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Project FREE30

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    Project FREE30

    So....from the beginning I guess. I bought my first E30 this past September. I had seen several of these before, but never expected to find one in this town if my life depended on it. Went to check it out after the lady that owned it came in search of me. All it needed was a new fuel return line. I pulled my magic and didn't say anything though because she said it needed a new head gasket, and a fuel pump and was leaking every fluid you could ever imagine.....blah blah f*ckin blah......she wanted 500 minimum for this thing. I got her talked down to 300 :pimp:
    so...enough of this...ON TO ZE PICTARS!!!!!:hitler:
    This is how I brought it home that day





    and yes....I did use my trusty craftsman lawnmower to pull it into the driveway
    Got it running the next day. Like I said, one fuel line and it was drivable ;) but unfortunately still had some issues internally that I wanted to get to. Thanks to my great run of luck this past year, it spun a rod bearing the day after I put insurance and plates on it..... grrr FML!!
    So now the build begins!!!




    The engine was majorly abused by previous owners. At one point someone had obviously gone nuts off road and majorly f*cked the car in several places. The undercarriage was damaged and beaten in several places and several bolts and fasteners were missing. The car looked more to be a frikin garden than anything else on the underside. I didn't document this due to my mood at that point. You can believe that my vocabulary wasn't PG








    So my first plan was to pull the M20B25 and spruce it up. Replace all the bearings, gaskets, etc. I wanted to do a 5 speed swap as well because I absolutely hate automatics. Further studying and research also got me to change my course to swapping in a m/s/50/52 as well. And soon after that it was decided that the project would become much more deep than I thought. I thought that I just wanted to get it running before winter set in, but I had wanted to start a more serious project finally (considering I have so many currently)


    Anyways.....moving on with the BMW......so through the months that I was documenting all the work I was doing on the car, I was also rearranging my garage and making new shelves and cabinets for it to provide a better work area for the car and to get my 48 Willy's in for the winter. Which actually still runs btw.....63 years and the factory engine still hasn't quit!!:pimp:




    Soon after I got the E30 in the garage I got to the point of finally pulling the M20 and transmission out.










    That's my roommate on the right.....gotta love that beard.....lol
    Soon after this, we got the first snow so the amount of work on the car decreased a little bit, but I was still headstrong to go to work on something. Decided it would be the interior so that I could have a heater near me. It gets severely cold here and I don't have heat in my garage so the engine bay and other exterior work was going to have to wait until it was warm enough to pull the car back out in the driveway.






    Got it down to this in a few nights. Had to work gradually because it was approx. -40 at that point














    So obviously found a little rust, but not really that serious. No major holes or anything!! At this point work completely ceased on the car unfortunately until about three weeks ago.
    Last edited by drutt23; 04-05-2011, 12:37 AM.
    1989 325i|1992 325i|And completely obsessed|:woowoo:
    sigpic BMW. The Ultimate Driving Machine.
    The Build...

    #2
    pics dont work

    BUILD-http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=242728

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      #3
      Don't use those image links, copy the [img] tag links.

      Comment


        #4
        The weather was finally startin to turn for the better so I started doin some minor work in the garage to the interior and the bay. Pulled the car completely out of the garage and then this happened......

        Weather had been in the 70s so I thought it was a good time....obviously wrong there.....
        Took a few days to melt and warm up again, but finally got there. So back to work on ZE CAR!! Started doing a little more extensive work on the bay.






























        Work is coming along nicely on the bay I think. Still lots to do. More stuff tomorrow.
        Last edited by drutt23; 04-05-2011, 12:38 AM.
        1989 325i|1992 325i|And completely obsessed|:woowoo:
        sigpic BMW. The Ultimate Driving Machine.
        The Build...

        Comment


          #5
          Sorry about those images guys. Fixed that. I realized it right after I posted
          1989 325i|1992 325i|And completely obsessed|:woowoo:
          sigpic BMW. The Ultimate Driving Machine.
          The Build...

          Comment


            #6
            cool car. gay singlet

            Comment


              #7
              your shirt needs moar sleeves. GL w/ the project.
              Much wow
              I hate 4 doors

              Comment


                #8
                Originally posted by Cabriolet View Post
                your shirt needs moar sleeves. GL w/ the project.
                haha yeah. my arms needed it for sure. they were a little sore from the sun. i'm so used to the cold that i couldn't stand the heat hardly.....
                1989 325i|1992 325i|And completely obsessed|:woowoo:
                sigpic BMW. The Ultimate Driving Machine.
                The Build...

                Comment


                  #9
                  now that I can see pics, progress is looking good! Cleaning an engine bay is a total bitch, right there with ya.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    gotta love that jeep!
                    sigpic

                    http://r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=201774

                    Comment


                      #11
                      I like the sailboat in pic 1

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Originally posted by IxTech View Post
                        gotta love that jeep!
                        Thanks man!! At least it still runs lol!! 63 years with the factory engine and it's never quit except for the fuel pump cut out on me about 9 months ago!! :p
                        1989 325i|1992 325i|And completely obsessed|:woowoo:
                        sigpic BMW. The Ultimate Driving Machine.
                        The Build...

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Originally posted by hammerdown View Post
                          I like the sailboat in pic 1
                          Thanks!! It's a 1981 Wabbit. Professionally wood-grain painted to look like red maple. All done by my roommate. We will be re-doing that this summer as well. It's the only one in the world that looks like that!! :up:
                          1989 325i|1992 325i|And completely obsessed|:woowoo:
                          sigpic BMW. The Ultimate Driving Machine.
                          The Build...

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Ok guys. More eye candy for you. Sorry for not getting them up sooner. I had to go out of town to take my roommate to have a shot in his eye!! FTL!! I feel bad for him. Anyways, moving on to the work I have done recently.
                            I pulled all of the tar out of the trunk which was a major PITA, but I got it done finally. Anything can be accomplished with a BFH!! ;)














                            Gotta do some work in the battery tray. It's kinda messy. No rust as far as I can tell though. But it is bashed in from the bottom due to some off-roading from one of the PO's. :curse: The jack compartment is in pretty good shape, although it was getting a lot of water in it when I had it outside for a short time the last few weeks. (I'm thinking it is coming from the rain gutter over the door. I'm correct by saying that the hose leading from under the rear deck is connected to the rain gutter, right??? referring to third pic down) I decided to pull it in the garage and put it up on jack stands so that I can get under it and start pulling off some more stuff. I believe that the subframes will be next on the to do list. :firehop:
                            And before anybody goes to razzing on the masking job on the car, IT ISN'T FOR PAINTING IT. I KNOW IT SUCKS. I only have it there to keep water out of places I don't want it getting into when I have the car outside.




















                            I didn't realize it until now, but I forgot to talk about my plans for the car!!. I apologize for this guys!! I didn't mean to leave you hanging out in the dark.
                            Anyways....
                            Engine:
                            - still in debate at this point really. could be m/s/50/52(I'd like to hear the input of VANOS vs NON VANOS from you guys) the inline 6 is at the top of the list right now....but could be an M60....or I've even debated dropping a good ole Chevy 350 in there. I have a factory target motor that would be sweet tits in this bad boy and a 350 crate as well. ;) BUT, I think ideally I will be sticking with BMW power for now.
                            -All performance upgrades will be decided after an engine is figured out. Could include cams, turbo, supercharger, headers, a tune, etc. etc.
                            Drivetrain:
                            -LSD of some sort. Whatever will suit the engine and other performance for the car
                            -transmission won't be decided until the engine is of course. 5-speed for sure tho!!
                            Suspension:
                            -Coilovers (JOM, GC, I like these as well http://dtmfiberwerkz.com/access/seri...ver-p-186.html but again I would like some input from people as to what they feel treated them the best) This car will be seeing a lot of mountain driving so I want the suspension to be excellent, but I also don't want to completely break my wallet for something that sucks.
                            -Stiffer sway bars. IE and H&R have caught my eye for the most part.
                            -All new bushings and such
                            -AKG reinforcement kits
                            -BBK or brake upgrade of some sort
                            -Treehouse Eyeball Arms
                            Interior:
                            -Minor cage/reinforcement
                            -Corbeau LG1 seats and 4 pt harnesses
                            -RAAMmat throughout the car
                            -Custom stereo in the works....I won't be revealing any secrets for now though!!! ;)
                            Exterior:
                            -M-tech II body kit
                            -Smooth the recesses where the side trim originally runs or keep it....not sure yet. Looks good both ways really
                            -Euro trim on plastic bumpers
                            -Skidplate....'cause WYO roads suck MAJOR donkey dick
                            -Anthracite Apex Arc-8 17x8's w/ 235/40/17 tires of some sort. Probably Toyos
                            -rolled fenders, possibly pulled some to tuck the tires better. If this is done, I might up the tire size a little bit
                            -the paint will be a different color from the usual stuff, but nothing too drastic. pretty set on gray with a hint of purple to make it stand out some. I've gotten some shit on this color, but I think it will look really good.

                            I'm sure I have forgotten plenty of things, but as I said before, a lot of this isn't final. I'm still deciding on what I want to do because I have changed my mind several times. ALL INPUT IS GREATLY APPRECIATED THOUGH!!! Would love to hear some thoughts from you guys. :D
                            Last edited by drutt23; 04-08-2011, 03:53 PM.
                            1989 325i|1992 325i|And completely obsessed|:woowoo:
                            sigpic BMW. The Ultimate Driving Machine.
                            The Build...

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                              #15
                              300??? dam lucky bastard...
                              Bought parts from me before? leave your feedback here

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