One does not simply walk into 4door

[alas]

Will you sell your weaves?


-E

[stonea]

Great thread title and great looking car

[alas]

Looking good so far! Can't wait to see what's next. Keep it up.


-E

[ThatOneEuroE30]

Do you remember why you pulled out of the spare motor?

Yea man I think I did well on this one. 209k now, still pulls pretty hard too.

Just didn't have the time or room to rebuild it like i wanted to. Nothing wrong with it that i can remember.

[TriniBoy]

Yep i almost bought that spare motor a while back but decided not to. You got a good deal on a solid car. That motor is a tank 200k+ on her.

Do you remember why you pulled out of the spare motor?
Yea man I think I did well on this one. 209k now, still pulls pretty hard too.

[ThatOneEuroE30]

Yup, he lived in Nebraska, but we met in Iowa where the spare engine was stored. Solid guy.

Yep i almost bought that spare motor a while back but decided not to. You got a good deal on a solid car. That motor is a tank 200k+ on her.

[TriniBoy]

Hey i know that car ;) you got it from the guy here in nebraska or it was here in nebraska.

Yup, he lived in Nebraska, but we met in Iowa where the spare engine was stored. Solid guy.

[TriniBoy]

as a fan of clever thread titles, nice one!

Haha, thanks for noticing :-)

Nice! :up:

Thanks man

[MPLFoster]

Nice! :up:

[straight6pwr]

as a fan of clever thread titles, nice one!

[TriniBoy]

As it is end of Feb 2016













I also had an issue where the driver side door had a dreadful popping sound when you open and close the door, I thought it was a bad door stop, so I changed that and it didn’t fix the issue, anyway turns out it was caused by a broken weld on the inside of the front fender http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=368643

So whats next… Well with the new paint, it highlights how dull the lights are, so I’ll be polishing them, hopefully this week.

The suspension needs some attention, the stance I like, but the ride is dreadful, the front passenger side strut is definitely gone, so I’ve ordered in a new setup.

I was torn between the typical Bilstein Sport + H&R combo, BC coilovers (I’ve read nothing but good things on these) and GC coilovers, but because I the car isn’t gonna see a track day under my ownership, I chose the billy + hr combo. Thanks to MrSlacker those should be on their way soon.

Once I’ve mounted the new suspension, then I’ll put on some new shoes, for now I’ve gone for some replicas ESM-003R, until I can top up the batpig.





After that I’ll probably look at getting the seats redone, then I’ll have to see where it takes me.
I’ve got the bently manual, so I’m making my way through that, good little book that.

[TriniBoy]

As much as I am loving the car, I’m not a fan of the diving boards. So I was on the hunt for some plastic bumpers to do a swap.

Everyone says these things are a dime a dozen, but for the life of me I couldn’t get my hands on a good pair.

The local pic and pull had nothing, and all the guys that had them, either sold them really quickly and I missed out or were asking ridiculous prices, so believe it or not, I ordered them in from a member in the UK the Sskoda, sounds silly for some plastic bumpers right?

Trust me I know, but it worked out just $20 more than my cheapest quote here in the US, plus it came with Euro moulding… so worked out pretty sweet.



I waned to have the bumpers painted to match the colour of the car, and then do a swap, but the paint on the car left a lot to be desired, it looked pretty sweet from 10 feet away, but as you got closer you start picking up all the dents and dings, and the paint had some pretty bad etching.

I could live with the minor ding here and there, as long as I could get the swirling and etching out, but no matter what I tried it just wasn’t happening. Even had a few detailer opinions, and they all said the only option was a full body wetsand, which is okay I guess if your paint work is a few years old, no chips cracks etc, but this paint was 15 years old, which isn’t bad, but I guess for me it just didn’t sound like a viable option.

After whirlwind couple months



many MANY MANY attempts to restore one little area of hood



Packing and relocating to Florida





And many Batpig pennies later



I decided to suck it up and have it painted, plus it would take care of filling the ghetto trunk holes too.

Ordered in some OEM IS Side skirts from ECS to match the IS front lip



Dusted off the bumpers and dropped it off to get some new skin.

The work was being done by Eliot’s Autowerks.

I wasn’t around to check in on the car or take any pictures as the work was being done, so big big thanks Eliot and the guys at Eliot’s Autowerks for taking care of the car and even taking a few snaps for me.

[TriniBoy]

The very first thing on my list of to-do’s was to get rid of the rear window stickers and the rear wing. I like the look of the more subtle rear wings, but this one had to go. As luck would have it a fellow member was keen for an RD wing, so that worked out well.



Some budget hole pugs and silicone



That’s it for the exterior for now… off to inside for some quick wins.
The steering wheel was pretty beat so I ordered in a freshly done MTech2 wheel from Sriufke on here, I was pretty impressed with the quality of the work done.







Out with the old in with the new







The shift knob and boot were pretty beat as well. Ordered in a weighted shift knob from ECS, and a faux leather boot from Matt-B. The pair married up nicely, I’m fairly happy with the outcome. My shift boot ring was missing a clip, so the boot isn’t really sitting as neatly as I would like, since then I got a new shift boot ring which I will use to reseat the boot, its not bothering me too much for now.

Old boot and knob



New boot and knob







The previous owner has the front seats redone.
For the most part it looks okay at best… but the vinyl doesn’t feel particularly great, and the craftsmanship looks a bit shoddy, so no doubt will be addressing it at some point in the future, not to mention the rear seats are in pretty bad shape too… but hey, it scrubbed up well.

[ThatOneEuroE30]

Hey i know that car ;) you got it from the guy here in nebraska or it was here in nebraska.

[TriniBoy]

Sup r3vers.

So I’ll start off by saying I’ve got minimal wrenching skills, so this thread will most likely be a very different to the typical r3v “build” thread. I'll be doing what I can/trust myself with, and learning as I go.

Technically this is my 2nd E30, my first E30 was corgi when I was a kid :D, and since then I’ve always seen them and thought, “yea I love those cars, one day I’ll get one”.

I’ve been through my fair share of cars, last being a VW MKV R32, and for one reason or the next it took me till the age of 32 to get my hands on an E30 (better late than never right).

Anyway I’ve been on the forum for a few months, bought my car from a member on here, got some really good advice from a few members as well, so I figured I’ll start a thread of my own.

Back in August last year when I lived in Texas I came across a car on the forum in Iowa, I rang up on Thursday 6th spoke to the guy and it checked all my boxes, no rust, mechanically sound, no leaks, timing belt, water pump etc etc, ideally I wanted a coupe, but say what, woke up Friday morning and decided I’ll make a weekend road trip of it!

So made my way down to the local Home Depot picked up the only Penske rental truck and trailer they had left and the 1300 mile round trip commenced.



A few tanks of gas, bad night's sleep and many doughnuts later, I made it to Iowa… and there it was





Locked and loaded, ready for the trip back to Dallas



Eric even threw in a spare M20, why not! Not sure what I'm gonna do with it yet.



Potty break



Made it back home at around 3am Sunday morning.
Very first morning in it’s new home.





Registration done, and journey washed off



Bit of light info on the car as purchased:

• 1988 BMW 325i
• I’m the 4th owner, the PO purchased it in 2001
• 209k miles
• Bavauto short shift kit
• ANSA exhaust
• 3.64:1 limited slip differential
• Bavauto lowering springs
• Tokiko shocks
• Eibach sway bars