It's always something.

[C-T]

I had some plans for the E30 this summer, specifically a 5-lug swap and the restoration of my old M3's HREs, but various unforeseen (and expensive) calamities prevented it from happening. Like this:



An errant foul ball picked my car to break its fall. I was at a high school baseball game under protest, and I was blessed with this sweetness. It disgusted me enough to not want to even look at the BMW pretty much all summer, but I did finally get around to taking care of it last week:



The best is that as soon as the roof was painted, something snapped in the front driver's side of the sunroof and now it won't seal correctly. If I travel over 80 mph air gets under it and lifts the panel unless I have it tilted up from the other direction. Rapture. :/

Slowly, over the past three months, I've changed the car. I added an Mtech II steering wheel, swapped out the black wheels for silver, removed the tint, and today I finally got around to the paint recon that I'd been putting off since the baseball hit it.

I'm not in love with any of these shots, but I also put zero time into them due to abject laziness. My 5D II should be here today, so I plan to spend the weekend shooting and hopefully I can get some nice foliage shots before the trees go totally barren.





















The interior could use some cleanin', but it's livable.




Rolling







Could I have put more effort into the rolling shots? Yes, but I was lazy. I had spent the previous day shooting a Panamera and wasn't feeling the whole make-a-production-number-out-of-it thing. This was all I had the motivation to do:



I received a few requests for a new E30 video, and here it is. It's nothing special, sorry - I don't even launch WOT but rather roll into the throttle once I am on my way. The power comes on about 1000 RPM sooner now that the car is running its new SMT6 piggyback setup and custom tuning, and it's too easy to turn any given takeoff into an adolescent tire-baking police call.

[N2MYE30]

Nice vid! Thanks for sharing that. I like the silver wheels much better.

[C-T]

Nice vid! Thanks for sharing that. I like the silver wheels much better.

Thanks! It's a lot less aggressive looking now, but the whole all-black thing got tiring pretty quickly. One side benefit is an upgraded "sleeper" status, and that the chrome window trim no longer stands out like a turd in a punchbowl. Which is nice. In the end the biggest PITA was removing the window tint glue as I think my lungs are still recovering from the ocean of Goof Off I used. :/

I am beginning to love this car again. I just need to attend to the sunroof issue, swap to snow tires (that are on my black wheels lol), and I'm ready for Winter.

[ldsbeaker]

exhaust is kickass.

[8380 Labs]

the cosmetic changes were all definite improvements.

one of the more nicely sorted cars on the board, good to see the love rekindled. :)

[N2MYE30]

Thanks! It's a lot less aggressive looking now, but the whole all-black thing got tiring pretty quickly. One side benefit is an upgraded "sleeper" status, and that the chrome window trim no longer stands out like a turd in a punchbowl. Which is nice. In the end the biggest PITA was removing the window tint glue as I think my lungs are still recovering from the ocean of Goof Off I used. :/

I am beginning to love this car again. I just need to attend to the sunroof issue, swap to snow tires (that are on my black wheels lol), and I'm ready for Winter.

Well, your car is looking right! Eruotrim and all reds and call it done. Im mildly searching for for some IS skirts too.

BTW: for tint removal, I found that heat and vinegar was the trick...comes off like butta! Check out my MT2 project for my info.

[C-T]

Thanks guys. Appreciate it. I know my affinity for the thing is returning because I've started inspecting header options again, along with potentially swapping out the 3.46 for something taller. I'm beginning to think the 3.23 gear might be better for the car, even if it would impact my high-speed/highway acceleration. The car is very satisfying, but I feel like I shift too much. I ran a 3.64 in my E36 M3, and this feels exactly the same.

N2MYE30, cosmetically, it's done until I can finally do the 5-lug swap and get my HREs on it. I miss them:



Plus I'd like to maximize my return on the engine and it's not possible on the stock headers. When I look at what this will take to restore the HREs alone I know I am a fool for even considering throwing that much more money at the car.

I wish I'd known about that tint removal solution, as my time stuck in the cabin breathing in that noxious nastiness really wacked me out for a few hours afterwards. :crazy:

[E-Thirty]

The interior could use some cleanin', but it's livable.

Funny guy. :p

I love the understated look.

[zundapp]

That car is really nice man. What wheels are those? I love them..


Peace

[IRUNEDM]

very nice and clean. i like

[tak7]

nice car! gotta love vinyl's longevity!

[C-T]

Thanks guys.

Zundapp, the wheels are D-Force LTW5. 15x7 ET25, 13 lbs a piece originally made for Spec E30 cars.

[e30lyf]

clean car, what suspension are you running?

[e30fan4life]

i always use to watch your other video with you do highway pulls i like the way it looks now

[325ix]

Wow really nice car! I gotta few questions for ya.
What size tires are you running and what is the exhaust set-up?

I saw your M3 over on Bimmer forums, it looks great as well!

Also for tint removal you can spray an ammonia based product on the tint then tape a balck garbage bag (that has been opened up) over the tint and then park it in the sun. It creates a green house effect and makes it pretty easy to remove.