noe30's 89 325i build

[DaButt]

Dude, those IE headers are GORGEOUS!

[noE30]

I completely agree about the wheels. The adapters were cheap enough that i can always run them on another set of porsche fitment wheels and still afford to find some 20mms adapters. Originally i was hoping to rebuild the wheels to 8"/9" but its proving difficult to find spare lips/barrels for these wheels.
Who knows, I may pick up completely different wheels and save these for a rebuild down the line.

The dash seems to be decently durable, I let it dry for about 24hrs and then rubbed my hand across the top of it and it didnt seem to come off really. I would assume if you or your passengers don't pet the dashboard everyday then it should hold up fairly well.

[8380 Labs]

Those are really low offsets to start with, to get those wheels to fit well at all you really need the thinnest adapters you can find.

The money you saved on the adapters will be lost in extra work to try to get the setup to look half decent and work okay. You aren't going to be able to get any meaningful amount of stretch on 7s or 8s to overcome the deficit you're working with right now.

Flocked dash looks awesome, thinking about doing this myself and curious to see how well it holds up.

[rescobot]

Amazing build thread! I'm definitely going to stay subcribed and contact you. I plan on doing what you did to my car.

[noE30]

While currently building a stock pile of parts (brand new bilsteins and some misc stuff) I decided to flock my dash while it was out of the car. After reading this thread, http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=234996 , I knew that flocking the dash was definitely the best way to fix the cracks besides buying a new one.

Flocking the dash pretty simple process but It's time consuming as hell and you are guaranteed to make mess imo. Basically you're going to want to fill the cracks with some kind of plastic epoxy and then sand everything as smooth as you can. I noticed that because of the way our dashes crack, it can be quite tough to get it smooth, the dash has a tendency the kinda curl up at the edges of the crack. Those curled edges will need to be trimmed/sanded out. My cracks weren't very extreme so I opted to fill and sand as smooth as I could.
At this point, when you get your dash completely dust free, you are then ready to flock it. You will need to apply a thick/wet coat of the adhesive to ensure you get a solid coating of the fibers. I had a few issues with spots that didn't quite get covered enough, I re-applied the adhesive and flocked the areas a second time.
Here's a few pics of the finished product:

Flocked e30 Dash by m_colby, on Flickr
Don't mind the white specs, it's just dust that should brush off.

Close up to show texture

Dash Flock Close Up by m_colby, on Flickr

The dash should be reinstalled this coming weekend.

[noE30]

Wheel test fit today. It's gonna be a tight fit but it should work out just fine with a roll and new coils this spring. In these pics I just jacked the wheel up to simulate the car being lower than it is now, currently its on hr sports.


IMG_0087 by m_colby, on Flickr


IMG_0078 by m_colby, on Flickr
Rear fitment. Gonna need a roller for sure! I'm pretty sure it will work out, if not I'll try hunt down some 20mm adapters instead of the 25s on there now.


IMG_0106 by m_colby, on Flickr
Front fitment, In this pic I couldn't jack the wheel up any further due to the hr sports being bottomed out, with shorter/lower suspension it will fit much better.

[noE30]

No real progress on the project in the last week or so. Just waiting on parts and trying to make money for more parts.
Adapters showed up today so that's sweet, probably do a quick test fit tomorrow and then realize just how much fender rolling I'm gonna have to do..
Adapters are 25mm and 35mm so I'm gonna run the 35s up front and the 25s out back. Wheel specs are 16x7 et 25 and 16x8 et 12, preferably I wanted to run 20/25mm adapters all around but for the money there was no way I could pass up these adapters. So final offsets will be -10 up front and -13 out back, if my research is correct, then the wheels should fit just fine with a roll and some stretch, no big deal. I'll get some test fit shots tomorrow as well.

Waiting to purchase some gaskets and a dash flock kit right now. Been thinking about getting rid of the A/C and abs so I need to continue researching the abs delete/new lines/ T valve setups.


Adapters gonna adapt by m_colby, on Flickr


365-33 Feb 8 by m_colby, on Flickr

[noE30]

sweet wheels, cant wait to see the fitment with midwestize adapters

Thanks man, I guess that means I better buy them huh?

[dmjensen]

sweet wheels, cant wait to see the fitment with midwestize adapters

[noE30]

New wheels showed up today and I might be buying some adapters here locally.
16x7 front and 16x8 rear.


Epsilon by m_colby, on Flickr


Epsilon 2 by m_colby, on Flickr

[noE30]

I just added up all my receipts from the last ~3.5 years of ownership and I've spent around $4,800 on maintenance/replacement/ and some upgraded parts. I figured that was a worthy enough tidbit of info to add to the thread. Oh yeah I'm picking up my wheels tomorrow morning as well, I'll edit this post with some pics!

[noE30]

Official update time!

So right now, my car is in pieces basically.
Engine is partially torn apart for an intake manifold/valve cover repaint (chipping off), m42 radiator (thanks blunt), wire tuck, possible ac delete (ive got a one inch hole in my condenser somehow and the aux fan wiring is messed up thanks to the PO, and probably do some shaving of some brackets as well.

Dash is out so that I can correct some wiring messes (after market alarm thanks to PO etc) and so that I can flock it. Hopefully it turns out like this :


Here's some pics showing my mess of an e30:

IMG_0147 by m_colby, on Flickr


IMG_0002 by m_colby, on Flickr


IMG_0148 by m_colby, on Flickr
new m42 radiator^


IMG_0149 by m_colby, on Flickr
notice the nice fan damage on the old radiator^


IMG_0001 by m_colby, on Flickr
How did you get out? Picture makes the dash look nicer than it is, it has probably 6 decent sized cracks in it.


IMG_0004 by m_colby, on Flickr
mmm spaghetti wiring :curse:

Oh yeah! How can I forget about the best news of all?
I just paid for these last night, should be here this week or the next!

IMG00138-20110719-1807 by m_colby, on Flickr
Epsilon Mesh, 16x7 front 16x8 rear, Porsche 944 fitment, and all for $600 shipped. Also I think I may have scored a deal on some adapters locally, fingers crossed.

[noE30]

^thanks man!

So this winter I came up with a list of projects to get done on the car starting with a m42 rad swap. After tearing my engine bay apart to clean it up /swap radiator, I decided to tuck the driver side wires along the fender. That wire tuck project soon turned into full on dash removal and wiring work. Haha ive got quite a mess going in my garage right now but its all for a good cause. Ill post some pics later and include some more info.

The current to do list for the winter/spring/early summer:
Minor wire tuck
Flocked dash
'M42 radiator
Repainted valve cover and intake manifold
New pan gasket
Shimmed motor mounts for future lowness/ skid plate
GE coils (on the way)
Bilstein IX shocks
Wheels (trying to buy some 3pc epsilon wheels currently)
Adapters for wheels
Fender roll/paint work
New windshield
New seats (im thinking corbeau gts, they look nice in e30s)
Install euro trim/grills/plate filler
New headlights (probably the smoked smileys in the retail classifieds)
3.73 lsd :) 4.19 open ftl

Should be a whole new car next summer!

[Podge]

Nice work mate this being done right!

[noE30]

awesome build, and iowa needs to figure out how to not use salt during the winter.
maybe sand. or heated cement lol.

You got that right! All this salt and rust shit needs to end, its so depressing not being able to find clean rust free cars around here, especially e30s.