The Ultimate Restoration

[grippymonkey]

You guys are super repetitive about the Automatic. This is a super clean car. I don't think he is racing it so what does it matter what he wants to drive?

[pegase747]

I love automatics, but I hate Automatic E30s....they are meant to be stick, and in my french back country roads, you want a stick !!

Pierre

[vlad]

once again. Filipinos know how to do it right. im proud to be a filipino.

When the labor cost is super cheap, you can do restorations like these left and right. They did a great job restoring that car, some of the work they did was silly but then again, it's all about the cost of labor.
The body guys wearing flip flops, newspapers used instead of masking paper and painters spraying without the masks is kind of nostalgically funny.

You guys are super repetitive about the Automatic. This is a super clean car. I don't think he is racing it so what does it matter what he wants to drive?

I agree and disagree. With the amount of work spent on this car, I would've swapped it to s54/6speed but then again, maybe the owner wanted the car as original as possible. Looks like an enthusiast owned car. It came out great in the end :up:

[freeride53]

That gentleman is balling out of control.

[rares]

yea that's what i am talking about.. that is one sweet looking mtech

[SimplyDope]

Just read through the entire thread. Amazing!

[thealbert]

Wow! I never knew about this thread and didn't know you guys were talking about my car behind my back! hahah Just kidding.

The objective of the restoration was to get the car back to as original as possible. This meant keeping the automatic in the car, since that was what the car came in originally from the factory. The whole project took over a year to get done but it was well worth it. The car drives like a dream and now drives just like how it was brandnew, well, close to brandnew. I did do some modifications during the restoration, like ditch the old IS bumpers and installed Mtech1s instead. The old IS bumpers were well past their prime and finding a good enough replacement was proving to be too difficult and expensive. The opportunity to get a complete set of Mtech1s (including the ducts, clips, etc) was just too good to pass up, so I decided to go for the Mtech1s instead. The rest of the car, aside from the headliner (since I couldn't find a good one anymore either and BMW Mobile Tradition didn't have the part in production or in stock anymore) was all as original as possible. This build could not have been possible without the help of a local BMW dealer for the sourcing of the parts and the support from BMW Germany.

Cost wise? Well... Luckily, labor over in my country is significantly cheaper and the only thing that really hurt the wallet were the original parts from Germany. In the end though, I hope this E30 should keep me happy and on the road for another 25 years without any major hitches!

Oh and to answer those automatic haters, I do agree, the E30 325is was destined to be a manual. During the time of the restoration though, the objecting of staying true to the originality of the car was the priority. But after already spending over a year with the car after the major restoration, I have been getting an itch to convert it over to a manual. The final verdict? I said screw it and I just got myself a Getrag 260! Currently working on getting all the other items to do the swap properly and hopefully I should be able to really enjoy the E30 in the way it was supposed to be driven! I'll surely post the transmission swap. Until then, cheers and drive safe! More power to all our E30s!

[thealbert]

i love it! except for the fact of no rear subframe or trailing arm bushings and its automatic

The bushings were actually replaced. I just sadly never got the change to take a picture of it cause the pressing of the bushings were outsourced to a machine shop.

[dball4]

Amazing work. Inspiration for all.

[bernzpeed]

thealbert, i was proud of your build which is y i posted it on here. proud to be pinoy!

[jasonbk]

My god.. that's my dream.

[e30lyf]

thealbert, i was proud of your build which is y i posted it on here. proud to be pinoy!

are you pinoy? haha

[thealbert]

thealbert, i was proud of your build which is y i posted it on here. proud to be pinoy!

Haha sweet! Thanks for the support pare! :)

[iwantspeed]

awesome thanks for posting that bernzspeed

[Raxe]

Wow, that's a lot of pictures haha.