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Storm - My dream e30

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    Storm - My dream e30

    This is the story of my 92 325i Convertible.

    I purchased this 1992 325i Convertible with 62,525 miles on the odometer in March 2017.

    Here is a photo of how it currently looks now:


    When I first moved to San Jose, California from Toronto, Canada in August 2016, my mother gave me 5400 dollars to buy furniture, books, clothing and any other necessities that I may need before the school year started. Being the rebellious 18-year old that I was, and still am, I decided to buy a car. I obtained my license in November 2016 and as of right now November 2018, I have owned a total of 22 cars.
    I guess you can say it has been a very interesting two years. Many cars have come and gone. Namely, several e30s and e34s.

    However, there has been one car that has spoken to me. That car is my 1992 325i Cabriolet. Granitsilber Metallic Exterior matched with a Grey interior powered by the legendary m20b25 along with the Getrag 260.
    The owner, an elderly lady in Yosemite insisted on selling the car to me despite receiving higher offers from other interested parties. Speaking to her over the phone and online, I guess she could sense my enthusiasm and passion for the car. I decided it was time to go all in. I practically sold everything I had to have just enough money to buy this car. The way I saw it, with decent paint and a 5spd manual transmission - it would be worth 5k in parts/labour repair to my current vehicle at the time - a 1991 325i Maritusblau Metallic e30.

    I remember the day I purchased the car very clearly. The seller was very reluctant to sell the car as she had very fond memories with it. I remember as she gave me the keys she started tearing up and asked me to take good care of it. I gave her my word and promised that I would do my best and treat it with care.

    Here are some photos of the car the day after I got it home.



    It had its timing belt done at around 55k according to the carfax - but, that was done about five years ago so it was due for another belt.

    At the time, I had no real mechanical experience so the thought of doing this job by myself was a bit daunting. But none the less, I took my time and after one week of tinkering slowly, I got the job done. New timing belt, spark plugs, valve cover gasket, water pump, and belts.

    This car essentially taught me how to work on cars.

    Over the past year and a half,
    I had the hood and fenders repaired and repainted + coupe trunk lid for 3rd brake light delete:



    Did some suspension work:
    Bilstein B8 shocks
    H&R Sport Springs
    Garagistic X brace
    Stock Brembo F+R rotors
    New pads
    Euroweaves + Dunlop Direzza tires

    Drivetrain:
    3.73 LSD

    Interior:
    Mtech 2 Steering Wheel

    Exterior:
    Euro Trim
    Smileys
    IS Lip

    Additionally, I have a lot of parts I have purchased but yet to install.

    I figured I would start documenting my convertible on the forum to share it with everyone and make a "journal" for myself to look back on in the future.

    Here are some additional photos:






    This car is essentially the very essence of why I love classic BMWs. I currently have 11 in my possession but plan on slimming down to four.
    325i Convertible - Storm
    325ix Sedan - Blizzard
    540i/6 E34 - Typhoon
    525i Touring E34 - Lightning
    Last edited by Siebenthal; 11-06-2019, 02:35 PM.
    Current Fleet:
    1989 325i
    1989 325ix
    1992 Granitsilber Metallic 325ic (72k miles)
    1992 Schwartz II 525it
    1995 540i/6speed HE53
    1995 540i/Auto (150k miles)
    1998 M3/5

    #2
    Holy fucking big pictures.

    Also "legendary M20" lol

    Comment


      #3
      You name your cars after foul weather? Are you a meteorology student? And why would you name a convertible Storm? Why not Sunshine? Or Partly Cloudy?
      '91 325i

      Comment


        #4
        Sweet ride. Excellent car that will no doubt go up in value My cars have different names for instance my current ride a 03 M3 jet black with black wheels and everything thing black. Its name is Vader, it looks like what Darth Vader would drive. They have names associated with people. Awesome car one of the nicest e30s I have seen in a while. Sounds like you know what you’re doing. I can only see that car going up in value. It’s hard to find low mileage e30s. About 3 years ago a woman dropped off her 88 325ic with 45,xxx miles on it for a timing belt, and full maintenance. Man it was just heart breaking. When we raised it up on the lift we saw the bottom of the car underneath the drivers floor board it was full of rust it was the worst I have ever seen it was so bad that if you wanted to fix it the best option would be to buy another high mileage never wrecked e30 convertible and swap everything over to the solid car. even 60s-70s 2002 and other BMWs with the body’s almost falling apart because of the rust but I have never seen one with that severe of structural rust. I also live in the south and the only rusty cars here are ones from up north. Like my dads dodge truck we just got done replacing every hard brake line on the truck because they were rusted and leaking and it’s a 2006 model. Never seen that on a bmw.


        Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

        Comment


          #5
          Originally posted by Nader393 View Post
          You name your cars after foul weather? Are you a meteorology student? And why would you name a convertible Storm? Why not Sunshine? Or Partly Cloudy?

          Comment


            #6
            Nice ride! My first thought anytime I see a mint E30 convertible is "Does the automatic top work?". Where do you store all 11 cars? I had a friend like you, I think he owned 7 cars at one point. His neighbors hated him because he would literally take one side of the street for parking.
            sigpic

            Comment


              #7
              Originally posted by Danny View Post
              Holy fucking big pictures.

              Also "legendary M20" lol
              Fix your pictures before they get lost in a storm
              Simon
              Current Cars:
              -1999 996.1 911 4/98 3.8L 6-Speed, 21st Century Beetle

              Make R3V Great Again -2020

              Comment


                #8
                62k on the clock. Man I wish I had that low of mileage

                Comment


                  #9
                  Haha, sorry about the oversized photos, just imported them straight from my DSLR/Phone to Imgur. Resized and reuploaded now!

                  For the longest time, I decided not to name my cars and just call them by the body code. But after owning several of the same chassis at the same time, it ended up not working out. Most people I know name their cars with names like Gertrude or Lucy but I wanted to go for something more organic. I figured the weather would be a great way to define a car and its personality.

                  I named the convertible storm because a storm can be so broad - rain storm, snowstorm, hail storm? This convertible is the one car I will keep and pass on. It is my swiss army knife. Yes, its a convertible but I love it. Driving it with the top down when its cold, hot etc etc.

                  The automatic top motor works - when I press the button I can hear the motor working. However, when inspecting the mechanism, I can see some parts are missing.

                  If you guys like low mileage cars - I have a 56500 mile 325i/5 1989 coupe that I am probably going to sell soon!

                  My next plans for this convertible is:
                  Reseal/refresh drivetrain
                  Install parts:
                  Poly bushings
                  DSSR
                  Mason Engineering Strut Brace
                  E90 drop hats?
                  Tasteful gauge install for oil pressure, voltage, fuel pressure
                  Possible manual top conversion or repair auto top!

                  Yeah, thats it for now. Mainly focusing on the 325ix and the 540i/6
                  Current Fleet:
                  1989 325i
                  1989 325ix
                  1992 Granitsilber Metallic 325ic (72k miles)
                  1992 Schwartz II 525it
                  1995 540i/6speed HE53
                  1995 540i/Auto (150k miles)
                  1998 M3/5

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Nice looking vert, better than some of those shit-storms that show up on CL.

                    Also looks it can outrun an Isuzu Geo Storm any day of the week!
                    Last edited by uturn; 11-30-2018, 07:49 PM.

                    Comment

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