Hey R3V, not a full newbie (posted a few times on the R3V FB page and am more active on the r/E30 Discord), but I think I might try my hand at this journaling thing. I've lost too many pictures to bad backups and I lurk too much on this forum anyways. Going to summarize the 4 years of ownership and track everything I do starting in 2024 onward. I bought my car toward the tail-end of 2020. COVID was still raging on, and my 2 weeks off from college had reduced my summer to randomly cycling all around the city or daily bouts of COD Warzone with the guys to keep busy. Needless to say, I needed a change.
I had my eyes on getting an E30 for quite a while, but a lot of the E30s in Canada were concentrated in BC or Ontario. Not enough yuppies in the rectangular province of SK. Saw 2 cars: 1 Alpine White '86 325E that wasn't running, and a red '87 325is with more speed holes than I knew what to do with. Then this one popped up about 2.5hrs away from me: Polaris Silver, Pacific Blue interior with comforts, 175k km, bone stock '85 325E. I was kind of uninterested since it was an auto ETA sedan, but my buddy convinced me to go and check it out. Not sure why I decided to buy it there and then, but I did. Did a crafty payment to avoid paying PST, and drove it back the 2.5hrs home. This is with my buddy's CRX Si (which is now in pieces thanks to rust). She's a Victoria car that was brought over to my province by the PO who owned it for ~3 months before I got my hands on it. No rust on the body, but I was pretty naive to think that a car this old could escape it (as I find out soon enough).
Original 1985 spare too!
Year 1 (2020 - 2021):
When I bought the car I was clueless about the general feedback on parts manufacturers. So when the PO handed me a URO upper strut mount and Monroe rear shocks I was like "Cool, free stuff!". The rear shocks were easy enough, but then i found out about the joys of strut inserts. I have no pictures from this time, but I do remember the feeling of using strut compressors for the first time and immediately being sketched out. But hey I'm still here.
Me and my buddy also did an (admittedly not very good) paint correction, and I drove the car in the winter for the first time. Picture was taken just after a massive snowstorm, where the family Taurus got stuck but not the E30 (Hi Dad!). She just kept on trucking. I did get some steelies with winters for her with massive 185/70R14 X-ice tires. Quite a bit of grip, but man that rear end will slide out unless you have weight in the back.
IMG_1063 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/200448655@N07/]
IMG_0148 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/200448655@N07/]
Summer came along and I had enough money from my summer job to afford my first proper upgrade: Koni Yellows with H&R OE Sports (alongside the usual maintenance of course). Back to the spring compressors I went, but the install went pretty smooth over the course of a weekend. It was here that I found where most of my rust resided (strut tube threads). Man these were crusty. I decided to soldier on, birthing a nagging voice in the back of my mind that I will eventually switch to coils and avoid this mess next time (I still have those plans!). In the same year I got a set of smileys from a seller in the R3V FB group, and lucked into getting the connectors for cheap from a guy in Alberta. Some wiring and fuse box mods later and I had functional smileys with both the high and low beams turning on (thanks Albie325 for the great write up!).
IMG_1178 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/200448655@N07/]
5B99C355-9DE5-458B-A7C1-BD1433FAE98A by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/200448655@N07/]
IMG_1173 by Aryaman Gogoi, on Flickr
2021-2022:
Nothing much to say about this year. Aside from maintenance, some small rust fixes - license plate holes, damage from me being a dumbass with a floor jack, license plate lights rust, trunk seal seam rust. I did reapply rockguard after treating the rust on the rockers, but my dumbass did not bother to do the whole rocker. Now I have a weirdly shaped bit of unpainted rockguard on the bottom, but I figure I'll repaint the car anyways so I'm living with it. Also some wheels and tires! RPF1s at 15x8 +28 with 205/55R15. 15mm spacer in the front (maybe could have gotten away with 12.5mm) and none in the rear. I'm anticipating once I go with coils I wont have that perch anymore and can reduce the front spacer by a bunch. As of now the fronts are right on the cusp of overtaking the fender. I did also get Euro grills to complete the front end look with the smileys.
IMG_1414 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/200448655@N07/]
image0 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/200448655@N07/]
B06EAA21-9AD0-4C3C-A663-30D94BFAFEFC by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/200448655@N07/]
EB7C6185-51D4-4C67-BAF5-43E05DBD0C2B by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/200448655@N07/]
IMG_0077 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/200448655@N07/]
IMG_1410 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/200448655@N07/]
IMG_0235 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/200448655@N07/]
2022 - 2023:
Not much work done this year either. I did do the driver rear door's vapor barrier since I was having some water ingress issues. Went a little overboard to be honest, but I figure it'll stay there to the end of time, also re-greased the window frame rails. Did also replace the E30's evaporator temp switch so my high speed aux fan turns on now. But my compressor is still dead so AC will need an overhaul.
IMG_1650 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/200448655@N07/]
I graduated college and started my first big boy job so I've been using the E30 as a daily for the most part. General maintenance mostly for this year, and I sourced a Mtech2 wheel for pretty cheap at 350 CAD. Most of the year was paying off student loans and getting acclimatized to maybe doing a job for the next 40 years
. Did take the car out to the rez where my dad was working at, about 4 hours 1 way with a bunch of gravel roads in northern SK. Car was flawless, kind of thinking I'll driver her down to BC in the 2024.
IMG_1762 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/200448655@N07/]
IMG_1471 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/200448655@N07/]
Upcoming plans:
I got my dad's X3 to use as a daily if need be since he's got our Taurus at the rez where he works at, so I can start tackling some larger jobs now. Current list:
- Steering rack swap (AAE 3310N)
- AC retrofit (compressor clutch is dead, going to swap to a Sanden since I'll have it apart)
- Brake job all around
- Timing belt + waterpump + misc. seals + sintered cam and intermediate gears
- Drill the trunk and mount the iS spoiler I got. Repair and repaint this beat up cowcatcher.
Not gonna lie, I may just pay a shop to repair this cowcatcher, it's pretty beat. I sanded off the old paint with an orbital, but I don't want to buy a plastic welder for what may end up being a one-time use. So I'll let someone else handle it.
IMG_1498 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/200448655@N07/]
IMG_1497 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/200448655@N07/]
IMG_1496 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/200448655@N07/]
Thanks for reading. I'll hope to finish the rack swap in April and have more pics and updates by then.
I had my eyes on getting an E30 for quite a while, but a lot of the E30s in Canada were concentrated in BC or Ontario. Not enough yuppies in the rectangular province of SK. Saw 2 cars: 1 Alpine White '86 325E that wasn't running, and a red '87 325is with more speed holes than I knew what to do with. Then this one popped up about 2.5hrs away from me: Polaris Silver, Pacific Blue interior with comforts, 175k km, bone stock '85 325E. I was kind of uninterested since it was an auto ETA sedan, but my buddy convinced me to go and check it out. Not sure why I decided to buy it there and then, but I did. Did a crafty payment to avoid paying PST, and drove it back the 2.5hrs home. This is with my buddy's CRX Si (which is now in pieces thanks to rust). She's a Victoria car that was brought over to my province by the PO who owned it for ~3 months before I got my hands on it. No rust on the body, but I was pretty naive to think that a car this old could escape it (as I find out soon enough).
Original 1985 spare too!
Year 1 (2020 - 2021):
When I bought the car I was clueless about the general feedback on parts manufacturers. So when the PO handed me a URO upper strut mount and Monroe rear shocks I was like "Cool, free stuff!". The rear shocks were easy enough, but then i found out about the joys of strut inserts. I have no pictures from this time, but I do remember the feeling of using strut compressors for the first time and immediately being sketched out. But hey I'm still here.
Me and my buddy also did an (admittedly not very good) paint correction, and I drove the car in the winter for the first time. Picture was taken just after a massive snowstorm, where the family Taurus got stuck but not the E30 (Hi Dad!). She just kept on trucking. I did get some steelies with winters for her with massive 185/70R14 X-ice tires. Quite a bit of grip, but man that rear end will slide out unless you have weight in the back.
IMG_1063 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/200448655@N07/]IMG_0148 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/200448655@N07/]Summer came along and I had enough money from my summer job to afford my first proper upgrade: Koni Yellows with H&R OE Sports (alongside the usual maintenance of course). Back to the spring compressors I went, but the install went pretty smooth over the course of a weekend. It was here that I found where most of my rust resided (strut tube threads). Man these were crusty. I decided to soldier on, birthing a nagging voice in the back of my mind that I will eventually switch to coils and avoid this mess next time (I still have those plans!). In the same year I got a set of smileys from a seller in the R3V FB group, and lucked into getting the connectors for cheap from a guy in Alberta. Some wiring and fuse box mods later and I had functional smileys with both the high and low beams turning on (thanks Albie325 for the great write up!).
IMG_1178 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/200448655@N07/]5B99C355-9DE5-458B-A7C1-BD1433FAE98A by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/200448655@N07/]IMG_1173 by Aryaman Gogoi, on Flickr
2021-2022:
Nothing much to say about this year. Aside from maintenance, some small rust fixes - license plate holes, damage from me being a dumbass with a floor jack, license plate lights rust, trunk seal seam rust. I did reapply rockguard after treating the rust on the rockers, but my dumbass did not bother to do the whole rocker. Now I have a weirdly shaped bit of unpainted rockguard on the bottom, but I figure I'll repaint the car anyways so I'm living with it. Also some wheels and tires! RPF1s at 15x8 +28 with 205/55R15. 15mm spacer in the front (maybe could have gotten away with 12.5mm) and none in the rear. I'm anticipating once I go with coils I wont have that perch anymore and can reduce the front spacer by a bunch. As of now the fronts are right on the cusp of overtaking the fender. I did also get Euro grills to complete the front end look with the smileys.
IMG_1414 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/200448655@N07/]image0 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/200448655@N07/]B06EAA21-9AD0-4C3C-A663-30D94BFAFEFC by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/200448655@N07/]EB7C6185-51D4-4C67-BAF5-43E05DBD0C2B by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/200448655@N07/]IMG_0077 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/200448655@N07/]IMG_1410 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/200448655@N07/]IMG_0235 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/200448655@N07/]2022 - 2023:
Not much work done this year either. I did do the driver rear door's vapor barrier since I was having some water ingress issues. Went a little overboard to be honest, but I figure it'll stay there to the end of time, also re-greased the window frame rails. Did also replace the E30's evaporator temp switch so my high speed aux fan turns on now. But my compressor is still dead so AC will need an overhaul.
IMG_1650 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/200448655@N07/]I graduated college and started my first big boy job so I've been using the E30 as a daily for the most part. General maintenance mostly for this year, and I sourced a Mtech2 wheel for pretty cheap at 350 CAD. Most of the year was paying off student loans and getting acclimatized to maybe doing a job for the next 40 years
. Did take the car out to the rez where my dad was working at, about 4 hours 1 way with a bunch of gravel roads in northern SK. Car was flawless, kind of thinking I'll driver her down to BC in the 2024.IMG_1762 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/200448655@N07/]IMG_1471 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/200448655@N07/]Upcoming plans:
I got my dad's X3 to use as a daily if need be since he's got our Taurus at the rez where he works at, so I can start tackling some larger jobs now. Current list:
- Steering rack swap (AAE 3310N)
- AC retrofit (compressor clutch is dead, going to swap to a Sanden since I'll have it apart)
- Brake job all around
- Timing belt + waterpump + misc. seals + sintered cam and intermediate gears
- Drill the trunk and mount the iS spoiler I got. Repair and repaint this beat up cowcatcher.
Not gonna lie, I may just pay a shop to repair this cowcatcher, it's pretty beat. I sanded off the old paint with an orbital, but I don't want to buy a plastic welder for what may end up being a one-time use. So I'll let someone else handle it.
IMG_1498 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/200448655@N07/]IMG_1497 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/200448655@N07/]IMG_1496 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/200448655@N07/]Thanks for reading. I'll hope to finish the rack swap in April and have more pics and updates by then.
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