Strict budget, slow restoration. *Now with moar budget*

[Wh33lhop]

Yeah, trunk has holes in it and fenders need to be trimmed down. Screw it, super cheap and you never find cirrus painted parts.

[KIRIEIW]

I met someone the other day who went down to the Sunnyvale Macco and got there e30 painted, looked like complete crap to me. You could tell the clear and paint was mixed. Said he payed like $800 bucks, and your recommending a $500 job LOL! Not sure why everyone's so crazy about this Oliver guy (no offense intended).

OP, good job on spending wisely. That hood made a huge difference!

[kronus]

I've had two cars done well by Oliver.

[Cabriolet]

you've seen my car and the paint looks good to me. Oliver did well for me.

[KIRIEIW]

Huh, guess this kid got screwed and didn't ask for Oliver. Either that or you guys used a different paint brand/ took different steps in application? Like I said this looked like the clear and paint where mixed together and sprayed on the car, possibly just one thick coat.

[2mAn]

Seriously, the car looks so much better now. I feel weird

[Wh33lhop]

I met someone the other day who went down to the Sunnyvale Macco and got there e30 painted, looked like complete crap to me. You could tell the clear and paint was mixed. Said he payed like $800 bucks, and your recommending a $500 job LOL! Not sure why everyone's so crazy about this Oliver guy (no offense intended).

OP, good job on spending wisely. That hood made a huge difference!

Oliver is a personal friend of ours and I think a lot of people can vouch that he personally does great work. However a $800 paintjob is an $800 paintjob and he can't work miracles, especially when he has others do it as he's running a shop and has to delegate. Cheap paint jobs are cheap for a reason.

To further address, I don't want to half ass a paintjob and would want to retain Cirrus which is 2 stage. When I asked Olver what it would take to fix the rust hole under the A pillar and spray in cirrus, well it wasn't such a budget job any more. I've got a lot on the list that I'd rather do before paint.

[KIRIEIW]

I see, well sorry if I offend anyone. For the record if Eric did get his car painted at Oliver's, it came out awesome compared to this kids. I doubt they sand/primed the car before paint for $800 while I'm assuming Eric did, that's most likely the deal breaker in quality. Plus I'm also assuming Eric didn't go single stage with a clear coat mixed in.

[Wh33lhop]

I don't think you offended anyone, just keep in mind the customer's decision is just as important as the shop's work. When I first spoke with Oliver before I even knew him, he told me Cirrus was a 2 stage and they can try and replicate something similar in a single stage to spray for cheap but it wouldn't look the same. Where I said no I'd rather do it right or not at all, this kid may not have.

Eric paid a lot more than $800. :p

[Wh33lhop]

Hi r3v

some stuff has happened

First, my trans blew. Lost first and second gear. Someone donated a g250 to the cause and I had a 3.23LSD lying around so I decided to put those in.

The g250 (out of an early e36 318/325) is a notoriously weak transmission but the price was right and the gearing was also nice.



Please note that if you wish to use an e36 transmission with a single mass flywheel like I did you must also use a euro 323i TOB to take up the extra slack since the single mass flywheel is thinner. I had to pull the trans twice!

What's nice about the E36 transmission compared to the E30 transmission? The gear spacing. The G260 from the E30 has always struck me as having widely spaced ratios that can drop the engine out of the powerband. In layman's terms, E36 gearing means the RPMs drop less when you shift as it's more close ratio than the E30 trans.

It's subtle but it makes a noticeable difference in the character of the car.

Here's the gearing diagram of the g260/4.10. First and second gears are a bit too short to be truly usable.



Here's the gearing with the g250/3.23. All gears are a little bit taller but especially first and second. The car stays more in its powerband as a result of the closer gearing.



The cammed M50's powerband starts around 4500-5000rpm so the revs shouldn't drop below that when you shift at redline.

[kronus]

"someone"

[phreshkid]

"someone"

yeah, what an "a-hole".

[kronus]

yeah fuck that guy

[2mAn]

yeah fuck that guy

[Wh33lhop]

"someone"

Sorry, it should read: a special someone

And then a heart. <3