50 Shades of Delphin Grey

[kevmac858]

hey guys, just bought my first e30 today! pretty stoked on it, I think there is a lot of potential to learn about the car and mod it to make it my own! here is what it currently looks like, got some things to initially do mechanically but i am pretty excited i have finally found one. bought it through a fellow r3v member

[LuckyHenriksen]

Nice car. Looks like an excellent start for your project

[MR.LUGO]

Looks clean, was this one of Jon Grigg's cars? Hope to see you around!

[kevmac858]

thanks guys i think it is a pretty clean base for me. LUGO i don't know really, bought it from a dealer who got it in an auction and previous owner lived in san marcos but car hasn't been registered since 2009, runs strong though. who is jon grigg?

[kevmac858]

details: 5 speed, ~150k miles, delphin grey, black interior, z3 short shifter, clean interior no rips, crack-free dash, 15" AC Schnitzer Stage 1's, IS rear spoiler and front lip (lip not yet installed), crappy outdated alpine deck with wiring for sub and amp, US Ellipsoids, H&R sport springs.

I'm planning on first replacing the leaking shocks with some Bilsteins, also need to get it repainted but not necessarily the top of my priority list as of now, want to get the necessities done first, then have fun later! I would love to know what you guys think of it, what you think i should do with it etc. really excited to finally own an e30!

[Zacm829]

Looks great! Hit up the timing belt asap!

[agent]

Looks great! Hit up the timing belt asap!

This. Congrats on the purchase!

[kevmac858]

i believe the timing belt it ok. got it checked out for a pre-sale who did a VERY thorough inspection and didn't indicated any problems with the belt. just went to the auto store and started planning out what i'm going to do. bought 3 new belts that i'm gonna replace today, need to do inner/outer tire rods and a few other things. i will check out the belt though and go over the pre-sale notes

[Wild Ride]

Kevin I'm really glad this worked out ending a very long search. Looks like you are hitting the ground running with a nice car with tons of potential. Good to see a new e30 owner prioritizing mechanical over cosmetics. FYI the timing belt cannot be visually checked without enough disassembly that you would be 3/4 the way to replacing. Timing belt is estimated at ~35k miles currently but if you plan on driving it hard a TB is cheap insurance for the only thing that can ever kill an m20.

The car was not from Griggs for those wondering. I encouraged my friend and owner of socalperformance Phil Bell to purchase the car so I could help it and those rare acs wheels find their way back into the e30 and r3v community as it was a solid start for someone to build a really nice car. He normally locates specific cars requested by a client but he has a soft spot for e30's from owning several over the years. http://www.socalperform.com/

Keep in mind that if you EVER sell those ACS wheels I have to have them.

[Wild Ride]

thanks guys i think it is a pretty clean base for me. LUGO i don't know really, bought it from a dealer who got it in an auction and previous owner lived in san marcos but car hasn't been registered since 2009, runs strong though. who is jon grigg?

Jon Griggs aka Mr Wiggles on r3v buys and restores a fair number of e30's in San Diego for resale. He has some pretty rad m3 and wagon builds documented on here. When you mentioned buying the car from a dealer and r3v member in San Diego Jon is the first one that comes to mind for many on the site. You will probably meet him and all the other SD crew at the next e30 meet.

[kevmac858]

nice thanks for all the info ryan. yeah i will keep that in mind for timing belt purposes. and if i do decide to sell the acs's sometime down the road, i will keep you in the loop.

[kevmac858]

quick little update:
replaced my belts (except timing belt)
new tires
alignment
oil changed
ps fluid drained and changed
removed tint and cleaned windows

and bought some used sports seats today. pretty good condition overall, drivers side needs some work.

next up: sound and front valance

[DooDanE30]

Fuck Griggs. That guy was supposed to sell me some wheels and flaked. Nice btw :)

[kevmac858]

haha ive never met the guy so i cant talk bad about him. thanks though!

[kevmac858]

went out yesterday while it was cloudy and snapped some decent quality pictures. going to edit them and put them up later but here is a raw image. my fogs are inconsistent turning on or not and forgot to turn on headlights and hibeams :/ had to run out and shoot it quick because of traffic hahah
cloudy raw by Kevin McDonnell, on Flickr