New member in LA

[warmseth]

Hey everybody. I'm a first time BMW owner. I come from a background of owning Datsun 510s. They're getting as rare as hen's teeth and super expensive so I decided to pick up an E30 and got this reasonably clean 325is recently. It has a whole lot of issues but the title is clean and the body is decent and that's a pretty good place to start. Pictures:

[bernzpeed]

i like those rims. I used to have them on my Honda Civic. Are those ADRs?

[E30_(1st Musk)_]

nice! and welcome....
what sort of problems you got?

[worangejuice]

looks good man, LOCK THAT CAR UP!!!!
that's my only concern. or word of advice. c
Car is supa clean, welcome to R3V and the E30 community.
And you already have plastic bumpers :)

[thirdirev]

Welcome, looks pretty clean. You have any plans for it?

[SimplyDope]

Looks good. Get some euro trim and euro grilles!

[warmseth]

Thanks for the replies. I bought this car off a young guy who tracked it quite a bit and as I'm sort of old (37) a lot of what I want to do to the car is make it more comfortable to drive and nicer/stock looking so my wife will get in it.

I can't remember the make on the wheels. They're just ok. They look better in pictures. I think down the road I'll swap them out for some BBS Hyperblacks.

The car has a lot of Ireland Engineering stuff on it including the following:

330mm front disks with braided steel lines all around (this is why the car is on 17" wheels. I'd rather have 15s or 16s personally)
Coil overs with camber plates in the front
IE shorty headers and cat back can
Cold air intake with the heat shield
Bridgestone potenzas in the back and I just put a new set of BFG Gforce on the front. (the fronts were bald)
I've sunk another $1000 into it (bought it for $3500) in having the many oil leaks fixed and a new battery and a valve adjust.


Part of my plans are to possibly put more streetable springs in it because it's like a fricken rattletrap every time I hit the most minor of bumps.
I want to remove the Limo black tint and either put a mild tint or no tint at all on it.

The interior is a squeaky mess so tracking down all the plastic on plastic and putting some felt or something between it to quiet it down is in the plans.

The interior also has no headliner and the front heated sport seats are a disaster; they're tan and ripped and the heat pads are destroyed theyre so ripped. I bought another set of sport seats (In dark blue) that are not ripped but only the heat pad on the passenger side works on them, the drivers has been recovered in leatherette (rather than leather) and the gas shocks are shot so it's a cumbersome affair moving them into position. I think I'll take the ripped up ones and find the shocks and the heat pads and reupholster them but that's about 800+$ that I don't have right now.
The stereo head unit is ok but the speakers are all blown. I have an amp and sub to put in it (clarion 450 watt and kicker 10").
I'd like an alarm with keyless entry too.

The biggest issue I have is that electrical stuff doesn't work. The electric mirrors don't work, the fan for the heater doesn't work and all the AC was taken off the car (I want to put back on), the cruise control was stripped out and I want it back, and most problematic the rear blinkers don't work. I'm getting awfully tired of hand signals so that has to be fixed asap.

Thats about it for now. Thanks for the wam welcome


Question: on those seats should a 1990 325is with heated sport seats have the ones where the stiching is vertical or horizontal? the back seats are vynal and have the vertical stitching and the front torn up tan ones were also vertical so I figured that's what I'd do but as long as I'm paying a bunch of $ to fix them I might as well have them done right.

Thanks in advance.

[warmseth]

Oh where can I find a replacement for that lower valance (the black part)? it's damaged.

[E30_(1st Musk)_]

ILL TRADE YOU SUSPENSION SETUPS!!! hahaha

the black part is the "is" lip, they cost about 115 from tischer bmw (and thats a great price)
how bad is it damaged? looks perfectly fine to me

[IRON-E]

Sup man, where in LA are you from? I'm close to Culver City.

Welcome to your new addiction, as if you didn't already know. ;)

[Balleristic31]

How long have u been into 510s? U may know my dad.

[JJe30]

Welcome to r3v and BMWs

[warmseth]

^about 15 years. The picture was before the valance ripped off the car and got run over by many many cars an hour after I nought it. :)

[warmseth]

Oh, I'm over in eagle rock.

[Balleristic31]

Gotcha, my dads name was john and he drove a white, flared, BRE striped 510. He autoxd and road raced it in the 80s and early 90s. Ill try to post his car ina bit.