The no longer luxorbeige or eta e30 revival - sold

[Andy.B]

The car should be ready to pick up on Tuesday. I cannot wait.

[E30NJ]

Keep the photos coming!

[Andy.B]

The car finally made it home! There is lots of work to do still to finish up re assembly after paint, but after another evening it will be drivable. I am extremely excited to finish up this build.

[E30 Wagen]

Awesome! That's a nice color.

[Andy.B]

Daytime pics. I still have some assembly to do, and some adjustments to make to line up the bumpers a bit better.

Also, the rear bumper trim needs to be sectioned still. I thought the partner had done that as well, but he didn't, and at this point, I was just anxious to get my car back. I can fix those easily enough myself.

[Andy.B]

I busted my knuckles for a few days reassembling things. New seats, steering wheel, pedals, and knee bolster on the inside. Coilovers, sways, a 3.25 lsd and wheels on the outside. I still need to tack the late rear valance on, and black out the last of the chrome trim on the around the windows to finish off the cosmetics. There are still lots of little bits to straighten out, but it's together enough to drive, so I can take it to autocross tomorrow!

[Andy.B]

And this is how I'm spending my time at autocross...



I blew a brake line when pulling away from tech inspection.

16v_e30 was already driving my miata today while he wraps up his turbo build, so I hopped in that as well for the morning runs, and I'll try to get my car fixed for the afternoon.

[Andy.B]

Autocross yesterday was an adventure, as I blew one of the only two brake lines I hadn't replaced previously, the hard lines on the rear control arms. I managed to get it fixed during my down time, but it was too late to make any scored runs with it. I did get to sneak it in for a fun run, since the brake line waited (thankfully) until after tech to blow. It was a blast, but but that point I was exhausted, and bummed that I hadn't been able to compete with the car. I am very excited for the next event, however, and will make sure to replace the other hard line just in case.

It has been fantastic being able to drive my e30 again. The Miata is fun to drive, and handles like a go kart, but driving it in the city, dodging every pothole and bump, and having to wind the crap out of the engine and shift constantly to keep up with traffic can start to feel like a chore after a while.

The e30 just feels so much more substantial, that those same bumps and potholes feel like much less of a problem, even on coilovers. Einstein57 (German Engineering) puts out a great product, and the fact that the car can safely be so low, and feel so incredibly planted, while still being able to soak up bumps comfortably is a testament to how well thought out his kit is. Honestly, the limiting factor to how hard I can attack corners now is the stock e30 rack that is still in there. I just can't turn the wheel fast enough from lock to lock! I have an e36 rack ready to swap in, I just haven't had a chance to install it yet, but once I do, this car is going to handle amazingly.

I still need to swap out the rear pop out windows to the ones I have already shadowlined, and paint the door trim black to match to finish off the shadowline, which is really the last of the cosmetic work, aside from the sunroof. The painter didn't even bother to paint it since the one I had was rusted through. I had sourced another panel to paint and swap in, but once it was sanded down we discovered that it too had rusted from the inside, even though the paint hadn't bubbled yet. I am probably going to just POR-15 the rust and wrap it in black vinyl for a temporary fix. I really want to find a glass sunroof, so I don't feel like spending any more money on trying to get a clean metal piece. In the mean time, I swapped out the manual crank assembly for the power sunroof parts, so I don't have to wind like crazy every time I want to use it anymore. It always bugged me that the car had power locks, power windows, but a manual sunroof.

Aside from the small cosmetic tasks left, I have the e36 rack I mentioned, and the engine work left. I don't want to start that until I have everything lined up ready to go, and at the moment, I am just saving up a bit more to buy one of bimmerheads 885 heads for the swap. Once that happens, I will tackle everything in the engine bay all at once, including the e36 rack, the 885/motronic 1.3 swap, add an oil cooler, and convert to the late model cooling system. The car pulls pretty well with the high mile eta with an i exhaust, kamotors intake, chip, and 3.25 eta. If shifted aggressively, it feels like it accelerates on par with my SO's 325i right now, so I look forward to the power gained from the swap.

[Andy.B]

After a marathon of work over the last week, I wrapped up the 2.7i swap today.

First, I stripped down the engine compartment to the bottom end of the engine so I could clean, por15, and remove any unnecessary bits.





I used an 87 325i harness to make it as plug and play at possible. The 87 harness has the c104 connector and the matching oil level sensor connector. I swapped out the oil pressure switch, installed all the I sensors and a set of m50 17lb injectors from MEPEH, and was good to go! I got a rebuilt 885 head with a 274 regrind cam from BimmerHeads, and a eurotuning 2.7i chip (that I will probably swap out for a sssquid chip) for the build. I also to the opportunity to convert to the later style cooling system and install a Mishimoto radiator, as well as an I oil cooler, to help keep things health and cool.





While I had an empty engine compartment I swapped in an e36 rack, and man, what a difference. I'm so used to spinning the wheel that every time I turn I am stunned by how quick it is. I honestly wish I had done this years ago.

I only drove it about 5 miles so far, so I haven't had a chance to really see what the engine can do, but I guess that's a good sign. I have a miata, and while it's fun, you have to drive pretty much wot to get anywhere with it. With the eta, I had to drive it pretty hard to get it to move, when after it had a 3.25 LSD, an intake, I exhaust, and chip. Now with the 2.7i, I haven't even had enough room to get on it, because it actually has more power than I need or can use in traffic. My cam'ed 2.7i is definitely more powerful than my girlfriends 2.5i with a stock rebuilt head and ebay chip.

[Andy.B]

Did the 100 mile valve adjustment for the cam break in process. Should be smooth sailing from here on out under the hood. I am still extremely happy with this 2.7i build, even a low compression build. I wasn't really sure of it the entire time with such mixed feedback around the web, but my concern was for nothing. I would highly recommend the swap to anybody with an eta who wants more power.

I also finished off the shadowline trim. Now that it has been wrapped up cosmetically (for now) I am really happy with the overall result.



I like the color much more than I thought I would. It is amazing how much more rich and vibrant the color is than the old sundamaged peeling paint.



I bought a cup holder from a fellow r3v'er, and love the look and function of it. I can't overstate how nice it is to have a cup holder to safely hold my coffee during my morning commute. It wrapped up the interior nicely. I am still undecided about dyeing the carpet black, or just leaving it as is for a little bit of contrast.



I also installed a keyless entry module, and holy crap do I wish I did that years ago too! Seriously. 4 wires and voila!

Now I'm going to figure out a few other electrical projects to tidy things up. First off, I'm trying to make the stock check engine light in the cluster work so I can do the stomp test and check for codes in my freshly installed Motronic 1.3 setup. Since the wire for the CEL joins the body harness in the C101 round plug, I was hoping that installing the Motronic 1.3 harness and putting the bulb in the open spot in the cluster would be enough, but there are apparently some wires missing in between (or the bulb is burned out). I have to pull the cluster out for access when I retrofit cruise control (another small project I haven't got around to yet), so I will look into the CEL wiring at that point.

Also, I'm collecting components to put together an automatic headlight kit. I'm looking at this module:

eBay automatic headlight module. Automatic headlights are one of my favorite features of newer cars (aside from the keyless entry, which I now remedied), and I think it would be a neat, subtle upgrade. I am going to re-purpose a fog light switch and install it above the radio in place of the non functional fader switch to allow me to turn the module on/off, and drill a hole in my already cracked dash up against the windshield for the light sensor. I may also start looking for the seatbelt light that sat in the center of the dash on the early e30's to stick on my dash, which would let me install the sensor in a stock looking enclosure.

On a negative side, the output shaft seal of the transmission started leaking. It isn't a difficult fix, but I am tired of the dirty/greasy repairs on this car, so I will probably pay a friends shop to do it. I just don't want to spend another Saturday laying on my back in my driveway.

[Andy.B]

I took a trip to NJ for the weekend, and halfway there stopped to pump gas. When I rounded the car, I was met with a sad sight:



The vent cover piece (or whatever it's called), decided to part ways with my car at some point in the 350 mile drive. I have leftover paint, and it's a small part, so the lost part isn't so bad, except...



It decided to take some paint out on the way home. I was fairly annoyed the remainder of the drive. Anybody have a spare piece of window trim they want to sell?

[Andy.B]

Ii have a new window trim panel in the mail. I'll have to get it painted (fortunately I have some leftover paint in the garage still). It's frustrating to have a 4 month old paint job but a missing body panel. I can't wait to get it fixed.

My transmission started making a whine lately, and I found it was losing transmission fluid from the output shaft seal. I ordered a new seal and a deep 30mm socket, and picked up some transmission fluid in an attempt to save the transmission.

I spent the day today replacing the rear main seal, and was surprised by what I found. Somehow (and I have no idea how), the driveshaft caught the reverse light wires, yanked them off the sensor on the transmission and the connector under the center console, and wrapped it tightly around the output shaft between the transmission and flange, wearing into the seal. I regretfully didn't snap any pictures.

Fortunately, I had an extra reverse light wiring harness in the garage, so I replaced it, tied it securely to the shifter carrier, cleaned the fluid off everything, replaced the seal, refilled the transmission, and put everything back together.

I only drove the car around the block afterwards, and it still whined, but a little quieter than before. My hope is that at the very least it doesn't get any worse right away, because I will have transmission to swap in soon, but I don't yet.

We're swapping an m30b34/g265 into my gf's e30, and I'll take the transmission, single mass i flywheel, and new clutch out of her car from the manual transmission swap we did a few months ago before it developed rod knock and got parked. Hopefully my cars transmission will make it until spring, and I'll swap the tranny/flywheel/clutch then.

[dirtbag30]

that paint looks so good. sucks about the trim piece though.

[Andy.B]

that paint looks so good. sucks about the trim piece though.

Thanks. I still can't get over how much I love the color. It helps keep the car from looking too loud. Even with the black wheels and lowered on coilovers, it's still a beige car. When I switch back to the winter wheels (basketweaves with all season tires), it will look pretty subdued.

[AwakenNoMore]

If that scratch is hurting my feelings, I can't imagine how much it bummed you out. Are you going to get it filled?