Finally got my E30!

[Conrad311]

that looks great- very tidy! are the front lenses installed? or are they actually clear as in invisible?

my bad for never getting back to you on the lights, when I dug them out the adjuster sockets were all broken and the adjusters frozen. They are still soaking in Kroil and the sockets are lost on my desk some where. lol

[2mAn]

Looks great! Hope you're enjoying the car!

[jaimerod]

I decided to go with Depo Smileys. I got them installed along with the cleared turn signals. It took a bit to get the headlights pointed in a way that I can see and do not blind any cars. It is probably still a little low, but with the new H1 bulbs I can see as good as my M3 or my wife's X3 so I am ok with it as is for now.

I think they look great, but I may replace the clear lens in front with the white kind on Turner to match the reflectors on the sides.

[jaimerod]

yep, skip the yellow, keep em chrome, but I do like the smoked clear turn signals. I might have a set of us hella ellipsoids up for sale cheap, soon. a little pitted but still pretty good. I'll pm you when i dig them out

Yeah, ping me when you have a chance. I was thinking about getting the Depo ones since I cannot find a decently priced Hella brand but I'll wait a bit and check out the classified on here before jumping the gun.

[Conrad311]

yep, skip the yellow, keep em chrome, but I do like the smoked clear turn signals. I might have a set of us hella ellipsoids up for sale cheap, soon. a little pitted but still pretty good. I'll pm you when i dig them out

[2mAn]

I like chrome kidneys, and a pass on the yellow high beams

[jaimerod]

Awesome update! Car is coming along nicely. Make sure you make it out to the Dockweiler gtg later this month!

Id suggest looking into some lighting upgrades. Theres a lot of ways to go about it, because anything is an improvement over the stock sealed beams.

Glad you're enjoying the car and spending money wisely on quality stuff

I made some mock-ups of some lighting and front end updates I'm thinking about just to see what it would look like. What do you think?

[2mAn]

Awesome update! Car is coming along nicely. Make sure you make it out to the Dockweiler gtg later this month!

Id suggest looking into some lighting upgrades. Theres a lot of ways to go about it, because anything is an improvement over the stock sealed beams.

Glad you're enjoying the car and spending money wisely on quality stuff

[mike.bmw]

Very nice job on the seats (and everything else)! I picked up my seat shocks (air springs) from one of the sellers on R3V. Installation is pretty straight forward.

Regarding the Stromung (good choice) fitment, you'll want all the hardware and clamps lose before tightening it down. If yours is hanging low you may need new upper muffler straps/hangers/donuts. You can probably bend the existing upper muffler straps to get the rear muffler positioned where you want it, then tighten everything down.

Keep up the good work!

[Conrad311]

Awsome updates man! Dont the sport seats make it feel so much better? The upholstery looks great and the painted lip is a nice touch Keep it up

[jaimerod]

I also got my Stromung Exhaust installed, but I must have did something wrong because it's crooked and hanging too low. I'll probably take it to the muffler show sometime soon to get them to fix it for me. It sounds pretty good tho!

[jaimerod]

I took the car to autocross about a month ago, bone stock and it was so much fun. Seems like there is so much body roll I am going to start tumbling into a ditch.



I dropped the car using the Turner Kit with the Bilstein Shocks and Eibach springs. It rides so much nicer now and looks so sweet in it's newly dropped stance. I also added a Red46 sump armor skid plate just in case because the ground clearance isn't very good anymore.




I bought a lip and primed and painted it. I think it looks much better than the matte black lip it had on before. I also added the euro grills for what I think is a more aggressive look.



What else... Oh! I managed to finally get the sport seats upholstered which took about 14 hours of work on my part. It was pretty hard, but the results turned out pretty amazing IMHO. If you look carefully you can see the Garagistic cupholder that I bought.


I'll post more when I think of what to do next.

Any suggestions for a little bit more go? I added a Turner Chip when they were on sale for $175 which was nice, but I'd like something a bit more.

[2mAn]

I would autocross it bone stock and you will see how much the car needs and modify accordingly. It will take a LOT for an E30 to be competitive in autox so you might as well build it to suit your needs. I think El-Toro still has auto-x, check out motorsport.reg if you're a BMW CCA (OR BETTER YET THE E30 CCA!) then you can autox with CCA at Quallcomm stadium in San Diego

[jaimerod]

2mAn I'm in Irvine now, but I used to live in Lawndale and Gardena a few years back. Thanks for the suggestion. I found the air springs in the classified and will probably go with those.

I am thinking of going with just shocks right now because a buddy of mine wants to do autocross, and for my first time, I want to try the stock class. I am itching to get modifying so I may just take your suggestions and get springs and go into a modified level. I also heard good things about BC Racing coil-overs but I don't want to weld. Modbargains did my other car so if I go with coil-overs I might hit them up. What do you think about BC Racing coil-overs?

BTW, timing belt seems to be freshly changed! At least that's what the sticker says and I'm included to believe it. It looks legit. However, the car mileage shows it was changed just under 1k ago and the sticker looks to be a bit old school. What do you guys think?

[2mAn]

for the seat shocks, just look at the various ones for sale here in the classifieds. I found a full set for under $100, still brand new. Im in the same boat with the sport seats, and I plan to use lseat.com covers also. Some people have used others, but there has also been many on here who've been able to recover the seats with great results. A lot easier if you dont rush.

As far as suspension goes, it depends on your budget and goals. I personally am not a fan of any of the chinese coil options, Id prefer a H&R Race/ IE3 (350fr/500rr IIRC) spring with some Single adjustable Konis and thats what I wouldve gotten for my current E30 if I didnt have a smoking deal on some GC Coils (375ff/550rr). A good street spring rate is in the 3-400 range up front and 5-600 in the back. I even had a 500fr/700rr and it wasnt too bad, but that car was more oriented towards track/ canyon duty than daily driving.

Where are you located again? LA? Im in Inglewood