I actually bought this car about nine months ago, but have just now finally gotten it to a point where I am happy posting pictures of it.:parrot:
Backstory: Within the first 3 months of daily driving my E46, I picked up a suspiciously uncommon (expensive) number of dents and dings. In addition, I found myself constantly worrying about where I parked it, if someone was vandalizing it etc etc. In short I needed a beater, and told my brother to keep an eye out for a mechanically sound, but cosmetically beat E30.
He found me a cosmetically solid but mechanically non-operative one. Two owners, locally owned, all records, had been in storage for 2 years after it stopped running. But the price was right and I felt up for a bit of fun. The car went up for sale on a Thursday afternoon, I called that day, went out the next day and bought it on the spot, and then picked it up a few days later. In the time between the ad going up and me finally trailering the car home, the seller received over 60 calls and emails, some from as far as Toronto.:jawdrop:
This is the car as I recieved it, seller's pictures:
When I got the car home, I tore it down and set about replacing parts. The story gets too long to keep going in detail, but this is the list of mechanical parts that I ended up replacing/rebuilding:
New timing system (Gears, tensioners, guides, sprockets)
All new gaskets (Upper and Lower oil pan, timing case, oil filter housing, valve cover, intake manifold, exhaust manifold, Inner and outer profile gaskets, etc)
Head gasket and bolts
Block flushed. Thermostat, Water Pump, Radiator, fan clutch, all cooling hoses and hard pipes replaced. Throttle body heater deleted and coolant path rerouted/simplified.
ICV replaced and all vacuum lines replaced.
New plugs, plug wires, rebuilt injectors
All new filters, fluids, and fuel lines.
New stereo with all new headunit and all speakers replaced.
More that I can't remember anymore.
On top of that the cosmetic items include:
New Euro moldings front and rear.
New side moldings sanded and repainted.
All other black trim stripped, sanded and repainted.
Lowers repainted.
Addition of foglights.
Front iS lip, as well as three trunk spoilers before I finally grabbed one I was happy with.
New power antenna
New glovebox, center console, and ashtrays.
Finally topped off with a 35 hour detail involving:
Wash, clay, 8 passes with Meguiar's ultimate compound and orange pads, 4 passes with Menzerna Intensive Polish and Orange Pads, 2 passes with Klasse AIO and a White Pad, 2 Coats of Klasse Sealant Glaze, 1 coat of Meguiar's Gold Class Liquid Carnauba. Wheels and Tires cleaned sealed and dressed, chrome and aluminum cleaned and polished, all black items dressed and protected with 303. Interior taken apart, cleaned and put back together.
Leaving me with a 20 year old car that I've invested over 2x the original purchase price into and honestly couldn't be happier with. It's the perfect daily, gets infinitely more compliments than my M3, is fun to wring out to it's limit on a daily basis, and returns about 35 mpg mixed.
On to the pictures!
Cliffs: Bought old car, spent ridiculous amount of time and money on it, showing pictures now.
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