'90 Euro BMW 318iS M42 M-Tech 2 - Lazur Blau

[moatilliatta]

Whats the diff temp sensor for?

Looking good! Looks like a blast to drive.

[PieterVN]

Wow, you've been busy! Nice work on finding those two cars - that should keep you busy! And nice work on the diff too. Does it make any noise at all, like can you hear any rattling/knocking when letting out the clutch with no gas in reverse? Asking for a friend ;)

Heheh, well i did use most of my free moments to make some small fixes here and there. Yes, i wasn’t planning on buy 2 more cars but couldn’t waste a great opportunity.

Well my differential does not make any bearing noises anymore. But when i put it in reverse and let go of the clutch quite rapidly i can make a clunk noise. But i do not know if this is normal or not. I does not annoy me and it sound pretty normal to me. So no rattling or knocking only small *clunk* noise. (Mine is an open diff, so not LSD)

There, I fixed it for you.

Nice photos by the way!

Hahaha, well i think you got me there… I’m allready planning some things…
If i get enough profit maybe i’ll get a new timing chain job. But first on the list is still a set of shocks. I did a testdrive in my buddies IS (the red one from the photos). It has Bilstein B4 shocks. A bit stiffer than original but not too hard for my taste. I think it would make an awesome upgrade to my car.
Keep you updated 😊

Lots of progress! Excellent work on the diff and interior cleanup. The brick building and stone parking lot make for a very cool photo of the two E30s.

Very cool to find the other BMWs. Build threads for those as well? :-)

Thanks Mike! Well i still need to give my interior a deep clean like i did the rear. Same for your pictures. It’s cool for us to see the difference in building styles (US vs. Belgium). I think in the near future more pictures will follow. I have a picture here we took at a 1950’s Hotel/Restaurant building with our group of E30 friends.

IMG-20210221-WA0004 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr
From left to right (E30 328i M-tech 2 M20B28 with ITB kit, E30 327i M-Tech1 M20B27, E30 318is M-Tech 2 M42B18, E30 318is M42B18 and a E30 Touring 325i M20b25)

And probably no build threads for the other cars. I’ll make a small before and after post but plan is to sell them ASAP 😊. Pulled some parts here and there that could be usefull for my cars. I took the E30’s door rubbers for my IS Coupe. They’re not damagefree but at least they fit like a glove. Couldn’t be more happy. After all this saved me another couple of years that i do not need to get the 750 euro OEM rubbers.

Before cleaning:

IMG_20210227_104215 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_20210227_104239 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_20210227_080402 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_20210227_080415 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

After cleaning:

IMG_20210227_171403 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_20210227_170938 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

I'll make an extra post with some more in detail pictures.

Whats the diff temp sensor for?

Looking good! Looks like a blast to drive.

The differential temperature sensor goes to my Replica Alpina instrument gauge. There’s some more information about it on the first page of my thread.
And thanks! It indeed drives quite nice, love the raspy sound and lightness of the M42 engine. I drive it hard. We often do some rallystages or some highway pulls with a couple of friends that have M20’s. On the highways it’s hard to keep up with the 6 cilinders but in the small twisty roads i can keep up with the big boys 😊

[PieterVN]

Just a small post with some more information on the +2 cars.

So 2 weeks ago my cousin got contacted by an acquaintance. He tells him that he met an older gentleman that has 2 old BMW's that he needs to get rid of. The building that the cars were parked in was going to get sold & demolished so he needed them out.
We went to look at the cars on the same day and we make him a low offer. This gentleman had no interest in getting the most out of his cars and he justed wnated them gone asap. The man used to be a forklift and heavy machinery mechanic at a big industrial company that makes fence wiring.
He maintained the cars himself but in the last 15 years he did not find the time to maintain these two cars. His wife became ill and he had to take car of her so not much time was available for these two...

So firstly, he had a Sierrabeig E21 316i Automatic car. This used to be his wife's car. It's a 1979 316, he owned the car from 1984 and the last title we got from this car was still on his name...so in total a 2 owner car.
riginally the E21 was not available in 316i Automatic. So i think he swapped an newer E30 or E21 M10B18 injection engine & gearbox in the car.

Some years ago some little punks broke into the workshop and started spraying paint on the cars and graphite grease. The bonnet was a bit of a mess but nothing that couldn't be fixed.

The car had a lovely original Zender spoiler mounted, 323i double headlights and a damagefree interior. Previous owners took quite some care of the cars. Always covered the seat with somekind of cloth or sheepskin covers.

The car in it's garage where it was parked some 15 to 20 years. First time it saw daylight in a very long time.

IMG_20210227_081729 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

On the trailer on it's way to our place..

IMG_0762 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

First thing on the list, cleaning out all big things, carpets, old brochures, trash,...etc.

IMG_0764 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

Some overview photos to see what we started from:

IMG_20210227_104215 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_20210227_104223 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_20210227_104228 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_20210227_104239 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_20210227_104245 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_20210227_104251 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_20210227_104258 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_20210227_104310 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_20210227_104315 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

This is an example of how the old man & his wife placed covers over the seats. The cloth covered a pristine rear bench.

IMG_20210227_104322 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_20210227_104352 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_20210227_104415 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_20210227_104424 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_20210227_104508 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

After giving the car a big clean inside & out. We washed the outside multiple times, vacuumed the interior, gave everything a good wipe. Gave the chromework a swift polish. The plan was not to get a new car in any means, but try to get it looking allright and presentable.
I must say it was quite a fullfilling task. Colour looks amazing without the caked on dust an paint.

IMG_0780 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_0784 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_0787 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_0790 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_0796 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr


IMG_0802 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_0803 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

Number 2, the 1983 E30 316 M10..

Same story as the E21. This used to be the man his daily driver for years. A couple of years ago his son used it as his daily driver but got in an accident. Front left took a hit. Not too bad of a shape. Mostly rustfree. His son installed some debateable accessoires (see 'Oakley'-sticker, tinted rear windows, cupholders glued on the dashboard, sport steering wheel, ugly & fake M-Power badges everywhere...). Well it was used over a decade ago and it shows in the taste the driver had... just my humble opinion.

First time the car saw daylight since...

IMG_0757 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

Getting towed to our place..

IMG_20210227_082450 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

I went to my place before cleaning it to get something to eat. When i got back my cousin allready started cleaning. So we don't have any before pictures apart from at the old man's place. But you get the picture...dust and grease...
A couple of posts ago i told about my weakness for a Malachite Green two door... well this car made gave me a similar feeling.. It's Achat green, similar to Malachite but more used on the older generation cars.

IMG_0832 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_0834 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

Please don't mind the fart cannon/exhaust tip... it's a keepsake from older tuning times...

IMG_0835 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_0836 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_0838 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_0840 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_0841 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_0842 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

Lovely green on green combo.

IMG_0843 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_0845 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

The car is still in overall good shape apart from the damage on the side. We didn't feel like parting out the car. Because we didn't want to spend too much time on it. We took some useable parts from it and moved on.

The same weekend that we picked up the cars we put them on our local craigslist/ebay online platforms and Facebook Marketplace. After only 4 days both of them were sold with a nice profit.
Profit = budget to spend on E30 parts.
We priced them to sell not to get ridicilous amounts of money of them. Our seller was happy, we were happy with our profit and the guys who bought these cars both did a good deal. This is what i call 'WIN-WIN-WIN-situation'.

The old man that sold the car to us told me he also had another E21 at home that he regularly drives and did maintain. Car got a paintjob couple of years ago and went trough technical inspection about 4 months ago... He also was doubting to sell it, i told him i would call him to take a look at it if he wanted.

So maybe, this story will get a sequel.... To be continued.

[AlpinStar]

Hi Pieter,

Very nice work! Those cars came out looking so much better after getting the cleaning treatment from you. Love the beige color on the E21! And the interior on the E30 - rare to see cloth interiors in the USA.

A question for you: you said above "I took the E30’s door rubbers for my IS Coupe. They’re not damagefree but at least they fit like a glove. Couldn’t be more happy. After all this saved me another couple of years that i do not need to get the 750 euro OEM rubbers." Does this mean there are other passenger-door options for the main rubber door seals for the IS coupes? I have been wanting to buy a new passenger door seal for mine (since the current one has shrunk and doesn't fit right), but for some reason the passenger door seals are like $350-400 now. The driver's door seal is a fraction of that price; I'm not sure why. So I was wondering if there are other options out there for the passenger door seal.