"Bowie" 325e

[Gaarath378]

Ive been trolling this website for about 5 years now, since i bought my e30 and I figured it was time to join the forum and let you guys see my shitbox. I originally bought this car back in 2019, for a cheap $500 right before covid. Unlikely that I will ever get another e30 for that price range, even shells go for $1k+ in my area. Drove out to Provo Utah, car had been sitting for years as lawn art. Not original owner, but the car had been passed around their family before ending up with me. Serious rust damage, utah road salt is no joke :/. The family was apparently HUGE david bowie fans, you can kind of tell in some of these pictures they had sanded the top of the car from hood to trunk in order to paint a mural of david bowie. Love his music, hate what hes done to my car. Daily drove it for a little over a year, then i tried to change out my oilpan and ripped out the subframe because the engine wasnt properly supported. I ended up storing it for about 3 years, couldnt stand to sell it but didnt have the time to fix it. I went through an e36, e39 and e46 before growing the balls to get it fixed. Towed it from Vegas to Seattle, drained the fuel tank, did some body work detailed below, minor electrical work to get it running and now its as good as before my *massive* fuckup. Will post occasionally on here, I seem to run into a lot of weird problems not detailed on this forum so hopefully someone else can learn from my mistakes. (featuring the new steering wheel I got from E30 picnic 2024, wayyyyyy better than the 4-spoke)

[2mAn]

... Anyhow, I figured it was time to join the forum and let the world see my shitbox...

[Gaarath378]

Grinder and paint makes us the welder we aint, one of the bolts sheared off in the threads, easy enough to fix, the front two required material from a parts car, bmw at one point sold the entire frame rail i needed, but its been discontinued likely for a long time. I had considered cutting an entire square piece out and welding in everything as one solid piece, but I figured the less I mess with the better my odds of fixing this were. Utah rust is no joke, they salt their roads like crazy down there. While in there I threw in new tie rod inners and outers, Control arms, bushings and mounts, and plan to do the front suspension at some point soon as well. Part of the reason I wanted to make this thread is I couldnt find anyone else who has had this issue. Not sure if its because I hold the title for the rustiest E30, or because anyone else who ran into this problem decided it was time to part ways with the car. It is a fixable problem, but it is not an easy fix. Turns out that when the engine fell it bent the subframe enough that it would not seat in correctly anymore, so I had to replace it while in there. Ground the rust down and gave it some fresh paint, in it goes. The subframe holding on by one bolt and bending is a problem I would happily face again, as Im positive the engine falling on my chest would have killed or crippled me. Dont tell my fiance, she hates the car as is, thinks its a money pit (not entirely untrue).

[Gaarath378]

My fiance got me this phone charger from Bavmetalworks for christmas last year. Did not want to install fancy new parts on a car that does run, something about that feels weird. Now that my car is running, it was finally time to get cracking, and since I was working on my radio wiring anyway I figured it was a good time. It is very clearly 3d printed on the inside, but once installed in the dash its really not noticable, even to the point that when i showed my fiance and asked her to guess what had changed she didnt know (or maybe she just wasnt terribly interested, but we'll pretend it was the former). The fitment was really good, and clicked in just like a stock accessory would. To install, remove the radio, and pop out one of the buttons above it. Removal of the fader for early gen cars messes with your audio, and removal of the window child lock renders your windows unmovable, but you can press in your window lock behind the radio if you dont have any open spots, I have a coupe and no kids anyway. At this point I removed my kick panel, but its probably possible to leave this in. Route the wires from the plug down to the left, where there is a small gap, then remove your ashtray and cigarette lighter. Two screws in the little cubby, pull out the ashtray and unplug the lighter. and then remove your center console (does not need to be completely pulled out, just able to lift it up. This has been explained many times, but basically pull the emergency brake boot off, remove the nut under the rear ashtray and pull away, remove the nut under the shift gate (for automatics, maybe different on manuals) and then turn the two plastic screws on the console in both footwells. On my car (production date 10/86) there was an 8mm screw above the ashtray on the left, joining it to the dashboard. I have heard some cars dont have this, mine did. With this, and your car moved to neutral or a numbered gear for clearance, you can pull away at the center console. pull the wires to the new plug down under the center console, and plug into the wiring for the cigarette lighter. Put back in the center console the same way you took it out, plug the cigarette lighter into the attached splices, reassemble everything else (the same way you took it apart) and you should be in tip top shape. Works wonderful, looks really good and hasnt burned my car down yet.

[Gaarath378]

Pictures, I did end up moving the fader over one because I felt like it looked a little bit better, and I dont want cords dangling over my radio.