Socal 325is build aiming for M-Tech 1 glory

[calvino]

Hi everyone, long time lurker and R3V FB group contributor and I figured it was finally time to start documenting my "build" and contribute back to R3V. Goal here was to teach myself how to drive stick, learn how to work on cars, and build something that was clean enough that it would not look out of place on bring a trailer. Along the way I decided that I wanted to make it into an M-Tech 1.

Anyways the journey starts in 2023:

Feb 21, 2023:
Found the car on FB marketplace in South Pasadena and at the time it seemed like an ok deal and it had what I was looking for: manual, 325is and decent paint.
Upon inspection it had been sitting under a tree for a long time so it was filthy.

CONS

• No maintenance history.
• Interior was rough with ripped passenger seat and cracked dash.
• Entire check panel was lit up
• windows didn't work
• car didn't actually rev to redline , only 5550 rpm which seemed weird
• Power steering did not work
• brakes were questionable.
• Massive oil leak out of every orifice

PROS

• But it was clean title
• rust free
• straight body
• manual
• 325is
• somewhat recent repaint
• already lowered on H&R race springs and Bilstein B8s

Since I didn't really know what to look for nor know how to drive a manual I brought my friend along who had driven and worked on some E30s before. Ultimately for better or for worse I ended up buying the car. Convinced the seller to throw in the original wheels for the asking price.
Here is what the car looked like:



Later that night once I got the car home I washed it to see what I was working with:

[calvino]

Feb 22, 2023:
Figured I should do a post-purchase inspection (out of order I know) to see what I got, took the car to Bullet Perfomance in Costa Mesa. They determined that the shifter bushings were complete toast, suspension bushings toast and the car has some pretty big oil leaks, but overall good bones. Then later that day the car was hit in the work parking lot. Damn! I hadn't even owned the car 24 hours! I was so glad I had added the car to my insurance the day I bought it. Luckily for me since I couldn't drive stick at the time, it wasn't my fault. Luckily for the car the damage wasn't too serious. Luckily for my friend, it was a low speed incident so nobody was hurt.


The seller had initially offered me a several day grace period to return the car back to him if I were change my mind, but with this happening, the car was definitely mine now.

Feb 23, 2023:
First order of business was to replace the broken interior door handles. Luckily the seller had included a set.


Feb 24, 2023:
The cheapo XXRs on the car didn't really fit properly and rubbed at full lock, on bumps and made the whole car shake because they didn't have hubcentric rings. They had to go. Brought the original wheels to the carwash to get them cleaned up.


Feb 26, 2023:
The glovebox would not open since I got the car, the latch was broken and I was very curious to see what treasures may be lurking inside. I unscrewed the back from the hinge and forced it open which cracked it in the process. Not my brightest hour but it did open up. Bought a new Chinese latch for it on ebay and swapped the key over. Next I had to glue humpty dumpty back together:


The stereo was incapable of producing any sound so I decided to tear into that and was greeted by this previous owner job:

[calvino]

Mar 10, 2023:
The odometer was also non functional when I got the car. Establishing a baseline so I could start to build up a maintenance history was a paramount to me so I picked up a set of gears from garagistic and got to work replacing the old ones, which were rubbery and disintegrating.


Mar 11, 2023:
The car attempted to strand itself for the first time, thankfully in my garage. I attempted to practice driving it and the clutch went to the floor never to return. My keen diagnosis from the puddle on the garage floor was slave cylinder. I jacked up the car and confirmed this to be the case, then accepted my fate and ordered new master cyl, slave cyl and new hoses. Seeing this febi slave cylinder die an early death convinced me to pony up for FTE components.

[calvino]

Mar 18, 2023:
After studying the radio wiring threads for retaining the factory amp, I figured out the 1987 ETK had a mistake relative to my car. The power wire for the radio was supposed to be grey/red not green red or something like that. Ditched all of the nasty wire nuts and recrimped everything. Finally I was greeted with some nice crackly audio. Sounded pretty bad but I was so stoked to finally have any sound in the car.


Mar 19, 2023:
The left side trunk pocket was pretty dirty when I got the car and I soon realized this was due to the power antenna being non-functional and the associated body grommet for it having disintegrated. Pulled out the trunk carpet to gain access to the power antenna and diagnose further and was greeted by this nastiness: Trunk mud and rust as well as upper shock mounts that were toast.


Mar 20, 2023:
My initial replacement parts haul from FCP came in. Ordered everything to refresh all the fluids, air and oil filters, fix the shifter, do timing belt, water pump, all suspension bushings, and take care of all the engine leaks.

Removed the rust in the left trunk well and rust encapsulated it:

[calvino]

Mar 23, 2023:
New clutch hydraulics showed up and installed them and bled them. We are so back.


Mar 25, 2023:
Finally got to mount up some new tires to the factory wheels. This was honestly the single biggest improvement so far, no more awful rubbing and vibration:


Mar 26, 2023:
Installed a new airfilter. So nice and clean!

[808ETA]

That was a crazy first 24 hours. Car looks much better with the Basket Weaves

[calvino]

That was a crazy first 24 hours. Car looks much better with the Basket Weaves

For sure! I was so relieved I had it insured in time.

Mar 28, 2023:
Decided to check the right side of the trunk and discovered battery tray rust. Ground out all the rotted area:

Around this time I sent the car off to the body shop to get the damage fixed. I also had them weld up the battery tray and fix my bent antenna hole.

Apr 22, 2023:
Tore down the Hirschmann antenna unit and realized the the mast mount was cracked and the control board was toast. Picked up a spare in Fontana and rebuilt it with a new mast and combined the best parts of both antennas. Result: Power antenna works again!
Fixed antenna hole:


Success! power antenna raises and lowers!

Here you can also see the repaired left corner. Rear bumper was replaced with new since it was an insurance job and left taillight and diving board side trim was also replaced.

Next up was replacing the shifter bushings. Underside was disgusting with a major oil leak going on. Got the shifter carrier disassembled, cleaned up and reassembled with new parts. Replaced all with oem style so I could see how it was supposed to feel before deciding to upgrade anything.

[calvino]

Apr 23, 2023:
The door window scraper seals were super dry rotted with chunks missing. In light of the rust I discovered with the antenna hole, I was worried about water intrusion into the doors so I decided to tackle this next.


I used some carpet shield from Home Depot to make some new door vapor barriers. For these, I just stretched the roll over the door and then post trimmed with a knife.
New vapor barriers


Since I had the door cards off it was time to fix the sagging corner on the drivers door card, I reinforced the backside of the pressboard material with some Michelob ultra and gorilla wood glue. This worked really well. I also reinforced all the clip holes.


So much better!

[e30m3s54turbo]

Cool project. I will be looking forward for your e30 up dats.

[reelizmpro]

Nice pick up. Looks like an honest survivor car which is a great starting point. Post some engine bay pictures.

[calvino]

Nice pick up. Looks like an honest survivor car which is a great starting point. Post some engine bay pictures.

Here's how the engine bay looked when I bought it.


Apr 30, 2023:
I really liked the leaping cat sticker on the window, but sadly during my first trip to the gas station after buying the car, the cat lost its head to the window squeegee. Thankfully my friend had snapped a pic of it. Cleaned it up in photoshop, got it printed and trimmed it out with an x-acto, and voila!

[calvino]

May 28, 2023:
The lack of a shift boot had been on my list for awhile. My roommate bought a sewing machine to make shift boot for his car so I figured I should make one too. First, I bought the grungiest boot I could find on ebay. Used a seam ripper to pull it apart and trace it for a pattern.


We picked up some micro-suede from A1 Foam and Fabric in Santa Ana. The material pretty cheap and gave us plenty of material for screwups. After my second try I got the fitment right.


Glued the sewn boot to the original frame with contact cement.


Finished product all installed! The existing knob in the car was broken and would spin around on the shaft. Decided to see if the ZHP knob lived up to all the hype and ordered a fresh one from FCP.

[projectJTv4]

I used some carpet shield from Home Depot to make some new door vapor barriers. For these, I just stretched the roll over the door and then post trimmed with a knife.
New vapor barriers

How have your vapor barriers held up?

[calvino]

How have your vapor barriers held up?

They hold up fine but they are single use. Which is fine because I still have a ton of material and I have made at least 3 or 4 sets by now. I'm pretty sure this is what I used.

[calvino]

May 28, 2023:
Did my first valve adjustment. Realized the rocker shaft plugs were shrunken and the PCV hose to intake was so old it shattered on me.



May 31, 2023:

Replaced the motor mounts. Unbolted the motor mounts and jacked up the engine from the oil pan using a 2x4. The passenger side one was split into two pieces!


Jun 1, 2023:

Pulled the intake manifold to replace the gaskets as well as in preparation to replace all of the coolant hoses.