Sad update: Car was sold.
The good news is that it was sold to an enthusiastic guy from a town an hour and a half away. While I'm sad to see the car go, after I put so much of myself into it for the last 5 years, I am happy that it has a good home, and someone will continue to build it up, make it their own, and enjoy it.
After getting married, buying a house, and planning for a family, I just didn't have to the time and effort to put into maintaining 3 cars over 30 years of age. My wife also grew tired of the frequent maintenance and repairs to her e30, and the lack of creature comforts and safety features. We bought her a 2012 Ford Focus 5 door manual, (which will be getting h&r springs and sticky rubber), and I took over Mina, the 4 door m30 swapped car. With a usable back seat, a roof rack, and a trailer hitch, it's a more practical car to utilize as a daily driver (as opposed to the luxorbeige car). Plus, it's m30 powered :)
I recommended the new owner join r3v, so hopefully he will start a thread here, and we can see the car in it's next stage of life.
**************************
Hello all. I've been lurking here for a bit, reading and gaining knowledge. I have been active on other marque/model specific forums for my other cars, and I love this place. Its informative and informal, and you guys clearly have a lot of fun.
My project is an 87 luxorbeige eta coupe that was parked with a bad ecu over 5 years ago. The car belonged to my brother, who daily drove it through college, but started having issues with it starting/running soon after he graduated. After he got married, he pretty much stopped working on it, which is a shame, since in his few years of owning it he had done a fair amount of work/maintenance (all new exhaust, drive shaft, timing belt, water pump, a few suspension bushings, slotted rotors, all new calipers, new battery, etc). Unfortunately, since he parked the car, the exhaust rusted out, the bushings and tires are dry rotted, the rotors rusted over, and the battery froze/cracked, undoing a good amount of money he had put into the car.
Fortunately, in the years since, he acquired and stripped two other e30's, building up a decent collection of spare parts (while regrettably letting a good deal of usable parts go to the crusher), in the hopes he would eventually get around to fixing up his car.
Recently, after a car accident involving his wife and kids (where thank God, everyone was unharmed) he decided that even if the e30 was in a driveable condition, he wouldn't put his kids at risk by transporting them in it. (Although it was safe in its day, it is a deathtrap compared to cars with today's safety features) He finally decided to give up the dream, and asked if I would be interested in it, provided he gets to drive it from time to time when it is done.
So for the amazing price of free, I got an 87 eta, 2 spare engines, one spare transmission, and boxes upon boxes of extra parts including glass, radiators, sensors, compressors, alternators, pumps, sensors, switches, a seat and much more.
I spent a month or so driving an hour out to his house to get the car in decent enough condition to be sure that:
1- it could be brought back to life, and
2- it was worth bringing back to life.
Its got some rough spots here and there, but considering the toll NY takes on cars, its relatively clean underneath, although the paint has become pretty crappy from sitting neglected for years.
EDIT: Quick summary...
The car, as it sat on day one of my revival project:
From this:
To this:
To this:
The good news is that it was sold to an enthusiastic guy from a town an hour and a half away. While I'm sad to see the car go, after I put so much of myself into it for the last 5 years, I am happy that it has a good home, and someone will continue to build it up, make it their own, and enjoy it.
After getting married, buying a house, and planning for a family, I just didn't have to the time and effort to put into maintaining 3 cars over 30 years of age. My wife also grew tired of the frequent maintenance and repairs to her e30, and the lack of creature comforts and safety features. We bought her a 2012 Ford Focus 5 door manual, (which will be getting h&r springs and sticky rubber), and I took over Mina, the 4 door m30 swapped car. With a usable back seat, a roof rack, and a trailer hitch, it's a more practical car to utilize as a daily driver (as opposed to the luxorbeige car). Plus, it's m30 powered :)
I recommended the new owner join r3v, so hopefully he will start a thread here, and we can see the car in it's next stage of life.
**************************
Hello all. I've been lurking here for a bit, reading and gaining knowledge. I have been active on other marque/model specific forums for my other cars, and I love this place. Its informative and informal, and you guys clearly have a lot of fun.
My project is an 87 luxorbeige eta coupe that was parked with a bad ecu over 5 years ago. The car belonged to my brother, who daily drove it through college, but started having issues with it starting/running soon after he graduated. After he got married, he pretty much stopped working on it, which is a shame, since in his few years of owning it he had done a fair amount of work/maintenance (all new exhaust, drive shaft, timing belt, water pump, a few suspension bushings, slotted rotors, all new calipers, new battery, etc). Unfortunately, since he parked the car, the exhaust rusted out, the bushings and tires are dry rotted, the rotors rusted over, and the battery froze/cracked, undoing a good amount of money he had put into the car.
Fortunately, in the years since, he acquired and stripped two other e30's, building up a decent collection of spare parts (while regrettably letting a good deal of usable parts go to the crusher), in the hopes he would eventually get around to fixing up his car.
Recently, after a car accident involving his wife and kids (where thank God, everyone was unharmed) he decided that even if the e30 was in a driveable condition, he wouldn't put his kids at risk by transporting them in it. (Although it was safe in its day, it is a deathtrap compared to cars with today's safety features) He finally decided to give up the dream, and asked if I would be interested in it, provided he gets to drive it from time to time when it is done.
So for the amazing price of free, I got an 87 eta, 2 spare engines, one spare transmission, and boxes upon boxes of extra parts including glass, radiators, sensors, compressors, alternators, pumps, sensors, switches, a seat and much more.
I spent a month or so driving an hour out to his house to get the car in decent enough condition to be sure that:
1- it could be brought back to life, and
2- it was worth bringing back to life.
Its got some rough spots here and there, but considering the toll NY takes on cars, its relatively clean underneath, although the paint has become pretty crappy from sitting neglected for years.
EDIT: Quick summary...
The car, as it sat on day one of my revival project:
From this:
To this:
To this:
Comment