Back in 1996 my Dad purchased this beauty for his daily driver. Fast forward to the mid 2000s and my Mom started using it as her daily, skip ahead to mid-2010s and they retired it as the project/weekend car. Finally this past summer my Dad decided to sell it, he had acquired another "project" car and didn't have the time or space to store two. After it had been in the family for 30 years, I didn't think it was appropriate to sell it off and never see it again. So a win-win for all, I got an E30 for cheap with a lot of sentimental value, my Dad can still drive it when he gets the itch, and he didn't have to deal with all the bozos when selling it on FB MP. She's far from perfect (close to 300k miles, been wrecked twice and full-resprayed twice) but looks pretty great from 15 feet away.
Before I took ownership we spent a few evenings and a Saturday putting new Billies and Eibach Pros on all four corners.
The wheels definitely aren't my favorite, but I'm optimistic some Euroweaves will eventually make their way into my possession.
First weekend in, and I was working on mounting and wiring in some E90 seats when I discovered the driver's side footwell was fully saturated from the previous night's rain. I traced the water intrusion to two points, the rocker drains had been pinched shut and were overfilling into the floorboard and the seam sealer inside the cowl drains had cracked there was a small rust spot and seepage on the firewall directly behind the dash. Rocker drains was a quick fix, followed by a flush and some Dinitrol Cavity Wax.
First step to remove old seam sealer was give better access to the cowl drain on the driver's side. So off came the front bumper, fender, blower motor and wiper linkage. With a heatgun, flat head screw driver, chisel, and some picks it was surprisingly easyish to remove all the old seam sealer.
The rust inside the frame portion of the drain did not look great through the small hole, so i fed an inspection camera in and after cleaning out the old sealer and hitting it with a wire brush Dremel wheel it looked rough.
Not ideal be be staring at the drivers footwell from inside the frame of the engine bay.
Not an ideal first couple of weeks of ownership, but i'm sure that's par for the course when it comes to 35+ year old BMWs. Looking forward to finally taking it for a rip next weekend (weather permitting) and learning about all its quirks, charms, and shortcomings for the next 30 years.
I'll try to keep this Post updated with progress and changes through time, but the upgrades will likely be slow as a project car is quite far down on the totem pole of monthly expenses.
Before I took ownership we spent a few evenings and a Saturday putting new Billies and Eibach Pros on all four corners.
The wheels definitely aren't my favorite, but I'm optimistic some Euroweaves will eventually make their way into my possession.
First weekend in, and I was working on mounting and wiring in some E90 seats when I discovered the driver's side footwell was fully saturated from the previous night's rain. I traced the water intrusion to two points, the rocker drains had been pinched shut and were overfilling into the floorboard and the seam sealer inside the cowl drains had cracked there was a small rust spot and seepage on the firewall directly behind the dash. Rocker drains was a quick fix, followed by a flush and some Dinitrol Cavity Wax.
First step to remove old seam sealer was give better access to the cowl drain on the driver's side. So off came the front bumper, fender, blower motor and wiper linkage. With a heatgun, flat head screw driver, chisel, and some picks it was surprisingly easyish to remove all the old seam sealer.
The rust inside the frame portion of the drain did not look great through the small hole, so i fed an inspection camera in and after cleaning out the old sealer and hitting it with a wire brush Dremel wheel it looked rough.
Not ideal be be staring at the drivers footwell from inside the frame of the engine bay.
Not an ideal first couple of weeks of ownership, but i'm sure that's par for the course when it comes to 35+ year old BMWs. Looking forward to finally taking it for a rip next weekend (weather permitting) and learning about all its quirks, charms, and shortcomings for the next 30 years.
I'll try to keep this Post updated with progress and changes through time, but the upgrades will likely be slow as a project car is quite far down on the totem pole of monthly expenses.
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