Sold The 325iX...

[Jesse30]

neat. what are the plans?

[Ben Carufel]

Pics from today. I've got to work this afternoon so we just did interior steam cleaning stuff. Next Saturday and Sunday we will most likely have time to at least finish the interior and polish/polymer seal the paint. Then it's just cleaning the engine/undercarriage and she'll be good as new.

The seats will most definitely need re-covering soon.

[Ruffian]

Got a shot of the carpet before the cleaning? If you're interested in a set of black door pulls and map pockets, let me know. Always bugs me that bmw couldn't make a better match between cards and pulls for that tan interior.

[kellie]

I don't think we took any interior pictures before I started on the carpet, but trust me, it was MUCH worse. It's still far from perfect, but most of the ugly stuff will be hidden when the seats are in. It looks like someone spilled coffee or coke or something behind the passenger seat about 15 years ago, so that stain won't be coming out any time soon. I steam cleaned the tan floor mats that Ben gave me, but they don't match the carpet AT ALL. I think I'm going to get some new black ones, I know we have them in stock at work.

The seats are definitely getting recovered, but I have a few other things to take care of before I do that. First and foremost, the car needs a valve adjustment and new CV boots. Then I need to replace all of the metal fuel lines under the car, they're pretty rusted. I've already taken care of all of the tranny leaks and the intake manifold gaskets, plus a bunch of new rubber bits and trim. The car has over $1000 worth of new parts alone, and that's with my employee discount. All silly little things like new rubber pedal covers and stuff like that. I've been bugging the paintless dent repair guy at work to fix my dents, so hopefully he'll do those soon. Then the wheels will get refinished and, and...yeah, it's a huge list. But she's already made a ton of progress.

I'm giving the bumpers, spoiler and mirrors to the body shop guy tomorrow. I'm hoping I can put that all back on before I go on vacation at the end of the month, but I won't hold my breath. I will definitely post updated pictures as I get everything done though. E30s are money pits, lemme tell ya.

[kellie]

Got a shot of the carpet before the cleaning? If you're interested in a set of black door pulls and map pockets, let me know. Always bugs me that bmw couldn't make a better match between cards and pulls for that tan interior.

Oh, and thanks for the offer, but I think I'm going to see if I can find an upholstery shop to cover them in leather to match the seats when I get those done.

[kellie]

Diving boards are gone! Tell Ben to hurry and post pics!

[Ben Carufel]

Kellie took the iX to work today and put the freshly painted bumpers, spoiler, and mirrors on. I spent hours and endless hours polishing that car over the past two weeks. The paint looks brand new (save for the chips and dings).

Here are some shots Kellie took during the bumper process. Excuse the poor quality.

[Mtriple]

Hot! Euro trim?

[Ben Carufel]

Hot! Euro trim?

Euro trim is on the way. Then...she's going to order a brand new M-Tech II steering wheel. Then maybe I can convince her to go with Euro ellipsoids with HIDs.

[kellie]

Hot! Euro trim?

Gracias! I ordered Euro trim on...Thursday? Or maybe it was Wednesday. Either way, it's supposed to come in today, and Ben and I are leaving town this morning for 9 days, so final pictures won't come until we get back in town.

We have an iS lip IN STOCK at work, but I'm waiting until I take care of a few other things before I snag that. My parts guy and I are a dangerous team. He also drives a 325iX, and he sits in the shop 20 feet away from me and looks up cool Euro E30 parts ALL DAY LONG. So every two minutes, it's "hey Kellie, look at this!!" And I go "whoa, that's cool, how much is it? That's all? Order it!" It's really bad. Good thing half the stuff is no longer available.

Anyway, the front and rear valances need some love. Then I can put all of the trim back in the front, and the look will be complete. Right now, half the trim is missing from the drivers side of the car too. Waiting on a few clips that we broke when we detailed the car.

Oh, and I took the pictures with the intention of captioning them myself. The picture with the 7 series in the background was because I thought it was funny how my car was the oldest car in the shop by A LOT, yet it is probably the most reliable. Also, the cutting of the metal bumper was "because we can," and had nothing to do with the fact that we had no idea what we were doing, and there are 3 bolts holding the old bumper shocks in, as opposed to 2 on the new bumper shocks. How many master techs does it take to do a bumper swap? Durrrr....