I'm stuck at home because of a real bad sore throat. I have no insurance. Little money. About to lose my job. But I have an e30.
Its first picture:
The owner owned a hole in the wall dealership near the airport but he wanted to sell this one privately because of its "minor" problems I guess. I later learned why.
He was a strange Russian guy. Since I'm convinced wine makes me feel better I'll go into how I got it even more, keep on scrolling if you're only here for the photos....
Sooooooooo my friend's are pretty deep within the "drift" community here in Vegas. I own an mk2 and mk3 VW at the time. And before it owned a Corrado and Camaro. Had to get rid of the Corrado because of family problems and I traded the Camaro for the mk2. Well being surrounded by cars going sideways and peer pressure made me want to do what they're doing. So I got $2000 from Uncle Sam and started my search via newspapers, autotrader and Craigslist of course. I called everyone with a Datsun, E-70's Corolla, Cressida, Z31, e30, e28 and 2002 in the $2000 and bellow range
At first I tried to trade for my Jetta, plus cash if I think their car is worth it. Most were gone by the time I called, or they was just something not worth the hassle (hole through block, no title, blah blah).
Then one guy finally texted back saying he's coming back into town in a few hours and wanted to show me this e30.
I take a look at it. It was night. First thing he had to open the doors through the trunk lock. Then it wouldn't start. He said someone stole the battery. Uh the dome light is on. So I jump it with my GTI. Sounds AMAZING. Then this rattling noise showed up when he let go of the clutch. I look at him and notice he's sitting on the floor of the car. It had no front seats. I said, "What? I can't even test drive it?!" He kept apologizing and would never look me in the eye in a lack-of-self-confidence-way. Not I'm-lying-to-you kind. So I talked him down to 500 and he offered to get his tow guy to deliver it wherever I liked.
It was a Saturday night so I met up with him again on Monday and got the car.
First thing was to lower it.
Then bumper tuck:
It wouldn't pass smog so I seafoamed and used an intrusive rail and injector cleaner.
Bought a Bentley:
Sold those hideous rims! and got this welded:
Bought my friend's
Thought the rattling was the pilot bearing so I changed that and put in a new clutch.
Still rattled so I pulled the transmission again and wiggled the input shaft. Holy shit it was all over the place. So I took the front cover off and found out that all the plastic that separated the balls in the bearing where in my hand.
Called the dealer for the part. Wouldn't get to me in time of my first drift event. So I just went to the yard for some newish goodies:
Valance, lip, transmission and cabrio passenger seat.
Then I found out the hard way that there were two types of shifters. I went back to the yard and it wasn’t anywhere near the car or in any other e30 there. So I had my friend make a “custom” mount for the front most lever. Then I found out that there were two types of driveshafts. Went back to the yard and couldn’t split one so I had to pay for two which really sucked. I only had a few days till the drift event so my friend Anthony spent some late nights/early mornings in the shop getting it ready.
Got it running fine but had no time to take it out and practice. But at work I made this beast:
Then I was off!
The only non-Japanese car there.
I had fun until it started to die. It would barely idle and found out it was the fuel filter. Swapped it out in the pit and it ran fine. Until you turn/drift left. That limited what I could do. All the wide/faster sweeps were left turns, So I would have to e-brake them and wait until the engine got fuel again and counter with power.
Later on I pulled the pump to take a look:
Yeah… I don’t think that’s a stock pump.
And now I’m working to save up for a Walbro and to actually register this thing.
Its first picture:
The owner owned a hole in the wall dealership near the airport but he wanted to sell this one privately because of its "minor" problems I guess. I later learned why.
He was a strange Russian guy. Since I'm convinced wine makes me feel better I'll go into how I got it even more, keep on scrolling if you're only here for the photos....
Sooooooooo my friend's are pretty deep within the "drift" community here in Vegas. I own an mk2 and mk3 VW at the time. And before it owned a Corrado and Camaro. Had to get rid of the Corrado because of family problems and I traded the Camaro for the mk2. Well being surrounded by cars going sideways and peer pressure made me want to do what they're doing. So I got $2000 from Uncle Sam and started my search via newspapers, autotrader and Craigslist of course. I called everyone with a Datsun, E-70's Corolla, Cressida, Z31, e30, e28 and 2002 in the $2000 and bellow range
At first I tried to trade for my Jetta, plus cash if I think their car is worth it. Most were gone by the time I called, or they was just something not worth the hassle (hole through block, no title, blah blah).
Then one guy finally texted back saying he's coming back into town in a few hours and wanted to show me this e30.
I take a look at it. It was night. First thing he had to open the doors through the trunk lock. Then it wouldn't start. He said someone stole the battery. Uh the dome light is on. So I jump it with my GTI. Sounds AMAZING. Then this rattling noise showed up when he let go of the clutch. I look at him and notice he's sitting on the floor of the car. It had no front seats. I said, "What? I can't even test drive it?!" He kept apologizing and would never look me in the eye in a lack-of-self-confidence-way. Not I'm-lying-to-you kind. So I talked him down to 500 and he offered to get his tow guy to deliver it wherever I liked.
It was a Saturday night so I met up with him again on Monday and got the car.
First thing was to lower it.
Then bumper tuck:
It wouldn't pass smog so I seafoamed and used an intrusive rail and injector cleaner.
Bought a Bentley:
Sold those hideous rims! and got this welded:
Bought my friend's
Thought the rattling was the pilot bearing so I changed that and put in a new clutch.
Still rattled so I pulled the transmission again and wiggled the input shaft. Holy shit it was all over the place. So I took the front cover off and found out that all the plastic that separated the balls in the bearing where in my hand.
Called the dealer for the part. Wouldn't get to me in time of my first drift event. So I just went to the yard for some newish goodies:
Valance, lip, transmission and cabrio passenger seat.
Then I found out the hard way that there were two types of shifters. I went back to the yard and it wasn’t anywhere near the car or in any other e30 there. So I had my friend make a “custom” mount for the front most lever. Then I found out that there were two types of driveshafts. Went back to the yard and couldn’t split one so I had to pay for two which really sucked. I only had a few days till the drift event so my friend Anthony spent some late nights/early mornings in the shop getting it ready.
Got it running fine but had no time to take it out and practice. But at work I made this beast:
Then I was off!
The only non-Japanese car there.
I had fun until it started to die. It would barely idle and found out it was the fuel filter. Swapped it out in the pit and it ran fine. Until you turn/drift left. That limited what I could do. All the wide/faster sweeps were left turns, So I would have to e-brake them and wait until the engine got fuel again and counter with power.
Later on I pulled the pump to take a look:
Yeah… I don’t think that’s a stock pump.
And now I’m working to save up for a Walbro and to actually register this thing.
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