AlphaTeam Presents: Chocolate Thunder and the 24v expedition!:ST1G:
My names Brad, and this is my second official car build i'll be sharing with the likes of R3v. My first "official" car build began in 2012 with a 86' Cosmosblau sedan that was S50 swapped. Fantastic car, but bad timing. I built the car on a student budget and eventually needed to be sold because I didnt feel like whoring out my body to pay for UW tuition. I regret that decision everyday as i had poured countless hours building the "perfect" car for me.
link to said car....
Now we are here. It's the tailend of 2015, and i've had the swap itch (similar to the herp, but less intrusive) for quite some time. Graduating UW the year prior, and finally starting an "adult" life, I decided I needed either a newish car (e46 m3 was soooo tempting), or to say fuck it, and stick to the bread and butter. E30 it was!1!:loco:
I wouldnt call myself an average car owner. I have ADD. I buy something, get bored, and sell it. Hell, ive owned 24 E30's (including the one featured in this build thread and parts cars ive come across along the way) as well as countless other cars and motorcycles (which im not going to disclose hahaha).
For this build, I knew I had a few stipulations to start off with. The car needed to be...
-Coupe
-Early model
-Schwartz, Zinno, Henna, or Delphine
after scouring Seattle Craigslist for months, wading thru all the bullshit overpriced ETA's, I came across this 87', 2 owner, autotragic 325iS.
The car was original, had fantastic paint (besides the roof), and wasn't abused. After a short phone call to the seller, a time and place were set for me to view the car. 15min after a test drive, I handed over my cash, and the rest is history!
Much didnt happen to the car after the initial purchase besides new tires for the basket weaves and some new control arms and M3 offset CAB's
Winter 2014 rolled around, and as the E30 as my daily, I didnt really want to begin tearing the car down for a build...so i ended up buying a parts car lol!
The car had a M50nv, standard E36 5 lug and a plethora of other cool parts that i snagged for a pretty solid deal!
Kept some parts for myself..
US Spec ellipsoids
The parts car also had a maplight mirror, rear leather seat with ski-pass and rear headrests, and black comfort fronts. I opted out to swap my pearl-beige interior and go to the dark side:devil:
After about 3 weeks of slowly tearing this bitch down, I came across yet another E30 that either needed saving or used as sacrifice for parts.
The car was an 1989 325iX sedan that was heavily butchered by the previous owners. The car had essentially been converted to a RWD E30 and was missing alot of the AWD components. It was also lowered on cut springs, blown shocks and barely ran....The decision was easy at this point....part out lol!
first order of business was removing the late model front end (front valance, bumpers, etc). knowing that i would eventually go late model, this was the perfect scenario!
My car with the late model conversion
rear to be done later on...
The iX parts car went fast. Within a week, a majority of the parts were snagged up! People say i'm crazy...I swear I'm not. I just find great deals. With that said, i found another parts car lol
nothing great. 86 325es that was in terrrrrible shape. was sitting for probably 2-3 years. Had a cool roof rack, some nice wheels and thats pretty much it.
3 parts cars later, I was sick of tearing down E30s....So instead of using my hard earned cash on more parts cars, I decided to treat my E30 some more.
The E30 along side my 2006 Triumph Speed Triple
lowered her on Bilstein Sports and IE3's w/ E90 drop hats
bought some rare parts...
The car made it's first appearance in like a year...
Getting bored of the E30, it went up on the market a few times. Had a few interested buyers, but eventually I came to my senses and decided I needed to do something more...
I had contemplated an S54 swap for such a long time. But with the prices at where they are at, I couldnt justify it.
Enter the S52 :up:
$1,300. 158k, all accessories, harness, DME, flywheel, engine arms, obd2 exhaust manifolds
I am keeping the S52 obd2. I sent the DME off to Dave @ Markert Motorworks to have it reworked. Also sent off the harnesss to RobertK to have trimmed and reworked into E30 fashion.
oil pan swap, and securing the oil pump nut.
all clean
packed garage
black friday deals on this Remington 870 express tactical! $250 out the door
Carpet swap. Was tan....I kept a grey carpet from one of my parts cars....should be a nice, subtle touch!
and thats where i am now! Parts that are on the way...
-UUC Evo3 shifter + UUC DSSR
-Vibrant 1040 muffler
-Vibrant Ultraquiet resonator
-vbands
-garagistic delrin bushings front and rear
-RobertK wire harness
I'll update more as things progress. I'm hoping to have the swap all buttoned up by Christmas, if not before. Plan B is before the New Year.
I hope you like to read, cuz i like to write!
My names Brad, and this is my second official car build i'll be sharing with the likes of R3v. My first "official" car build began in 2012 with a 86' Cosmosblau sedan that was S50 swapped. Fantastic car, but bad timing. I built the car on a student budget and eventually needed to be sold because I didnt feel like whoring out my body to pay for UW tuition. I regret that decision everyday as i had poured countless hours building the "perfect" car for me.
link to said car....
Now we are here. It's the tailend of 2015, and i've had the swap itch (similar to the herp, but less intrusive) for quite some time. Graduating UW the year prior, and finally starting an "adult" life, I decided I needed either a newish car (e46 m3 was soooo tempting), or to say fuck it, and stick to the bread and butter. E30 it was!1!:loco:
I wouldnt call myself an average car owner. I have ADD. I buy something, get bored, and sell it. Hell, ive owned 24 E30's (including the one featured in this build thread and parts cars ive come across along the way) as well as countless other cars and motorcycles (which im not going to disclose hahaha).
For this build, I knew I had a few stipulations to start off with. The car needed to be...
-Coupe
-Early model
-Schwartz, Zinno, Henna, or Delphine
after scouring Seattle Craigslist for months, wading thru all the bullshit overpriced ETA's, I came across this 87', 2 owner, autotragic 325iS.
The car was original, had fantastic paint (besides the roof), and wasn't abused. After a short phone call to the seller, a time and place were set for me to view the car. 15min after a test drive, I handed over my cash, and the rest is history!
Much didnt happen to the car after the initial purchase besides new tires for the basket weaves and some new control arms and M3 offset CAB's
Winter 2014 rolled around, and as the E30 as my daily, I didnt really want to begin tearing the car down for a build...so i ended up buying a parts car lol!
The car had a M50nv, standard E36 5 lug and a plethora of other cool parts that i snagged for a pretty solid deal!
Kept some parts for myself..
US Spec ellipsoids
The parts car also had a maplight mirror, rear leather seat with ski-pass and rear headrests, and black comfort fronts. I opted out to swap my pearl-beige interior and go to the dark side:devil:
After about 3 weeks of slowly tearing this bitch down, I came across yet another E30 that either needed saving or used as sacrifice for parts.
The car was an 1989 325iX sedan that was heavily butchered by the previous owners. The car had essentially been converted to a RWD E30 and was missing alot of the AWD components. It was also lowered on cut springs, blown shocks and barely ran....The decision was easy at this point....part out lol!
first order of business was removing the late model front end (front valance, bumpers, etc). knowing that i would eventually go late model, this was the perfect scenario!
My car with the late model conversion
rear to be done later on...
The iX parts car went fast. Within a week, a majority of the parts were snagged up! People say i'm crazy...I swear I'm not. I just find great deals. With that said, i found another parts car lol
nothing great. 86 325es that was in terrrrrible shape. was sitting for probably 2-3 years. Had a cool roof rack, some nice wheels and thats pretty much it.
3 parts cars later, I was sick of tearing down E30s....So instead of using my hard earned cash on more parts cars, I decided to treat my E30 some more.
The E30 along side my 2006 Triumph Speed Triple
lowered her on Bilstein Sports and IE3's w/ E90 drop hats
bought some rare parts...
The car made it's first appearance in like a year...
Getting bored of the E30, it went up on the market a few times. Had a few interested buyers, but eventually I came to my senses and decided I needed to do something more...
I had contemplated an S54 swap for such a long time. But with the prices at where they are at, I couldnt justify it.
Enter the S52 :up:
$1,300. 158k, all accessories, harness, DME, flywheel, engine arms, obd2 exhaust manifolds
I am keeping the S52 obd2. I sent the DME off to Dave @ Markert Motorworks to have it reworked. Also sent off the harnesss to RobertK to have trimmed and reworked into E30 fashion.
oil pan swap, and securing the oil pump nut.
all clean
packed garage
black friday deals on this Remington 870 express tactical! $250 out the door
Carpet swap. Was tan....I kept a grey carpet from one of my parts cars....should be a nice, subtle touch!
and thats where i am now! Parts that are on the way...
-UUC Evo3 shifter + UUC DSSR
-Vibrant 1040 muffler
-Vibrant Ultraquiet resonator
-vbands
-garagistic delrin bushings front and rear
-RobertK wire harness
I'll update more as things progress. I'm hoping to have the swap all buttoned up by Christmas, if not before. Plan B is before the New Year.
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