Rescuing a 325e... with pizazz

[hi its me alec]

So, I got this car during the summer of '08 from a nice lady who lived out in south MN, the car has severe hail damage and rusty floors and frame rails. Let's see what we can do to make it better... for $841 it doesn't really matter what happens to it. lol

Here's what it looked like the day I got it..

Complete with del sol wheels, wal mart tires, radio/glovebox/passenger windows not working, rusted POS front subframe with no swaybar, all original everything, seats that smelled like garbage, 225,000 miles on the ODO.





welcome home little buddy



blacked out the grills just because i wanted to.. didn't look very good



the whole car smelled like old coolant and garbage



after another wash and some nice pollen..



i put some cheap tan M3 recaros in the car for the time being, but I've always wanted an e30 with houndstooth interior





yep... poor car







Then I lost heat, and at the same time lost all motivation to do anything with the car since it was winter in MN..




then i got some basketweaves, drove it a few times, and the exhaust fell off... no shit





it was loud - very loud



so i got that sorted out, along with a few other things.. US ellipsoids, good control arms and bushings, ebrake shoes/springs, etc. etc.




I also got the christmas tree with it, gotta do what you gotta do. lovely car

[hi its me alec]

so, one day in the dead of winter i decided to have some fun and get something done

last week, my is spoiler flew around in my back seat and gave a good friend of mine a bloody nose, so enough is enough. on you go



i pretty much eyeballed everything and it worked great.




note the fact that i decided to leave some "character" in the lip spoiler. can't have it looking too nice or it'll look out of place lol. the day will come when i'll repaint the entire car, fix all the rust, and make it look really good. now is not the time though, sadly.


















welp, so much for the fun part of the night. i didn't have to go to a shop to drill spoiler holes. replacing front subframe and engine mounts -


note the busted sway bar mount and exorbitant amounts of rust.






and here's the new guy


supa fly

[hi its me alec]

battle wounds!










garbage fuel lines... randomly started SPRAYING gas everywhere inside the engine. i lost about 1/4 tank that day


but they're fixed... yay

[hi its me alec]

and finally, here are some pictures of the interior stuff. these are before much work was done

here's what it looks like at this point







and best of all, i've finally gotten the car to the point where there's nothing on the check panel! :D i got rid of 4 lights, all were B.S. problems due to idiot previous owners.







so hopefully next time i update this, the car will look a bit nicer and cleaner.


here's what i've done with the interior so far..
- new blower motor and final stage resistor, the car came with both of them bad
- m shift knob, new ebrake/shift boots
- new hazard button, the old one was worn. i can't stand faded 'instruments'
- e34 (i think) cassette and rewired all the speakers, also due to idiot owners cutting up the harness and tapping things randomly.
- fixed the headliner and glovebox lights, they didn't work
- unjammed the glove box, aligned it, and got a handle for it.. now it works perfect. it had been stuck shut since the mid 90s lol, i found a bunch of stuff that belonged to the original owner, including the car's original sale receipt.
- attempted to clean all the glue off the passenger door panel, someone tried to put a broken black trim ring back in with wood glue. it's still everywhere, just not as noticeable. i'll need a new door panel. i got new trim rings for all the doors
- e46 cig lighter, my favorite thing because it just looks so clean lol
- and, seats




although this stuff is pretty pointless to talk about and post a thread on, it all makes the e30 experience just a little bit better. the details make all the difference in the world. everything is a fun little adventure with this car

[hi its me alec]

No big ass package yet... i did take these pics though, gave her a wash tonight.







<3


just have to say... i can't wait for summer to come.







here are some good pics of the e30

[hi its me alec]

all this happened before my motor started having cooling problems (due to my ex-gf blowing the car up)

when that happened, i went a bit crazy on the car


got it.. i'm happy :D










started disassembly as soon as the snow started to melt

[lennon]

i hope you support the car via oil pan every time youre under it.

[hi its me alec]

did some work... motor went in without much of a problem

[hi its me alec]

e32 740i brake booster with e34 525 master cylinder




remote reservoir from the 740 master cylinder :D




its future resting place




the green e28 engine mounts




you can see them!! haha




transmission all ready to go..




e21 320i transmission mounts (also green) ... and yes, i know they're on backwards. is it worth pulling the brace back off to switch around?






engine accessories




OBD port..... yes!!!!!!!!




DME




good riddance to this M20




here's my interior as of now




new selector rods are straight up porno






loving the alternator cooling duct.. and the new radiator






very happy with my new shifter location.



neutral... perfect!


7k rpm... a very nice sight



starting to look like a car again...



here's a picture of the linkage




and here it was before:

[hi its me alec]

Here's a step by step of the day..

- hooked up fuel lines
- checked injectors and installed new spark plugs
- checked all vacuum lines and tightened down intake manifold
- checked sensors and plugged in the fuel pump relay
- cranked car, no start...
- switched fuel lines, no start...
- found that the TPS sensor was unplugged, plugged it in, no start

during that session of cranking the motor, oil started spewing out like it was its job. turns out that i'm missing 2 random plugs on the oil filter housing, FML. they're super specific, female, huge bolts, only available from the dealer. seriously, FML

we switched the fuel lines back around, and we're confident that the car will start whenever i find these god damn f*cking plugs

the two coils are out because an injector tip was dropped into the head.. the first time the motor starts will be on 4 cylinders, we're just going to let that tip burn up and/or fly out of the head, then turn the motor off, then fire it up on all cylinders. not a big issue, just being safe


























made one big mistake - got desperate trying to get it to fire up and hooked a ground up to power (thinking it was a power wire) - fried DME and blew a JL12w3 in my e46. bad day for sure

after that, I went to a junkyard to pick up a 413, I drove all the way up there and all they had was a silver label. I have a fried red label though, so the EWS chip should swap in.

this is the red label chip in the silver label DME.






yup, it's fried




you can see it right at that first pin, right hand side.




$200 + 1 mistake + $50= nothing - car still doesn't fire.

[hi its me alec]

So I'm sitting here in the green car writing this post, waiting for the car to charge. The battery is completely drained and it's taking a lot longer for the car to get the juice to turn over. This is good news because it used to crank (with no fuel/spark) after 5 mins or less of charging.

current daily workhorse... with comfy seats in the wrong color




e30 cockpit area.. looks nice



stylin' houndstooth throughout







nice to see him light up again



all 3 lights will be gone, that's gonna be sweet to have again



throwback



armed it with a flashlight.. hehe



here's the DME all properly grounded with the plate and everything



kick panel in.. the car didn't come with one so it's one of my favorite investments :D



my neighbors give me the funniest looks..



and here's the man of the night, mr. hidden/cut red wire.

[hi its me alec]

Here are some cell pics of the parts car I picked up... need to wash it next time I see it. Every time I see this car, I still can't believe that it was 200 bucks. I've been meaning to do a lot more with this thing, but the fact that I only have one garage stall at my (parents') house is c0ckblocking my efforts.


damage #1:


plastic bumpers!!!!!


damage #2:












Besides the damage I showed, the car is in very solid condition. No rust or hail damage like the other one. Just needs a good sand and repaint. Can't wait to go through all that.

I already turned this into a parts storage center, taking all my spare stuff out to this car and leaving it inside.. a couple sets of front and rear seats, spare headlight parts for 4 family BMWs, side skirts, engine parts, etc. It's about 45 minutes away from me, which isn't too bad. The houndstooth interior that came with the car is in the M50 '86 as of tonight. Next trip I'll be taking the fenders and hood and swapping them to the '86, it will appear to be clean after that! Last step will be ix fender flares to cover up most of the remaining rust.

One day I'll be swapping interiors and restoring it :)

I think that, in the coming months, I'll start slowly cleaning/sanding/repairing/building the '89 and getting it ready for a final repaint and debut in the distant future.. First step, find a mint condition dashboard and strip everything off the car, especially the engine. Can't wait to clean up the bay and redo all the M50 stuff in a new car.. or M52B28 stuff...

[hi its me alec]

This is just a general 'condition' set of pictures. So you can get to know the car as well as I do ;)


e36 steering rack in the bubble wrap..




seats and door panels going out to other car


some e46 stuff..




pretty rough


*winces*




not THAT bad from far away






e34 ebrake action




replaced plastic M shift knob with leather


houndstooth all in


classier than before! sweet



photoshopped a drop:



lazily polished valve cover:

[hi its me alec]

And the latest update...

Paid for my manual transmission engine harness the other day, we'll see how that goes... took a few pics of the 'pre-teardown' - swapping engine harnesses won't be the funnest thing ever. But, it does give me an opportunity to double check my work with the added knowledge I have now.









The intake manifold will come off as soon as I get a tracking number on the harness.

The car will run soon.

[hi its me alec]

i hope you support the car via oil pan every time youre under it.

that's a pretty idiotic thing to say as a first response in a thread.









---

and since the e46 has had a couple non-flattering cameos in this thread, here's what that car looks like












and that's about it! will keep this thread updated as progress happens...