*Newbie Here With My Free e30 Toy*

[Motorsports]

Yea you could drop the car without the car bouncing all over the place. Its like vacman says you need to choose the right product to get that nice ride. Trust me you could get a better ride out of your car.

[CleanAzzE30z]

Welcome.


Mariano

[E30 Cabrio]

History of this e30: Free from my older bro who know's nothing about playing with cars so he gave it to my son. So far I'm working on it and alot of the things I put in there I got for free: Beige seats with no tears, Kenwood CD player with 6.5 speakers, CAI, just to name a few.

I am slowly showing my son how to have pride in working on his ride. It's just this new generation is so darn "Techno" spoiled, lazy and with no sense of how to work for anything. They always want, want, and want.

* The side skirts and wing came from an old Zender kit. This kit is over 15 years old, but does justice.

Not sure I want to drop it just yet, I'm getting to old for that stuff and hate the bouncing around like a bobble head. I owned a 71' Datsun 510 that was so much fun back when I was 17 years old.

Thanks for the warm welcome

That only happens if you heat up the springs like the F&F crowd.

[AndrewBird]

What front valence/lip is that? Zender as well?

As far as a drop goes, most lowering springs/shocks are actually stiffer then stock and will make the car handle better, not bounce all over the place.

[matrix]

Ok...almost convinced with slammn her...but how much is this going to cost? Do I also need new shock mounts all the way around, cuz I think that's what I heard squeeking around there. I'm just scared my wife might trip or she might fly over potholes and go loco. Recently she's been loving the drive of the e30 since I have been working on her. Gotta admit she's lots of fun to drive, plus she hates gas as compared to my SUV.

The front valence I thought was stock, if it isnt...Zender is my guess on that one.

[Eviltwin]

congrats on the nice ride! (nice price too!)

I found that working on E30's from the get go was an excellent foundation to learn about mechanical maintenance, and knowledge.
The M20 ETA engines in my opinion are tough, extremely well built platforms to learn on- very forgiving, and pretty much come apart, and back together like lego blocks! Can't go wrong as a 1st car either- doesn't have the gobs of HP to send you hurling at mach 10 down the highway, but has gobs of torque to play around with (oh btw- CHIP IT!)
Check out a Turner Motorsport chip (about $200) but well worth it.

as for suspension, like others have said- a good H&R/Bilstein combo or similar, will yield you excellent results- the days of bouncing around on cut coilsprings are no longer:tsk:

as for the front lip/valence, it's stock OEM...I have(had) the same on my '85 325e aswell.
(btw I think those mirrors are aftermarket, mine don't sit as sleek or as high as yours)

Hope you have a great experience with this car, and most of all enjoy it! these were meant to be driven:D

-Ryan

[einstein57]

Has anyone around here tried the tokico kit? Any opinions for use as an appearance drop.

[Eviltwin]

Has anyone around here tried the tokico kit? Any opinions for use as an appearance drop.

Tokico=Vogtland.

Seen the kits on ebay for pretty cheap.

if it's just for appearance, I don't see the harm, with added benefit of some handling improvements-

I had tokico's with my H&R's at one point...found them somewhat soft...

[Jean]

If this will be your sons first car, I wouldn't lower it at all. And yes, you do need springs AND shocks to lower it properly.

[george graves]

Welcome!

[e30325ic]

Welcome, I have 2 son's that I have put into E30's. They love them. I hope your's enjoys his as much as mine do. Nice looking car.

[matrix]

So far the project is coming along from where it came from. When I 1st got it, I thought is was going to fall apart. Now she's getting tighter and tighter. Just need a new suspension setup and exhaust.

[TwoJ's]

Why will your son not drive until he is 17 or 18? Your choice? I'm not hating, just wondering.

And I hope you are having your son work on the car with you. I had zero mechanical experience before I got my e30, and I had no father figure, so I just had to tear in to it and learn as I went. I would have killed for some guidance.

Welcome, and good luck. I'm sure he will love the car.

[GraphicRage]

Nice, looks like the american cousin of my car! (grey market 85)

I want those side skirts, they look nice on that car!

[Mulholland]

if you don't want a harsh shitty street car, I recommend going the vogtland route. The ride quality and handling characteristics are fantastic. If you are planning on swapping it for your son... well for starters... he's 15, maybe you should let him start out with it stock, just spend the cash on a chip, and suspension at most, because it's his first car, and he's going to beat the shit out of it. Nevermind that a stock 325e is more than enough street power for your first car. All of that aside, what you do is your business, but you will have no choice but to redo the suspension if you are swapping the engine. I highly recommend you just leave that one as it is for your son and get another E30 for you to tinker with and let him help you work on and then let him come into his own. I can only imagine how awful something like an S52 swapped E30 would be on stock suspension...

The best thing you can do to an E30 out of the box is to chip it and give it new springs mated to well matched struts, and both of those are things your son could easily do himself and afford himself in under a months time putting in some honest work at McDonalds or the likes. Or if you really want to do something awesome for your son get him some HPDE right after he gets his license, and let him learnt o drive his stock car to maybe 70% of its potential before raising its power. Once you get out there and see an instructer blow by half the people in a stock convertible solara.... you realize you don't need an ls1 to go faster. Just my .02, take it with a grain of salt.