Laguna DD/Weekend Warrior

[onlyindef]

Well I suppose an update is in order.
so suspension wise.
I don’t have much left for the air bags/5 lug swap. I just need to tidy up my spare set of rear trailing arms, and swap camber plates on the fronts. I put on a Garagistic strut bar, and got the x brace ready to go on, along with lollipops. M3e36/e46 Calipers are painted. New pads and rotors are in order. I’m thinking zinc plated cross drilled will do what I need.

so exterior. I swapped out the yellow for clear ellipsoids, and plan and swapping out the side markers and turn signals for amber or dark ones. Front lip added on. Ummmm

performance wise I have 80a engine and trans mounts in. Gona put the all the rear bushings on here soon. My intake boot was shit, and it cracked pulling it. I got a new one
coming.

so as of right now, I plan on getting all the suspension in by the end of the year.

future plans:
well a local car lot has an e34 they’ll sale me for 100 with a m50 in it. I figure parting it out, and saving the engine for me; will result in an m50, a 420g, and a 3.33 Torsen diff. If not that route I guess ms2 pnp the m20.

exterior: different side markers and turn signals. Smooth skin trunk. I’d buy a hard top if there was one within like 15 hours of me. I’d like a koogle werks splitter. I believe a nice duck tail would match nicely.

interior wise...well I’m either gona wait for a set of e36/46 sports seats to pop up around me, and use lown brackets. That or go for some recaro or something seats. I’d like an nrg steering wheel, the mint color calls to me.

current dilemmas: fixing vacuum leak. Calipers, trailing arms, control arms: all green, rest the suspension crap is like anodized red. I’m thinking of just going back to black, or red. Maybe I should stay green. Not sure.

[2mAn]

100% the same car. Same dents on the side, same scratch. I got it in a “similar” state the previous owner left it in. I think it’s super cool finding some of the history of my car.

Awesome, might as well keep this thread going!

[onlyindef]

100% the same car. Same dents on the side, same scratch. I got it in a “similar” state the previous owner left it in. I think it’s super cool finding some of the history of my car.

[onlyindef]

Are you the current owner of this Vert?

I am. I saw a thumbnail of the car on an old thread, and I recognized a scratch on it. Searched the guy and found this. I also messaged him. I thought it’d be cool to let him know. Show him how I found it, what all I’ve done to it.

[2mAn]

I’m really happy I found this thread

Are you the current owner of this Vert?

[onlyindef]

[onlyindef]

I’m really happy I found this thread

[UlrichFennec]

So not much has been going on with the vert lately besides an oil change in the driveway and me deciding to do a valve adjustment. I've been browsing Craigslist for parts and experimenting with the look of the car. Different stickers for personality (or doucheyness, your interpretation may vary), tint on the tails, refreshing the trim...(which I'm still working on. I need to take out the cowls on the windshield wipers and respray them.)





Gotta rep r3v! I've learned a lot in the few years I've been lurking around here and reading.



After I did an oil change recently, I noticed HEAVY oil consumption. Like, a quart gone in 700 miles. I started investigating. Plugs looked like they were normal with no oil soaking them or deposits, the head gasket seems okay, and I was aware of the oil pan seeping a bit. The front cam seal was replaced a while back when the timing belt and cooling system service was done...so I looked more at the valve cover. Started to suspect the rocker shaft plugs because I didn't know if they've ever been replaced.

Guess its a prime time to do a valve adjustment since I'm gonna be digging around. I checked out the breather hose on the valve cover, and it wasn't sludgy like I was expecting, so it's not a ventilation issue or a leak there, but a couple corners on the valve cover were leaking, so I went ahead and ordered a set of rocker shaft plugs, a new VC gasket, and took a trip to VatoZone for some VHT engine enamel to paint the valve cover yesterday.

Met another E30 buddy there, too! Really nice fella. '89 325i. Interior looked much nicer than mine.



The next day...




We took off the VC to see that its still pretty clean in here! No sludging, everything is pretty shiny, and the adjustment nuts on the rockers aren't all rounded off. As I suspected, though...one of the rocker shaft plugs was rotting away and tore up. Put some fresh ones in, put on a VR gasket (Don't hate me, I've always used VR for valve cover gaskets. Never had a problem.)

Even took the time to paint the cover and sand down the raised lettering and lines with an orbital sander and it turned out pretty good!



So far, no more leaks around the cover, it looks miles better, and my idle is smoother! Still ticky, but, eh. Injector noise is the majority. Sounds normal, pulls a little better and I'll be curious if I get any better fuel economy with everything being back to .010". I should really stop procrastinating with my brakes though, lol. They're still fine, but I'd feel more at ease with fresh rotors and pads all around.

[UlrichFennec]

And now, no more crazy interior work besides getting a new dash and reupholstering the driver's seat. Interior looks ten times better now and I'm not embarrassed to put the top down anymore. I really dig the two tone look, honestly.

There was somebody on CL selling a set of excellent condition rear seats and there was apparently a buyer on r3v, so...sorry. Scooped them up from underneath you. Picked them up locally for $250.

[UlrichFennec]

So a couple weeks ago, I found a nice impromptu place to take a few pictures. It's nice to see how far this car has progressed since I bought it almost 2 years ago. It was 4x4ing on stock suspension, had a ruined rear window, shoddy basketweaves, a mostly dirty and ugly interior...now we're here. Paint still sucks. Still needs some bodywork and a paintjob, but damn, it's nice to have it mechanically sound, nicely lowered and settled on the springs, and some nice rubber around new wheels.

People give me thumbs up and ask questions all the time and it just makes you feel good when your hard work fixing things up and making them better gets noticed.







Ever since the little roadtrip for some photos, I've changed out the fuel filter, redid the fuel lines and found some fog lights off an W123 and used them as my high beams, although they didn't look like they were the stock lights because they seem a bit too yellow in comparison to what they should be. The last yellows I had were pretty bad so I chucked them anyway, and these were 10$ at a pick and pull and I had spare pigtails lying around so why not wire them up and get it done?



Not to everyone's taste, obviously, but I have a bunch of drift slaps on my driver's side rear window and stupid shit like that, so whatever. It's my fun daily.

Although, someone did manage to scuff into my passenger side front fender and crack the paint some more on the way to work one morning. Driving in the left lane to pass everybody and out of nowhere, some jackass comes barreling into me from the side and pushes in my fender a little bit. The scuffs came out easily with some rubbing compound and polish, but I think the universe is trying to tell me "do some body work and respray it technoviolet already. You know you waaant toooo."

Idk, I may just say "screw it" with that fender, sand it down and chalkboard paint it for shits and giggles. It's not like I can't get a replacement anyway. I'mma have to if I want to repaint either way. Same thing with the rear quarter panel on the driver's side, unless I can get those dents pulled out. That's long term, though. I have a lot of ideas running through my head on where I want to take this vert, but limited funds, lmao.

Next project is a brake job all around with fresh rotors, pads, wheel bearings and maybe I'll end up replacing the sway bar end links and stuff! Maybe get a cross-brace. Little things for now.

[UlrichFennec]

Went ahead and picked up a fuel filter and some coolant. No clue when the last owner changed out the fuel filter according to the records, so I figured I'd go ahead and change it.

Also dabbling with the idea of going from tan interior to black. I picked up some black door cards recently for 20 bucks and I'm gonna end up taking the carpet out to dye it black. My rear seats are toasted, so I've got a cheap pleather cover on them to make it look "okay." Might do the baja blanket rear seat until I can find some decent convertible rears.

[UlrichFennec]

You realize those trim pieces just pop off right? Probably easier and less worrying than masking off all that

Nice progress still!

I wish I knew that beforehand lol

Well, you learn something new everyday. :nice:

[squidmaster]

You realize those trim pieces just pop off right? Probably easier and less worrying than masking off all that

Nice progress still!

[UlrichFennec]

Looks like gearbox leak was detent cover. It warped! Ended up replacing it for an updated cover and we're back to no leaks again...so far.

[UlrichFennec]

We started some prepwork the other day and masked a few panels off. Could have taken the trim pieces off, but I wanted practice with on-car painting. You can see how nasty and greyed/whited out some parts of the trim were. Also, after using "Back To Black" stuff, it left a very bumpy, unpleasant texture with some of it being gummy on the surface, so it all had to be sanded down. Do not ever use that junk. Went from a 200 grit to a 300, then a final scuffing with a scotch-brite pad to get things mostly smooth before painting.



Nastiness built up over the years to:



We start with a light first coat, and then go for a second coat with a bit more heaviness. Then a third coat.



And then we get a lovely result! Nice satin finish. A couple spots I need to touch up around the edges and sand down/repaint, but overall, not bad!





Decided to hit the grilles too. They were fading and looking pretty ugly, so a fresh coat of black more than revived them. Even hit the lip with what I had left and now we're all matchy!





Before. You can see the greying and nastiness up close.







And after! It's crazy how a fresh coat of black on the trim really makes a car look younger. I still need to do the lower trim above the rockers. While I was outside, I figured I'd do my oil change as well, and lo and behold, I find my gearbox is leaking again even after I replaced the selector shaft seal again. Might explain why second gear was being so notchy. I'm gonna end up taking her to my indie and look under the lift with them to see what's up. Either way, I'll need to drop the gearbox, and if I do that, I might as well see how the clutch is doing and check the rear main seal. Preventative maintenance is key!

Will report back with any update on that.