so a buddy called me up one day, he was looking to give away this m30 which was still in his e32. he had no where to park the car i guess and told me i can have the motor if i take the whole car. i agreed, i was planning on parting the e32 and keeping the motor. yes! i got a free m30 for my 318. well i go look at the car, kind of beat up, but has potential... its mechanically sound, all new brakes, interior is shot to shit, paint is starting to fade in areas and it was hit in that drivers rear, just sheet metal damage though...
under the hood, everything is sound except the a/c. all new hoses, all factory plastic covers, fuel line, etc...
after kicking around the idea for a bit, i decided to keep the car and do a budget fix up. i starting looking into what its going to take to fix this thing up... its going to need pretty much all new interior, new cabs, tires, a/c belt, and one new a/c line. i don't know shit about this car! not quite as simple as a good ol' e30. time to learn...
i'd like to keep this project under a few g's. i'm thinking $3k. the only thing that might cause this to go over budget is - the guy who gave me the car has a few factory and dinan turbo kits for an m30... hmmmmmmm... i might need to pick one up cause this thing is a boat. unfortunately, i didn't get any pictures of the car before i started pulling everything apart. oh well. i took some pictures of old parts though.
the seats are trashed, the leather is super dry and feels like cardboard. not to mention they are torn up and stained.
here are the old door panels with wood trim that warped.
i needed a better base to start with, so i ebay'd some black panels, $190 shipped. they were in great shape once i got them, a month later... i could of left them as they were, but since they come apart easy why not wrap them? the wood trim on the new panels were in alright condition but they were starting to crack. we sanded the cracks out and wrapped them also.
the suede parts of the door at back mounted, so it was super easy to wrap. the bottom of the doors panels have rolled edges and are glue in. since they are in good shape we left them alone. as you can see in the first door panel picture the lower b pillar cover was wrapped in black vinyl, which has the same grain pattern as the bottom of the panels.
the door seals match the blue interior, but they are in great shape.
here they are after a little bit of paint. remember, budget! painting them is fine. also, note the lower b pillar after a quick wrap.
i decided to keep most of the trim pieces the original gray. if we paint the handles and seat belt trims, eventually the paint is going to wear and look like shit. plus it adds a bit of contrast.
speaking of gray, here is the color material that the seats are going to be recovered in. i really like the grain and the feel of it. plus the trim will match.
we pulled the headliner out, rear deck lid, sunroof liner and most other pieces that were covered in factory cloth and wrapped them. the headliner suede has a foam backing which took a while to order and get to the shop, but i guess the foam needs to be there for durability...
the deck lid was one tricky mother to wrap. with the sun shade that's hot glued in (which we cut out and epoxied back in), the 3rd brake light area and lots of weird angles. we managed to cover it with one piece without wrinkles, nice! as you can see, we barely cut the suede large enough. the area around the brake light consumed a lot more material than we expected.
here is the beat up blue (faded black?) dash. it will do for now, possibly forever unless i find a good deal on a black one in good-decent shape.
i'll replace the center console, wood trim, lower dash and glove box door at a later date. they work for meow.
so far, i'm in this thing about $1k. $100 for title transfer, emissions, 2 years registration, $300 6 months insurance, $190 for the panels, $150 for a/c part (receiver dryer, expansion valve, pressure sensor, etc...), $30 for a tank of gas to move this pig around and the rest in material. not bad.
a big thanks to my buddy steve for helping out and letting me do this in his shop.
stay tuned.
under the hood, everything is sound except the a/c. all new hoses, all factory plastic covers, fuel line, etc...
after kicking around the idea for a bit, i decided to keep the car and do a budget fix up. i starting looking into what its going to take to fix this thing up... its going to need pretty much all new interior, new cabs, tires, a/c belt, and one new a/c line. i don't know shit about this car! not quite as simple as a good ol' e30. time to learn...
i'd like to keep this project under a few g's. i'm thinking $3k. the only thing that might cause this to go over budget is - the guy who gave me the car has a few factory and dinan turbo kits for an m30... hmmmmmmm... i might need to pick one up cause this thing is a boat. unfortunately, i didn't get any pictures of the car before i started pulling everything apart. oh well. i took some pictures of old parts though.
the seats are trashed, the leather is super dry and feels like cardboard. not to mention they are torn up and stained.
here are the old door panels with wood trim that warped.
i needed a better base to start with, so i ebay'd some black panels, $190 shipped. they were in great shape once i got them, a month later... i could of left them as they were, but since they come apart easy why not wrap them? the wood trim on the new panels were in alright condition but they were starting to crack. we sanded the cracks out and wrapped them also.
the suede parts of the door at back mounted, so it was super easy to wrap. the bottom of the doors panels have rolled edges and are glue in. since they are in good shape we left them alone. as you can see in the first door panel picture the lower b pillar cover was wrapped in black vinyl, which has the same grain pattern as the bottom of the panels.
the door seals match the blue interior, but they are in great shape.
here they are after a little bit of paint. remember, budget! painting them is fine. also, note the lower b pillar after a quick wrap.
i decided to keep most of the trim pieces the original gray. if we paint the handles and seat belt trims, eventually the paint is going to wear and look like shit. plus it adds a bit of contrast.
speaking of gray, here is the color material that the seats are going to be recovered in. i really like the grain and the feel of it. plus the trim will match.
we pulled the headliner out, rear deck lid, sunroof liner and most other pieces that were covered in factory cloth and wrapped them. the headliner suede has a foam backing which took a while to order and get to the shop, but i guess the foam needs to be there for durability...
the deck lid was one tricky mother to wrap. with the sun shade that's hot glued in (which we cut out and epoxied back in), the 3rd brake light area and lots of weird angles. we managed to cover it with one piece without wrinkles, nice! as you can see, we barely cut the suede large enough. the area around the brake light consumed a lot more material than we expected.
here is the beat up blue (faded black?) dash. it will do for now, possibly forever unless i find a good deal on a black one in good-decent shape.
i'll replace the center console, wood trim, lower dash and glove box door at a later date. they work for meow.
so far, i'm in this thing about $1k. $100 for title transfer, emissions, 2 years registration, $300 6 months insurance, $190 for the panels, $150 for a/c part (receiver dryer, expansion valve, pressure sensor, etc...), $30 for a tank of gas to move this pig around and the rest in material. not bad.
a big thanks to my buddy steve for helping out and letting me do this in his shop.
stay tuned.
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