It has been a long time coming but finally starting to be a reality. The black "Mr. Personality" car has too much body damage to actually want to repair so he needed a new body to inhabit.
Sleeping Beauty is a 1987 325is Alpine White I with roughly 160k miles on the chasis, mostly VIN matching panels, and has seen some pretty abusive days in her past. I came upon this shell from a posting here on r3v and was lucky enough to be the one that was able to get her from SF.
The PO took out the motor. It had an 2.7i stroker, boosted. The owner before him never put in downpipes thus burning the crap out of the engine bay, which lead to excess heat on the ECU wire harness melting the coating, causing a short, leading to an electrical fire thus him selling the car. Also found out later from the DMV it couldn't pass SMOG which is another reason he probably sold it.
Being that the car had a turbo setup and the PPO was not one to do things "the right way." The owner hammered the passenger side tire well to make room for the turbo, and bashed the RAD core supports to make room for the intercooler piping. And just for good measure, pretty much crushed or broke every useful tab for holding key components in the engine bay (i.e., coolant expansion tank, windshield wiper fluid reservoir, MAF, ABS, battery box area)
I imagine most of the work on this car is going to go into getting the engine bay back to spec. Prepping for paint and resembling everything will be the fun part.
Here are some pics of the day my grandpa checked it out:
Some pics of me getting it home before gutting everything:
Finally making it to my grandparents house to get some much needed bodywork after sitting in my parking spot for almost a month:
Went to the junkyard to get some parts that we are going to need to get started:
Here are some after shots of getting some of the body work done. My grandpa is old school and doesn't like to use Bondo unless he has to. So 99% of this projects will be without it:
I won't getting back out there for a couple of weeks. Also I forgot to get shots of his car collection, which I will post when I go back.
FUTURE PLANS:
PB Swap
4.10 LSD
Re-spray Alpine White (not sure if I or II)
E36 Steering Rack
Rebuild ATE brakes
Stainless brake lines
GE Coilovers with Bilstein Sports (450 front, 650 Rear)
Skid Plate
All black interior (Vinyl Sports fronts and vinyl rear)
Crack-free dash
Possible sound system (if so, components up front 2 or 3 ways in the rear all amped. possible 10 maybe 12in sub...Alpine Type X)
Upgraded sway bar
Strut brace
Exhaust
Thanks for checking it out,
Derek
Sleeping Beauty is a 1987 325is Alpine White I with roughly 160k miles on the chasis, mostly VIN matching panels, and has seen some pretty abusive days in her past. I came upon this shell from a posting here on r3v and was lucky enough to be the one that was able to get her from SF.
The PO took out the motor. It had an 2.7i stroker, boosted. The owner before him never put in downpipes thus burning the crap out of the engine bay, which lead to excess heat on the ECU wire harness melting the coating, causing a short, leading to an electrical fire thus him selling the car. Also found out later from the DMV it couldn't pass SMOG which is another reason he probably sold it.
Being that the car had a turbo setup and the PPO was not one to do things "the right way." The owner hammered the passenger side tire well to make room for the turbo, and bashed the RAD core supports to make room for the intercooler piping. And just for good measure, pretty much crushed or broke every useful tab for holding key components in the engine bay (i.e., coolant expansion tank, windshield wiper fluid reservoir, MAF, ABS, battery box area)
I imagine most of the work on this car is going to go into getting the engine bay back to spec. Prepping for paint and resembling everything will be the fun part.
Here are some pics of the day my grandpa checked it out:
Some pics of me getting it home before gutting everything:
Finally making it to my grandparents house to get some much needed bodywork after sitting in my parking spot for almost a month:
Went to the junkyard to get some parts that we are going to need to get started:
Here are some after shots of getting some of the body work done. My grandpa is old school and doesn't like to use Bondo unless he has to. So 99% of this projects will be without it:
I won't getting back out there for a couple of weeks. Also I forgot to get shots of his car collection, which I will post when I go back.
FUTURE PLANS:
PB Swap
4.10 LSD
Re-spray Alpine White (not sure if I or II)
E36 Steering Rack
Rebuild ATE brakes
Stainless brake lines
GE Coilovers with Bilstein Sports (450 front, 650 Rear)
Skid Plate
All black interior (Vinyl Sports fronts and vinyl rear)
Crack-free dash
Possible sound system (if so, components up front 2 or 3 ways in the rear all amped. possible 10 maybe 12in sub...Alpine Type X)
Upgraded sway bar
Strut brace
Exhaust
Thanks for checking it out,
Derek
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