Any other dumbasses on here?

[Solarian]

A bit of background information, I bought a 91 318is after only driving it once, then parked it and poured like 3 grand into replacing everything on it. I keep seeing threads pop up about the feel of an E30, and what makes it special, but I honestly can't comment, cause I have no freaking clue. I really like how the car looks, love it on paper, but I can only hope I actually like how it drives. I thought it was okay on the test drive, but all four shocks were blown and the power steering was leaking. The car also had tons of vacuum leaks and a crappy idle.

When it's finally on the road, I will have fully overhauled the problem areas on the M42 and literally every suspension component in the front, and many in the rear will be brand new. It's also getting an E36 steering rack. I just hope to god this car doesn't suck. I really think I'll like it, based on other cars that I've driven and liked in the past, but I can't help but feel like a huge idiot for pouring massive amounts of time and money into a car that I've never even driven.

Has anyone here ever done anything quite so stupid and naive before?

[steve68]

Relax, your fine, getting it running right, and they way you want it, then drive the wheels off it,
been doing the same thing to a 90 IS I bought in January, and I keep 2nd guessing myself every day, then I remember my other IS,
bought it with 89K it was only 4 yrs old, but I knew where all the miles came from, by the time I gave it to my dad 10 yrs later it had 275K, and ran great still, needed a rear center section, bearings were worn, I'm in the same boat, all is good,

[LJ851]

Has anyone here ever done anything quite so stupid and naive before?

Nope, you win.

[Exodus_2pt0]

Not stupid. There is nothing wrong with fixing up a car.

I'm doing a v8 swap right now on a car I have only rolled onto and off a trailer.

When you put a ton of time into a car, then you can't help but feel satisfied when you finally get to drive it, no matter what happens, you will have a smile on your face.

[CrusherCurtis]

I'm one of the biggest dumb asses, the not for the reasons you listed. The first time I ever even sat in e30 was when the truck dropped off mine from Florida and I loved it. The e30 chasis is wonderful, but the e30 feels better imo with a smooth inline six (I've owned an m42 e30). Can't wait to pull mine back out for the summer

[Farbin Kaiber]

Yeah, First e30, drove it 8 miles, pulled in garage, pulled the engine, never finished, had to sell when I relocated. Second e30, drove it about 50 miles, pulled in garage, pulled the engine, still finishing up 5lug/s52 swap. Third e30, bought it, drove it 40 miles, pulled it in shop, it still sits.

I've put more miles on friends and customers e30's than mine. In fact, I think I drove kronus' eurobumpered sedan more than all my e30's combined.

It's called an addiction.

[knuklehead92]

Has anyone here ever done anything quite so stupid and naive before?

yes me..... bought a bmw 2002.... never drove it, pouring money into.... now.... i love the styling of the 2002 and for some reason i love it... even when its not running... lol to be honest i am not expecting much for handling from the 2002 but speed should be good with the s52 in there :twisted:

[QUKBMER]

I have had my white 91 e30 for 13 years, slowly over the years fixed it upgraded it . The third love in my life after the wife and my daughters. Hang in there, the rewards are coming.

[phreshkid]

I drove 7 hours to Sacramento, spent the night at my parent's house, drove 100 miles to San Francisco, bought a 1973 BMW 2002, drove it 100 miles back to my friend's shop and parked it. That is the only time I have ever driven the car. It is currently in 1000 pieces and I have accumulated over $10k in parts that will ultimately go on/in the car.

Am I a dumbass? Perhaps, but I bought the car to break apart and restore.

I guess it depends on what you wanted the end product to me.

[phreshkid]

oh and once I dropped the car off at my buddy's shop, I immediately drove back to Huntington Beach (7 hours) to make it to class on monday morning.

[patp]

Bought my car drove it for a month as a daily in 2011, its been sitting at various houses for 2 years and now its on jack stands filled with like 4000$ in parts (i even bought wheels i wont be using for it and have a non vanos and vanos pinned 24v harness's ready just incase I find a deal on one or the other) soon to be minus an engine once i get the driveshaft out..... I look at it longingly from the second floor like a wet puppy asking for food as i daily drive my soulless 1997 sentra. So no your not the only dumbass we all just have big aspirations for our cars

[decay]

i've got you beat by a longshot- i had over $10k into my current car before i ever laid eyes on it myself.

the excuse there is i had a gf buy it while i was deployed to iraq and then she took it to a shop and i sent them some money every month and said "ok do this next"... but yeah.

[Holland]

There's nothing wrong with it no, but I couldn't do it.

I like driving a car and learning it's flaws and perks. Then every time I make a mod or improvement, I notice and grow with the car. To me it's like an evolution. Growing and learning with the car. I have variables to compare from.

[Kevinl]

I have had mine since september. I have driven it maybe 500 miles. I have not had the time to do much to it. I work 60 hours a week and having a 10 month old son takes all my time and it will be getting ungodly hot here soon, so the e30 will probably be sitting waiting for some love till at least november

[Solarian]

Haha, glad to know my situation is not so unique. I actually didn't expect to put this much work into it, this soon. I was going to just fix a few things here and there, but the desire to not have to do things twice kept digging me in deeper and deeper. Shocks were blown, so I figured why not get a good shock/spring combo now. When I took off the struts, the mounts were in terrible shape, so might as well get those too. Bearings didn't feel so fresh either, so new bearings. Well, might as well do the control arms and bushings because they're not too pricey. Power steering was leaking (just needed new low pressure lines), but I did want a quicker rack, so might as well do that too. Kinda have to get new tie rods when you do that... so...

This basically happened to every part I touched. Right now, there's very few things that I'm leaving for later, and they're all in the back, so I can do it in one shot, probably next winter. Basically new rear subframe with the toe/camber adjustments, new bushings and replace all the diff seals (just as a precaution)

I can't comment on the 4 banger vs the 6, but in theory, the 4 seems better to me, I guess I'll find out in a month or two when I put the car back together :D