Back in an e30 after 10 years - 318is

[Il Duce]

Been a while since I've posted in members rides... I haven't had an e30 in about ten years, and that one was quite the basketcase. Until recently, I had a '76 2002. Loved that thing. It didn't matter how I modded my 2002 though, I still only ever had eyes for an e30. All these insane BaT auction prices and "no-lowballers-I know-what-I-have-car-flippers" type people were making me anxious that if I didn't get another e30 soon, I might not be able to justify prices down the road, despite how much I love these cars.

I bought it with incredibly faded Brilliantrot paint and just had it professionally detailed over the weekend (inb4 lazy), figured it is r3v worthy now. Eventually I'm going to respray it in Brilliantrot, but I'm a happy camper for now with this cut and polish.

Currently all I've done to it since I got it in Jan is swap the rear springs (previous owner included H&R's, but the front H&R's were still on), transferred the ACT(Ronal) wheels that I had on my old 2002, fit an "is" front spoiler and euro grilles - and drive the heck out of it.

The body is really straight, the engine has a ton of miles on it, but it might actually be the best e30 I've ever had. Seems like the previous owners really took care of it- maybe somebody here owned it? It came with some pretty common "tasteful" OEM+ mods. It has US Hella ellipsoids, a working 13 button OBC (is this rare on 318is's?) and what feels like a z4 shifter, although I haven't taken a look.

Future plans beyond the respray are just to enjoy it (I daily a prius now lmao).

[nando]

Where's the turned wheel pics????

welcome back!

[Il Duce]

Where's the turned wheel pics????

welcome back!

Haha, there is a square 8.5 set of DS2's for sale locally....

Thanks man!

[AWDBOB]

Lookin good! Do you recall what h&r spring set you have?

Also the 13 button OBC has to be totally retrofitted on a 318iS, it was never available from the factory in the US. Most of the stuff is still decently easy to find outside of the coding plug for the 13 button OBC. Super rare and hard to find if it has the correct plug for the M42 from the motherland.

[Il Duce]

Lookin good! Do you recall what h&r spring set you have?

Also the 13 button OBC has to be totally retrofitted on a 318iS, it was never available from the factory in the US. Most of the stuff is still decently easy to find outside of the coding plug for the 13 button OBC. Super rare and hard to find if it has the correct plug for the M42 from the motherland.

Thanks! I ran the part numbers of the rear springs before I installed them. They came up as intended for 6cyl cars. The ride is great, I have no complaints. I can check when I get home a bit later on the part numbers for the springs.

Thanks for the info about the OBC, I knew it seemed abnormal. As far as I can tell, everything is functional as well!

[mike.bmw]

Welcome! Looks like a good find!

[Mike36]

Whats the story on how you find it?

[Il Duce]

Thanks everybody!



I was looking all over the place for a few years, but I actually found the car on reddit (the E30 subreddit). The guy posted a very basic ad that said "for sale soon in SoCal". I DM'd him immediately and didn't hear back until a few days later. I drove down the next day w/ cash and picked it up!

[DEV0 E30]

Jesus Kevin, it's flipping gorgeous. I'm glad you finally posted pix of it.

I feel the same, if I can't find one soonish, I may need to let go of the dream of having another.

[Reichart12]

It'd be interesting to see how the faded paint was. After the detail, it looks perfect.

[Il Duce]

Jesus Kevin, it's flipping gorgeous. I'm glad you finally posted pix of it.

I feel the same, if I can't find one soonish, I may need to let go of the dream of having another.

Thanks brother! I hope you can get another one soon too- I'd love to see what you'd do to one these days. The used car market is just insane right now, hopefully things normalize a bit.

It'd be interesting to see how the faded paint was. After the detail, it looks perfect.

Thank you! There are definitely areas of the car that aren't going to come back & red really looks nice on camera phone pics, but for the price I'm really happy with how it turned out. Here is the car a couple days after a wash on the day my old 002 got picked up to go to the new owner. You can see that there are weird areas of clear coat/faded paint.

[DEV0 E30]

Requesting more wheel turn 3/4 shots. kthx

[moatilliatta]

Thanks! I ran the part numbers of the rear springs before I installed them. They came up as intended for 6cyl cars. The ride is great, I have no complaints. I can check when I get home a bit later on the part numbers for the springs.

Thanks for the info about the OBC, I knew it seemed abnormal. As far as I can tell, everything is functional as well!

Its good to be home!

[Il Duce]

Requesting more wheel turn 3/4 shots. kthx

heh. I still have the sign from this pic- I promise I'll recreate it soon.




In the meantime, a lil update... Since I last posted, I had a blowout on the freeway, got very lucky!



That caused a bit of damage to the ACT. I had it fixed and refinished and then promptly slapped some R888R's on it. Absolutely love these tires.



I ordered a vanity plate over a year ago, but due to the pandemic, CA is wayyyyy backlogged and so I'm running temp tags until I get it.





Film shot:



Beyond that, I've been doing some preventative maintenance stuffs... Was throwing the dreaded 1221 code at temp and I discovered the aux fan wasn't working so it was getting a little warm at idle, so I fixed that and then it sprang a bit of a coolant leak, so I fixed that as well. The car is running fantastic now I've been enjoying it as the occasional office car, but mostly I use it to enjoy on the weekends. I've got a wedding later this year, so sadly the e30 "fun" budget is pretty tight for now. :P

[Il Duce]

Its good to be home!

<3 posted that with you in mind haha. still rockin' TMV on the reg. I just spun Scabdates the other day. Stoked I picked up those records when they were new. I also got the box set they put out last year... was a bday present to myself.