So since my older brother has left for Afghanistan, I enthusiastically volunteered my services to restore his e30 back to a tasteful and working condition.
Here she is (Don't mind the iPhone pics, my girlfriend has my camera on vacation in Florida):
So here's some info on the car:
- 1990 325i
- ~150k on the chassis
- ~100ish on the block
- 5spd manual
- Tonkico suspension. Don't know which one, but it's the lowest drop imaginable
- ASNA Sport Muffler
- Mystery wheels (Konig I think) 18x7.5
History:
My brother bought it about 4ish years ago, after his mk.III Jetta met its demise, from an idiot in the DC area (I'll get to the PO's stupidity in a sec). So my brother drove it back to NJ just fine, and had it working for about two weeks before the timing belt snapped, just after he ordered the new one. Luckily only the head was damaged, so he got a new head and had it decked, and put that on there, only to have the car run horribly, and burn a gratuitous amount of oil, so it sat for about two years before my mom had it fixed at a shop for his christmas present, but about two weeks ago he left for Afghanistan, so I figured I'd get it back to working order, and make it look, well, good before he gets back.
So for the previous owner's stupidity, first of all, he put the lowest suspension he possibly could on the thing, and there's speculation that he even cut the springs to drop it even more. Then, on top of that, squeezed 18" wheels, that aren't even close to the right offset, or even the right bolt pattern, and are just waaaaaay too big on there. He made his own bolt pattern by drilling it into the wheels (I forgot to get pics of that but I will) and instead of buying spacers, and hub rings he took a stack of about 10-15 washers, taped them together then bolted the wheel on so that about 3 threads of the lug bolt was all that was holding the wheels on. Luckily, my brother bought real spacers and some extended bolts. The PO also only really cared about the inside of the car. The inside in immaculate, but the outside has a million dents, dings and scratches, not to mention the enormous dent in the PS front fender. So there's my rant about the AWESOME PO.
Some more pics:
Sealed beams FTL:
Mystery wheels
17" Konig Monsoons that were left over from the Jetta. I just threw the two with good tires on the front because the one tire on the other wheels had a flat spot
Interior
Dirty, nasty engine bay
The original fender
Parts to install:
Crappily painted IS lip left over from my deceased e30. Need to raise the car first
Crappily painted AC Schnitzer? wing, also left over from my e30. The bottoms need to be fixed before we can mount it
KAMotors CAI kit
Three spoke wheel
US ellipsoids. Gotta figure out how to wire them up
The rest of the parts list for now:
- Bilstein HD's
- H&R OE Sport springs
- New wheels and tires 15"-16"
- HID's? I'm not sure if he want's 'em, but I have them on my car, and god, I love them
- Possibly a new Valence. The one on there now is pretty bent. I'm going to see what I can do before I start looking for a new one, unless of course someone has a nice one that they'd like to donate ;)
And for those of you wondering about the bikes in the IS lip picture:
My brother's is the Motobacane Le Champion and mine is the Trek 7.3FX
Brother's other bike:
Trek Speed Concept 7.0
I might move a little slow 'cause I'm poor, and I also have a good deal of things I need to get done to my B5 A4, but stay tuned!
Nick
Here she is (Don't mind the iPhone pics, my girlfriend has my camera on vacation in Florida):
So here's some info on the car:
- 1990 325i
- ~150k on the chassis
- ~100ish on the block
- 5spd manual
- Tonkico suspension. Don't know which one, but it's the lowest drop imaginable
- ASNA Sport Muffler
- Mystery wheels (Konig I think) 18x7.5
History:
My brother bought it about 4ish years ago, after his mk.III Jetta met its demise, from an idiot in the DC area (I'll get to the PO's stupidity in a sec). So my brother drove it back to NJ just fine, and had it working for about two weeks before the timing belt snapped, just after he ordered the new one. Luckily only the head was damaged, so he got a new head and had it decked, and put that on there, only to have the car run horribly, and burn a gratuitous amount of oil, so it sat for about two years before my mom had it fixed at a shop for his christmas present, but about two weeks ago he left for Afghanistan, so I figured I'd get it back to working order, and make it look, well, good before he gets back.
So for the previous owner's stupidity, first of all, he put the lowest suspension he possibly could on the thing, and there's speculation that he even cut the springs to drop it even more. Then, on top of that, squeezed 18" wheels, that aren't even close to the right offset, or even the right bolt pattern, and are just waaaaaay too big on there. He made his own bolt pattern by drilling it into the wheels (I forgot to get pics of that but I will) and instead of buying spacers, and hub rings he took a stack of about 10-15 washers, taped them together then bolted the wheel on so that about 3 threads of the lug bolt was all that was holding the wheels on. Luckily, my brother bought real spacers and some extended bolts. The PO also only really cared about the inside of the car. The inside in immaculate, but the outside has a million dents, dings and scratches, not to mention the enormous dent in the PS front fender. So there's my rant about the AWESOME PO.
Some more pics:
Sealed beams FTL:
Mystery wheels
17" Konig Monsoons that were left over from the Jetta. I just threw the two with good tires on the front because the one tire on the other wheels had a flat spot
Interior
Dirty, nasty engine bay
The original fender
Parts to install:
Crappily painted IS lip left over from my deceased e30. Need to raise the car first
Crappily painted AC Schnitzer? wing, also left over from my e30. The bottoms need to be fixed before we can mount it
KAMotors CAI kit
Three spoke wheel
US ellipsoids. Gotta figure out how to wire them up
The rest of the parts list for now:
- Bilstein HD's
- H&R OE Sport springs
- New wheels and tires 15"-16"
- HID's? I'm not sure if he want's 'em, but I have them on my car, and god, I love them
- Possibly a new Valence. The one on there now is pretty bent. I'm going to see what I can do before I start looking for a new one, unless of course someone has a nice one that they'd like to donate ;)
And for those of you wondering about the bikes in the IS lip picture:
My brother's is the Motobacane Le Champion and mine is the Trek 7.3FX
Brother's other bike:
Trek Speed Concept 7.0
I might move a little slow 'cause I'm poor, and I also have a good deal of things I need to get done to my B5 A4, but stay tuned!
Nick
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