88’ Coupe auto 320i --> 327i manual

[TempesT]

Hi all,

I decided to join up and get involved in the forum as I have often used info off the forum and noticed there are quite a few Australian E30 owners on here. It also serves as some motivation.


So I purchased this car back in 2010 off ebay for just over $600. It was a fairly bog stock 320i auto 88 with motronic 1.3 with 160,000 km on it. I always intended on doing something with this car and I have finally got myself into gear, so to speak.


Back when I purchased the car it was leaking water both thru the heater core solenoid and via the platinum rail due to leaf litter build up. I fixed both issues and its dry as a chicks sanitary pad advert. It also had zero brakes and virtually every panel has a dent on it .


Over the last 3 odd years I have gone thru phases of buying stuff for it (and i pulled that old window tint off). One of those phases was early this year when in a couple of months I purchased an 84’ Ljet 320i parts car, a M20B27 engine and a getrag 240 (from a 320i not the 318). I managed to get a 320i tail shaft shipped over from the UK and in the last week have purchased and manual pedal assembly.

Last week I finally got my brake working to a level I am happy with having replaced the front discs, pads all round and front brake lines.

After I had done this the bloody car wouldn’t start, after establishing that I had fuel (and pressure) spark and that the timing belt hadn’t snapped I pinpointed the problem as cylinder wash-down caused by cold weather, not letting the car warm up and eventually flooding it. The fix was to as squirt some oil into the cylinders and crank her over to get some compression back.

I also decided to use my water sand blaster to start to give the old 14” basket weaves a birthday here are a couple of shots of the result of the test wheel after painting and clearing. I have some new caps on their way.

Before


So the list of things to do looks something like:

-Finish restoring rims
-service the m20b20: timing belt, water pump, crank seal, o2 sensor, temp sender
- colour F/R bumpers
- respray bonnet, both front guards, drivers door and boot
- new is lip
- recover front & rear seats
- Send it in for road worthy certificate and rego
- rebuild m20b27 bottom end
-rebuild 731 head
- drop manual and engine into car
- new springs and shocks
- some 16’s
I know it’s a pretty tame package but I just want the end package to be a clean e30 coupe to use as my daily!

Cheers and stay tuned
jim

[freeride53]

302 in the title could be deceiving lol

[Court M3]

Nice start, those weaves came out great.

[TempesT]

mods might need that edited to 320i*



I thought I had done alright too

[Iain]

Good to see another AusE30. Welcome, mate :)

[TempesT]

Some updates:

My cluster got a bit of a working over.


Iam happy with how the rest of the wheels came out. I got some new caps for them as well. I plan on picking up some paint tomorrow to begin some dent and panel repairs. My Is lip turned up aswell.

Its a little ghetto fitted atm as i need to do some more beating to the valance.


I dont know what to do with my interior... should I spray my door cards black and re-trim the seats to suit? OR do I clean up the grey??

[Anthony B]

I wouldn't spray the doors Id rewrap them & have material stitched to suit. I've got houndstooth door cards for my coupe but I'm now thinking of trimming my grey ones to suit my seats.

I'm liking the progress your making

Where abouts in nsw are you?

[TempesT]

recovering the door trims :eeek:

that sounds expensive!

have you had any quotes on getting that done? Quite a few on here have produced good results with ye old rattle can dyes.

this is a budget build... the whole car cost $600.

I do like the idea of pulling the door trims appart and stiching in so new fabric but I havnt found a DIY.

Im down in Cooma.

cheers
James

[TempesT]

I started doing some panel work on the car. It was a hard decision weather to prep the old bonnet (with the spoiler holes) or the clean bonnet on the part car. I chose the original bonnet as it meant i wouldnt have to respray the underside of the bonnet

Weather was good yesterday and I was able to shoot the basecoat & clear on the boot lid and the passenger side guard. Things were chugging along well untill every bug in town decided to come and inspect the clear coat before it flashed. Ohhh well they will wet sand out.... back yard spray jobs:/.



Ohh I need a replacement spoiler, SE Heck type if anyone had one the could throw my way in exchange for some $$$.

[TempesT]

keen observers will note that I have called the boot/trunk the bonnet above... I have the bonnet on the mind as i have just put some filler in it just now lol....