My new e30 resurrection project

[shawmcbigdis]

So I've had an e39 for about 5 years, but have always wanted an e30 . But of course the longer I waited the more expensive they got. So I've been scouring Craigslist for a while, and finally found one, but man is it rough. But hey it was only $1k, but I probably still over paid.

Car is an 86 325es 5 speed coupe with LSD. From what I could can tell it seems to have a pretty decent core. runs well, shifts well, all electrical works. Odo, says 169k miles, but it's stopped working. Last record on carfax is from a little over a year ago at 165k. That's pretty much the high points. On to the pics. Here it is the day I bought it;











EDIT 9/2019: putting this pic in just to give a quick contrast to the before and after that the car is at now

[shawmcbigdis]

oops, pics didn't post. Are new members not allowed to link to pics?

Well, here links seem to work

https://photos.app.goo.gl/kipuSWzbSSfuEeyZ2

https://photos.app.goo.gl/U1DYqeo9xF1Lodez2

https://photos.app.goo.gl/QbTDwUCFSiteHSE86

https://photos.app.goo.gl/5n8erO8ftUfgxJMz1

https://photos.app.goo.gl/jHB0a0dcJUbgu5dI3

[wworm]

welcome to the club! $1k for a manual coupe is pretty damn cheap, I'd say. Unless the motor is about to blow up I'd say you didnt overpay at all. Waiting on a pic upload to really get an idea though. Hopefully its not dented and faded to all hell.

[shawmcbigdis]

This will be a super slow and long project. But that's what I've been wanting, something that I can just tinker with and have fun driving on the weekends and whatnot. I will only have maybe a couple hundred a month to put towards this, so I will just plod along at it.

First project was timing belt/cooling system. I didn't replace the radiator, because of said budget and I couldn't find any leaks. So new overflow tank, hoses, thermostat, timing belt, tensioner, water pump, spark plugs, valve cover and cam gaskets. Set the valve lash while I was in there. Turns out the kid I bought it from did something weird (or I did somehow) and ever single one of the old spark plug ends broke off in the plug wires. So also got new wires from BAV auto.

After putting everything back together and during the filling bleeding nightmare, I realized the clutch fan was bad. So I am waiting on a new one of those, and all the sensors, because I figure might as well at this point.

Oh, painted the valve cover with some high temp gloss black while I had it off.



Number 1 priority now is to take care of maintenance, and just get the basic stuff working. So cooling and timing is in progress. Oil change done, need to do trans and dif fluids soon.

Temp and gas gauge are the only ones that work. Well the speedo works occasionally. Tested the sensor in the diff and didn't have continuity, so I ordered a new one of those, hopefully that will fix the speedo. On the need to do soon list are speedometer gears to fix the odo, and a new SI board to fix tach and fuel mileage (I checked fuses and they are fine, so I am assuming it is the board)

But first, as you might have seen form the pics, I need a muffle. PO cut off the exhaust right after the cat. So that made for a fun drive home from Dallas to OKC when I bought it. Once the new clutch fan and sensors get here and I get the cooling system all bled that will be the next step. Nothing fancy, just going to go to an exhaust shop and get the cheapest thing they can give me. I was toying with he idea of some $90 ebay headers and cheap cat back. But gave up since that will probably cost more, be more of a hassle and give me nothing except look cool.

[shawmcbigdis]

welcome to the club! $1k for a manual coupe is pretty damn cheap, I'd say. Unless the motor is about to blow up I'd say you didnt overpay at all. Waiting on a pic upload to really get an idea though. Hopefully its not dented and faded to all hell.

That's exactly what it is, dented and faded to hell.

The PO says he got cut off and ran off the road to avoid and ended up going through a barb wire fence. So passenger side front fender, door an rear quarter are all dented. Along with barb wire scraps on hood and roof.

Oh, and the front valance is missing, along with rear bumper and valance, if that's what it's called in the rear.

I want to change to Euro bumpers anyway, so no huge loss with it gone. It's an early model, so wont attempt to hack on the plastic bumpers but will do the Euro chrome if I can ever find them at a time I have money for them.

[shawmcbigdis]

So because of the paint/body issues when I took the hood off to do the timing and cooling work I decided to try out the $50 roll on Rustoleum paint job on it.

Here is the hood scuffed up before being primed;



And here it is after 6 coats of rustoleum;



That pic, makes it look pretty good, but it's not that great up close. But it is a heck of a lot better than when it started.

The spoiler was oxidized also, so I sprayed a few coats of Plastidip on it. Before;



After;








I will probably attempt painting the trunk next, then the roof and pillars. Except for the passenger fender and door which I will replace when I have money/find a good deal on them. I may not repaint the vertical surfaces, since they aren't nearly as bad, and they are a lot trickier with the super thin paint used in the roll on method. The new door and fender will probably be a different color, but I can just paint them before I put them on.

[shawmcbigdis]

I fixed all the links, so you can get to the pics now. Still can't get them to embed. Must be the size limit, not sure how to make Google photos resize for embedding.

[Shu]

You need to get down to the image file itself; it looks like you're attempting to embed the page in which the image resides, which isn't going to work, as you're finding. I would recommend setting up an Imgur account and embedding the images from there instead.

[shawmcbigdis]

You need to get down to the image file itself; it looks like you're attempting to embed the page in which the image resides, which isn't going to work, as you're finding. I would recommend setting up an Imgur account and embedding the images from there instead.

Thanks Shu, got it figured out, except it is embedding the full size pics, so I'll need to upload some resized ones because those are huge.

So over the last week I got the cooling system complete after the new clutch fan came in. Got the valves adjusted again, down to .009 and now the engine is nice and silent. Also replaced the speed sensor in the diff and the speedo seems to be working all the time now.

I'm continuing on my ill advised body work, and sanded down the roof and trunk lid. Put some bondo on the heavy scratches on the roof, then sprayed on primer. Need to sand that all down, then start laying paint. I still haven't finished the paint on the hood, so not sure when I will get around to this.

Next is remove the front grill and mirrors and repaint them, as they all all faded and gray as well.

[dhithim]

You spend a whole lot cheaper than I did LOL. $1k for a running car is awesome.

[shawmcbigdis]

You spend a whole lot cheaper than I did LOL. $1k for a running car is awesome.

Well looking at your build thread, looks like your's came with some pretty nice parts. Mine is all stock and beat to all hell. But yeah, I'm happy with the price.

[shawmcbigdis]

So the cheapest quote I got to put an exhaust on is $250.

That makes me wonder if its worth it to try and fab up something myself from ebay/Jegs?

I bought it with the pipe just cut right after the cat. SO I need at the very least the whole rear section and muffler. The Cat is looking pretty rusted, so I was planning on just lobbing it off as well. Shop said it wouldn't cost any extra to cut it off and run pipe from there.

But looking at prices online, looks like I could fab up my own all slip-fit Franken-exhaust for probably $150. Not sure how I'd get that to attach to the hangers though, never done an exhaust form scratch before...

Any thoughts?

[shawmcbigdis]

Oh, and got some pics of before and after front end painting,

Before;



And after, new Roundel, hood painted (needs to be polished better, only had some lights poliching compound and a $20 HF buffer, need to really go at it with a good machine and some rubbing compound then polish), and plasti-dip on the grill

[Mpolito3355]

Dude , i love the budget building story. i am going to have my own soon just waiting on paper work for it but good to see someone thinking the same thing as me with getting it back to a stock life then doing what you want to it once you feel comfortable with the way it runs...... i will deff be checking progress on your build

Good luck !!

[shawmcbigdis]

Dude , i love the budget building story. i am going to have my own soon just waiting on paper work for it but good to see someone thinking the same thing as me with getting it back to a stock life then doing what you want to it once you feel comfortable with the way it runs...... i will deff be checking progress on your build

Good luck !!

Thanks! It's fun and frustrating at the same time. I am quickly realizing I would have been better off starting with a better car. But with this one I get the freedom of trying new things, like paint and body work, without the fear of messing up a nice car. Also I rescued an e30 that otherwise would have e probably been junked.

It is slow going though. All my budget right now is going towards family vacation for this summer. So I won't be adding much to it for the next month or 2. Just going to be trying to make the paint look better.

I finally got a hold of a Porter Cable DA polisher and got the hood and driver's fender polished. Looks great from 5 feet. Closer you got see the problems with the paint. But hey, it still looks better than the dull scratched up mess it was when I got it.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk