My White girl

[purrfektrs]

aw yessssss. i love your car! do you know if the white on red is rare? i havent seen many besides alpinas.

i really dont wanna get rid of the car, but like yours... its a complete disaster.

[Wild Ride]

aw yessssss. i love your car! do you know if the white on red is rare? i havent seen many besides alpinas.

i really dont wanna get rid of the car, but like yours... its a complete disaster.

Hi Katy,

Alpine white on Cardinal red is extremely rare. It takes an extremely extroverted yuppie to buy a brand new BMW with a red interior and it is by far one of the most desirable and rare e30 color combos, I have never seen another e30 that color in the flesh. Keep the interior color, I promise it will grow on you especially once you have the ability to restore it like I did.

First thing you should do is bring the paint back like I did its a single stage paint so it will polish out to nearly perfect with a good scratch remover from the auto parts store, clay bar and wax. Take off the spoiler and taillights etc mask off the window trim and go to town. Paint your wheels too. Working long hours on an ugly car is hard to do and hard to convince your friends to help. Make it shiny and it will boost your morale hugely.

For now focus on the mechanical. Your car is 25 years old and although e30's are robust all the components are 1/4 of a Century old (say it twice) and you will have to replace everything related to the major mechanicals and wear components as they are tired. The car needs a major overhaul and most of the parts you need to guarantee reasonable reliability are around $500-1000. Basically as long as you replace the OIL and ALL belts, hoses spark plugs, distributor and cooling system and adjust the valves you can't blow up the bulletproof m20 motor and it will run perfect for 4 years until you need to do another timing belt. As long as the motor runs you can't kill an e30. After you get that done replace your brakes and flush the fluid (its probably been in there 15 years and needs to be replaced every two years. Then look at the driveline and the center support bearing and Guibo. after that focus on the suspension like ball joints tie rods etc. your tires may have decent tread but may be well past their expiration.

You will be surprised on how cheap all the major wear items are to replace. It looks like you are on the right track and already have alot of the new parts I mentioned. Allthough it may look like hell it will be reliable but I would still join AAA and get the highest towing mile package. Once the car stops bleeding your wallet dry from mechanical issues by replacing it all "while you are in there" you can start to play with improving the cosmetics.

[Wild Ride]

Hi! I'm Katie, and this is my new daily.bare with me as I'm not familiar with bmw (only.vw and subaru). I'm not going to jump to make my 87 325es a racecar,but I am making it my Daily. I bought this car Tuesday after eyeing it for.the last two months. As you'll see she is far from perfect, but Still looks better then my last daily. Anyway, I sold my pos Mazda protegay daily for 1700 bucks (idk how I pulled that off) and picked.this pearl up for a grand. No rust, even the pinch welds are still intact. Car is completely stock and runs pretty well. minus the short throw shifter that I DESPISE. The body is in pretty great condition. Typical wear over the years, but as.for dents and.dings... it's not bad.
Lets start with how I got home.. I live five minutes (if that) from the guy who had the car. So I Took the car, and made it not even a minute down rt18, And ended.up with a blown tire. Ok.. then the brakes were stuck on so I was dragging.the whole way home. Not.to mention there was zero gas in the car (thanks bro) . FINALLY made it.home two hours later.

The Next day I went to work and ordered every part I could possibly need. (Feel free to add to the list about anything else I would need.)
All around rotors, pads, sensors(I was thinking possibly calipers?) Timing belt, tensioner, water pump, idler pulley, all gaskets needed for.that, and every belt. Plugs, wires (are rocker shaft.plugs really needed?), valve cover gasket and tires. One thing I do need that I haven't got.yet are the stuff for the valve.adjustment, and ss brake lines (possibly an ebrake cable too). Oh And of course a shifter.
Any suggestions ?



She's now legal, just gotta fix it now. (Hopefully this weekend so it'll be pretty much ready for h20)

You are on the right track. most news on r3v buy a car ignore all maintenance and spend all their money on chinese coil overs to "slam it" and systematically ruin the car

Get the rocker shaft plugs. They are cheap and it would suck if you had to redo the job later. The shift handle is just a pop on an oem one is $25.

If the throw is too short get a z3 1.9 shifter and all wear parts and remove your harmonic balancer from the driveshaft so it doesn't rub in 1st and reverse.

Get rubber OEM brake lines. SS is not a big difference and mine failed after a couple years and began to leak which is just unsafe if you don't check them periodically.

Strip the paint off the chrome bumpers and sell off that sunroof spoiler.

Fully detailing the car is the best thing you can do (and nearly free). My car was way worse than yours and it turned out amazing after a few days of detailing. Seeing people drive around in cars that they would be 100 times happier if they detailed it just kills me. http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=301070

[Wild Ride]

...

[Wild Ride]

Other maintenance items that come to mind are new rubber fuel lines, fuel filter, cleaned/rebuilt injectors, distributor cap and rotor, yes its best to get shaft plugs they're usually cause of oil leaks,and are cheap. And just look for any cracks in vacuum lines. Other than that looks like a great dd.

All new OEM rubber fuel lines OEM Hose clamps and filter is very important x1000. E30's are regularly lost to engine fires due to ruptured 20 rear old rubber fuel lines. There is a line from the external pump to the filter that is actually a molded piece as using regular lines is too tight of a bend and will pinch off your fuel supply.

[straightsixe30]

Welcome to the world of premium cars. Have you're wallet ready

[purrfektrs]

UPDATE: SHE LIVES AGAIN.
Slave cyl. Went, sooooo I finally got a chance to fix her today.


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[Court M3]

Nice, car needs better wheels (15" weaves) and a set of euro bumpers.

[beemeeup]

One thing I'm not sure if you mentioned, but unless you have documentation, you should replace the timing belt.

[purrfektrs]

I replaced it already.

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[purrfektrs]

UPDATE:
So, the clyster now works, and the compression is 100% consistent across the board. Also, i found a vaccum leak at the throttle body. And justreplaced the pcv. Now to fix the llittle quirks of the car, and drive it like i have been.
'Cue the confetti'

[bruner]

Awesome job. I've read the entire thread, you've done a lot with this car. It's great to see another e30 saved! Keep it up!!

[delatlanta1281]

Are you still having starting problems?
Keep the cardinal. I love my cardinal. I take it out and replace it with black then I get sad... and re-install it.

[purrfektrs]

Are you still having starting problems?
Keep the cardinal. I love my cardinal. I take it out and replace it with black then I get sad... and re-install it.

Nope no starting problems. Car always starts and alwayssss drives. Still have ALOT to fix but its getting there. Slowly. Possibily have an ignition problem, and i know theres a vac leak at the throttlebody but im hhappy that the compression numbers are consistent through out the board. Its just stupid ttrouble shoot issues at this point.