Diamantschwarz Forever: An E30 Love Story. Re-shell & Restomod

[Codym42]

Sorry about your aunt and the m42.

It's probably best to find another m42 and swap it in unless you really want more power. I recently swapped to an m52 and it was $$$ to do it right. By the time you add a/c, custom exhaust, refresh the engine, wiring harness, and other misc parts... it adds up quick.

[mtech325]

Sorry to hear about your aunt. Also sorry to hear the m42 quit on you as well. The same thing had happened to mine with the timing chain guide failing.

If you end up replacing the m42, it might be worth your while to find a later 94-95 engine, as it'll have the updated timing case, along with the serpentine style belt setup. You'd have to swap over the e30 intake, oil pan, & exhaust setup, but it'll give you the chance to refresh all the gaskets.

The 24V swap does liven up the 318 quite a bit though, even in m50 form. If you go that route, nobody can blame you, however I may be a bit biased ;)

[mike.bmw]

Very sorry to hear about your aunt. That's rough. :(

Some of the M42 timing components are crazy expensive. I remember seeing the prices for the chain guides last year and thinking it was a mistake.

Good luck with the motor decision. I think finding a decent M42 replacement will be easier in both the short and long term. If you have the time for it, you could perform a refresh while the replacement engine is out of the car.

Love those photos and backdrops as always!

[e30austin]

So, uh, ready for 24v time?!

[freeride53]

The last update in this thread was from back in February...and well that was the last time this car ran :( Sometime in mid February, was doing one of my routine Friday night drives from LA to San Diego to see the gf and whilst getting onto the freeway off-ramp (literally 30 seconds to my destination), the timing chain guide(s) on the M42 gave out. Sounded as if I had run the car dry of oil, or like a diesel motor. Had the car towed back up to LA, and suspicions were later confirmed. Since repairing the M42's timing system is going to be $$$ (do not trust myself in doing this), I thought about getting an S50 and doing a full-on 24v swap. Here's a photo from the weekend (or so) before this event:



So the car has been sitting in a garage in LA since then. I just moved back up north to the Bay Area back in April and picked up a 4Runner to serve daily duties. Around the same time last month, lost my aunt who I was very close with. She was a single mother to my little cousin who's about to start high school, so I've decided to shelf my hobby for a while to pitch in and spend time with her in any way I can. My plan is to get it running though by the time she is 15 and a half years old so that I can teach my little cousin how to drive stick. I missed out on a really trick 24V swap that I was planning on picking up (due to the circumstances) so think I might just find a solid M42 somewhere at some point if I can and do a quick swap-out / swap-in myself.



Before I moved out of LA in April, I also picked up a nice DS driver's door from Nick (nicflick3) who is the man. Him and Dustin (DWH Parts) run a pretty sick operation out in San Bernardino and have a ton of awesome old Bimmers with tons of cool parts. Cannot recommend them enough.

[freeride53]

No report on how it feels after all that work??? I feel cheated. Sina, agha, please dont cheat on me

;D;D;D

The front of the car feels firm, and smooth. Feels great. I'm eager to redo all of the bushings in the rear end now with 80a soft-poly. All of the clunking/thumping is getting pretty annoying.

More urgently though, I need to fix my Right Rear door, which is jammed shut and won't open. Was very sudden - think it may be the actuator. But the door popper won't move - it's totally frozen shut. :(

Also - my left rear window is not working. Before, the switch on the center console would let it go up and down (the one of the door wouldn't work despite me replacing it) and now it doesn't work at all.

Otherwise, I somehow managed to put over 900 miles on the car since last Thursday, when my family came down from Northern Cali to spend the weekend with me. We drove ALL over LA county, Ventura county, Orange County, and even did ACH with mom and dad. It was literally right when I was dropping them off at the curbside of LAX when my right rear door somehow jammed itself and wouldn't open. Oh vell.

I also need to go pick up a mostly clean Left Front door from Nick in the IE at DWH parts. It's Diamantschwarz, and will save me lots of headaches instead of having my original door (which was damaged in a minor side swipe accident back in the mid 90s). It would be one of the final touches before the whole car goes in for body & paint, hopefully in the late spring.

[2mAn]

New year new E30. Jk. ;D Started out the year strong in getting things accomplished.

....bla bla bla update shmupdate...

Cheers for now..

- sina

No report on how it feels after all that work??? I feel cheated. Sina, agha, please dont cheat on me

[freeride53]

New year new E30. Jk. ;D Started out the year strong in getting things accomplished. As mentioned earlier in thread, I'd been having some clunking, rubbing, loud vibrations from the front end that were growing and that was no bueno. A bird's eye inspection revealed that my passenger engine mount was likely kaput. So ordered myself a custom reinforced front subframe from Garagistic in Huntington Beach powdercoated red. Turns out my friend Tyler works there so he dropped it off with another friend, Alex (iwantspeed). Tyler had to leave, but was able to snap a pic with Alex's car (pictured)



Then proceeded to drive down to San Diego (drove probably 2,000+ miles on the broken mounts/vibration) for the weekend. Pictured in my buddy Pouya's garge (plotfi). We used his garage, tools, and him :) to get everything apart



Immediate observation: cracked subframe on the passenger side. :o Not sure how this happened, but think driving 2,000+ miles with a collapsed and disfigured engine mount probably has something to do with it...



We had the engine suspended so decided to tackle a few other things while there.



Control arms & ball joints looked tired so were replaced with a fresh pair of Lemforders



Disgusting original engine mounts



Stamped 1990...



Cannot believe the left used to look like the right at some point...



Fresh subframe next to my 25mm IE front sway bar



Initial attempt at fitting the engine mounts on the new subframe was a no-go...



So we got a dremel and trimmed it to fit the OEM hydraulic M42 mounts



Voila!



Photo-op



And then ended the day (or maybe it was the next day) with another buddy who I converted into an E30 head showed up with his 91 318i/4. He has big plans for it.



Cheers for now..

- sina

[freeride53]

Nice work done on the cluster, and digging the OEM look!

Thank you! :)

Also, forgot to upload these before I headed to Spain. Here a few snaps from my drive back home to the Bay Area from San Diego a couple weeks back. The amount of smoke in the air between Ventura County and SLO was pretty crazy - and very saddening. Prayers with all of those affected by the fires.





Also a shot back down in LA a few weeks ago with my buddy Andre's 405 Mi16. Some say it was an E30-fighter back in the late 80s / early 90s.

[Court M3]

Nice work done on the cluster, and digging the OEM look!

[freeride53]

Have you considered getting the fender and valence sprayed, even if it isnt perfect it can buy you time until you can get the entire car properly sprayed? Im holding out to get mine done totally right and even going south of the border Im expecting to drop at least $2500 (likely more) to get my car back to a proper Cirrusblau.

I think the car looks pretty damn good for a daily driver right now, BTW our cars both have an ugly side and its the same pass side fender to blame lol

Even though it bothers me, I'm holding out for the same. I really want(ed) to not spend anything until body & paint, but as it does, shit keeps coming up. At the moment, my engine mounts are totally busted. One of them is just about fully collapsed and the drive train is vibrating like mad.

I'm waiting for a pair of OEM mounts to arrive right now, but also figure it'd be a good time do the some other things, namely:

- reinforced front sub-frame (what the old shell had)
- 80a polyurethane transmission mounts
- 80a polyurethane differential bushing
- delrin front & rear shifter bushing upgrade
- new (used) power steering pump - current one is kaput and whining loudly
- m20 flywheel conversion (also do a clutch job which car kinda needs)
- 80a rear subframe bushings
- 80a RTABs + new hardware
- e46 ZHP "gold tag" steering rack conversion from rack doctor

I also have a puddle of fuel pissing out when I am filling up at the gas station sometimes that I need to figure out. I replace the filler neck gasket (OEM) but didn't seem to solve. This all will likely push-back body and paint until early spring.

[2mAn]

Have you considered getting the fender and valence sprayed, even if it isnt perfect it can buy you time until you can get the entire car properly sprayed? Im holding out to get mine done totally right and even going south of the border Im expecting to drop at least $2500 (likely more) to get my car back to a proper Cirrusblau.

I think the car looks pretty damn good for a daily driver right now, BTW our cars both have an ugly side and its the same pass side fender to blame lol

[freeride53]

What leds are running for the tail lights? I have the same fear of getting rear ended and am looking for something super bright!

DDM Tuning.

[Mwishlist]

What leds are running for the tail lights? I have the same fear of getting rear ended and am looking for something super bright!

[freeride53]

Been working and traveling (for work :-( ) a lot lately, but had so much fun at SoCal Vintage in Van Nuys two weekends ago. Always a trip being surrounded by E30s.



Seeing random homies you haven't seen in a while..



Hanging out with Diamantschwarz brethren



Gang gang gang.



They'll be there to tow me out when I'm stuck in snow or mud :-)