xLibelle's e30

[xLibelle]

Long overdue since almost no one here knows my car. Through years or turmoil and lack of time to fix it, i've been reluctant to show it off. Finally, that time is now.
I wanted to go through the family pictures and scan what we had in the family photo albums, maybe later... I went with my grandfather, in Fall 1990, to the factory in Germany and picked up this car, so we have a lifetime of pictures with this car around.
I did happen across one with my grandmother and aunt with 80's hair and HUGE glasses where they are in front of it. I believe it was taken when it was gifted to my mom's sister. She drove it a few years here in GA, and moved to Germany, taking the car with her.
This gas guzzler lasted a couple years before she sent it back to my grandfather, where he shared it with me. He normally drove a pickup to work, and i an old Mercedes wagon. The 325i was boss comparatively speaking, no doubt. But we loved talking European cars and this one was the center of our attention.
On my way off to college, he sold it to me for a dollar. In his final years, he had asked to see the car every so often and enjoyed hearing about my continuing interest in it and autocrossing. So in a way, I dedicate the restoration and love for this car, to my late grandfather, William K.M.
This will be my build up thread and ancient pictures with funny looking 90's people, sure to come later.
As for my initial ownership, here is what i had on my local disks.
-William


United in December 98... i dont look happy, heh

smyrna

roswell

alphretta (girlfriend now wife drawing on hood)

testing if LSD or open

Was appart from car for a year... had to hug it, lol

rolled 200k last year, running like a champ

[dinanm3atl]

Your in Roswell or Alpharetta?

I am there!

[Turf1600]

cool - a 1 family car.

[Mfever]

Very cool and clean car.Im dedicating my car to my grandfather as well as he is the one who got me into Bmws starting with his 2002 and 320i.

[gearheadE30]

That is awesome! It's pretty cool that there are still original owners of these cars out there. Have fun with the resto :)

[xLibelle]

I'm in Charleston now. Life in north atl is so long ago it seems, yet i still visit a friend there and autocross the Atlanta Region regularly.
The single family car thing has been a great part of owning this car. I know just about everysingle thing that happened, or has been done to it. Most of which because of my own hand. Like in HS, in 1995, on a date, me and the girlfriend thought it would be ok to sit on the hood. To my stupid surprise, my skinny ass installed a small dent right at the center of the hood. To which has now been pulled and smoothed, but yeah. Theres plenty of those stories.
The car has absolutely no rust. A small patch under the battery has since been fixed, but this is pretty good for having seen two winters in Germany in its mid life. Which is another cool thing about this car. How many can say many regular street driven vehicles have been across the atlantic three times? While on the Nurnburg ring last year, i've been toying with the idea of bringing it back again just to give it a real stint on the world famous track. ...but thats not likely to happen i suppose.

[adept]

That is really cool. And a very clean car. With that kind of history behind it I would be one to keep this car with me until I'm old and living off of social security. So it makes me wonder your plans?

[T3rd Ferguson]

Let's see the boosted car you have listed in your avatar

[xLibelle]

I will probably be bringing it back this summer from storage to revamp the design and re-enter it into the $2008 Challenge. This will be the last one on the East coast for some time.
Hate to link you to that other e30 site but i'll make another build thread on this car later this year.

http://www.e30tech.com/forum/showthread.php?t=32412

there are youtube vids of it too linked in that thread.

[xLibelle]

So it makes me wonder your plans?

my plans? yeah, they are to keep it until my wheels fall off.

[xLibelle]

So i lived in Memphis for a while and took a while to bring the car over. When i got it there i had an accident. The accident was to let a bitch drive. We were pulling a non-stop run to Panama City Beach. It was late and figured it would be ok. Well it wasnt.
She didnt have the ability to make a small swerve to miss running straight over a retread. Anyway, was a small loss, the I lip and small dent in valence. Easily banged out and painted clean.









I rattle caned the IS lip which came out nicely and the ducts too.

[xLibelle]

Soon after the fix, i bought some rims... which i'm still rolling on. Not entirely happy with them, but they get the job done and they dont look half bad. I was shooting for the Hamann 5-spoke look.

[bimmer_E30]

u need to lower it bro.

[mtechnik]

Nice

[xLibelle]

i might not have made it clear enough for the non-reading type, but the thread is a "recent" life of my e30. Current posts are of past stages. We are in early 2004 atm. :)


So the car was going to get autocrossed regularly and stock 325i's arent competative.
I set myself (and friend and dad) up for a very long weekend with M3 springs, CABs, LSD (4.1:1), muffler, and ENTIRE tranny swap to manual. It think we did everything in about 17 hours total.

We set up shop in my dad's warehouse. Only thing missing was accomodations for autos, ie: no lift. We used a forklift and set her down on these iron beam horses which made for a stable and relatively comfortable work setting on our knees.



We first got the suspension changed out. I dont think the CA's were ever unbolted... it wasnt fun. As you can see in the picture, we left them connected where we didnt have to address them.




Yeah I didnt replace the shocks... and they needed it. But this was a temporary setup as the m3 springs were priority to fix the wrong ride height.
Spring differneces, stock to M3:



Upon installing the front suspension, new CAB's went in too.



The open differnetial HAD to go! Especially looking the way it did.




Here was the resulting outcome for the ride height.



On with the glamor shots