Starting from scratch.... '89 325is Build.

[freeski27]

Thanks guys. i am quite a bit further in the build, I am just a bit behind on post. Ill get a few more together tonight. They car it actually currently on the ground! :D

[1mz]

nice build you've got goin - good luck!

[freeski27]

i used POR-15 in the wheel wells. Its a good product and not very expensive.

[onaquest]

wow, u werent kidding with the thread name.

[namsayin]

great start, what kind of paint did you use in the wheel wells?

[freeski27]

The Front Suspension...
Since I got some awesome front end parts from my new “go to guy” Ben M. I decided to start there. The majority of the gear was coming out of a ‘94 325is he was parting, but some other stuff I got elsewhere.
-First was the front subframe. Since I don’t have a material blaster, I went to town with degreaser, some soap and water, and a wire brush. Once I have done some damage I hit it with the pressure washer to really finish knocking any grime off of it. To give the car a racy look I decided to paint the subframe red, here are some photos of it primed and painted.


-With the front subframe bolted up I went to town on the e36 power steering rack. A quick pressure wash (avoiding all seals and boots) cleaned that thing right up. I used spacers to mount the rack itself, and grabbed a knuckle spacer kit that Ben had laying around for the knuckle. Here is a photo of the rack bolted in.

To make any more progress I needed to make a few more purchases. What I had so far was the front subframe, e36 power-steering rack, oem strut mounts, e36 hub/kingpin assembly, and some e36 bilstein sports. I decided to go with Ireland Engineering Stage 3 springs, so I purchased some from Chris at Dungeon Motor Sport over on e30tech.com (for anyone interested, Chris is a great guy and was super helpful, I recommend any sort of purchases from him).
I also needed to get a few other front end components such as; spring perches, upper and lower spring pads, e30 control arms with ball joints, and e30 M3 control arm bushings. For this gear, I ordered from a familiar company: FCP Groton (Foreign Car Parts Groton). They are a local, but international company, and I know a few of the employees. I must say, these guys a phenomenal. I had ordered many, many parts from FCP for my Daily Driver (’98 Volvo s70); they had all the stuff that I needed for my e30, and I had it that afternoon. Highly recommend these guys for any european car parts.
Here are a few photos of the stuff I got:


From here I went to work on getting the strut assemblies together. I still need dust boots, but they will do for now.


With the strut assemblies together and bolted up to the hub/kingpin assembly, it was time to bolt up the control arms. I didn’t have any Control Arm Bushing (CAB) brackets, so I got some from my buddy Ben. They still had standard e30 center mounted CAB’s in them, so I used the press and a large socket to push them out. With that done, I used the press to put the new CAB’s into the brackets, making sure to line up the arrows on the bushings, with the notch on the brackets (offset hole towards the mounting holes). For those of you who don’t know already, the offset CAB’s increase something called caster; this increases forward angle of the strut to help with directional stability and handling while using lowering springs. With that done, I decided to use the press to mount the CAB’s onto the control arms because it was just too difficult to push them on by hand (I’m not a very big dude). With the control arms all together I bolted them in and hooked the tie rod ends up (will be replacing eventually) that just about took care of the front end.
Here are a few shots of the assembly together:

Here is a shot of the M3 offset CAB:

That about wraps it up for front suspension, thanks for reading guys!
-Noble

[freeski27]

The Cleaning...
Well, I figured the next best thing was to start cleaning! I wasn’t going to get anywhere with a car full of parts or an engine-bay full of dirt. So first was the interior. When I got the car it was pilled full of a random assortment of parts. Anything from an e30 power steering rack; to tangles of speaker wire that the previous owner had tinkered with. So, once I had everything sorted into boxes, I took a few snapshots of the cleaned interior…


I figured a clean car would help increase motivation so a good exterior cleaning was next to come.
Before: (seller photo)

After:

Lastly, I figured those nasty old wheel wells could really use some spiffining up. So I got some soap and washed out any grease/grime and threw some fresh paint in there to give them a nice clean look.

Now, with the car all cleaned up and the parts all sorted… it was time to get going.

[freeski27]

The Delivery...
So, I finally found the car to start from. I posted a Wanted add for a roller and a guy name Justin kindly replied with a shell for 50 bucks! 1989 Alpine II 325is. So it begins. Me and my buddy hooked up his dad’s trailer to my dad’s truck and we took a drive. Managed to drag an E30 shell onto an old trailer using a winch and a dolly, and drive it back to the shop…

So, now how to get this car off the trailer all by my lonesome… figured this would be interesting.
-First I got the dolly back under the front of the car.

-Next I lifted the back with an engine lift, and pulled the car back until the front was at the end of the trailer. Then put the rear on stands.

-Then I lifted the front with the engine lift and drove the trailer out.

-Threw the stands under the front and I was good to go! Yes, these are boat stands; but the nice thing is that it gets the car up nice and high.

Thanks for the time guys! I’ll keep you updated!
-Noble

[freeski27]

Well, I am in the process of making a build site for this car, but since I started this project about a month ago, I figure Ill do a little updating here in the mean time (considering this is where i found the car... shell). So here is a little taste so far.

The Story...
So, a few months ago I decided it was time for me to stop dreaming about cars, and start doing something. European cars have always been my thing so I finally decided on an E30. I’ve always had a love for BMW’s, and the E30 has that mean, clean, classy look. I’m really a boat guy and this is my first car build, so mistakes and a low budget are inevitable. Different E30 forum sites have been great reference for me, and I decided to start this build site to give reference to others (Hopefully you wont make the same mistakes I do!). I hope you can use this build as a more relatable build than some of the race car builds that many people do. I hope my learning process and hard work can help boost you along, the same way others have done for me. Please take the time to look through the build and let me know what you think, but do remember it’s my first build!
Thanks All,
Noble