left the sticky foam behind everywhere. IF I ever see anyone on r3v use this on their e30 they will be instantly banned.


Remember that fix the Fuel pump runs great claim? Two cylinders had no compression so down the rabbit hole we go............




SO i replaced everything including the Head and all belts hoses fuel lines. Still won't start. Replaced the pump IT RUNS!

Lets go for a drive! it took 5 seconds to realize i was far from done the car had the gnarliest rear wheel bearing I had ever hear and the driveshaft vibration was the worst I have ever experienced flopping around in the tunnel. Another $1500

If you have an engine that barely runs who needs to stop? the other one was cracked in HALF!


4 Months Later I saved this from the Junkyard and took it back to showroom condition cosmetically and mechanically, gave it another 20 years of trouble free running. Neighbor offered me $5400 and the car was not even for sale or finished and an automatic. All you pissing on the FS forum prices should take note on e30 prices going up.

[kronus]

Foam sticky tape is the worst thing ever. While dismantling the six, I found that it was used not just to hold on the spoiler, but also both bmw badges, the rear emblem, the front bumper trim and both pieces of rocker trim. All that is gone now and the car smells so much better.

[Dirty325ix]

I had to pull out about a hundred feet of in car phone wiring
thank God for cell phones

[IAmGary]

So I bought this infamous car which I've learned was owned by a now banned member of this forum, SacE30.



Go ahead and laugh! I'm at the point in my recovery where I can laugh about it too. It would be petty to go over every single indignity this car suffered at the hands of it's PO, especially on this forum. And I was the sucker who bought it. But for the laughs here's a very short list (I've left out all the neglected stuff and focused on the stuff that was simple wrong):

- lug centric wheels without spacers ("Just needs an alignment"... I'm an idiot.)
- crazy glue everywhere, including holding the BMW emblem onto the hood and door trims
- home depot hardware holding the flex disc together
- painted over, burned out or unconnected interior and exterior lights, turn signals and license plate lights
- broken middle rear seatbelt just tucked under the seat (acted surprised when I mentioned it was missing. "Did this model have a middle seat belt?")
- cone air filter held on with zip ties

I consider this car a "rescue". It was destined for the wreckers and I saved it. Not many people would have been willing to put all the time, love and money into a car so neglected. It still needs a lot of work (especially cosmetic) but it's come a long way - and so have I! I've learned a lot the hard way with this car.

I'll post an updated photo and leave it at that:

[Wild Ride]

Foam sticky tape is the worst thing ever. While dismantling the six, I found that it was used not just to hold on the spoiler, but also both bmw badges, the rear emblem, the front bumper trim and both pieces of rocker trim. All that is gone now and the car smells so much better.

So is foam stickey tape worse or drywall screws? I would rather work for days to remove sticky tape tan to be left with holes in odd places.

[Wild Ride]

It sounds like 90% of the people posting in this thread bought their car from a kid under 25 getting paid less than $10 an hour

[kronus]

So is foam stickey tape worse or drywall screws? I would rather work for days to remove sticky tape tan to be left with holes in odd places.

The front trim was attached with drywall screws on one side and sticky tape on the other. All holes will be covered by the valence and new trim, though. I think the car was nice at some point, then the original importer got rear ended and sold it off for someone else to fix, which is when it was crappily resprayed and reassembled with things found at home depot.

[ak-]

When my PO attempted to roll the fenders, he cracked the paint pretty good which is common. So he used flat black paint the exposed metal. Worse part of it is, he didn't mask off the fender to spray it, so I have flat black all over my 4 fenders where the factory crease is from terrible over spray.

Idk how to get it off. It's on there pretty good.

[atldohc]

some laquer thinner on a rag should rub it right off. hopefullly its not cracked on the outside part. :shock:

[ak-]

some laquer thinner on a rag should rub it right off. hopefullly its not cracked on the outside part. :shock:

I tried that and I had to rub against it harder than I thought was normal (though I've never done this before).
Some came off, but not as much as I'd liked. I'll try again!

[Mr. Tasty]

detailing clay. works wonders