My 1991 318is Project

[phrekus]

I started my search for a new project by trying to hunt down a 240z but found that due to lack of rust proofing one in decent condition was far beyond my budget. After 2 months of searching my buddy who drives a GTI suggested that I start looking for e30’s. I have always loved the boxy styling of them but never looked beyond Z’s. After about a month of searching I found this 1991 318is for $1200 on craigslist and managed to talk the seller down to $1050.

Taken when I first got her home




When I bought the car it would stall and hesitate during cold starts but it ran well when it warmed up. Once I got the car home I found that pretty much every vacuum line was cracked and the O2 sensor was bad. After getting the car up on jack stands in the garage progress came slow until my first pelicans order came in (roundels, fuel filter, air filter, valve cover gasket and spark plug gaskets, plugs, O2 sensor, intake manifold gasket, TB gasket). We just finished the “mess under the intake” fix and I gave the ICV a good cleaning while replacing all the parts listed. I got the chance to start the car this morning before heading into work and she fired right up with no drama, stalling, hesitation. After that it was hard for me to go into work but I will be putting the wheels back on tonight and getting a little work done before dropping her off to get new exhaust tomorrow.


The start of a long weekend...



Working on removing the mess under the intake



New plate came in the mail

[YAN-3]

ZE GERMN!!! love the plate!

[freeride53]

vanity plate ftw!

[lowlightbw]

bravo! keep it up!

[Erik]

HEY! I Live like 20 minutes away from St. Pete!

Car looks great! AlpineWhite FTW! That plate is classic too!

[phrekus]

Thanks, I was pretty excited to see that ZE GERMN was available.

Oh yeah Sarasota is not a long trip at all (with an M52 e30 *nice work by way). After working on it for a few weeks I am never going back to working on Z's. Unfortunately I think my thermostat is bad so I went and grabbed one from autozone, but I had to order the gasket and o-ring from napa so she is stuck on jack stands for another couple days.

[phrekus]

Car is running much better now but I am waiting on the exhaust. Ended up replacing the majority of the cooling system including the waterpump but the peace of mind is worth it. While collecting the parts for the suspension/brakes I got bored and pulled most of the interior out which inspired me to make the car a little more track focused. I am planning on picking up a pair of race seats this weekend and I am going to have some custom cut auto carpet for just the driver and passenger side floors but the rest will be bare white metal. Over the last few days I removed all of the black trim and the bumpers from the car to sand and paint all of the black. Found a local paint shop that will re-paint the car the original alpine white 2 for cheap if I do this prep work but that is down the road after I have the brakes and suspension done. I also took the removed the rusty sunroof and replaced it with a black one that I was originally planning on having painted white but having it black on the white car has grown on me. I will try to get some pictures posted soon.