First time e30 owner - 1989 325i in FL

[Johnnyboy101]

Hello All! I have been lurking around here, mainly in the for sale area, for nearly a year, looking for the right car. This is my first e30, but I have owned several Audi's and have a family that has owned German cars for a long time, so I have come to appreciate the fine craftsmanship of a German automobile. Along with patrolling Craigslist, ebay, etc. I finally found a car about 2 hours from me for sale just after Christmas. Went to take a look at it, drove it a bit, and last week, decided to purchase it.

Shes a 1989 325i, 4 door, automatic, in Bronzit. Horrible transmission, and horrible color, I know. The car was also involved in a fender bender a few years back leaving some gouging to the front bumper and damage to the passenger side front quarterpanel. Paint is pretty bad all over the car and the clearcoat is shot.

So that's the bad news that I know so far, I am sure there is more.

What I am hoping is the good news:
- Complete service history dating back to the purchase of the car, including the original window sales sheet
- an extremely clean interior
- crack free dash
- just under 70,000 miles on the car, verified via Carfax
- Confirmed recent replacement of the timing belt in 2010 (about 15000 miles ago)
- only 3 previous owners, 2 of which were a father son duo. The car has stayed in the same 25 mile radius its entire life.
- with the exception of isolated surface rust where the paint has worn down, there is no rust in the body that I was able to see. Will find out more once I start getting into the car.

My goals are, in no particular order, but with a leaning towards maintenance before upgrades:
- Refresh all suspension parts as needed. (The car is lowered on Tokico shocks/springs).
- get highbeam lights installed ASAP, she just doesn't look right without them.
- Clean out the engine bay
- Swap in a manual transmission
- Get missing IS lip
- Repaint (not sure if I want to respray in Bronzit, I really like the look of Glacier Blue or Cirrusblau, but then that isn't the original color...)
- Swap out the bottlecaps for something sportier, maybe some euroweaves?, also probably 15s instead of the 14s.

That's all I can think of for now... oh yes one other thing.. pictures! Please, if you notice some smoking gun that I should have seen, please let me know. And any constructive advice is much appreciated! (Beyond "you dumbass you bought a 4 door bronzit auto... ";))


















Super excited to join the community, seems like you guys have a lot of fun on here, and a good opportunity to both work on and enjoy driving a great car!

[Kershaw]

Clean bronzit looks great! Nice car!

[CanadianDirty30]

Awesome buy man, always good to see one with such a clean interior. Once you swap in the manual she'll be good to go. Welcome to the club

[Shftr8]

Clean car! If you need anything I have a salvage yard up here in st pete with about 5-6 E30s in it along with dozens or other euro cars. service shop to

[Johnnyboy101]

Thanks for the welcome guys! Shftr8 - I will have to swing by one of these days. Just on the other side of the Skyway bridge from you. Here is a good question to start with - what is the recommended manual for these cars... the bentley manual? Want to make that my first purchase and start educating myself. Any other good starting e30 pointers would be appreciated as well!

[mr.vang]

It's a good start. Hopefully i'll buy my first 4 door automatic e30 tomorrow.

[Johnnyboy101]

So guys - my first question. I notice that there are clips missing - such as the ones that hold the headlamp back cover on. These are just sitting with no fasteners on them. Is there a generic fastener that BMW uses or do they have specific ones for the rear headlamp covers?

[Kershaw]

zip ties.

[stonea]

So guys - my first question. I notice that there are clips missing - such as the ones that hold the headlamp back cover on. These are just sitting with no fasteners on them. Is there a generic fastener that BMW uses or do they have specific ones for the rear headlamp covers?

Heres the part number:

51711916197

I use zip ties too because I keep loosing those stupid little plastic clips and never remember to order more.

*Nice looking project by the way.

[JeLani]

low ass miles.. good find.

[plmichal]

Looks like a solid vehicle, nice pick up! I once had an automatic e30 and it was the smoothest shifting auto I have ever felt, kind of surprised me...

But yeah, get the high beams in there, a lip, and start tackling all the love and maintenance it needs. I know it's not a lot of miles on the timing belt, but it is 6 years old. Might want to at least take a look and see it's condition. Also as far as respraying the car, if you decide to change the color think about doing the door jams, engine bay, ect ect to match. A lot more work but I think it's the right way to do it imo. Enjoy!

[Nairb]

Looks nice, hope to see you around town. I'm in Sarasota as well.

[Johnnyboy101]

Looks like a solid vehicle, nice pick up! I once had an automatic e30 and it was the smoothest shifting auto I have ever felt, kind of surprised me...

But yeah, get the high beams in there, a lip, and start tackling all the love and maintenance it needs. I know it's not a lot of miles on the timing belt, but it is 6 years old. Might want to at least take a look and see it's condition. Also as far as respraying the car, if you decide to change the color think about doing the door jams, engine bay, ect ect to match. A lot more work but I think it's the right way to do it imo. Enjoy!

I hear you on the respray - the plan is to pull the engine too when I do the manual swap, get the whole body done. At that time I will also replace the front bumper cover (as you can see in the first photo it was gouged on the passenger side in a fender bender). While the engine is out I will refresh all the seals, timing belt etc. Goal is to start that in the next year or so. Before that I am going to work on fixing the small niggling details that are bugging me, like no rear windows power, the manual sunroof crank doesn't stay up, head lights, lip, sportier wheels, maybe some style 10s, etc.

@Nairb: Am looking forward to meeting some of the other e30 drivers around here, if only to pick your brains :-)

[Johnnyboy101]

Headlights - used OEM... or new DEPOs?

So.. Looking at my headlight options, I can either go used Hellas/Bosch for under $200, or brand new Depos (would probably get EURO Smileys) for similar money. I've done some searching in the forums for various opinions and I see a broad spectrum of answers, going from well the depos aren't bad because they are new glass, to... don't buy depos because they are cheap chinese knockoff junk that fog up and have cheap reflectors. Noticed that the reviews I saw were a few years old too - has the quality gotten any better? Any feedback much appreciated!

[stonea]

I like my depo's, I think they had quality issues back in the day thats why they get a bad rep.