Dad's 1990 325is

[laidback93]

I lied, I did have another update. This past Thursday I got a neat package in the mail. A new in box Husco armrest I found on the Facebook Marketplace. My car actually had one when my parents bought the car, but according to my dad, it was really ratty and broken so he threw it away. But the carpet was still cut and the console still had the mounting holes so all I had to do was slap it in!

I'm a little late to the game here.

Did that BMW cup originally come with the Husco? Or did a dealer throw it in the box?

That's super cool.

[E30RoadKing]

Hello friends!

Sorry for dropping off the face of the Earth here. I've actually put a lot of work into the car of the last year and a half since I posted.
I decided to pull the trigger on the RHD ITB kit, along with short tube headers and a host of supporting mods.
I've also added H&R OE Sport springs and Bilstein B8 shocks. The car looks and handles amazing! I'll upload some pictures tomorrow, as they're all on my phone right now.

[E30RoadKing]

I haven't forgotten about this, I've just been waiting on some things...

[E30RoadKing]

I get the car back this weekend, I'll clean her up and take some good pictures for my first update in a long time!

[2mAn]

This is the most interesting build thread I've read in years on here.

QFT

What does it currently look like?

[scabzzzz]

This is the most interesting build thread I've read in years on here.

[fight4life28]

Great read and thread, definitely has been tough road to get where you're at but your getting there. The black coupe looks great again and sorry to hear about the old ones=(.

[E30RoadKing]

While I wait to get the suspension sorted, I've decided to try and find out what's draining my battery. A continuity test pointed me in the direction of fuse 21. Aside from the trunk light and interior lights, the big devices on that circuit are the SI batteries, radio memory and OBC. SI and radio haven't been giving me any issues, but the OBC has had the lap timer light permanently stuck on since 2013. I dissected the OBC and couldn't see anything visibly obvious, but I'm convinced that's my issue. Since it's not really a serviceable part, I've sourced a replacement in hopes that it will resolve my battery drain issue.

[Staszek]

Try using better grammar if you're going to tell us long stories... It helps when they are broken up with pictures too. Please figure this out, I want to keep reading about your intelligent decisions haha

Agreed lol!!

Wow man you have had some great cars and some really crappy luck!

[E30RoadKing]

I lied, I did have another update. This past Thursday I got a neat package in the mail. A new in box Husco armrest I found on the Facebook Marketplace. My car actually had one when my parents bought the car, but according to my dad, it was really ratty and broken so he threw it away. But the carpet was still cut and the console still had the mounting holes so all I had to do was slap it in!

[E30RoadKing]

So between March 2017 and December 2017, I replaced a lot of cosmetic items, front brakes, the starter and the front suspension. I used all OEM parts except for the FCABs, which I used Powerflex offset FCABs. I had the interior panels apart in the front for several months as I chased down the speedometer issue. I actually lost a lot of the screws those panels, so while I had the speedometer fixed in September, it wasn't until January 2018 that all the panels were properly fitted and re-installed. The radio wasn't replaced and fully functional until November 2017 I believe. I still buy cassettes for this believe it or not.

I also bought all new rear suspension bushings, but by the time I was ready to install them, it got cold out, and I no longer worked at the dealership and had access to their lifts. I did the rear brakes in the driveway the first week of February 2018, and I noticed a dry rotted brake line, so I ordered all new Garagistic braided stainless steel brake lines.

Since one of the techs at my uncle's shop converted a pole barn at his house to a fully equipped shop, I'm going to have him replace all the bushings in my rear suspension. In the same shot, he's going to replace the trans mounts, trans output seal, and brake lines. This is all to get her ready for the upcoming car show season, where I plan to make as many shows in my area as possible. So until the car gets back from it's rear suspension job, there's going to be no new updates.

Thanks for keeping up with me so far, and once I get the car's rear suspension done, I have some really interesting things planned!

[E30RoadKing]

Alright, I finally fixed all the pictures and added them from Flikr. Hopefully we're all good now.

In February of 2017, I began the process of swapping the 1990 E30 from automatic to manual. I now had a known good transmission, driveshaft, clutch hard line resurfaced single mass flywheel and pedals. I bought a clutch master cylinder, slave cylinder, clutch soft line and clutch kit. I was doing this swap in my free time with the help of one of the techs at the Chevrolet dealership I was working at at the time. It took us about a month, with some hiccups here and there, but we got it done! I found out around now that there was an issue with the speedometer and the radio. Ended up having the speedometer rebuilt by Bavarian Restoration and the radio was replaced with an identical model from eBay. Here a picture of the first time I filled it up with gas since 2014.



It was around this time that I bought this 1986 Chevrolet K30 for a whopping $400. The owner was a Honda Civic enthusiast who had no idea how carbs worked, so he sold it to me because he thought there was major engine trouble.





Tuned up the carb and ended up selling it for $3500. Then I proceeded to spend every single penny of that on E30 parts. I'll spare you the details, but it included new plastic pieces to replace the faded ones, various gaskets, tune up parts (including a timing belt and tensioner kit) all new suspension parts and brakes.

[E30RoadKing]

Today I'm going to go back and edit a lot of what I've already posted to address some of your concerns with the pictures and big walls of text.

[E30RoadKing]

Because you're doing it wrong.

Thanks bud, that's been addressed. It will be fixed in the future.

Try using better grammar if you're going to tell us long stories... It helps when they are broken up with pictures too. Please figure this out, I want to keep reading about your intelligent decisions haha

Sorry about that friend, please excuse any errors I've made, I'm not too focused and proper grammar and syntax as I am getting through the backstory so I can get back to current updates. I'll try better moving forward.

[ColdAccord]

interesting read