Hello,
I've been creeping around the forums for a while now. At first it was to gather info on E30's before I made a purchase and then it was to absorb any information I could to help maintain and improve my E30 post purchase.
A little bit about me, I'm a university student living in Newfoundland, Canada, which means a few different things. The first is our climate, we can get all four seasons in one day, most times of the year (with the exception of snow from June-August). There also aren't many used BMW's around here, or at least any from the 80's, therefore scrapyard scavenging won't work. And my current status as student means tight funds, any repairs or upgrades will be kept to a minimum. My intention for this car is to learn how an E30 works, what needs to be done to keep it running and what I can look forward to once I have a real job after university.
This is my car post purchase - 1989 BMW 325i, 250,000 km:
So it had a bad paint job, hanging wires, dirt, rust, a few nicks and bumps, but it was my first car, my E30!
I had an inspection done to see what it would need to be road worthy and the list wasn't as big as I thought. It needed brakes and rotors all around, a strut, a few rust spots patched, a light bulb or two, handbrake cable and and some TLC. So I ordered the parts and shipped the car back home (no place to do work as I live in an apartment and have no tools, stupid university) hoping to have it in my hands again in a few weeks, boy was I wrong.
The parts arrived on time but a few complications at home lead to a delay in my dad getting to the repairs. Little did I know he bought a toy of his own, a tractor which he was looking at repairing as well as an injury. He got around to doing the work after a few weeks and then got an inspection. Turns out it also needed a ball joint, ugh... I decided to get the whole control arm because I read pressing them in without proper tolls is next to impossible. The part took another week to get in (being on an island puts at least 2 days on delivery dates) and I had to wait a bit longer.
Finally all was said and done and the car made the journey across the province and was dropped off by my parents. I had a bit of a surprise when it was delivered, a new paint job! The picture above was taken after a wash, wax and buff and the paint was still in terrible condition. Turns out my Dad and Uncle got together over the weekend and did a paint job for me, I was ecstatic.
(notice the red tractor outside ahah, and a red bucket below)
It was a long 5 week wait but well worth it. After making a 700km journey to bring it out to me I jumped in it and put another 150km on it the first time I got it. I loved ride, the cornering, the power from the engine, the sound... everything about it was perfect.
Over the last two weeks I have been driving it around a lot and a few nights ago went looking for picture spots. This first one is grainy because I had the ISO setting on the camera too high :???:
And this second one was a spur of the moment. The tripod wasn't sturdy but it did the job, I am going to redo some of these photos later on to get better results.
So I am really happy with my first car, and my first E30. To make life a bit easier I drove by two BMW's a few days ago and stopped to see who owned them. Turns out another enthusiast does and has them as parts cars and said I was welcome to anything I would like (for a reasonable price). There are some small things I need like a seat (just the mechanics to fix my driver side), a hood strut, and maybe a starter.
The one on the right is a 325i with an M badge on it, not sure if that is legit. Is there any easy way to check? I asked about the engine and the owner said only 120,XXXkm on it. Perhaps a swap for my car? I need to look into that and find a way to pay for it and a place to do it without having to ship home. I almost way to buy it outright and strip the car, paint it and transfer all of the best parts I have into that two door body, but that is unlikely because of lack of money/space. Oh well.
Anyway that's my intro. I hope it wasn't too long, I tired to spice it up with lots of pictures. I am writing this at 3:30am so excuse any grammatical/picture/information errors. Looking forward to comments and I have a few questions I might add tomorrow.
Cheers,
Aaron
I've been creeping around the forums for a while now. At first it was to gather info on E30's before I made a purchase and then it was to absorb any information I could to help maintain and improve my E30 post purchase.
A little bit about me, I'm a university student living in Newfoundland, Canada, which means a few different things. The first is our climate, we can get all four seasons in one day, most times of the year (with the exception of snow from June-August). There also aren't many used BMW's around here, or at least any from the 80's, therefore scrapyard scavenging won't work. And my current status as student means tight funds, any repairs or upgrades will be kept to a minimum. My intention for this car is to learn how an E30 works, what needs to be done to keep it running and what I can look forward to once I have a real job after university.
This is my car post purchase - 1989 BMW 325i, 250,000 km:
So it had a bad paint job, hanging wires, dirt, rust, a few nicks and bumps, but it was my first car, my E30!
I had an inspection done to see what it would need to be road worthy and the list wasn't as big as I thought. It needed brakes and rotors all around, a strut, a few rust spots patched, a light bulb or two, handbrake cable and and some TLC. So I ordered the parts and shipped the car back home (no place to do work as I live in an apartment and have no tools, stupid university) hoping to have it in my hands again in a few weeks, boy was I wrong.
The parts arrived on time but a few complications at home lead to a delay in my dad getting to the repairs. Little did I know he bought a toy of his own, a tractor which he was looking at repairing as well as an injury. He got around to doing the work after a few weeks and then got an inspection. Turns out it also needed a ball joint, ugh... I decided to get the whole control arm because I read pressing them in without proper tolls is next to impossible. The part took another week to get in (being on an island puts at least 2 days on delivery dates) and I had to wait a bit longer.
Finally all was said and done and the car made the journey across the province and was dropped off by my parents. I had a bit of a surprise when it was delivered, a new paint job! The picture above was taken after a wash, wax and buff and the paint was still in terrible condition. Turns out my Dad and Uncle got together over the weekend and did a paint job for me, I was ecstatic.
(notice the red tractor outside ahah, and a red bucket below)It was a long 5 week wait but well worth it. After making a 700km journey to bring it out to me I jumped in it and put another 150km on it the first time I got it. I loved ride, the cornering, the power from the engine, the sound... everything about it was perfect.
Over the last two weeks I have been driving it around a lot and a few nights ago went looking for picture spots. This first one is grainy because I had the ISO setting on the camera too high :???:
And this second one was a spur of the moment. The tripod wasn't sturdy but it did the job, I am going to redo some of these photos later on to get better results.
So I am really happy with my first car, and my first E30. To make life a bit easier I drove by two BMW's a few days ago and stopped to see who owned them. Turns out another enthusiast does and has them as parts cars and said I was welcome to anything I would like (for a reasonable price). There are some small things I need like a seat (just the mechanics to fix my driver side), a hood strut, and maybe a starter.
The one on the right is a 325i with an M badge on it, not sure if that is legit. Is there any easy way to check? I asked about the engine and the owner said only 120,XXXkm on it. Perhaps a swap for my car? I need to look into that and find a way to pay for it and a place to do it without having to ship home. I almost way to buy it outright and strip the car, paint it and transfer all of the best parts I have into that two door body, but that is unlikely because of lack of money/space. Oh well.
Anyway that's my intro. I hope it wasn't too long, I tired to spice it up with lots of pictures. I am writing this at 3:30am so excuse any grammatical/picture/information errors. Looking forward to comments and I have a few questions I might add tomorrow.
Cheers,
Aaron
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